The debate has raged for seemingly a generation regarding the healthfulness of eggs. Google “eggs and diet” and you’ll see “about 342,000,000 results.” Add to the mix a study published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed a surprising finding: neither egg nor dietary cholesterol intake was associated with higher incidence of stroke.

The study started in 1984-1989 with baseline examinations of 1950 men aged between 42 and 60. The men’s dietary intakes were assessed and the data for the apoE phenotype (a marker indicating greater susceptibility to effects of cholesterol) was available for slightly more than half the men. The incidence of stroke was then recorded over the follow-up period (21.2 +/-7.2 years). The rate of consumption of eggs and dietary cholesterol varied among the study group, but the incidence of stroke, either ischemic or hemorrhagic, did not correlate with these rates. Even when accounting for the apoE phenotype.

The study demonstrates in part that concern about one or another element of our diets is not meant to apply universally. It is really worth stepping past the hype of the headlines to make our own individual lifestyle and health choices, inasmuch of a capacity as we can.

Lewis Black may have best expressed the frustration between competing theories of eggs and health; or he may have just been the funniest. Armed as we are with evidence of benefits and drawbacks of eggs in our diet, our best and healthiest option continues to be to simply navigate our own health interests so they remain compatible with our diet. I for one am already looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

Read the study [here](https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ajcn/nqz066/5490306).