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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. soundoff (1,086 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next »Leave a Reply to Mike
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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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Typical. Last year they were telling us eggs were great and had "good cholesterol". Now they're telling us they're bad. Next year they'll tell us they're good. Just like salt. It was bad, then it was good, then it was bad. Or wine – bad then good then bad. And scientists wonder why anyone takes them seriously?
Perhaps you don't understand science, but that's how it works. At one time it was accepted that the sun revolved around the earth, until science changed our understanding. So don't get cynical just because sometimes new data and evidence dispells previously held notions. Or, just go back to blissfully reading your cereal box
Obama likes to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes and his habit will end up destroying millions of lives – but he has no problem sending law-abiding cancer patients to prison for smoking medical marijuana – Stop this criminal in November.
So true, So true, they really don't know themselves! Makes you crazy. I think one of the oldest people on earth is in dominica, the island in the Caribbean. Her secret? stress free life baby.
Well, at least they're chasing the available facts for proof rather than some idiotic fairy tale from a work of fiction. Granted, it's frustrating to hear the reversal, but I'd rather have a presentation of the facts as we know them now than to blindly trust supposition, allegory and myth.
Dude, this isn't comparable to finding out that the sun is at the center of the solar system. This is like going from geocentric to heliocentric to geocentric back to heliocentric and then to geocentric and back to heliocentric again.
Every year they come out with a new study that reverses the last one, which had a year before reversed the one before.
The same with salt, the same with wine, the same with bacon, the same with coffee, etc.
No one takes these sorts of scientists seriously. They get their funding for another year by performing a study, and then get it next year by reversing the findings. Sick waste of our tax dollars.
Luanda, you really think Romney will legalize medical marijuana??? Liberals are the best bet anyone has to get it decriminalized.
All scientists are limited by the people who fund them. Always look to see who that is before taking anything they say seriously.
This proves it: "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."
They deliberately chose people with high risk, and used jumbo sized eggs, because they wouldn't have gotten their big headline if they'd used folks in the general population. Utter dishonesty.
Who ever said eggs have "good cholesterol"? Furthermore, why would you believe such a preposterous claim?
Democrats had their chance and betrayed all African Americans by sending more of us to prison because of marijuana. Dump the Obama nightmare, he is a Slave-maker.
To RKDRES, here, from just earlier this year: http://news.menshealth.com/the-best-breakfast-for-men/2012/04/26/
Sounds like University of Connecticut says so.
Why would I believe the study in the article here over what they have to say or the many other studies showing egg yolks to be good? They just flip and flop back and forth.
What I want to know is if they looked at people who ate pastured eggs, organic produce and non gmo foods.
So much has been learned about how our bodies react to processed and altered foods that I think it would be a good idea to throw out most of the so called studies from the last 3 decades that don't include subjects who eat clean in that study along with those on the standard American diet.
to non-golf-doc: so if eggs are bad, then they're good, then they're bad, etc. and this is the way science works, then by your example the sun goes around the earth, then the earth around the sun, then the sun around the earth, etc.
OK, they're making a point about the comparative levels of plaque, but what about the effect to the lungs? Last I heard, there no evidence that eating eggs contributes to lung disease.
Hogwash
couldn't agree more.
Shame on CNN for reporting this nonsense.
nonsense? really? why, do you actually think eggs are actually healthy for humans?
eggs are a nutrition powerhouse. Almost every animal on this planet would eat an egg if they had the chance.
Wait a minute. One JUMBO egg yolk = 237 mg of cholesterol. Eating more than three is two-thirds as bad as smoking. Smoking what? Three cigarettes per week? Three packs a week? A pack a day? Let's compare apples to apples, shall we?
but that doesn't lead to flashy headlines nor to getting the results the statin drug industry wanted to push to the masses. After all cholesterol is bad. it's the evil of all evils and you need to take this pill to stop it before it kills you.... 1 cholesterol containing egg is worse than smoking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you had a sausage egg and cheese biscuit this morning, heck you might need two expensive pills. Buy them NOW!!!!
"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."
Well, sure, if you want VISIBLE results. What if you want ACCURATE results?
