Chinese study provides possible link between eating eggs, preventing heart disease

Chinese researchers recently published a study indicating that moderate egg consumption can help boost heart health. 

According to Science Daily, a 2018 study by Heart journal followed roughly 500,000 Chinese adults. It found that individuals, who ate about one egg every day, had a notably lower risk of heart disease and stroke than those who ate eggs less frequently. 

In this study, author Lang Pan of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Peking University in Beijing, and Pan's team performed a population-based investigation to further comprehend the association between egg intake and cardiovascular health markers in the blood.

"Few studies have looked at the role that plasma cholesterol metabolism plays in the association between egg consumption and the risk of cardiovascular diseases, so we wanted to help address this gap," Pan said, according to Science Daily. 

The study included 4,778 participants from the China Kadoorie Biobank, of whom 3,401 had cardiovascular disease, and 1,377 did not. Researchers measured metabolites in plasma samples taken from the participants' blood and found that individuals who ate a moderate amount of eggs had higher levels of a protein in their blood called apolipoprotein A1. 

They also had more large high-density lipoprotein (HDL) molecules in their blood, which assist in clearing cholesterol from the blood vessels. This lowers the likelihood of blockages that can result in heart attacks or stroke. 

In contrast, researchers found that people who consumed fewer eggs had lower levels of beneficial metabolites and higher levels of harmful ones in their blood, in comparison to those who consumed eggs more frequently.

"Together, our results provide a potential explanation for how eating a moderate amount of eggs can help protect against heart disease," states author Canqing Yu, associate professor at Peking University. 

Nonetheless, Yu emphasizes the need for additional research to verify the causal roles that lipid metabolites play in the connection between egg consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Furthermore, the senior author of the study, Liming Li, Boya Distinguished Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Peking University, suggests these findings may have implications for Chinese national dietary guidelines. The current guidelines advise eating one egg per day, but the average consumption is lower than this. 

Thus, the researchers' work emphasizes the requirement for more methods to encourage moderate egg consumption among the population to decrease the overall risk of cardiovascular disease.