Because information is swinging back and forward (good/bad/good/bad...), there is no reason to believe that the latest report will not be exchnged later for it's opposite. Listen to your body and if you feel good after eating eggs, go for it. No reason to follow recommendations that keep changing.
I have good friends, husband and wife. They are both 85 year old. They both eat 2 eggs each every morning for the last 80+ years. They also cook with eggs, put them in salad, etc. Their bad cholesterollevels are low. Of cause they have their share of health issues (vision, joints, etc), who doesn't at this age, but definitely eggs didn't harm them. So it all depends on you and how you can handle them, I believe.
Olga

And....some eggs are healthier than others.....chickens that scratch lay healthier eggs than corn fed chickens.

" I recently started eating breakfast eggs after a lifetime of not liking them."

Mustangs, do you mean that you've discovered that you actually LIKE eggs, or that you're eating them for any other reason?

Sushi, I knew I should have clarified my statement...I like them but not fried just scrambled and topped with cheese please.

I love eggs and eat a lot - but only organic. Wouldn't touch a battery egg.

Eggs are not bad for you. But by all means, look for eggs from free range hens. Free range is MUCH more important than organic.

The way I see it, eggs are high in protein, relatively low in fat and low in cost. All good. But they're extremely high in cholesterol, and two eggs for breakfast and you're over your allowance for the day. The real question is whether dietary cholesterol is bad for you. I've researched that and some people say yes and some people say no, and others say it affects about 30% of people.

Assuming the 30% rule is correct, I don't exactly know how to determine whether I'm one of those 30% without going off Lipitor and strictly monitoring my diet for months. That sounds neither fun nor healthy - since my cholesterol is extremely high without help - so I just choose to limit my egg intake.

My bloodwork over the years has revealed no issues with cholesterol. I do choose free range eggs (and they are so good!)

I'm just frustrated, in general, with all the constant barrage of "good food" "bad food" information. I strive to eat healthy and, it seems, as soon as I light on a good diet plan I hear news like this that makes me second guess it. I confess that the analogy of eggs to smoking has made me kind of sick to the stomach.

What are you eating with your eggs? Toast with butter, bacon, sausage, cheese?

I love eggs but I don't eat more than one or two a month now.

My cholesterol wasn't extremely high (221) when I had chest pain and ultimately a stent for a 99% blockage in one coronary artery earlier this year. I ate eggs or something with eggs in it almost every morning, but I was also getting a lot of fat and cholesterol from those other sources too.

I wonder if I had an egg with my oatmeal, would that be OK? LOL

I miss real eggs. I'll make Egg Beaters with cheese, Italian seasonings and salsa when I scramble eggs for the grandchildren (and sneak a bite of theirs). But there's nothing like a real egg.

I'm sure your lifestyle comes more into play than anything. I eat a pretty high fat diet - lower carb but not carbless, no sugar, no white foods or any processed foods. I probably consume at least 6-8 eggs a week. My cholesterol levels are excellent. I do get organic free run eggs for the omega 3's. I don't like the omega 3, caged version where they are just fed flax seed, the eggs have a off taste to me, unfortunately, as they are so much cheaper.

Plus it was probably the cereal industry doing this study as more people are going lower carb lately, lol.

Hey, let's all change our diets again because of some blurb we heard on the TV news.

I read the original study abstract from the three doctors who did it and based on that, will continue to eat whole eggs in the same limited quantities I have been consuming.

They noted that further studies of the high egg yolk eater's diets may be needed, probably along the lines of what was eaten along with the eggs, as momj47 indicated.

Where did you see or hear this study?

I believe a lot of whether eggs or beef or even fish is good or bad for you depends on what that food source ate. As someone already pointed out, there's a big difference in eggs from factory farms and eggs from hens that wondered around scratching the earth, eating what they're supposed to eat, rather than corn and the carp the factory farm hens are forced to eat. Even farm raised salmon has higher cholesterol than wild caught salmon.

