Egg Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

Due to their cholesterol content, limiting egg intake has been widely recommended for prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, recent reports by the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Committee and AHA/ACC suggest that there is insufficient evidence that dietary cholesterol is appreciably associated with blood cholesterol. In addition, the literature on the association with type 2 diabetes (T2D) is inconsistent.

These analyses aim to determine the association between egg intake and the risk of CVD and T2D in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), the Nurses’ Health II Study (NHSII), Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) and the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study (AARP), and conduct a meta-analyses.

Egg intake was assessed via validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires. Cox proportional hazard models, adjusted for age, lifestyle and dietary factors, were used to estimate relative risks (HR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). We observed 12,832 and 16,570 cases of incident CVD and T2D in NHS, NHSII and HPFS, and 11,268 CVD mortality cases in AARP. An increase of one egg per day was not associated with risk of CVD in NHS, NHSII and HPFS (HR: 1.04, 95% CI: (0.96, 1.13)). In the AARP study an increase of one egg per day was associated with an increased risk of CVD mortality (HR: 1.13, 95% CI: (1.05, 1.20)) and, an increased risk of CVD mortality among diabetics (HR: 1.25, 95%CI: (1.11, 1.41)). One egg per day was associated with an increased risk of CVD (HR: 1.05, 95% CI: (1.01, 1.09)) in a meta-analysis of the current results and previously published studies. We also saw an increased risk of CVD among diabetics (HR: 1.24, 95% CI: (1.12, 1.37)). We observed an increased risk of T2D with an increase of one egg per day (HR: 1.09, 95% CI: (1.01, 1.18)) in NHS, NHSII and HPFS, and in the meta-analysis (HR: 1.13, 95% CI: (1.07, 1.19)).

Although there does not seem to be a significant association between egg intake and risk of CVD or T2D in healthy individuals, people at risk for CVD or T2D and those who currently have T2D may want to limit egg intake.