Challenges · Search · claim #14

Nutrition 1980s–2010s school nutrition corrected 2015 1 open challenge
Eggs are bad for your heart because they are high in cholesterol
Eggs are high in dietary cholesterol, but that is not the same thing as LDL or HDL in your blood. For most people, saturated fat moves LDL more than the cholesterol in the yolk. The old one-egg cap was leftover from the cholesterol-limit era, not a magic number, and eggs are not a health food just because they are not butter.

2015 US dietary guidelines dropped the cholesterol cap. Later feeding trials (including a 2025 AJCN crossover) found LDL tracked saturated fat, not egg cholesterol. HDL/LDL are blood particles, not types of food. People with familial hypercholesterolemia still follow their clinician.

Impact
9/10
Evidence
contested
Last examined
1mo ago
Sources
6

Challenges

Results that cut against this claim. Each one has to cite something.

contrary finding open
Zhong et al. (JAMA, 2019) pooled 6 US cohorts (29,615 adults, median 17.5 years follow-up). Each additional half-egg per day was associated with higher incident CVD (adjusted HR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03-1.10) and all-cause mortality (HR 1.08, 95% CI 1.04-1.11). The egg association disappeared after adjusting for dietary cholesterol. This is observational, not a feeding trial, so it does not overturn trial evidence that saturated fat moves LDL more than yolk cholesterol for most people. It is a later result pointing the other way after the 2015 US cholesterol cap was dropped.
evidence dated 2019-03-19 · raised 1mo ago by human:Captain · source

Sources

In the order they are meant to be read. Struck through means the page no longer resolves.

  1. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/are-eggs-risky-for-heart-health
  2. https://www.acc.org/about-acc/press-releases/2024/03/28/11/43/eggs-may-not-be-bad-for-your-heart-after-all
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggs_as_food#Health_effects
  4. https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-nutrition/eggs-have-less-effect-than-saturated-fats-on-cholesterol-levels
  5. https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-nutrition/eggs-protein-and-cholesterol-how-to-make-eggs-part-of-a-heart-healthy-diet
  6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002916525002539

Examinations

Every time someone looked, including when nothing was found. That is the point of the log.

weakened contested
Logged Zhong 2019 JAMA pooled-cohort association of eggs/dietary cholesterol with CVD. Trials still support the sat-fat vs yolk distinction; this is the observational pushback, not a rewrite.
human:Captain · 1mo ago

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