Remember, too, that just because a carton claims it's cage free, doesn't mean the hen gets to wonder around outside and eat bugs. I've even seen expensive organic eggs for sale, touted as being fed a vegetarian diet, as if that's a good thing for hens. Tsk tsk, I just shake my head at that. (I'm sure that y'all already know that, though. I'm preaching to the choir.)

If you haven't already read them, I recommend reading Michael Pollan's books, Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food.

I'm lucky in that I do usually get to eat eggs I get from a farmer, but when I don't, I pay a premium to buy from a company I know does let their chickens wonder. Because those eggs are not cheap, and because I just don't like to eat eggs every day, simply for variety's sake, I only eat a couple, once or twice a week, and bake with them when the weather is not so hot.

Sally

Primary care doctor here....

Cholesterol levels are mostly genetic rather than diet. Heart disease is really pretty rare in non-smokers without diabetes genetics. However, diabetes genetics are very common (at least 25% of Caucasians and higher in other populations). Cholesterol is also not just cholesterol and total cholesterol may not predict heart disease as well as blood sugar levels, any way.

If you smoke, stop. If you are overweight, cut your portions in half and track your calories (Weight Watchers, Lose It, Fit Day, paper and pencil, etc.) until your weight is down. If you are sedentary, move around at least the equivalent of a brisk two mile walk daily. Fine tuning diet for the latest fad or study is much less important than the big three.

jxbrown - I'm so happy to read that "cholesterol levels are mostly genetic rather than diet". I've believed this forever based on simple evidence. DH and I eat pretty much the same diet, but his cholesterol is borderline (around 200) and mine is lower (about 160). That has to be genetics.

OTOH I don't know if cholesterol levels are good predictors of heart disease. Is there good evidence that this is the case? I know of several cases where someone with low cholesterol in apparently good health suffered a heart attack without warning.

Cheryl

Here' a link to a summary of the article. Looks like no cereal companies were involved in this study. It was done at the Stroke Prevention and Atherosclerosis Research Center, London, Ont. Canada It's Canadian, so it must be true!! LOL

FYI - I have no risk obvious factors, I'm not diabetic, never smoked, no apparent family heart disease risk (though my kids sure have one now) - cholesterol has always been under 200 till this year. I have well controlled hypertension and a stressful job. Sometimes there's no good explanation.

I got my cholesterol down to 94 on diet and medication, lost 35 pounds, exercise more regularly, we'll see if I can keep it going. I am kind of afraid of my food, now.

No fad diets, just fewer calories, less fat, and a food diary. Seeing what you eat can be quite jarring. Online diaries are really the best - you can scan the barcode of any food you use and you'll get the nutrient content - it can be startling. In many of them you can enter recipes and get a good breakdown for serving size. I still eat good stuff, just a lot less of it now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Egg yolk consumption as bad as smoking

About 25% of heart attacks occur in people with cholesterol at target levels. Cholesterol is a marker for heart disease, but blood sugar is an even better marker. The best way to lower your cholesterol level is to eat ... less. Weight loss is far more effective for lowering cholesterol than changing what you eat. Even the high fat version of the Atkin's diet will lower your cholesterol, if it causes you to lose weight. Unfortunately, Jadeite, estrogen also affects cholesterol levels and sooner or later the estrogen mostly goes away, too. Sigh. Why is it so hot in here right now? Oh yeah.

I've only seen people drop cholesterol levels significantly without weight loss or medicine on a few occasions. It always happened in people with a significant fast food intake who went cold turkey.

Read the fine prints.

If you read information from most egg promoting organizations, even they seldom recommend more than one egg a day, and many of them say, "Cholesterol is also found in the yolk, but more than 40 years of research has shown that healthy adults can eat eggs without significantly affecting their risk for heart disease."

The key words are "healthy adults" and "significantly effect".

Sure, if you are a healthy adult with a sensible life style and dieting habits, you shouldn't be concerned about eating one egg a day, otherwise don't risk your health.

