Eggs Do Not Cause Heart Attacks

Eggs have not been shown to increase risk for heart attacks, according to an an extensive review of the world's scientific literature in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (July-August 2009). For example, the Physician's Health Study followed doctors for 20 years and showed no association between eating eggs and heart attacks or strokes. However, the doctors who ate lots of eggs did die earlier than those who avoided eggs, possibly because they also ate more bacon, sausage and butter.

The concern that eating eggs can cause heart attacks comes from the fact that eggs are one of the most concentrated sources of dietary cholesterol. Indeed, adding one egg per day can raise blood cholesterol levels by one to three percent. However, virtually all large population studies show no association between eating eggs and blood cholesterol levels. In fact, the Framingham Heart Study and NHANES study found that high-egg eaters had lower cholesterol levels than very-low eggs eaters.
Journal references on all of the studies mentioned in this article

Current opinion is that some people have their blood cholesterol levels raised by eating eggs, while others do not. Indeed, 70 percent of Americans will not have their cholesterol levels affected by eating eggs. Furthermore, those who did have their cholesterol levels raised by eating eggs, had rises in both their good HDL and bad LDL cholesterol levels and also had higher large particle cholesterol that prevents heart attacks. Both rises in the good HDL cholesterol and cholesterol particle size help to prevent heart attacks.

I have started to eat eggs again after avoiding them for more than forty years. I continue to load my plate with lots of vegetables and fruits, and eat reasonable amounts of fish. I avoid all meat from mammals. I avoid all refined carbohydrates except during and immediately after exercise. My recommended diet