"The study confirms what doctors already know about eating cholesterol and cardiovascular disease."
Well sure, when you manipulate the data to get what you want, it shouldn't be newsworthy that you get what you want.
Eggsactly! (Couldn't resist). This study was stupid.
The sweeping generalizations we see pronounced after such studies are ridiculous. One study of one small population sector cannot be interpreted as having application to every other member of the human species. The hype over this egg thing is absolutely ridiculous. Clearly eggs are probably bad for you if you have heart disease, are over 60, are overweight, don't exercise, etc. I have noticed that the general news media seem to ONLY pick up on studies like this one that offer them a dramatic headline, but they ignore 99% of the rest of scientific research.
I side with hogwash patrol.
First eggs are bad, then they are good, then they are bad, etc
Only 30% of your cholesterol is dietary, the rest is made by your liver. What dictates the type of cholesterol you have (ie HDL, LDL) is the type of fats you consume. Eggs are full of healthy unsaturated fats with very little saturated fat. So this is great at promoted HDL which is your good cholesterol. I think I will start skipping over every egg story. The next one will tell me how great and healthy yolks are and that they can make me live a longer, healthier life.
This is a point i was going to raise, thank you.
If a large egg yolk is half the size of a jumbo egg yolk, does that mean it's only 1/3 as bad as smoking? And how does that compare to the advantages of having an egg or two for breakfast vs., say, a donut or stack of pancakes?
And if you don't smoke at all, then do those eggs significantly increase your risks of a heart attack at all? If the only way they were able to find significant results was to just study people who were already unhealthy, how can they claim the results apply to those who are (otherwise) healthy?
We need to ban egg yolks. There is no reason anyone "needs" and egg yolk. They kill dozens of people.
I see what you did there... 😉
what crap. It's not cholesterol that drives heart disease, it's abdominal obesity, which is driven by carbohydrates and oxidative stress.
exactly right Curtis!
exactly and thank you! (of course try telling that to your dr ..)
exactly RIGHT!!!
Preach! Americans will never understand this in this lifetime though. Brainwashed by embarrassing media stories like this.
Eat what you want to eat...it's more fun and life is worth living .
However, if you have family, personal medical / health history , then take responsibility of your health. Take all necessary precautions- diet and exercise, for the rest of your life . Even though , you are perfectly healthy- healthier diet and exercise , is the road to a better and healthier life .
This study is like doing a diabetes study with people who are borderline diabetics and/or family history of diabetes and showing that the ones that eat more sugar, develop diabetes. This study is completely illogical. You WANT to use the general public to show correlation, not people with cardiovascular troubles. Of course, the ones who eat more cholesterol will have more problems. Did they link bad cholesterol from other foods to the problems? Not just egg yolks? Not accounting for waist size or physical activity is nonsense, as well. This was a waste of taxpayers money.
Many people, myself included, skip most animal proteins but include a few weekly servings of eggs and fish. I do this because I believe eating these sources of animal protein are healthier for both me and the environment compared to factory-farmed beef, poultry, and pork. I eat mostly plant-based foods, but I believe a strict "vegan" diet – devoid of any animal products – is not as healthy in the long term.
A problem with this article is this – if these are so bad, what should you replace them with? How do the negative effects compare to other forms of animal protein? Do organic eggs, and those from free-range chickens, show any difference compared to other eggs?
Since my husband started his Paleo diet, he's been eating organic, cage-free eggs, nitrate free bacon and a side of fruit for breakfast EVERYDAY for almost a year, he recently had his work related physical and the cholesterol levels have dropped...numbers don't lie.
Dr's don't like to hear about the Paleo diet. Drug companies flat out hate the Paleo diet and push as hard as possible to ensure Dr's agree with them.
Ok, so explani why my husband and I eat 3 eggs everyday for the past 10 years and our cholesteral is at 155. I think your cholestoral isn't the problem its being overweight and eating too much processed food. If you eat REAL food that hasn't been modified, you'll be just fine.
there seriously needs to be a like button here.
Yes- seriously- a LIKE button is needed here!!!
