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 Eating egg yolks regularly increases plaque buildup about two-thirds as much as smoking does, according to a new study.
August 15th, 2012
05:38 PM ET
Is eating egg yolks as bad as smoking?A new study suggests eating egg yolks can accelerate heart disease almost as much as smoking. The study published online in the journal Atherosclerosis found eating egg yolks regularly increases plaque buildup about two-thirds as much as smoking does. Specifically, patients who ate three or more yolks a week showed significantly more plaque than those who ate two or less yolks per week. It may seem harsh to compare smoking with eating egg yolks, but lead study author Dr. David Spence says researchers needed a way to put it into perspective since both eating cholesterol and smoking increase cardiovascular risks - but the general public believes smoking is far worse for your health.
The issue is with the yolk, not the egg, says Spence, who is also a professor of neurology at the University of Western Ontario's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. "One jumbo chicken egg yolk has about 237 milligrams of cholesterol." Keeping a diet low in cholesterol is key, says Spence. Even if you are young and healthy, eating egg yolks can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases later. "Just because you are 20 doesn't mean egg yolks aren't going to cause any trouble down the line," he says. Study: Egg yolk nearly as bad as smoking For those patients with increased coronary risk, such as diabetics, eating an egg yolk a day can increase coronary risk by two to five-fold, he adds. Atherosclerosis, also called coronary artery disease, occurs when plaque builds up in the blood vessels leading to the heart, specifically the inner arterial wall, and limits the amount of blood that can pass through. Doctors write a prescription for fresh produce In the study, researchers looked at 1,231 patients of the vascular prevention clinics at London Health Sciences Centre's University Hospital, with a mean age of 61.5. Each patient had already experienced a small stroke or had high blood pressure, hypertension or a family history of cardiovascular disease. Spence says researchers chose to use patients with a higher likelihood of cardiovascular issues because it would have been harder to get visible results using the general population with a lower risk. Patients were asked to fill out questionnaires about their diet, lifestyle and medications, including how much they smoked and the number of egg yolks they ate. An ultrasound was performed to examine their plaque buildup. Researchers took into account sex, cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking, body mass index and diabetes. In addition to relying completely on the recollection of patients as to what they ate, the study did not account for waist circumference and it did not account for a patient's exercise program. And perhaps most notably, it only looked at patients with existing cardiovascular issues. The study confirms what doctors already know about eating cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, says Dr, Gordon Tomaselli, chief of cardiology at John Hopkins University School of Medicine and the former president of the American Heart Association. "Cholesterol intake should be limited to 300 milligrams a day, particularly in people who do not have underlying heart disease," he says. However, people with high LDL blood cholesterol levels or those taking a blood cholesterol-lowering medication should eat less than 200 mg of cholesterol per day. So what can you do to keep your heart healthy? Talk to your doctor if you have a history of heart disease and consider a change in lifestyle – things like eating better, watching your cholesterol, stopping smoking, and exercising.
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Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love.
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Sigh* this is a pretty incendiary article and to me the research is far from complete. The study group was very small and only featured older men who already had heart disease. Also, how were the eggs prepared? Where they poached, scrambled, fried, or all of the above? To me is seems like all foods should be eaten in moderation – after all Redd Foxx always said (and I paraphrase) 'that there will be plenty of health nuts in the hospital dying of nothing.'
"the incredible, dead-able, egg."
This is just another example of bad science journalism. I mean like really bad. The study is saying the equivalent of, "Wheat products cause damage to intestines in patients with celiac disease."
What does CNN do? Conclude that egg yolks are bad for everyone. Great logic skills there. I highly suggest you hire a reporter who can understand science, and if you don't want to do that, fine. That reporter should take responsibility and attempt to learn something about the subject.
For crying out loud...
*wipes bacon fat and egg yolk off her lip*
My cholesterol has gotten way better after dropping the grains and upping my animal fats. Explain that one, greedy researchers.
Bad science this way. I am wondering what else was a part of these subject's diet, and why the BMI or diabetes wasn't taken into account. The study's authors, by the way, do have a conflict of interest (as noted on their last egg bashing study in 2010): "Dr Spence and Dr Davignon have received honoraria and speaker’s fees from several pharmaceutical companies manufacturing lipid-lowering drugs, and Dr Davignon has received support from Pfizer Canada for an annual atherosclerosis symposium".
