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Are eggs bad for your cholesterol and heart?

What you hear: “Eating eggs will spike your cholesterol and give you heart disease, so you should avoid them.”

What the studies found

A Nordic review of 38 systematic reviews found trials show eating more eggs may raise total cholesterol and the LDL-to-HDL ratio, though people vary a lot in how they respond. Yet large observational studies mostly don't link moderate egg eating with heart disease: three US cohorts of about 215,000 people found no higher risk with an egg a day, and a pooled analysis of 1.7 million people found each extra daily egg was not linked to heart disease. One 2019 analysis of 29,615 US adults did find each extra half egg a day went with about 6% higher risk of heart disease and stroke and 8% higher death risk, a link that disappeared once total dietary cholesterol was accounted for. These are observed links, not trial results.

Take care: People with diabetes, high LDL or familial hypercholesterolaemia may respond more strongly to dietary cholesterol and should follow their clinician's advice.

What you could do

For most people, up to an egg a day fits a healthy diet; pay more attention to what comes with it, like bacon and butter.

See it in the habit library, with what it means for your own longevity score.

Not medical advice. General information from published studies, not a diagnosis or a treatment plan. Talk with your doctor before starting a supplement or changing a medicine, especially if you are pregnant, take other medicines or have a health condition.

How we judged it

Partly true: Some truth, but oversold as usually said. We judge the claim as it is usually said online, not the habit itself. Trials assign people at random, so they can show cause; observed studies follow people and show a link, not proof. Last checked: October 2026.

The studies, in their own words

1. Virtanen & Larsson, Food Nutr Res 2024

   Overall, current evidence from systematic reviews of randomized clinical trials indicates that higher egg intake may increase serum total cholesterol concentration and the ratio of low-density lipoprotein to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, but with substantial heterogeneity in the response.

2. Drouin-Chartier et al. BMJ 2020

   In the updated meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies (33 risk estimates, 1 720 108 participants, 139 195 cardiovascular disease events), an increase of one egg per day was not associated with cardiovascular disease risk (pooled relative risk 0.98, 95% confidence interval 0.93 to 1.03

3. Zhong et al. JAMA 2019

   Each additional half an egg consumed per day was significantly associated with higher risk of incident CVD (adjusted HR, 1.06 [95% CI, 1.03-1.10]; adjusted ARD, 1.11% [95% CI, 0.32%-1.89%]) and all-cause mortality (adjusted HR, 1.08 [95% CI, 1.04-1.11]

4. Zhong et al. JAMA 2019

   The associations between egg consumption and incident CVD (adjusted HR, 0.99 [95% CI, 0.93-1.05]; adjusted ARD, -0.47% [95% CI, -1.83% to 0.88%]) and all-cause mortality (adjusted HR, 1.03 [95% CI, 0.97-1.09]; adjusted ARD, 0.71% [95% CI, -0.85% to 2.28%]) were no longer significant after adjusting for dietary cholesterol consumption.

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