In other news: Australia is planning to order egg companies to package their eggs in drab, olive-green cartons with graphic photos of the health effects of eating eggs posted on the packaging. Worldwide, countries are banning the advertisement of eggs in television, movies, and magazines while "Clucky the Chicken"–a popular and controversial mascot of the egg industry–is being condemned for reportedly encouraging children to eat eggs... Egg eating in public places is also being banned for fear of second-hand yolk, and anyone eating eggs in public must be at least 10 feet from the entrance or exit of any building.
ridiculous comparision since eggs do not cause lung cancer emphasema etc. - just talk about eggs and health without comparing appels and oranges (which are good for you)
Eggs are bad again. Cross that off the grocery list until next year when they are good again.
Again? How many times are they going to say the eggs are bad then they are good, and suddenly reverse this discussion to say yellows are good?
All these studies are dumb. There are 2 rules: 1 – genetics play the greatest role in your outcome, 2 – you are what you eat, if you're eating unhealthy, you're going to be unhealty at some point in your life. More over, everything we eat today is genetically altered, so I would like to see a study on that.
1) The article even admits "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"
2) Two of the 3 "researchers" have deep ties to the statin pharmaceutical industry. They have a vested interest in the results.
3) The "research" hinged on them using a questionnaire asking people to remember how many eggs they eat regularly over the course of their entire life. like people can remember that.
4) The "high egg eaters" were all older. lke 15 to 20 years older than their non egg eating counter parts. As such they had more time to collect arterial plaque, they smoked longer. they had more advanced cases of Diabetes and heart disease already with more contributing factors than just how many eggs they eat.
this "research" is HIGHLY slanted to ensure it achieved a desired result. The results that the American Heart Association (backed heavily by the statin drug industry) wanted. They want to push the case that eating things like eggs and cheese are horrible for you. when in fact it is proven that your cholesterol intake causes only slight variances in your cholesterol levels because your body NATURALLY adjusts it's cholesterol production to compensate (unless you go crazy over board and eat meals that consist entirely of cheese and such.)
Ban the eggs!
These are the studies that should NOT get NIH monies.
This is a hurtful article. Smoking causes damage to heart, brain, lung, kidney and all other organs and tissues. This study does not prove the damage from egg yolks is from cholesterol. It stinks worse that old cigar smoke.
To Not All Docs Play Golf. I understand science, and medicine. This whole thing about egg yokes is junk science.
The yolks have essential nutrients that the white's do not posses. Perhaps you can find these essential nutrients in other foods but the egg is a great source of nutrition and it has a historical track record longer than just about any other food. The yolk contains 100% of the carotenoids, essential fatty acids, vitamins A, E, D, and K (6 items). The white does not contain 100% of any nutrient.
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Egg_Yolk.html
Scientists proved some time ago that direct consumption of cholesterol does not increase blood cholesterol. Did somebody get paid to find something different?
guns dont kill ppl...egg yolks kill ppl
man, you got to die from something!!! Whne I get to 75 I will resume smoking, will eat ice cream and eat plenty of eggs and drink plenty of booze. At that point I will commit suicide by eating. A little different than what Kevotkian had in mind but.................
Than how does this report explain the fact that the French, who eat eggs in everything, have very low heart disease....
Genetics??
This just in!!! Breathing air is bad. We should all reduce the amount we breathe a day by 20%!
Hey, all I have to say is something has to kill you.
In the end, the Grim Reaper comes for us all. Moderation is the key. A few egg yolks or some brewskis (and maybe even 1 or 2 butts a day) are not going to make a substantive difference for most of us, Life is very, very short and a little indulgence from time to time is the right of everyone. Acsetic living is a personal choice of course and obsessing over every label in the store is up to the individual, but you can overdo almost anything.
Redd Foxx (not necessarily an example of moderation) once quipped, "All those people who don't smoke, don't drink, eat all the right foods and exercise all the time are going to feel pretty stupid lying in the hospital dying of nothing".
Life can be enjoyed without being feared and the intermittent pleasure taken in without paranoia.
Ah yes, the war on cholesterol, the building block of the brain. Enjoy your dumbing down, world!
