3 egg yolks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A recent research study has claimed that eating egg yolks is almost as bad for health as smoking. In this shocking turn of events researchers realized that one of America’s favorite breakfast foods is actually bad for health.

Lead researcher Dr. David Spence, from the University of Western Ontario, has come up with some prudent results for our day and age. In the article

“Spence added the effect of egg yolk consumption over time on increasing the amount of plaque in the arteries was independent of sex, cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking, body mass index and diabetes.”

Well, that looks like a smoking gun to me, but is that the whole story? There are doctors who say it’s not.

Dr. Jonny Bowden thinks this study is totally invalid. You can read his article to find out why, but the main point is it’s only a correlation, not causation. He also says it’s totally contrary to previous scientific study from Harvard. However from where I’m sitting that previous research seems to suggest  literally states that

“These findings suggest that consumption of up to 1 egg per day is unlikely to have substantial overall impact on the risk of CHD or stroke among healthy men and women. The apparent increased risk of CHD associated with higher egg consumption among diabetic participants warrants further research”

If the findings only “suggest” a conclusion and one small group of scientists think something “is unlikely” that sounds pretty inconclusive to me. In addition to those conclusions sounding wishy washy, the study wasn’t looking at egg yolks. It’s focus was whole eggs. An excellent article written on the Harvard School of Public Health Website (which is also who did the original study) notes that this study does not show a correlation between eggs and Coronary Heart Disease (CDH), but notes that too few of the women involved in the study ate more than an egg a day to determine anything regarding higher egg intakes. The article also points out that the nutrients present in whole eggs are beneficial to  health and may be counteracting any negative effects the eggs may have. Not only that but

“…eggs can take the place of other breakfast foods that have adverse effects, such as white toast with butter. “

So it looks like the first article only found correlation, not causation. Okay let’s take that into consideration, it’s not definitive evidence. And Dr. Jonny Bowden seems to be twisting the Harvard study to say that it definitively proves the opposite (maybe hoping no one would follow the link and look at the study?) However the approach Harvard takes to it’s own research is objective and critical of the results. It’s actual science. They admit there are good things and bad things about eggs, but is eating an egg yolk specifically bad for us? Well it looks like the jury’s still out on that one.