(CNN) – It is the longest health ping pong game: eggs are bad, then good, and then bad for the heart.
According to a new study, the last answer could have come from your mother or grandmother: all in moderation.
“Moderate consumption of one egg per day is not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease,” said study author, dr. Frank Hu, who chairs the Department of Nutrition T.H. Chan of the School of Public Health at Harvard University.
The research team analyzed data from huge longitudinal studies that followed 215,000 women and men who did not have a relevant chronic disease at the beginning of the study.
Everyone was asked about their habits of eating eggs, most indicated that they ate between one and five eggs a week, and their health was monitored over a period of 34 years.
Did eating eggs increase your risk of heart attacks, coronary heart disease or stroke?
Not for the vast majority. The only association between eating more eggs and cardiovascular risk was for people with type 2 diabetes, a link that has doubled in previous studies.
What happens if people eat more than one egg a day?
“On average, most people don’t eat more than one egg a day,” Hu said. “They may eat two eggs for breakfast, but only two or three times a week. Therefore, the average consumption is actually less than one egg per day. ”
To verify the results, the team conducted a meta-analysis of studies from Europe, Asia and the United States. Combined, these studies analyzed the consumption habits of eggs of 1.7 million people and also found that eating up to one egg a day did not have a negative impact on heart health.
LOOK: Consuming 3 to 4 eggs per week increases the risk of premature death
There is more good news: moderate egg consumption was associated with a slightly lower risk of heart disease in Asian populations, possibly due to the way in which Asian food incorporates eggs into recipes instead of eating them separately, Hu added .
The study “was meticulously conducted,” said Alice Lichtenstein, principal and principal scientist at the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at Tufts University, who was not involved in the study.
The results are consistent with the 2019 American Heart Association cholesterol notice published last year, as well as with the prior guidance of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, he added.
In fact, Lichtenstein added, the dietary models that recommend replacing “whole milk, unprocessed red meat or red meat processed by eggs showed a benefit in terms of cardiovascular disease risk.”
The ‘amazing edible egg’
The poultry industry has long promoted the “amazing, edible egg.” They say that with only 75 calories, an egg gives 7 grams of high quality protein, 5 grams of fat and 1.6 grams of saturated fat, along with iron, vitamins, minerals and nutrients to fight diseases such as lutein and zeaxanthin.
And eggs are affordable, which makes them an inexhaustible source of nutrition for families with limited food budgets.
The problem, of course, is the level of cholesterol in the yellow yolk of eggs: a large egg can contain approximately 185 milligrams of cholesterol.
Nutritional guidelines used to recommend a maximum limit of 300 milligrams of cholesterol per day. At present, the guidelines suggest eating as little as possible while keeping saturated fats at less than 10% of daily calories.
Science has struggled for more than 50 years to determine whether eggs are a “nutritional scarecrow for cardiovascular risk,” said Andrew Odegaard, an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of California, Irvine, in an editorial published with the study.
According to this study, Odegaard indicated that the “epic tennis match between two camps” is not over. On the one hand, as with much of the nutritional research, the studies in the analysis are observational, with no way to measure a true cause and effect.
Odegaard points to a recent meta-analysis of randomized clinical studies linking higher consumption of eggs with higher levels of LDL, the “bad” cholesterol, which is a key risk factor in coronary artery disease.
But, Hu notes, that this study was in the meta-analysis, and he believes that the new results should end the debate, at least for certain populations.
“I hope so,” he said with a smile. “We synthesize the best available evidence of all the studies carried out so far on the subject.
“Nutrition is more dynamic than many other areas of research, because the relationship between dietary factors and health outcomes tends to change, for example, with type 2 diabetes,” continued Hu.
“So, when we make recommendations on egg consumption, metabolic conditions and health conditions should also be considered.”
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