I don't eat breakfast, and I seldom eat pastries. My consumption of eggs is well below average. I do like eggs; once in a while I will do an egg orgy. I will have a dozen eggs a day.

dcarch

That is a ridiculous observational study. I am tired of "scientists" and their organizations putting out observational, correlational studies about hot-button topics as press releases to get attention in blatant attempts at grant-grabbing. AND tired as well of the stupid, lazy media outlets who take press releases verbatim and publish them as news. AND tired of people who still think that being published in a news media outlet makes articles factual. (Can I sell you some shares in a flying car business?)

Gahhhhh....

Cholesterol levels are absolutely a good indicator of heart disease IF you get the correct cholesterol test. A VAP test or NMR Lipo Protein test gives you the important details about your cholesterol. All of the numbers are measured, not calculated like in a standard cholesterol test.

The correct test gives way more information about the breakdown of your cholesterol. For example, is your LDL made up of small sticky particles (BAD) or large fluffy particles (NOT BAD). There is also a very bad type of genetic cholesterol called Lp(a), which is a huge risk factor for heart disease, but can only be identified with one of the correct cholesterol tests.

This is why thin people with low cholesterol have heart attacks. Because their cholesterol is not tested as it should be. These are not expensive blood tests.

Yes - much of our cholesterol is genetic and produced via the Liver, but what we eat can and does affect it as well. I hate to say it - but wheat and sugar are big contributors to small LDL.

This is all well documented. Google it. It's unfortunate most Dr's don't address it until after someone has had a heart attack.

/Rant off. Sorry - this is a topic near and dear to my heart and I hate the fact that most Dr's are clueless or choose not to do the right thing.

Bonnie

Laceyvail, here, organic eggs are free range. I wonder if there aren't quite important differences in eggs in Europe compared with the U.S. I often see discussions about the safety of eggs on this forum whereas we don't really worry about it here.

These scare me in cheaply raised eggs. Even free-range chickens can be given endless antibiotics.

Free range chickens aren't given endless antibiotics. They don't need them; they're not living in their own s--t. They're out and about, and they're eating insects, worms and green plants. That's the whole point.

But let's be clear here. ONLY laying hens can be free range like that. Broilers (the birds you eat) are an entirely different story. There is no such thing as a free range broiler. I've posted about this before and won't repeat the info unless someone here requests it.

I looked at all the different eggs last night when I went shopping, and all but the cheapest store brand eggs were labeled antibiotic-free. There's usually something "better" on sale (Eggland's Best, Land o Lakes, the higher end store brand, etc.) at the same price point as the cheap eggs so for me buying antibiotic-free eggs is more a matter of reading the label than paying more. I aim for $2.50/dozen give or take, locally.

I read the study. It was retrospective (I.e. "crap"). It does illustrate the difficulty of doing nutrition research. It's easy to measure nutrients in and nutrients out (not the job I would want), but getting people to eat a consistent diet for a lifetime while accounting for other lifestyle factors is pretty tough. There are lots of people who KNOW which diet is the optimal diet for everyone. If you listen to the paleo/low carb/Taubes people you should avoid carbs, the Pritikin/Ornish people tell you to avoid all fats, and the Campbells and their "China Study" tell you to avoid protein. The only thing that's consistent among them is that you are certain to die, die, die, if you don't follow their advice. If you try to follow all of them, you're living on dew like a yogi.

However, if you want to pick on any one particular food, sugar in all of its myriad forms is a good one. At best it's a source of nutrient free calories and an appetite stimulant, neither of which most of us need. If you happen to have one of at least five genes that have been associated with diabetes, it's going to have more influence on your cholesterol than the fats in your diet, but if you won the genetic lottery, it's just bad for your teeth. Since it has been shown that risk of heart disease rises rapidly with hemoglobin A1C above 5.4% (~37 nnmol/L for Europeans), it's a good idea to have that screened periodically. Besides being more useful, it is also a cheaper and more consistent test than the VAP or NMR tests. The vast majority of people (but never "all" people) will improve their A1C (and their lipid particle size!) with weight loss. The average American of 2012 is about 25 lbs heavier than the average American of 1960 and you Europeans aren't far behind.