In the future, you might read a bit more carefully before offering your thoughts: "Researchers took into account sex, cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking, body mass index and diabetes."
@Actually
The yolk-count data was taken through questionnaires.
Did they also take into account what else was eaten with those eggs? BACON, maybe?
What's perplexing is how backwards these studies are going. Science has proven that dietary cholesteol does not affect one's own cholesterol in any way, since the body produces it's own cholesterol. If that were ironic enough, the yolks are loaded with nutrition and essential vitamins that are hard to get elsewhere such as choline and vitamin e.
It's the refined carbs that promote buildup due to their gluten. I'm sure the people used in these "studies" were eating plenty of those especially at breakfast in conjunction with their eggs. Even whole grain carbs for the most part cause this same problem unless properly soaked, sprouted,and/or fermented. I wish these people would take that into consideration.
Very well put.
I agree. Didn't we already have the 'eggs are bad for you' phase back in the 80's? That was before they knew there was a difference between good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Eating natural foods like eggs is good. Stay away from processed and refined foods and you will be fine.
Honestly, it's not even a case of studies going backwards. The results in this very study are inconsistent with their conclusion (to say nothing of the fact that you can't draw conclusions about causation from an observational study anyway). Their own results demonstrated that the people who ate the most eggs per week had better cholesterol (ie: HDL, LDL, Triglycerides, overall cholesterol) numbers than those who ate the least. So their own data throws a big monkey wrench in what they're saying, their conclusion doesn't match up with much better conducted studies, but we're supposed to take them at face value here?
Sorry, but this reeks of scientists with an agenda, and that agenda is probably to keep getting paid by pharmaceutical companies who are selling statins.
Here here. More than that: Egg yokes are full of lecitin which clean cholesterol off the arteries. These studies are so inadequate. More likely, people who eat lots of eggs, also eats lots of carbs and sugar etc... And doing the study without using healthy people makes it completely void. We can easily discover that people who eat many eggs each day, and are healthy,
have no cholesterol buildup at all. And, the study does not distinguish cooked yellow (hard) from soft, or raw. Those who consume organic raw eggs eat them by the dozen per day and are superbly healthy. Years ago I recall a study of a group eating 13 (cooked) eggs per day for a year and a half: No change in cholesterol. So they had to do the study before and after. This study proves nothing but the ignorance of its managers.
"Science has proven that dietary cholesteol does not affect one's own cholesterol in any way, since the body produces it's own cholesterol." No, if I understand correctly, this study is suggesting that previous studies (that is, what "science has proven") were incorrect in reaching that conclusion. If I understand correctly, this study suggests that dietary cholesterol DOES affect one's own cholesterol.
The reason why this is happening is because of the regulation on the farming industry. If Romney were in office this would be a non issue. Pretty wierd that more regulation the worse foods get. Get him out of office and get someone in that actually cares about all americans.
Efff the efffing efff off. Romney and Obama have nothing to do with this. It is a flawed scientific study that will be contradicted in a month with another study and another study and another study. Eggs are always getting accused then cleared of something. There is no way this "research" was controlled. Everything they ate was not monitored and the participants were unhealthy old specimens seemingly predisposed to the condition. And what the hellll does farming deregulation have to do with this? You honestly think that an unregulated egg mill is going to miraculously start producing 100% healthy cholesterol-free egg yolks? Efffing neocon trrollll.
This study, which is poorly done, was done in Canada. I wasn't aware Obama was the President of Canada. Moron.
It's clear that you don't understand how regulations over farming and safety are quite lax in this country and what we do have is often more in favor of covering up industry's abuses rather than protecting citizens. Read some of Joel Salatin's views (who is not a super liberal, as you might expect) about this. Educate yourself.
Just another tealiban troll who has to put a political spin on everything. It's about the EGGS, Becktard.
LOL OBAMA AND EGGS KILLED ME!!!!!
So the incredible, edible egg is under fire once again. What ought to be under fire are the clowns who conducted such a scientifically flawed study and presented their findings as proof positive, not to mention the journal that published this malarky, and the media fruitcakes who apparently don't know credible science from the holes in their heads.
This just in: aging carries health risks.
how does it happen???
Buck buck buck buck...The sound a chicken makes or what really motivates Dr, Spence
It really is hard to believe and sounds like the study was typical with being small and drawing a causation when only a correlation. CNN health is the tabloid of health rags. They want you to be afraid that everything is going to kill you. And their advice columns, like "the best low-fat pop tarts to eat for breakfast" could probably kill you if you follow too many of them.
