You might cringe to know that a large egg has 186 milligrams of cholesterol, which is 62% of your daily value. A 2020 study in Nutrients took a deep dive into the relationship between eggs, cholesterol, and high blood pressure in older women. The researchers looked at how many eggs and total cholesterol the women ate at the start of the study. Years later, the women who had more cholesterol in their overall diet were 22% more likely to develop high blood pressure. Those who ate up to seven eggs per week were 14% more likely to have high blood pressure. However, when the researchers statistically adjusted for total cholesterol, eggs didn’t pose a higher risk for blood pressure. In other words, the cholesterol in foods was likely causing the high blood pressure.
Eggs aren’t quite off the hook, according to a 2021 study in the European Journal of Nutrition. Eating more than four eggs a week is linked to a 50% higher risk of overall death, a 75% higher risk of cardiovascular death, and a 52% higher risk of death from cancer compared to eating less than one egg a week. Even eating two to four eggs a week increases your risk of all-cause mortality by 22% and cardiovascular death by 43%. The researchers said the dietary cholesterol from eggs explained more of the association with mortality than people’s blood cholesterol levels.