Can Eggs Be Part of a Heart-Healthy Diet?
If you’re concerned about your LDL (bad) cholesterol — a key culprit in artery-clogging plaque — it seems intuitive to avoid cholesterol-rich foods like eggs. In fact, that’s what the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended for decades, dating back to the 1960s.
But in 2015 — 10 years ago — the guidelines removed all mention of limiting dietary cholesterol, as our understanding of this topic has evolved. The guidelines now acknowledge that too much saturated fat in the diet plays a far bigger role in raising blood cholesterol levels. “It’s an important message that still hasn’t fully permeated the public consciousness,” says Kathy McManus, director of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. A recent clinical trial reaffirmed the message (see “Unscrambling the effect of eggs on LDL cholesterol”). The results showed that eating two eggs per day didn’t raise LDL levels — as long as people stuck to a diet low in saturated fat.
Excerpted from Harvard Health Publishing
