Does Eating Egg Yolks Increase Arterial Plaque?

[grini]

http://www.westonaprice.org/blogs/cmasterjohn/2012/08/16/does-eating-egg-yolks-increase-arterial-plaque/

Does Eating Egg Yolks Increase Arterial Plaque?

Posted on
August 16, 2012
by Chris Masterjohn
Dr. J. David Spence of Ontario’s Stroke Prevention and Atherosclerosis Research Center and two of his colleagues have just published a study in the journal Atherosclerosis purportedly showing that eating egg yolks is almost as bad for our arteries as smoking cigarettes.
This paper is more like an aggregation of clinical notes than what we would expect from something we’d call a “study.” In 1995, they began measuring total plaque in the carotid arteries of patients who were referred to their vascular prevention clinics. Prior to the year 2000, they gave the patients a particular lifestyle questionnaire that they tell us very little about. In 2000, their clientele changed. After this point, patients came to them on an “urgent” basis because they had just suffered a stroke or a transient ischemic attack. They gave these patients “a more limited set of lifestyle questions,” which they also tell us very little about.
They asked these patients not only to estimate how often they eat eggs, but to remember for how many years they had been eating eggs at a similar frequency over their lifetime. This allowed them to calculate the number of “egg-yolk years” each patient had accumulated. We should find it unsurprising, then, that patients who had accumulated the most “egg-yolk years” not only ate more eggs, but were also older. Here’s a graph I made from the data in Table 2 showing the astonishing fact that people who had been eating more eggs for a longer time had also been alive for a longer time:
Dr. Spence and his colleagues offer us no validation of their questionnaire’s ability to estimate lifelong egg consumption, nor of the ability of recent victims of stroke and transient ischemic attack to accurately recall their dietary habits. It nevertheless seems likely to me that people over the age of 65 had indeed been eating eggs for longer than people under the age of 55, so the questionnaire is unlikely to be entirely without merit.
It may seem obvious that we have a problem here. Arterial plaque accumulates with age. Couldn’t an association between “egg-yolk years” and arterial plaque simply reflect this accumulation with age? The authors solved this little problem by making a statistical adjustment for age. After correcting for age, a greater accumulation of egg-yolk years was associated with a greater amount of plaque.
This raises the question of why they didn’t just take the simpler approach of comparing those who reported eating eggs more frequently to those who reported eating eggs less frequently. Surely the patients could more accurately recall their recent intake of eggs than their lifetime consumption of eggs, particularly if they had simply been asked something like, “how long have you been eating eggs?” The reason for using “egg-yolk years” adjusted for age instead of “eggs per week” can be found in this statement:
The total plaque area among people who consumed 2 or fewer eggs per week (n = 388) was 125 +/- 129.62 mm2, whereas it was 132.26 +/- 142.48 mm2 in those consuming 3 or more eggs per week (n = 603).
If we put this into graphic form and do our own statistical test, we can see that the difference is clearly small and not statistically significant:
The most disappointing thing about this collection of clinical notes, however, is that time itself is never considered a confounder. Are we really supposed to believe that the switch in the year 2000 to “urgent” clientele who had just suffered from transient ischemic attack or stroke makes no difference? Is it not possible that these “urgent” cases tended to have more plaque? And is it not possible that egg consumption was higher after the year 2000 than before? Here’s a graph of changes in Canadian egg consumption over time from this paper, with a few markings I have added:
The changes in this graph are exaggerated because the vertical axis hits a bottom at fourteen rather than zero. Nevertheless, it would appear that Dr. Spence and his colleagues began collecting their clinical notes in 1995 when Canadian egg consumption, estimated from food disappearance data, had reached a bottom. After this point, the egg’s reputation began recovering and consumption increased throughout the time period in which these clinicians collected their data. The “urgent” cases populating this data after 2000 may well have been eating a few more eggs than the less urgent cases that populated the data from 1995-2000. They may have been less likely to recall their diet accurately having just recently suffered from a transient ischemic attack or stroke, and they may have had a tendency to exaggerate the magnitude or duration of their egg consumption if they thought eggs may have been to blame for their medical condition.
I’m going to continue eating eggs, but if this study has made an egg-free convert out of any of you, please let me know why in the comments!

[Laura]

What a load of propaganda derived from seriously flawed studies and corrupt science.

Why did you post it?

[grini]

What a load of propaganda derived from seriously flawed studies and corrupt science.

Why did you post it?

I posted it because the author of this article explains what you just wrote - corrupt science. Or did I get it all wrong? English is not my mother tongue.

[KingTiger]

I have heard this too being broadcasted on Main Stream Media as a credible finding; However, knowing that eating wheat, gluten and general carbohydrates is really the cause (Many thanks to this forum and its research) I knew it was the PTB trying to push something (as in products) or a control of some sort (as in health care related) upon us that is going to be revealed to the public real soon.  Knowledge does truly protect!

[Laura]

Ahhh!  I see!  I got hot about it too fast!  Very sorry!!! One of THOSE days!

[grini]

Ahhh!  I see!  I got hot about it too fast!  Very sorry!!! One of THOSE days!

When I saw your reply I thought "Oh boy, I'm new here and I already made a mistake!?"
Yes, I had the same reaction because I eat 6 eggs every day

[Gonzo]

Interesting update.  The study is now being criticized by the nutritional expert of the journal that published the flawed study.  The critic complains the researchers didn't take into consideration that amount of saturated fat, "which is a proven cause of coronary disease".

