Eggs and type 2 diabetes: Current evidence suggests no cause for concern in the short-term

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide (van Dieren et al. 2010) and therefore nutritional guidelines to prevent and manage this disease and its complications, such as cardiovascular disease, are a priority (Hu 2011). The quantity of egg intake recommended for a person with T2DM has been a hot topic of debate for the past few decades. This is because eggs are naturally a high source of dietary cholesterol, with one large egg containing approximately 200 mg. Despite this, the effect of dietary cholesterol intake on circulating cholesterol levels is small and not clinically significant. A metaanalysis of cholesterol feeding studies, which included both healthy and unhealthy population groups, using a variety of sources of dietary cholesterol (including eggs), showed that for every 100 mg per day increase in dietary cholesterol intake, circulating levels of total cholesterol increased by 0.06 mmol/l, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) increased by 0.008 mmol/l and the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol increased by 0.020 (Weggemans et al. 2001).

Reference

N. R. Fuller, T. P. Markovic, A. Sainsbury,et al. Eggs and type 2 diabetes: Current evidence suggests no cause for concern in the short-term. Nutritiona Bulletin, Volume 42, Issue 1. March 2017. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nbu.2017.42.issue-1/issuetoc…;