Nobody really knows whether or not eating eggs is safe. We have studies showing that people who eat more than five eggs a week have increased risk for diabetes and breast and colon cancer, but the studies show only that eating eggs is associated with these conditions. We have no studies that show that eggs cause disease in humans.
Researchers recently reviewed almost 2,000 studies on eggs and health. They threw out more than 1,100 of the studies because they could not obtain the full text of the articles. From the remaining studies, they selected only those that followed people over the years and compared what happened to those who ate eggs with those who didn’t. They ended up with eight studies that were dependable and met their criteria. These eight studies covered 219,979 participants from various countries, of whom 8,911 developed diabetes (defined as fasting glucose >126 mg/dL, non-fasting glucose >200 mg/dL, or hemoglobin A1c >6.5 percent). Studies on non-Americans showed no association between eating eggs and diabetes, but the studies done on North Americans showed a 39 percent increased risk of developing diabetes among subjects with high egg consumption (more than three eggs per week) compared to those with low egg consumption.
Eggs and Heart Attacks
Another review covering 17 studies failed to show increased risk for heart attacks in people who ate eggs. However, regular egg eaters who were diabetic suffered 150 percent more heart attacks than diabetics who ate eggs sporadically. Ultrasound tests showed that people who ate more than three eggs a week had increased plaques in their arteries compared to those who ate two or fewer eggs a week, even after other risks such as smoking were ruled out. The more eggs a person ate, the greater the formation of plaques. The same authors showed that smoking increased plaque formation in the same way.