My own nutritional guru, Julia Childs, lived to 93.

Great post, jxbrown! What is the name of the test you mention for hemoglobin A1C?? Why is it more useful than than VAP or NMR? Does it provide the same type of info? In particular, I'm interested in Lp(a) as I am someone with elevated levels and a family history of strokes. Therefore I need to keep all other risk factors in check.

Bonnie

Oh - and I should have mentioned as a point of interest. I am a fitness instructor (21 years) on the slender side (always have been), and my LDL generally showed a pattern of both of small and large (A/B) particles.

When I stopped eating wheat and cut back drastically on sugar (for other health reasons), I was amazed to see that my LDL pattern move to all large (pattern A). A surprising and nice side effect.

That's just my own experience, but it leads me to believe that what you eat matters, and it's not just about losing weight.

Bonnie

I believe that the most important factor, in all of the
above, is 'Rate of Metabalism, in other words: 'how long
our food stays inside of us'. GAWD I hate skinny people
that eat way more than I do, yet poop 3 times a day.

There's a good analysis and rebuttal of the "eggs as bad as smoking" article today at Mark's Daily Apple:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/are-eggs-really-as-bad-for-your-arteries-as-cigarettes/#more-30830

Yes, I tend to ignore all the studies. I have high cholesterol, and always have. A low fat and vegetarian diet with an hour of exercise per day, copious amounts of beans, apples and oatmeal and a very cranky disposition netted me a reduction of about 5 points to my LDL levels. Ugh.

Everything in moderation. You can give up anything you want but eating less meat and more vegetables/fruits/whole grains is good for everything in general.

Many people have specific health issues that require them to eat or not eat specific foods. They should do that. My brother is 58. He's thin and has cholesterol levels below 150 and no problems with blood pressure. He smokes like a chimney and eats frozen dinners (high in saturated fat and sodium). His drink of choice is instant iced tea with ten (!!) teaspoonsful of sugar. He's had two heart attacks already.

As for eggs being as bad as cigarettes, it's just another hype by the media to grab attention. They love the scare tactics, the shock value. They care little about responsible reporting. It used to be called "yellow journalism", now it's normal.

Now, for "free range". To the commercial egg industry all that means is that a chicken is allowed to go outside. There might be one small door leading to a muddy spot or even a slab of pavement. There doesn't have to be any specific amount, a barn of 10,000 chickens could have a space 6' x 6' and that's still "free range". All "cage free" means is that there are 20,000 hens shoved into a barn so crowded that there's no room to move, let alone scratch in the dirt or stretch wings. But there are no cages. Pah.

Right now Michigan is in the process of fine tuning a law that each commercial chicken raised must be given a specific amount of space. That's a good start. Oh, and they aren't antibiotic free unless they say so, in spite of the "free range" or "cage free" designations.

Look for organic eggs or buy from a local farmer where you see happy hens scratching in the yard, that's my best advice. The industry is deceptive, as most large industries are. They're in it for the money, that's what industry is. It's why I caved in and got chicks to raise into laying hens. They'll be 5 months old about Halloweed, they were hatched on my birthday, so I'll remember, LOL.

Oh, and I eat an egg nearly every day, plus what I use in cooking and baking. My doc said the effect on my cholesterol levels are "statistically insignificant" , plus my homegrown eggs are higher in Vitamin E and Omega 3 than the commercially available ones.

Annie

I take all of these "studies" with a grain of salt. Which is bad for you, too! LOL

Maybe I'll put that salt on a hard boiled egg and call it breakfast!

Linda

The last few times I've had a checkup, my doctor pulls up the Framingham cardiovascular model, plugs in my values, and shows me my odds of developing cardiovascular disease. LDL and HDL cholesterol are both factors in that model, as is systolic blood pressure, age, smoking, and gender. I do not know how precise that model is (is 4% really 3.5%?) or whether it applies to non-Caucasian populations (I doubt there were many Chinese in the town of Framingham MA in the 1940s). But I assume it is a reasonable estimate of how some different factors affect CV risk.

