Regular consumption of eggs does not affect carotid plaque area or risk of acute myocardial infarction in Finnish men

The research article recently published by Spence et al. [1] reported increased carotid plaque area in individuals consuming 3 or more eggs per week. Based on their findings, the authors suggested that persons at risk of cardiovascular diseases should avoid regular consumption of egg yolk. The article also discussed the effects of smoking on cardiovascular health. In the public media, the study gained immediate publicity worldwide, and the results were taken even as evidence for consumption of eggs being equally dangerous with smoking to one's cardiovascular health [2].

Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death in Finland. Today, Finnish people consume on average 9.8kg of eggs per year, equivalent to weekly consumption of 3.4 eggs, which is conmparable with other high-income countries. We used the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD) population to investigate the associations of regular egg consumption, assessd with 4-day food recording, and smoking with carotid atherosclerosis and the risk of incident acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

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