March 23, 2019

Eggs Will NOT Kill You

“Don’t worry about your eggs, keep enjoying them.⠀

A new study published in the medical journal JAMA says, ‘Eggs are bad,’ but are they really?⠀

It is important that we look at the specifics of the study. This particular study is an observational study; it does not prove cause and effect.⠀


This new study surveyed 30,000 people over a 17 year time period. Each person completed one questionnaire about what they’ve been eating.⠀

It is very difficult to conduct nutrition studies and food frequency questionnaires are fundamentally flawed because people tend not to report what they think is bad.⠀

If you think a food is bad, you’re likely to downplay having eaten it. People also tend to over report the food they think is good.⠀

Also, people don’t actually measure their portion sizes and often can't remember how much they ate.⠀

During the time this study was conducted, eggs were considered bad. We were told not to eat eggs; to avoid cholesterol. So people who were eating eggs were likely people who weren’t otherwise health conscious. Maybe they were smokers, didn’t eat well, didn’t care about their diet, or didn’t eat fruits and vegetables, which are things that could have also led to heart disease.⠀

It doesn’t mean the eggs caused the heart disease.⠀

There are 300mg of cholesterol in two eggs. You have 10,000mg in your blood normally. If you add 300mg, will it make a difference? Not really.⠀

When you eat cholesterol, it doesn’t have an impact on your lipid levels or your heart disease risk. A study done by UCLA found that 75% of patients hospitalized for a heart attack had normal cholesterol levels that would not indicate any risk for a cardiovascular event. ⠀

In fact, cholesterol is essential. It’s what we make vitamin D from and hormones like estrogen and testosterone. Cholesterol is part of our cell membranes and our brain.⠀

Whenever you look at a study, it is important to decipher whether it’s an experiment or just a correlation study? If it’s a correlation study, you have to take it with a grain of salt unless there’s a 100% increase risk.⠀

Make sure to look into the data whenever these types of studies come out and stay informed.”

-Dr. Mark Hyman

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