Do eggs raise our cholesterol? Why are eggs, cholesterol and heart disease so controversial? A look at the evidence and sources of confusion on eggs, dietary and blood cholesterol. A lot of you asked about eggs and cholesterol. There’s a lot of confusion around eggs so let's focus on whether eggs raise blood cholesterol. Eggs have a lot of cholesterol but does that mean eating them raises my cholesterol levels? College students ate a large egg every day for three weeks and ended up with higher LDL-cholesterol, that’s the ‘bad’ cholesterol. Maybe they ate something else that raised their cholesterol? Can we give people eggs without them even knowing it? Scientists gave people egg or egg substitute (four times less cholesterol). When people start off with eggs their blood cholesterol level shoots up, switch them to the substitute, their cholesterol drops. If we start them off with the egg substitute cholesterol goes down a bit from baseline, switch to real eggs, cholesterol shoots up (and volunteers didn’t know when they were eating egg) Meta-analyses confirm eating cholesterol tends to raise our blood cholesterol levels. But the effect of food on our cholesterol level depends on context. If your cholesterol levels are low, the more cholesterol you eat, everything else being equal, the higher your blood cholesterol level will tend to go. But as you get to higher blood levels, the effect peters out. Let’s say i want to prove that eggs don’t affect blood cholesterol levels. How can I do the experiment to get that result? 1) Take someone who already eats a lot of cholesterol and has high blood cholesterol, and ask if adding a little bit more in their diet makes a difference? Probably not 2) compare eggs to something that also raises cholesterol. Like red meat or butter (high in saturated fat). My cholesterol level is affected by the cholesterol I eat, but also saturated fat, unsaturated fats, fiber etc. 3) acknowledge that LDL-cholesterol goes up with eggs but argue that’s fine because HDL-Cholesterol also goes up. if you saw our video on LDL and HDL you may remember raising HDL-cholesterol doesn’t affect heart disease risk so this argument is not compelling The egg industry funds many of the studies. So eggs raise our cholesterol levels in general. Is it okay to eat eggs or not? Example A: good health, great cholesterol levels, eats an egg here and there because he likes it. B: lipids are out of whack, high cholesterol, eats five eggs a day because he thinks he “needs the protein”. So are eggs good or bad? Eggs aren’t necessary but it’s also not true that if your diet includes some eggs it’s automatically unhealthy. I don’t eat eggs personally but at the end of the day it’s less about specific foods and more about the overall dietary pattern. A diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol will raise your cholesterol, with or without eggs, and a diet high in fiber and unsaturated plant fats will have the opposite effect, even if you sometimes eat eggs. People often ask about Egg whites. In all likelihood they won’t raise your blood cholesterol as much (they lack the fat and cholesterol fraction). But when people ask about egg whites it’s often rooted in the notion that we need massive amounts of protein from specific foods like eggs. So if you eat egg whites here and there because you enjoy them and you’re generally healthy I don’t see a problem but if you’re slamming egg whites as a staple source of protein because you’re stressing out about getting enough protein, chances are you don’t need to. our society’s protein fixation is not conducive to health. In this video we covered LDL, HDL and what they mean and this one goes over the best foods your cholesterol. Connect with me: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrGilCarvalho/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/NutritionMadeS3 Animations: Even Topland @toplandmedia References: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673684921688 https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-abstract/34/10/2092/4693041 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2125600/ http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.549.6029&rep=rep1&type=pdf https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/9/2/89/htm https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1559827619892198 https://www.axios.com/eggs-cholesterol-funding-study-1e19bcc8-f0b7-478d-870e-54302b8fdd37.html Disclaimer: The contents of this video are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor to replace medical care. The information presented herein is accurate and conforms to the available scientific evidence to the best of the author's knowledge as of the time of posting. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions regarding any medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of information contained in Nutrition Made Simple!. #NutritionMadeSimple #GilCarvalho