Eggs are among the most nutritious foods on the planet. In fact, a whole egg contains all the nutrients needed to turn a single cell into an entire chicken. However, eggs have gotten a bad reputation because the yolks are high in cholesterol. But cholesterol isn't that simple. The more of it you eat, the less your body produces. For this reason, eating a few eggs won’t cause a high rise in cholesterol levels. This article explains this process and discusses how many eggs you can safely eat per day. Share on Pinterest

How Your Body Regulates Cholesterol Levels Cholesterol is often viewed as negative. This is because some studies have linked high levels of cholesterol with heart disease and early death. However, the evidence is mixed (1, 2). The truth is that cholesterol plays a very important function in your body. It’s a structural molecule that is essential to every cell membrane. It is also used to make steroid hormones like testosterone, estrogen and cortisol. Given how important cholesterol is, your body has evolved elaborate ways to ensure that it always has enough available. Because getting cholesterol from the diet isn't always an option, your liver produces enough to meet your body’s needs. But when you eat a lot of cholesterol-rich foods, your liver starts producing less to keep cholesterol levels from becoming excessively high (3, ). Therefore, the total amount of cholesterol in your body changes only very little, if at all. What changes is its source — your diet or your liver (5, 6). Nevertheless, you should still avoid eating excessive amounts of cholesterol if your blood levels are raised. A high intake may cause a moderate increase in blood cholesterol levels (7, 8, 9). Summary Your liver produces large amounts of cholesterol. When you eat cholesterol-rich foods such as eggs, your liver compensates by producing less.

Eggs and Heart Disease Multiple studies have examined egg consumption and heart disease risk. Many of these are observational studies in which large groups of people are followed for many years. Researchers then use statistical methods to determine whether certain habits — like diet, smoking or exercise — are linked to either a decreased or increased risk of certain diseases. These studies — some of which include hundreds of thousands of people — consistently show that people who eat whole eggs are no more likely to develop heart disease than those who don’t. Some of the studies even show a reduced risk of stroke ( , 30, 31). However, this research suggests that people who have type 2 diabetes and eat a lot of eggs have an increased risk of heart disease (32). One controlled study in people with type 2 diabetes found that eating two eggs per day, six days a week, for three months did not significantly affect blood lipid levels (33). Health effects may also depend on the rest of your diet. On a low-carb diet — which is the best diet for people with diabetes — eggs lead to improvements in heart disease risk factors (34, 35). Summary Many observational studies show that people who eat eggs don't have an increased risk of heart disease, but some studies show an increased risk for people with type 2 diabetes.