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High cholesterol levels increase your risk for health problems such as heart disease and stroke. About 25 percent of the cholesterol in your body comes from food such as meat, milk and dairy products such as cheese — and eggs. For years eggs were vilified as cholesterol-raising culprits. While they are high in cholesterol, the amount that eggs will affect cholesterol levels varies differs for each person, according to Thomas Behrenbeck, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic.
Cholesterol Levels and Effects
High levels of high-density lipoprotein or “good” cholesterol — 60 mg/dL or higher — protect you from heart disease. However, total cholesterol levels should not exceed 200 mg/dL and bad cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein levels should be 100 mg/dL or lower, according to the American Heart Association. Cholesterol levels that exceed these can lead to atherosclerosis, a condition in which cholesterol begins to collect against the walls of your arteries forming a plaque. It’s a condition called atherosclerosis that narrows and hardens arteries and cause coronary artery disease, angina and stroke.
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Cholesterol and Egg Intake
Healthy people can consume 300 mg or less of cholesterol per day, while people with conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol or cardiovascular disease should consume 200 mg or less, advises the American Heart Association. With 213 mg of cholesterol, one large egg contains more than a full day’s serving of cholesterol if you have any of these medical conditions.
Adding Eggs to Your Diet
If you have a medical problem that requires you to lower your cholesterol intake, eggs can still be a part of your diet, states the American Heart Association. They key is to reduce the amount of cholesterol you eat from other sources such as meat, dairy foods, junk food, prepackaged meals, baked goods and chocolate. Also, choose lean cuts of meat and low-fat or fat-free dairy products and do not eat seafood such as shrimp more than twice a week.
Avoiding Cholesterol in Eggs
Separate your eggs and eat only the egg whites, which are cholesterol free. You can also substitute two egg whites or 1/4 cup cholesterol-free egg substitute for every egg a recipe calls for, advises Behrenbeck.
Preparation
The way in which you cook your eggs can also help reduce your cholesterol levels. Instead of cooking with butter or lard — which are also high in saturated fat — use plant oils such as olive or canola. Also, boiling or poaching eggs do not involve adding any fats when cooking your eggs.
Eggs have cholesterol—but that's not necessarily a bad thing
It’s true that eggs have a higher level of dietary cholesterol than many other foods—about 185 mg in one large egg. Not too long ago, eggs were even branded “as bad for you as smoking.”
“Now we know that what really raises your cholesterol is saturated fat in the diet and not so much the cholesterol in foods,” Dr. Schulman explains. While U.S. dietary guidelines used to recommend consuming no more than 300 mg of dietary cholesterol a day, that recommendation was removed in 2016.
“When we eat cholesterol, it’s broken down in the gut; it’s not absorbed as a whole cholesterol molecule,” he says. Saturated fats, meanwhile, are broken into short chains of fatty acids that can become linked in the body—and that’s what has been shown to increase cholesterol levels significantly.
Yes, research suggests that eating foods that are high in dietary cholesterol, like eggs, can raise a person’s cholesterol a little bit. But another thing to consider, says Dr. Schulman, is the ratio of LDL (bad) cholesterol to HDL (good) cholesterol levels. “Eggs raise the HDL to a greater extent than it does the LDL,” he explains, “which leads to a more favorable risk profile when it comes to cardiovascular risk.”
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Recent studies show no link to heart disease
On top of what scientists now know about dietary cholesterol’s effects on the body, studies also suggest that people who eat eggs aren’t any worse off than those who don’t. Research in recent years has failed to find a connection between one-a-day egg consumption and heart disease, even in people whose genetics put them at higher-than-normal risk.
A new study published in the journal Heart suggests that eating eggs may even have a protective effect: People who reported eating up to one egg per day had an 11% lower risk of developing heart disease—and an 18% lower risk of dying from it—over the following nine years than those who did not eat eggs. They also had a 26% lower risk of having a hemorrhagic stroke.
The study, which included nearly half a million Chinese people, could only show an association between eggs and heart health, not a cause-and-effect relationship. And no group in the study ate more than one egg a day on average, so the findings aren’t exactly an endorsement of a daily three-egg omelet at your local diner.
It’s also important to keep in mind that, while researchers controlled for other potential factors such as smoking habits, overall diet, and weight, this type of study is unable to fully account for all of the ways that egg-eaters may be different (and more or less healthy) than non egg-eaters.
Despite its limitations, Dr. Schulman says the study’s findings aren’t surprising and are further evidence that eggs aren’t bad for you. “I’ve been preaching this for a while,” he says. “This is more good news.”
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