Like most things, the key word here is "All things in Moderation".
Ah....First whole eggs are given a bad rap. Then eggs are okay. Now they are bad again. Lets get back to the discussion about which came first, the chicken or the egg?!
Bad reporting...careless. Did you read it?
This is good..300 mg..let me brake out a scale
The study confirms what doctors already know about eating cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, says Dr, Gordon Tomaselli, chief of cardiology at John Hopkins University School of Medicine and the former president of the American Heart Association. "Cholesterol intake should be limited to 300 milligrams a day, particularly in people who have underlying heart disease," he says.
"A new study suggests eating egg yolks can accelerate heart disease almost as much as smoking." and "- but the general public believes smoking is far worse for your health."
Well, duh, if course smoking is far worse for your health. But I gues this poor man has never heard of all the lung diseases that are caused by smoking. I haven't heard that eating egg yolks will give anybody COPD.
Aside from that – maybe all those egg-eaters were also eating other foods that promoted their atherosclerosis. The study certainly didn't exclude that possibility.
My wife have one of her overies removed after a historectomy. Does that mean scrambled eggs are the next big thing?
Excellent study, finally someone is doing good work in discovering why we are having so many health problems in this country, and just because people got use to eating eggs does not mean we should assume it is good for us. I guess in the end we just want to believe our bad habits are good for us. And I do think it is harsh to compare smoking with eating egg, at least cigarettes are not made by torturing and killing hens, and dumping millions of live young male chicks into grinders because they are considered byproducts. The egg industry is arguably the nastiest industry on earth and now medical evidences are finally reaching the public that eating eggs is unhealthy. I just hope people would listen and start doing the right thing, if not for the good of someone else, at least do it for themselves.
Really? I've never seen a hen tortured or killed to get an egg. It's kind of a natural occurance. Hens lay eggs without dying OR being tortured. I'm also not sure why roosters being thrown into a grinder would be a byproduct of getting eggs from hens, as roosters aren't necessary for a hen to lay an egg. Hens lay eggs regardless of a rooster being around (AND without dying...). Roosters are only necessary to get a fertile egg.
Did they also take into account the 3 slices of bacon, 2 pieces of toast covered in jam, hashbrowns smothered with ketchup and big glass of sugar juice the people eatting eggs had with their breakfast?
OH MAN....that sounds soooooooo damn good right about now...to hell with cardiovascular disease.
You can point the finger at toast, hashbrowns and juice all you want, but I'll thank you to leave the bacon out of this. It's just an innocent bystander here.
I think this research maybe through...too much of everything is bad, try limit the amount of what you are eating i.e the egg intake. This is a nice research, i like to work on dis again.....
Ironically, if moderation were the key and that was the argument these researchers are making, the group in their own study who ate the most eggs had the best cholesterol numbers. Moderation my left butt cheek. Eggs aren't the issue to begin with.
This study would be more believable if:
1) It included a wide range of people, not just older people with already a history of cardiovascular issues
2) These people ate only eggs, with no butter, bacon, etc, and only poached in water
3) They drank only water with the eggs
Since none of these criteria were met, no conclusion of eggs being unfairly compared to a cigarette can be reasonably made. Good try, "Doctors"
This is the very definition of charlatanism.
I kissed my way up to VP at a health insurance company. Now I take over $500,000 of your health care dollars for NO VALUE ADDED to your health care. And that’s just me. Now think about how many other VPs, Directors, Managers, etc. are at my company alone. Now multiply that by thousands of others at hundreds of other health insurance companies. From 10 to 25% of your health care dollars go towards administration that adds NO VALUE to your health care. But my company’s PAC dollars will continue to fool you little people into thinking that a single payer system will be bad. Little people like you are so easy to fool. Little people also don’t realize that a single payer system is the ONLY system that would allow little people (as an entire country) to negotiate better health care prices. Little people don’t realize that the Medical Cartels already know that. And that is the reason why the Medical Cartels spend so much PAC money from the hospitals and doctors lobbying against a single payer system. Some little people say that a single payer system would cost you little people more. But if that were true, then wouldn’t the hospitals and doctors WANT that extra money? Yes they would. So why do the Medical Cartels lobby against a single payer system? It’s because the Medical Cartels know it would allow little people to negotiate better health care prices. And that’s what the Medical Cartels are afraid of. Period.