Anyway, serum (LDL and HDL) cholesterol are factors in the model, so I assume they are important. The model is linked below if you want to play around with your own mortality estimates.

The reading I've done on dietary cholesterol vs serum cholesterol - and what I am reading here - suggests that the former is not as big a factor in the latter as we might have once thought, but it is still somewhere between a modest factor (for most of us) and a major factor (for a few of us). Oh, and we don't know what group we fall in, until we try changing our dietary cholesterol intake and seeing what happens.

Logically, then, our behavior via-a-vis eggs should initially be determined by our serum cholesterol level. If it is good (LDL low, HDL high), then egg away freely. If it is not so good, then we should at least try reducing our dietary cholesterol intake, and see what happens. If eschewing eggs and the like does nothing, then it is time to find some other approach. If it does something, then keep it up.

That is what I am doing. My personal experiment - with the blessing of my doctor - is to see if I can control my serum cholesterol and blood pressure without the multiple medications that I used to be on. Just through diet, exercise, and weight. The jury is still out, there are some tantalizing hints of progress but the fat lady remains mute, so we continue pressing on.

It helps that I don't like egg yolks all that much. I enjoy the occasional omelette or eggs benedict, but it is an every couple of weeks thing, and was so long before I became so interested in my lipid panel.

I do eat plenty of egg whites, though. Maybe two dozen eggs a week. Six at a time, hard boiled, discard the yolks and slice the whites, tossed in olive oil and salt. Yummy. Nowadays I try to mix in a bunch of tuna or salmon or other fish - my alternative to taking omega 3 supplements.

Here is a link that might be useful: Framingham model

Gina, shhh. Correlation=causation, intervening variables are for nerds, and does double blind really sound like a good thing?? Drink your Kool aid and go read the latest list of "superfoods" like a good American.

I would like there to be some reliable information about eggs. They're cheap, fast, taste good, and have protein, and I have no trouble going through a dozen a week.

And then, you have these people in Stoccareddo.

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful: Stoccareddo

Thanks, John. According to that link, I have a 1 in 100 chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years. So, other than my blood pressure meds and my cholesterol medication and my gastric reflux and that bad knee, well, it appears I'm all good, LOL.

Annie

I don't feel well when I eat eggs, but my kids do, and I couldn't be happier about that. As Jessica said, they are cheap, fast, and full of protein (free for us because we have had the good fortune to live next door to people who humanely and with TLC raise their own chickens.) In regards to cholesterol- fiber, fiber, fiber, baby- straight from the source (plants.)

You can get free range broilers. At least here. I can't find any info on the internet to back Laceyvail's claim that the free-range chooks are regulated and really free-range. All the articles I've found claim that in the US there is no minimum space requirements for your hens. Here's a link to one article I read but they all seem to say the same.

Here is a link that might be useful: Facts

Lol, dcarch, maybe the good health of the Stoccareddo-ites comes from all that fun inbreeding!!

Islay, here in Michigan there are no current requirements for space per bird no matter what the designation on the package. That's why the current heated discussion on the bill to require a certain amount of space for every commercial bird. The egg producers don't like it at all but everyone else does. For now, everyone else appears to be winning that battle but somehow I think industry will find a way around it or completely ignore it.

Annie

"According to that link, I have a 1 in 100 chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years."

Being female helps greatly, says the model.

Bonnie: The hemoglobin A1C test ("A1C" is it's name) is the standard test that we use to monitor diabetes. It gives a really good idea of average blood sugar over the past 3 months. It also turns out that it correlates nicely with the size of your cholesterol particles. The VAP and NMR tests are also measures of particle size. Cholesterol research is currently putting a lot of emphasis on particle size to help understand why not all "high cholesterol" seems to be bad. VAP and NMR are attempts to commercialize that research and it's not clear that they are good predictors. They sometimes contradict each other or have widely divergent results if performed on different days. I only rarely find a use for them. Even if they are good predictors, what do you do with the result? If your blood sugar is high, you go after that, but otherwise there aren't good interventions. Niacin increases Lp(a), but it's a pretty rough ride. Blood sugar will improve with weight loss, exercise and some carb restriction and cholesterol will follow along.

