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Seven or more eggs a week raises risk of death Middle-aged men who ate seven or more eggs a week had a higher risk of earlier death, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. Men with diabetes who ate any eggs at all raised their risk of death during a 20-year period studied, according to the study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study adds to an ever-growing body of evidence, much of it contradictory, about how safe eggs are to eat. It did not examine what about the eggs might affect the risk of death. Men without diabetes could eat up to six eggs a week with no extra risk of death, Dr. Luc Djousse and Dr. J. Michael Gaziano of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School found. "Whereas egg consumption of up to six eggs a week was not associated with the risk of all-cause mortality, consumption of (seven or more) eggs a week was associated with a 23 percent greater risk of death," they wrote. "However, among male physicians with diabetes, any egg consumption was associated with a greater risk of all-cause mortality." Eggs are rich in cholesterol, which in high amounts can clog arteries and raise the risk of heart attack and stroke. One expert on nutrition and heart disease said the study suggests that middle-aged men, for sure, should watch how many eggs they eat. "More egg on our faces? It's really hard to say at this point, but it still seems, if you're a middle-aged male physician and enjoy eggs more than once a day, that having some of the egg left on your face might be better than having it go down your gullet," said Dr. Robert Eckel of the University of Colorado and former president of the American Heart Association. "But, remember: eggs are like all other foods -- they are neither 'good' nor 'bad,' and they can be part of an overall heart-healthy diet," Eckel wrote in a commentary. The Harvard team studied 21,327 men taking part in the much larger Physicians' Health Study, which has been watching doctors since 1981 who have agreed to report regularly on their health and lifestyle habits. Over 20 years, 1,550 of the men had heart attacks, 1,342 had strokes, and more than 5,000 died. "Egg consumption was not associated with heart attack or stroke," the researchers wrote. But the men who ate seven eggs a week or more were 23 percent more likely to have died during the 20-year period. Diabetic men who ate any eggs at all were twice as likely to die in the 20 years. Men who ate the most eggs also were older, fatter, ate more vegetables but less breakfast cereal, and were more likely to drink alcohol, smoke, and less likely to exercise -- all factors that can affect the risk of heart attack and death. Dr. Cinque's comments: Is this report good or bad for egg enthusiasts? It sounds to me like one of those glass half-full or glass half-empty situations. Is is it more significant that those who ate 7 or more eggs per week had an increased risk of death OR that those who ate up to 6 eggs per week had no increased death risk and no association with cardiovascular disease? The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which is a vegan group, cast this study in an entirely negative light, but the Internaional Association of Cholesterol Skeptics could just as easily cast it in a favorable light. But for diabetics, the news was altogether bad, and clearly, they should be avoiding eggs. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Why, for instance, did they not control for weight, smoking, exercise, and other important variables? The bottom line is that eggs continue to be a very controversial food, even though they are highly nutritious. So, it leaves me thinking that if you are going to eat eggs, you need to ration them out carefully and certainly not eat more than 6 a week, which makes them a restricted food. But to my mind, the only unrestricted foods- ones that you can eat freely without a hint of worry- are unrefined plants. Everything else belongs in the worrisome and restricted category, including eggs. E-mail to a friend Previous Article Next Article |