But us big wigs at insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmacy companies don’t ever need to worry about health care no matter what it costs. We get our health care paid for one way or another by you little people. And we get the little people that work at our companies to contribute to our PACs. And us big wigs say it’s to protect the little peoples’ jobs. But in reality it would be in the little peoples’ best interest to NOT contribute to the PAC. Again, little people are so easy to be fooled. I won’t ever have to worry about losing my job with so many little people being brain washed by the Medical Cartels’ PAC money. Not only that, the Medical Cartels’ PAC money is used to elect so many republicans that will never allow a single payer system. Republicans have always fought against any meaningful health care reform. But that’s what our Medical Cartels’ PACs pay them for. Politicians can be bought so easily.
Pretty soon the only people that will be able to afford health care is us big wigs. And that’s the way it should be. We don’t want you little people using up the resources when we need them. And once again, I thank you little people for capping my SS tax at the $106,800 level. Now I only pay 1.3% SS tax and you little people pay 6.2%. Also, thank you for extending my tax breaks. I’m using the extra money on my vacation houses.
this is what the world is coming too...man people are annoying... go jump out from your plush office window...d o u c h e
i do believe that was sarcasm .. and not a bad display.
cool
story
bro
🙂
Further proof you can't believe everything you read – this study is far from reliable. A small test group and older people with a history of heart disease... As someone with a degree in nutrition, I have learned that consumption of dietary cholesterol has little affect on cardiovascular risk, however saturated fat plays a large role. The old school of thought was that whole eggs were bad for you, but in moderation, they offer more bioavailable nutrients than most other foods for very few calories and maintain high levels of satiety. Eggs are a rich source of bioavialble protein, iron, choline, lutein and zeaxanthin.... how it is prepared and what fatty ingredients accompany the egg – like hollandaise sauce – can change the value of the meal, which may be the case in this study.
"As someone with a degree in nutrition, I have learned that consumption of dietary cholesterol has little affect on cardiovascular risk, however saturated fat plays a large role."
You might want to do a little more research because saturated fat plays no role in the development of heart disease, save perhaps helping to prevent it by resulting in better levels of large LDL as opposed to the small LDL particles which actually clog arteries.
They ALREADY had atherosclerosis before the egg questionaire? This study flunks the common sense postulates because it failed to interview the cross section of the same number of healthy patients that ate at least 3 eggs a week. Did they eat it with fries and salt or a massive toast stack? All these unknown variables on top of the fact that they already had disease. It is like asking a lung cancer patient whether they ate green salad and blaming their lung cancer on salad instead of smoking. If you both smoked and ate eggs, obviously it is the cigarettes. It's the smoking, stupid. It is the subtle logical wedge to return back to the LDL causes heart disease fallacy when in fact 50% of all athero/heart disease patients have absolutely normal LDL levels. The body makes 1 gram of cholesterol daily, and adjusts to dietary intake. 237 extra mgs of cholesterol via an egg isn't going to do anything. Oxidation, inflammation, sugar, excess iron, and hypertension all combine to hurt your arteries. It isn't the native lipoprotein, it is the oxidized (rusted) lipoprotein that is irritating to the artery. Cells body-wide wouldn't have essential LDL receptors if LDL was toxic to them.
Please, for your own safety, do not read CNN health for health advise!!! For amusement yes, but for advise it might just be hazardous to your health.
3EGGS SALTYHOME FRIES TOAST SUGARJELLY AND A BIG GLASS OF FREAKIN ORANGESUGAR JUICE WITH SUGAR KETCHUP OH AND CAN I GET A GLASS OF SUGARLACTOSE MILK WITH THAT STUDY?
WAKE UP...... IGNORANCE ONLY WORKS UNTIL YOUR ARE SICK THEN WE SEE THE LIGHT WARNING.. SMOKING CIGARETTES MAY CAUSE YOU TO DIE, SO HAVE SOME SUGAR WITH IT
oh almost forgot sausage and sugar cured bacon and aunt jomamas sugar pancake syrup what a way to pass the time away
What if I smoke the egg yolk?
Haha, this made me laugh so hard, thank you for that.
<> They did research stating the opposite 10-15 years ago. Which refuted the LAST batch of research which said the same thing as THIS article.
Ping–pong.