Wow- you are so right- 'the truth is out there' about cholesterol- and I am grateful every day that I learned it. Saved me from taking 'those drugs' and finding a path to true health.
Yaaay EGGS!!!
**oops- I meant that I found a path to true health! Without 'those drugs'...... !
At least you dont stink after eating a egg, plus they taste good.
I haven't read the published article, but based on the information here, I think the study has several flaws. We know that inflammation is a high risk for arteriosclerosis so I would want to see blood tests done on these subjects which measures inflammation occurring in the body. There are at least 15 or more risk factors for arteriosclerosis that can be measured by blood tests, so I would want to see these results in the subjects. And cholesterol alone is not a good indicator for arteriosclerosis when taken alone One needs to measure the lipid subtypes, including the subtypes of HDL to have a total picture of what is going on.
I don't take these results seriously
You kidding me? Smoking, guns, now yoke??? What's next? Inhaling molten lead?
You should abstain from molten lead, it has a very high carbon footprint.
Hmmmm,
This is very interesting! Why is it that Farmers and people who live in the country live longer than city folk? Is it the life style, the simple food, the stress level, the polution or maybe a combination of all of them. And don't forget genetics have a part to play. Our bodies adapt to many changes and our access to different medicines are more now then 100 years ago! Look at the majority of people who live to be over 90years old and they atribute that to the simple things in life! Simple food (un modified or chemical free egg's, poultry, beef etc.) Simple lifestyles,( Plenty of sleep, exercise and being with the ones you love not the ones you want to be like.) coordination instead of agitation, (Working together instead being one up on the other human just because you can). Not ingesting or putting up with pollutants (drugs, smoking, allowing others to pollute the air around you whether it is smoke, noise or chemical) just to get along with people or the in crowd or for the jobs sake. My point is most ninety year old plus people do things in moderation and try to enjoy life and take care of friends and family. And I believe that sometimes you can posion your own body and it will react against you just like treating another human being or animal in a mean, abusive or unfriendly way. Now to address the egg question: Maybe the yolk can build up cholesterol, but in the case of a lot of geratic individuals, who have exceed the expectations of normal life span, I frankly think that they don't care about the new or should I say newest study. It is because they have eaten egg's all their lives ,because it is a staple as did their ancestors and they enjoy them. And quite frankly they or should I say we are quite amused at the youngsters trying to figure out how to live longer when we already have. " live your life like it will end tomorow! Love your family and friends like they will be gone tomorrow! Treat your family, your friends and your body like they are the most important thing in life because surprise they are!!!! Enjoy what time you have with everyone because in the grand scheme of things it is over in the blink of an eye! Ask me again in twenty years and I will most likely say the same thing!
Well said.
fact of the matter is city folk outlive country folk... Mayor Bloomberg was just pontificating about how NYC residents outlive the rest of the country by three yrs.... But to back up your claims, the french who eat eggs in everything have very low rates of heart disease........so who knows....
Obviously the poultry industry has been falling behind on its "protection payments" to the medical "research" industry. So...eggs are bad again...this week.
JUNK SCIENCE ALERT!!! This article is perpetuating one of the top nutrition myths. Cholesterol is produced in the body, not absorbed in the digestive tract from external sources. I can eat a pound of cholesterol a day and not raise my cholesterol a point. The key to controlling cholesterol is excercise and fat intake. The better story would have been the financial incentives scientist receives to publish junk in the guise of science.
What a bunch of morons.
I eat 5-6 eggs a day, ride my bicycle 150-200 miles a week, drink fresh veggie juice and fruit smoothies, eat non-gmo meat, and I do not eat anything with corn or soy or conola oil.. as they are all gmo... and I feel amazing, and my heart is as healthy as ever... TO TOP THAT I had a physical, (mandatory for life insurance) about 3 weeks ago and my cholestoral was below normal range... † God Bless the egg, something they can't quite tamper with!
