Egg a day tied to lower risk of heart disease

A study published in the journal Heart suggests that consuming almost an egg a day might help lower the risk of heart attack and stroke. Researchers examined survey data on egg consumption among 461,213 Chinese adults (average age 51) with no history of heart disease. The researchers reported that 9% of the participants did not consume eggs while 13% ate about one egg every day.

At least half of the participants were followed for nine years or more, during which time 83,977 developed heart disease or had a heart attack or stroke, and 9,985 died from these conditions. The researchers found that compared to people who never ate eggs, those who ate an average of 0.76 eggs per day were 11% less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases and 18% less likely to die from these conditions.

It should be noted that the study doesn’t offer any insight into the risk of heart disease or stroke associated with consuming more than one egg a day, and that it wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how eggs might impact the risk of developing cardiovascular disease or dying from it.

The effect of egg consumption on cardiovascular disease and stroke has been controversial. Previous studies mostly had smaller sample sizes, fewer cardiovascular disease events and were unable to obtain accurate estimates on the associations of egg consumption with stroke subtypes.

Study