The British Egg Information Service (BEIS) has been set up to answer queries about eggs from the general public, education sector and the media. BEIS has collated some research and abstracts from a few key papers for your reference.

Plasma lipid and lipoprotein responses to dietary fat and cholesterol: a meta-analysis

A Prospective Study of Egg Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Men and Women

Dietary lipids and blood cholesterol: quantitative meta-analysis of metabolic ward studies

Effect of dietary cholesterol on plasma cholesterol concentration in subjects following reduced fat, high fibre diet

Plasma lipid and lipoprotein responses to dietary fat and cholesterol: a meta-analysis
Wanda H Howell, Donald J McNamara, Mark A Tosca, Bruce T Smith, and John A Gaines.

ABSTRACT
Quantitative relations between dietary fat and cholesterol and plasma lipid concentrations have been the subject of much study and controversy during the past 40 years. Previous meta-analyses have focused on the most tightly controlled, highest-quality experiments. To test whether the findings of these investigations are generalizable to broader experimental settings and to the design of practical dietary education investigations, data from 224 published studies on 8143 subjects in 366 independent groups including 878 diet-blood lipid comparisons were subjected to weighed multiple-regression analysis. Inclusion criteria specified intervention studies published in English between 1966 and 1994 reporting quantitative data on charges in dietary cholesterol and fat and corresponding changes in serum cholesterol, triacylglycerol, and lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations. Regression models are reported for serum total cholesterol, triacyglycerol, and low-density-high-density, and very-low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, with multiple correlations of 0.74, 0.65, 0.41, 0.14, and 0.34, respectively. Interactions of dietary factors, initial dietary intakes and serum concentrations, and study and subject characteristics had little effect on these models. Predictions indicated that compliance with current dietary recommendations (30% of energy of fat, <10% from saturated fat, and <300 mg cholesterol/d) will reduce plasma total and low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol concentrations by = 5% compared with amounts associated with the average American diet.

Am J Clin Nutr 1997;65:1747-64.

A Prospective Study of Egg Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Men and Women.
Frank B. Hu, MD, Meir J. Stampfer, MD, Eric B. Rimm, ScD, JoAnn E. Manson, MD, Alberto, Ascherio, MD, Graham A. Colditz, MD, Bernard A. Rosner, PhD, Donna Spiegelman, ScD, Frank E. Speizer, MD, Frank M. Sacks, MD, Charles H. Hennekens, MD, Walter C. Willett, MD.

ABSTRACT

Context Reduction in egg consumption has been widely recommended to lower blood cholesterol levels and prevent coronary heart disease (CHD). Epidemiology studies on egg consumption and risk of CHD are sparse.

Design and Setting Two prospective cohort studies, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-1994) and the Nurses’ Health Study (1980 — 1994).

Main Outcome Measures Incident nonfatal myocardial infraction, fatal CHD, and stroke corresponding to daily egg consumption as determined by a food-frequency questionnaire.

Results We documented 866 incident cases of CHD and 258 incident cases of stroke in men during 8 years of follow-up and 939 incident cases of CHD and 563 incident cases of stoke in women during 14 years of follow-up. After adjustment for age, smoking, and other potential CHD risk factors, we found no evidence of an overall significant association between egg consumption and risk of CHD or stroke in either men or women. The relative risks (RRs) of CHD across categories of intake were less than 1 per week (1.0), 1 per week (1.06), 2 to 4 per week (1.12), 5 to 6 per week (0.90), and ≥ 1 per day (1.08) (P for trend - .75) for men; and less than 1 per week (1.0), 1 per week (0.82), 2 to 4 per week (0.99), 5 to 6 per week (0.95), and ≥1 per day (0.82) (P for trend = .95) for women.
In subgroup analyses, higher egg consumption appeared to be associated with increased risk of CHD only among diabetic subjects (RR of CHD comparing more than 1 egg per day with less than 1 egg per week among diabetic men, 2.02(95% confidence interval, 1.05-3.87; P for trend = 0.4), and among diabetic women, 1.49 (0.88 — 2.52; P for trend = 0.08).

jama. 1999;281:1387-1394 www.jama.com

Dietary lipids and blood cholesterol: quantitative meta-analysis of metabolic ward studies
Robert Clarke, Chris Frost, Rory Collins, Paul Appleby, Richard Peto

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the quantitative importance of dietary fatty acids and dietary cholesterol to blood concentrations of total, low density lipoprotein and high density lipoprotein cholesterol. Design: Meta-analysis of metabolic ward studies of solid food diets in healthy volunteers. Subjects: 395 dietary experiments (median duration 1 month) among 129 groups of individuals. Results: Isocaloric replacement of saturated fats by complex carbohydrates for 10% of dietary calories resulted in blood total cholesterol falling by 0.52 (SE 0.03) mmol/l and low density lipoprotein cholesterol falling by 0.36 (0.05) mmol/l. Isocaloric replacement of complex carbohydrates by polyunsaturated fats for 5% of dietary calories resulted in total cholesterol falling by a further 0.13 (0.02) mmol/l and low density lipoprotein cholesterol falling by 0.11 (0.02)mmol/l. Similar replacement of carbohydrates by monounsaturated fats produced no significant effect on total or low density lipoprotein cholesterol.
Avoiding 200 mg/day dietary cholesterol further decreased blood total cholesterol by 0.13 (0.02) mmol/l and low density lipoprotein cholesterol by 0.10 (0.02) mmol/l.

Conclusions: In typical British diets replacing 60% of saturated fats by other fats and avoiding 60% of dietary cholesterol would reduce blood total cholesterol by about 0.8 mmol/l (that is, by 10-15%), with four fifths of this reduction being in low density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Effect of dietary cholesterol on plasma cholesterol concentration in subjects following reduced fat, high fibre diet.
Jacqueline Edington, Moira Geekie, Robin Carter, Lisa Benfield, Karen Fisher, Madeleine Ball, Jim Mann.

ABSTRACT

One hundred and sixty eight subjects participated in a randomised crossover study to determine whether halving or doubling the present dietary cholesterol intake from eggs had any influence on blood cholesterol concentration in people following current dietary recommendations. During the first eight weeks all participants were advised to follow a reduced fat diet (26% total energy for hyperlipidaemic patients, 35% total energy for normolipidaemic volunteers) with an increased ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids. This background diet was continued throughout the 16 week experimental period, during which participants ate either two or seven eggs a week. A small but significant increase in total cholesterol was seen after four weeks in the group eating seven eggs a week compared with that in the group eating two eggs a week, but this was no longer apparent after eight weeks.

Previous studies suggesting that dietary cholesterol has a greater effect on the serum cholesterol concentration either have been carried out against a background of a higher fat intake or have contrasted extreme cholesterol intake. A further reduction in dietary cholesterol seems to be unnecessary in those people who have already reduced their intake of saturated fat and increased the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids and fibre rich carbohydrate.