New Dietary Guidance to Say Eggs No Longer Threaten Heart Health

13 Feb 2015 --- New dietary advice is set to bring the egg back into favour. Reports in US press this week suggest that the US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is about to publish guidance that contradicts past cholesterol advice.

The new guidance, expected to be published in the next few weeks, will downgrade the egg’s influence over heart conditions by minimising its risk of encouraging high cholesterol, traditionally blamed for atherosclerosis, a blocking of the arteries by plaque that can lead to a heart attack.

Currently, the most recent set of guidelines recommends consuming less than 300mg of dietary cholesterol a day, equivalent to one egg, but the advisory panel has said in its preliminary recommendations that high levels of cholesterol are no longer a threat to heart health. It is now thought that the total amount of fat, and the proportion of different types of fat in the bloodstream are a more important indicator of heart disease. Saturated fat is still thought to be the key cause of heart disease, although previous guidelines here are also being reviewed.

The guidelines are expected to be published in the coming weeks. It is thought that revised guidelines for salt and sugar will also feature.