This story and the latest twist are being broadly covered by MSM (E.g. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/story/2012/08/17/wdr-egg-yolk-study-question.html?cmp=rss)  Bad science being criticized by more bad science.

Gonzo

Edit: corrected typos

[aelyrsenn]

I saw that too on some internet news site from my country, but the headline didn't include question mark, it was like this : Eating Egg Yolks is as dangerous as smoking! 

[dugdeep]

Mark Sisson did a really great breakdown of this study and all the different ways that it was in error intentionally twisted and manipulated the truth. Worth a read.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/are-eggs-really-as-bad-for-your-arteries-as-cigarettes/

[grini]

I just checked my e-mail and my dad sent me the link to one croatian news portal about this. OH MAN!  I still can't believe why is he even reading this crap in mainstream media, and don't want even try to read the book about LCHF written on croatian that I bought a few months ago. And yes, here and there he gives me advice to not eat so much eggs every day! It's not good for me, you know! Maybe I'm eating eggs so often because there is nothing better in the fridge to eat... bunch of milk and processed meat. Oh Lord, when will I get a job?

[Laura]

I just checked my e-mail and my dad sent me the link to one croatian news portal about this. OH MAN!  I still can't believe why is he even reading this crap in mainstream media, and don't want even try to read the book about LCHF written on croatian that I bought a few months ago. And yes, here and there he gives me advice to not eat so much eggs every day! It's not good for me, you know! Maybe I'm eating eggs so often because there is nothing better in the fridge to eat... bunch of milk and processed meat. Oh Lord, when will I get a job?

You can tell him that all that stuff is true for people who eat a lot of carbs but carbs, themselves, are the killers, not the egg yolks or fat.  I think you can send him a stack of papers linked in the ketogenic diet thread that will convey that.

[grini]

You can tell him that all that stuff is true for people who eat a lot of carbs but carbs, themselves, are the killers, not the egg yolks or fat.  I think you can send him a stack of papers linked in the ketogenic diet thread that will convey that.

Yes, I told him many times about carbs, but he just starts to talk about his blood type, he is AB and he can eat grains etc. (I don't know what blood type I am, but I know I like eggs very much and I can't get enough of them!) Two days ago he was eating his dinner and I was preparing mine, and I started to talk about ketogenic diet. I explained to him what kind of diet it was and for what is good for. He started to talk about a blood type again, and I told him that it heals everyone no matter what blood type person is. And then there was silence, he didn't want to talk about it anymore. He knows only the basics of English, so I think he wouldn't pay much attention to the papers about ketogenic diet. I guess I have to prove it that he is wrong on my own example. Grandma is the only person in the family who is open-minded About a month ago I asked her if she would like to try cream made of lard for the face and body (translated on English it should be called "Lard washed in 9 waters"), I will make it for her and myself. She started to laugh and said "Sure! Why not! " That's why I love her so much

[truth seeker]

Grandma is the only person in the family who is open-minded About a month ago I asked her if she would like to try cream made of lard for the face and body (translated on English it should be called "Lard washed in 9 waters"), I will make it for her and myself. She started to laugh and said "Sure! Why not! " That's why I love her so much

I looked that up and unfortunately nothing came up with a search. Interestingly enough though, I have been thinking along the lines of using lard as either a moisturizer or even a sort of cleanser. If I remember correctly, lard used to be used in soap, so that may be an interesting thing to source if it still exists.

What did come up was "lard face cream". From what I understand, it's just that, lard used to keep the face hydrated. I suppose if it's prepared correctly, it would be okay to use and I may just give that a go. I just want to make sure I don't end up smelling like pork!

[dugdeep]

Grandma is the only person in the family who is open-minded About a month ago I asked her if she would like to try cream made of lard for the face and body (translated on English it should be called "Lard washed in 9 waters"), I will make it for her and myself. She started to laugh and said "Sure! Why not! " That's why I love her so much

I looked that up and unfortunately nothing came up with a search. Interestingly enough though, I have been thinking along the lines of using lard as either a moisturizer or even a sort of cleanser. If I remember correctly, lard used to be used in soap, so that may be an interesting thing to source if it still exists.

What did come up was "lard face cream". From what I understand, it's just that, lard used to keep the face hydrated. I suppose if it's prepared correctly, it would be okay to use and I may just give that a go. I just want to make sure I don't end up smelling like pork!

Funny enough, at the health food store I work at we just got in an anti-inflammatory cream that is in a base of lard mixed with some sort of pine extract. It's a Native American recipe, apparently. I tried a sample and it felt nice on the skin. Surprisingly, it seemed to absorb quite well and didn't remain greasy.

truth seeker, maybe putting a drop or two of some sort of essential oil into the lard would keep you from smelling like pork all day

[aelyrsenn]

I just checked my e-mail and my dad sent me the link to one croatian news portal about this. OH MAN!  I still can't believe why is he even reading this crap in mainstream media, and don't want even try to read the book about LCHF written on croatian that I bought a few months ago. And yes, here and there he gives me advice to not eat so much eggs every day! It's not good for me, you know! Maybe I'm eating eggs so often because there is nothing better in the fridge to eat... bunch of milk and processed meat. Oh Lord, when will I get a job?

I know how you feel...I can't wait to get a job and move out of the house so i can start buying some real food...nothing for me in the fridge till then, just hoping it won't be to late:(