Thus the pendulum swings the other way again.
And next week there will be an opposing study result. Did they ask the egg eaters if they had a side of bacon or buttered toast? That would be worse than the eggs. The jury is still out whether eating cholesterol raises you own cholesterol level. Much more certain is that eating lots of saturated fat causes your body to create bad cholesterol. Eggs have low saturated fat. I'll keep eating eggs with my dry toast thank you. I might even have a 4 oz sirloin with it. Still good for me.
I just quit smoking...Now I should quit eating eggs?
Eat the cigarettes and smoke the eggs. You'll be fine...
So . . . they left all all of the variable of interest and just confirmed what we already know and what has already been published. (facepalm)
yeah but i don't see it
I feel bad for the children of gullible parents that read this article. The lipids and nutrients essential for healthy growth and brain function will likely be replaced by refined simple carbohydrates in response to this article.
This study upsets Cool Hand Luke.
i am sick and tired of "these studies", they do nothing else but making us anxious about the food! I don't know what to eat anymore! Enough is enough, moderation is the key, period!
What a ridiculous study. It has no merit whatsoever, because there were no control groups. It's like taking a survey of prison inmates, finding out that 90% have tattoos, and declaring that having a tattoo makes one nine times more likely to be in prison.
The main concern about smoking is lung cancer, not heart disease. I could argue eating egg yolk is worse for your heart than shooting yourself in the head but that still doesn't mean it's worse for you overall for obvious reasons.
From the Abstract of the study referred to:
"Results
Data were available in 1262 patients; mean (SD) age was 61.5 (14.8) years; 47% were women. Carotid plaque area increased linearly with age after age 40, but increased exponentially with pack-years of smoking and with egg-yolk years. Plaque area in patients consuming <2 eggs per week (n = 388) was 125 ± 129 mm2, versus 132 ± 142 mm2 in those consuming 3 or more eggs per week (n = 603); (p < 0.0001 after adjustment for age). In multiple regression, egg-yolk years remained significant after adjusting for coronary risk factors"
The difference in the mean numbers of the two groups is negligible. Especially when you take into account the standard deviation being higher than the number reported...so theoretically both groups, regardless of eggs eaten, could have negative plaque area buildup. Exactly what I expected to see when I went to check the source. What a joke
This seems far fetched to me. Personally I'll continue smoking while eating my over easy eggs.
New study discovered that living leads to death.
lol, Best Comment Award goes to you sir
What a joke of a study. Why not study the people who eat eggs (without all the other stuff) AND excercise and do not have cardiovascular disease? Oh, because that wouldn't help sell more drugs. Keep eating eggs, folks. Then go for a run. It's not that complicated. Or just enjoy life. Whatever.
Great. Now we have to contend with the egg yolk police. NY will prohibit restaurants from serving regular customers more than two eggs a week? When will the public finally get enough and tell the social do gooders to mind their own business and take a hike on every social issue from cigarettes to soft drinks??????
So egg yolks cause lung cancer now?
I think it's a crock. I eat two eggs a day and I exercize,I enjoy them and I am very healthy. Go suck an egg! It's good for you.
...and another thing – don't people who eat more eggs tend to eat more bacon and sausage?
Everyone has food aversions...mine are Beets (hate em) and eggs...theyre ugly, runny, smelly little things that fall out of chickens, like tur_s. I have never eaten them like scrambled, poached, sunny side up etc...but I guess they have been ingredients in recipes ive eaten. I also hate milk..gross liquid from cows.
Jeez it seems like there is always a study saying that the food we eat is bad for us. Might as well start eating lettuce and grass.
It's good people are discussing cholesterol again. With all the high protein diets it had fallen off the radar. Yolks are very nutritious but they are full of cholesterol, a little goes along away. Isn't the recommendation 200 mg per day now?
Click that STUDY link,
and read the "Methods" section.
The health data was gathered with med equipment, but the number of yolks was gathered through questionnaires.
Their meals weren't observed; they were just asked how many egg yolks per week they typically have.
So, riddle me this:
If you have a breakfast containing egg yolks, would you typically have anything else there?
BACON, maybe?
What a joke...talk about junk science. Buzz words..cholesterol, fat, 0 calorie gets everyone in a frenzy. Next article will announce a 'NEW MIRACLE DRUG' that fights cholesterol!! Cmon CNN next are you going to report on water poisoning?