Egg Yolks Are Probably Not Linked To Heart Disease

A new Finnish study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that eating high-cholesterol foods does not increase the risk of heart disease--contrary to some previous findings.

"Dietary cholesterol does not translate into high levels of blood cholesterol," said Dr. Luc Djoussé, an associate professor and heart disease researcher at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, via TIME.

During the study, researchers followed over 1,000 healthy men between the ages of 42 and 60-about a third of whom were carries of ApoE4-a gene variant that may increase the risk of both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and heart disease.

Researchers examined the participant's diets by providing them with questionnaires and followed them for about 21 years-during which time, 230 men developed coronary artery disease.

Men in the study consumed about 2,800 milligrams of cholesterol every week, on average. Much of this-or a quarter-came from eating an average of four eggs weekly, according to The New York Times. (There is about 180 milligrams of cholesterol per egg).

Findings revealed no association between cardiovascular disease and total cholesterol or egg consumption in carriers of ApoE4 or non-carriers-even after adjusting for certain control factors, including age, education, body-mass index (BMI), diabetes, hypertension and other characteristics.

"Moderate intake of cholesterol doesn't seem to increase the risk of heart disease, even among those people at higher risk," Jyrki Viranen, an adjunct professor of epidemiology at the University of Eastern Finland, said, according to The New York Times.

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