A new study published in the May 21 issue of the British Medical Journal Heart shows that eating an egg a day on average for healthy adults may help reduce the risks of cardiovascular disease compared to not eating or eating fewer eggs.

    All along, some people think that the high cholesterol content of eggs will increase the risk of coronary heart disease or stroke, and they are afraid to eat eggs. In fact, eggs also contain high-quality proteins, vitamins, and bioactive substances such as phospholipids and carotenoids.

    In order to study the impact of eating eggs on health, researchers in China and the United Kingdom used data collected from the "China Chronic Disease Prospective Research Project," which is still ongoing, and studied adults aged 30 to 79 years who were recruited 2004 to 2008. The researchers selected data from approximately 460,000 people who did not have a history of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, and kept track of their frequency of eating eggs as well as morbidity and mortality.

    A preliminary analysis found that people who eat one egg each day have a 26% lower risk of developing hemorrhagic stroke (cerebral hemorrhage) than those who do not eat or rarely eat eggs, and a 18% reduction in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

    The researchers said that this shows that the amount of eggs eaten is significantly associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, which provides a scientific basis for recommending dietary guidelines for the intake of eggs by healthy adults. However, the researchers also stress that this study is an observational study, and therefore cannot draw a clear conclusion of cause and effect.