Eggs lower risk of cardiovascular disease-related death

For relatively healthy adults aged 70 or over, Australian research has found that regular egg consumption is associated with a 29% lower risk of cardiovascular disease-related death. For the study, 8756 older adults self-reported the frequency of their total intake. Consuming eggs 1–6 times per week was associated with a 15% lower risk of all-cause mortality (death from any cause) and 29% lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality for relatively healthy adults aged 70 and over — compared with those older adults who rarely or never eat eggs.

“Eggs are a nutrient-dense food, they are a rich source of protein and a good source of essential nutrients, such as B vitamins, folate, unsaturated fatty acids, fat-soluble vitamins (E, D, A and K), choline, and numerous minerals and trace elements,” lead author Holly Wild from Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine said. “Eggs are also an accessible source of protein and nutrition in older adults, with research suggesting that they are the preferred source of protein for older adults who might be experiencing age-related physical and sensory decline.”

The current Australian Dietary Guidelines and the American Heart Association (AHA) recommend adults with normal cholesterol can eat up to seven eggs per week — the AHA supporting up to two eggs per day for older adults with normal cholesterol. “Previous research has observed a higher risk of mortality with egg consumption for those who have high cholesterol. For this reason, we also explored the association between egg consumption and mortality in people with and without dyslipidemia (clinically diagnosed high cholesterol),” Wild said.

“We found a 27% lower risk of CVD-related death for participants with dyslipidemia who consumed eggs weekly, compared to their counterparts that consumed eggs rarely or never, suggesting that in this study cohort, the presence of dyslipidemia does not influence the risk associated with egg consumption,” Wild said. “Our results suggest that eating up to six eggs a week may reduce the risk of death from all causes and cardiovascular related diseases in older adults. These findings may be beneficial in the development of evidence-based dietary guidelines for older adults.”

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‘Egg consumption and mortality: a prospective cohort study of Australian community-dwelling older adults’, a 2025 paper on this research, has been published open access in Nutrients and you can read it at doi.org/10.3390/nu17020323.

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