Such bad science. First of all, the study does not "suggest eating egg yolks can accelerate heart disease almost as much as smoking." It says that "eating egg yolks regularly increases plaque buildup about two-thirds as much as smoking does." I do not consider that two-thirds is equivalent to almost. And plaque buildup is not directly translatable to heart disease. The people they chose had a mean age of 61.5 and already had or were very likely to have cardiovascular problems. This is a case of someone manipulating the study to get the results they wanted. And relying on a person's memory as to what they ate is ridiculous. Conduct a controlled study before you scare people this way. Smoking causes so many more problems to your health than eating a few eggs.
CNN have you ever heard of the first amendment? Why do you continue to censor my remarks? Are you afraid of the truth?
Every year you see articles saying "Eggs are good for you" them "Eggs are bad for you"...then it's back to "Eggs are good for you". Enough with these stupid articles trying to create paranoia
If CNN really wanted to do a story on cholesterol, they should have done one on how pharmaceutical companies were successful in lobbying for the lowering of bad cholesterol criteria so that they could make more money out of people who would get prescribed drugs. Also, how these drugs are only supposed to be used for a short period of time and can cause all sorts of damage, but how physicians prescribe them for a lifetime for most of their patients.
This was taken from the Incredibleegg.com web site.
A Harvard study with more than one hundred thousand subjects found no significant difference in
cardiovascular disease risk between those consuming less than one egg per week and those
consuming one egg per day. The researchers concluded that consumption of up to one egg per day
is unlikely to have substantial overall impact on the risk of heart disease or stroke among healthy men and
women.ii Another study published in Risk Analysis estimates that eating one egg per day is responsible for less
than one percent of the risk of coronary heart disease in healthy adults. Alternatively, lifestyle factors including
poor diet, smoking, obesity and physical inactivity contribute to 30 to 40 percent of heart diseas
erisk, depending on gender.iii Additionally, research has shown that saturated fat may be more likely to raise
a person’s serum cholesterol than dietary cholesterol.iv
Hmmmmmm......
perhaps the higher ups at CNN have invested in egg replacement food products.... all these studies have some corporate pump and dump misguidance behind them... Culture of fear at it's best....
This is shoddy science! They didn't even measure their sugar intake. Sugar has been completely scientifically proven to cause heart disease. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403942n
I have my masters in Nutrition Science from a Big 10 university. Eggs are one of the healthiest foods you can eat, because cholesterol is not the accurate biomarker for heart disease, triglycerides are. And triglycerides are caused by fructose.
Don't believe the hype. Eat 4-6 eggs a day. http://perfecthealthdiet.com/
Egg yolks are NOT bad. They contain cholesterol, but the egg whites contain enough Lecithin to block the cholesterol in the yolk from being absorbed by your body. That Lecithin, however, is not enough to deal with all the cholesterol in the added fat-bacon grease, or whatecver-you fry the eggs in. Find a non-cholesterol way to cook the eggs-as hard boilig, for example-and you need not fwear the cholesterol in the egg yolk, as the Lecithing in the egg white will protect you. There is no such protection in cigarettes against the 5,000 poisons they contain which cause cancer, etc. So...smoking is far worse than egg yolk eating.
Chlorinated water has tryhalamethanes which are proven cancer causers. We just do not know if what is in our water is enough.
Take one sip of any chemical under your sink and you will be very sick.
Suck on a ciggy 20 x's a day x 40 years or 300,000 ciggies and you can still run and jump and feel fine. Don't believe all the propaganda and ciggies was definitely a big money item for the government. Like sugar is big money.
Smart people and experts drive us crazy. I do not have credentials but I guarantee the following:
1) I can balance the budget and spend wiser than all our politicians combined
2) I guarantee salt and eggs are good for you and smoking is not near as bad as they make out
3) experts make a mess of things more than they fix them sometimes so you cannot always do what they say
I agree they keep changing this, but really, CNN, it's Johns Hopkins, not John Hopkins. Plus, if you start with patients who already have heart issues, are you not steering your study one way.
If egg yolks are as bad as smoking, maybe we need to reconsider the bans and taxes on cigarettes. Just saying...
The gov't would love that.
If the gov't would get out of the medical payment business and we paid cash I bet the prices would drop and you woul not care if people eat eggs and smoke cuz you would not be paying their bills.
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Then we could get the employers to pay us and we could pay Dr's I bet prices would drop.