PediatricDigest: Latest from Food Politics: Industry-funded study of the week: Eggs

By Marion Nestle

October 06 2025

Industry-funded study of the week: Eggs

I learned about this one from Women’s Health: New Study Confirms What We’ve Known About Eggs’ Health Impacts All Along. Translation: Saturated fat raises blood cholesterol levels more than does dietary cholesterol. Guess who paid for it!

The study: Impact of dietary cholesterol from eggs and saturated fat on LDL cholesterol levels: a randomized cross-over study. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Volume 122, Issue 1, July 2025, Pages 83-91 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2025.05.001.

Background: “Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a leading cause of death. Although dietary cholesterol from eggs has been a focus of dietary guidelines, recent evidence suggests that saturated fat has a greater impact on LDL cholesterol.”

Objectives: “This study examined the independent effects of dietary cholesterol and saturated fat on LDL concentrations.”

Methods: Participants were assigned to 3 isocaloric diets for 5 wk each:

(1) high-cholesterol (600 mg/d), low-saturated fat (6%) including 2 eggs/d (EGG);

(2) low-cholesterol (300 mg/d), high-saturated fat (12%) without eggs (EGG-FREE); and

(3) high-cholesterol (600 mg/d), high-saturated fat (12%) control diet (CON) including 1 egg/wk.

Results: Compared with CON, EGG but not EGG-FREE reduced LDL cholesterol. Across all diets, saturated fat intake was positively correlated with LDL cholesterol, whereas dietary cholesterol was not.

Conclusions: “Saturated fat, not dietary cholesterol, elevates LDL cholesterol. Compared with consuming a high-saturated fat diet with only 1 egg/wk, consuming 2 eggs daily as part of a low-saturated fat diet lowers LDL concentrations, which may reduce CVD risk.”

Funding: “This work was funded by the Egg Nutrition Center, a division of the American Egg Board. This funding source had no role in the design of this study, and no role in the analysis or interpretation of the data or writing of the manuscript.”

Conflict of interest: Three of six authors report financial support from the Egg Nutrition Center.

Comment

We know that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol levels. Even so, it is very much to the interest of the Egg Nutrition Center to convince the world that eggs, the single greatest source of dietary cholesterol, (a) do not raise blood cholesterol levels, but also (b) actually reduce LDL and, therefore, heart disease risk.

Once again, industry-funded studies tend to produce results favorable to the sponsor’s interest.

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