In the past, doctors sometimes warned patients to avoid eating too many eggs. However, a new research reveals that it can actually reduce risk of cardiovascular disease- commonly known as heart disease.
Daily egg eaters had an 18% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, which manifests as heart attacks and strokes, compared with adults who avoided eggs, according to the research published Monday in the journal Heart.
The study involved more than 400,000 adult participants in China.
Cardiovascular disease includes heart failure, arrhythmias and heart valve problems in addition to strokes and attacks.
Raised blood pressure, carrying too much weight or obesity, and elevated blood sugar all contribute to the risk of cardiovascular disease, which is triggered by unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, smoking and harmful use of alcohol.
Though eggs contain high-quality protein and other positive nutritional components, they also have high amounts of cholesterol, which was thought might be harmful, explained Canqing Yu, a co-author of the study and an associate professor in the Peking University School of Public Health in Beijing.
Over nearly nine years, a research team tracked this select group. They focused on major coronary events, such as heart attacks and strokes, including hemorrhagic strokes — when a blood vessel bursts in the brain due, usually, to uncontrolled high blood pressure — and ischemic strokes — when a blood vessel feeding the brain becomes blocked, usually by a blood clot.
Analyzing the data, the researchers found that eating about an egg a day related to a lower risk of heart disease compared with not eating eggs.
In fact, participants who ate up to one egg daily had a 26% lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke, which is more common in China than in the United States or other high-income countries.
Additionally, the egg eaters had a 28% lower risk of dying from this type of stroke.
Finally, egg eaters also enjoyed a 12% reduced risk of ischemic heart disease, which is diagnosed in those who show the early signs of gridlocked blood flow to the brain.
Based on the results, Yu said, eating eggs in moderation — less than one a day — is associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular diseases, especially hemorrhagic stroke.
Even more, the new research is “by far the most powerful project to detect such an effect,” he said.
On the downside, the research team collected only “crude information” about egg consumption from participants, and this prevented them from estimating effects “more precisely,” Yu said. “We should [also] be cautious when interpreting our results in a context of different dietary and lifestyle characteristics from China.”
Cardiovascular disease, which takes the lives of 17.7 million people every year, is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.