Eat more eggs

The headlines are once again filled with advice to reduce egg and cholesterol consumption based on a study that found an association of egg and cholesterol consumption with increased risk for cardiovascular events. Sounds scary and persuasive, doesn’t it? After all, nearly 30,000 people were tracked over 17 years and the authors authoritatively declare that this proves that eggs and cholesterol are risk factors for heart disease. There are several problems with this assessment. It is emblematic of the studies that confuse people, yield wildly conflicting conclusions, are used to craft absurd and ineffective dietary guidelines, and provide tantalizing headlines for media. And it is virtually all untrue. Problems: 1) This is an observational study, meaning people are asked a few questions, then followed for many years, i.e., they are observed. Over and over again, observational studies that do not involve any sort of intervention (i.e., people purposefully advised to eat, say, 3 eggs per day vs. people advised to eat no eggs, as would be done in a real clinical study—much more difficult and costly to conduct) cannot be used to generate cause-effect relationships. See this Undoctored Blog post about the fictions generated by such observational studies. 4 times out of 5, the conclusions drawn by observational studies are disproven by prospective randomized clinical trials, i.e., the real way to prove or disprove a cause-effect relationship. Or, stated differently, 80%...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: News & Updates cholesterol eggs grain-free saturated fat undoctored wheat belly Source Type: blogs