Contrary to popular belief, egg intake may not be that harmful for your heart after all. Egg yolk is high in cholesterol, but if a recent advisory is to be believed, adding eating one egg a day is not associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
A high cholesterol diet can wreak havoc on your heart health. Excess cholesterol in blood may lead to formation of thick and hard deposits in arteries, which may later result in stroke.
Focusing on heart-healthy diets rich in polyunsaturated fats and reducing dietary cholesterol is recommended to keep your arteries healthy and prevent clogging.
"Saturated fats -- mostly found in animal products such as meat and full fat dairy, as well as tropical oils -- should be replaced with polyunsaturated fats like corn, canola or soybean oils," said Jo Ann S. Carson from UT Southwestern Medical Center in the US.
"Foods high in added sugars and sodium (salt) should be limited," Carson said.
The meta-analysis included randomised, controlled, dietary intervention trials designed to prove cause and effect. The study was published in the journal Circulation. The findings revealed that there is a dose-dependent relation between dietary cholesterol and higher levels of artery-clogging LDL when the range of dietary cholesterol tested was beyond that normally eaten.
As per the advisory, in general, egg intake did not show any significant association with the risk of cardiovascular disease in the studies that were examined. The researchers said that one may consider eating a whole egg (or its equivalent such as 3 ounces of shrimp) daily as part of a heart-healthy diet for healthy individuals.
"Consideration of the relationship between dietary cholesterol and CVD risk can't ignore two aspects of diet. First, most foods contributing cholesterol to the US diet are usually high in saturated fat, which is strongly linked to an increased risk of too much LDL," Carson said.
"Second, we know from an enormous body of scientific studies that heart-healthy dietary patterns, such as Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets are inherently low in cholesterol," Carson said.
(With inputs IANS )
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