Mark's Daily Apple Is an interesting site. My hobby is reading fad diet books (if you have't guessed -- I'm an addict). Some of his advice is pretty good, but some is goofy. For instance, he decided oatmeal was not "paleo" because when he eats he feels "spacey". If you read his book, he gives samples of his daily food intake. An active guy, he eats a fairly low calorie count and maintains a low body fat as a result. If you've got diabetes genetics, it's been my observation that you have a much more, um, "assertive" appetite. Yes, you will have better satiety with some increased fat and protein in your diet and the ADA's low fat guidelines are not good, but I've seen the paleo/Atkins/Taubes diabetics gain weight with too much cheese, meat, and nuts. Additionally, he recommends "play" and condemns "chronic cardio". For those of us who are more fond of sedentary pursuits, establishing a habit of some form of physical activity, even if it's tedious and repetitive is better than never using any body part but our right foot.

I've done low carb on and off since the 70s. Had a weight problem since childhood and the only way I ever got weight off and kept it off for any length of time was with lowering my carbs. And, when I do low carb I eat a ton of eggs. I've never had a cholesterol problem, or heart problem(knock wood). I probably eat more veggies and real food when I low carb than when I eat the 'standard diet'. I'm currently not doing LC as I'm on a fixed income and carby stuff is just cheaper right now(local eggs are $1.95/doz, meat is through the roof in this small rural town), but I do it as much as I can. I take those 'good for you/bad for you' reports with a grain of salt. Coffee, chocolate, fish, beef...it's all bad for you one week and good for you the next.

Ah, but John, I'm 57, past the age where my hormones can "protect" me.

That handy dandy little calculator doesn't ask about weight or exercise or whether I'm drunk in the gutter more than twice a week or whether I chew tobacco and eat butter by the stick. There are too many variables unaccounted for for me to rely on it.

Annie

I'm guessing that weight, exercise and butter get themselves into the model via cholesterol and BP . . .

When people get all carried away with it's gonna KILL YOU!!! stuff, I can't help but think of Redd Foxx when he talked about everything you're not supposed to eat. "Ain't you gonna feel like a g*dd*mn fool laying out in a hospital dying from NOTHIN!"

Funny, Cynic! I have a refrigerator magnet that says, "I used to eat a lot of natural foods, until I learned that most people die of natural causes."

Sally

Annie, REJOICE, My Child, I often lay drunk in the gutter,
while munching on a stick of butter, and have a whole
cheek full of 'chew'. AND I'm a hell of a lot older than
you. Trust me, you will live to be 147 years old,
(just think; you'll be in the Guiness Book....YAYYYYY).

You know, lbpod, my Dad used to tell me that his doctor told him to stop drinking, but he knew a whole lot more old drunks than he did old doctors. (grin)

I think all things in moderation. I'm not an "extreme" kind of person, so I don't jump on the bandwagon with the newest fad diet or even an old one.

I dig fence post holes (the old way, not with a machine) and chase livestock when they get out and haul bales of hay and walk fences. I run the rototiller and shovel calf pens and chicken coops.

I don't drink or smoke, and I try to eat somewhat healthy. I have my grassfed beef and homegrown chicken and fresh eggs and organic vegetables from my garden.

So, I think eggs for breakfast probably won't be the thing that kills me. I'll probably get hit by a bus, LOL. Or kicked by a horse or run over by a tractor or something else foolish.

But we all gotta die of something. And, with that cheery thought, I've got to check my refrigerator. I might be out of eggs!

Annie

Hmmmmm.... 'according to studies', non organic veggies
are bad for us. So, using that thought process....
does eating eggs from chickens that were fed non-organic
feed, be bad for us? DANG, why do youse folks always
git me to wonderin bout dis stuff?

Here's a good analysis

Here is a link that might be useful: The Atlantic