Eggs were Americans' "favorite" breakfast food before several health-related organizations and the U.S. government warned people in the 1970s that they were a factor in high serum cholesterol levels and heart disease, Dianne Hales writes in "An Invitation to Health." The textbook reports that egg consumption has declined significantly since the 1970s. One egg has about 10 times as much dietary cholesterol as a serving of most meat dishes, according to "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease."
Significance
Serum cholesterol, also known as blood cholesterol, is a necessary fat in your blood because it helps your cells, heart, kidneys and lungs function properly, according to The Merck Manual of Medical Information. However, excess serum cholesterol increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. A 2001 report by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute noted that people who have a total blood cholesterol level below 200 milligrams per deciliter, a good cholesterol level above 60 mg/dL and a bad cholesterol level below 100 mg/dL have a low risk of heart disease.
Diet
Bad serum cholesterol levels are caused by many factors, including heredity, age, smoking, stress, lack of exercise and diet. Saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, a substance in animal fats, are the two primary food-related causes of bad serum cholesterol levels, according to Ornish. Many health-related organizations, including the American Heart Association, urge Americans to not eat more than 300 mg of dietary cholesterol daily. The yolk in one egg has 274 mg, although egg whites have none. One serving of beef has 27 mg, wrote Ornish.
Expert Insight
Adding one egg to your diet every day increases the risk that you will have a heart attack by 2.1 percent, according to a meta-analysis published in 2001 in "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition." Researchers analyzed 17 studies on how eggs affect serum cholesterol. Their primary conclusion was that eggs' dietary cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease by raising the total cholesterol to good cholesterol ratio. Ornish wrote that this ratio is a more significant heart-disease risk factor than total cholesterol or bad cholesterol.
Changes
In their book "Controlling Cholesterol The Natural Way," Dr. Kenneth Cooper and William Proctor offer several recommendations for reducing serum cholesterol --- with eggs the only food banned in any of its diets. The book's diet for people with healthy blood cholesterol permits three eggs weekly and 300 mg of dietary cholesterol daily. Its diet for people with high serum cholesterol permits one to two eggs weekly and 200 mg of dietary cholesterol daily. Its diet for people who couldn't reduce their serum cholesterol on the 200-mg diet bans eggs and permits 100 mg of dietary cholesterol daily.
Another View
Despite the studies analyzed in "The American Journal Clinical Nutrition," advocates of low-carbohydrate diets believe that eggs are a healthy food. You can eat as many eggs as you want if you're on the Atkins and South Beach diets. The late Dr. Robert Atkins wrote in "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution" that serum cholesterol levels are "inversely correlated with dietary fat and cholesterol intake" and "The South Beach Diet" author Dr. Arthur Agatston wrote that egg yolks have a "neutral to favorable" impact on serum cholesterol.
References
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
- The Merck Manual of Medical Information; 2003
- "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Dietary Cholesterol From Eggs Increases the Ratio of Total Cholesterol to High-Density Lipoproteins in Humans: A Meta-Analysis; Rianne M.May 2001 Weggemans et al.;
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: High Blood Cholesterol
- American Heart Association: Numbers That Count for a Healthy Heart
- "An Invitation to Health"; Dianne Hales; 2003
