Egg Consumption Poses Risks for Diabetic Men: Study

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A single egg contains about 200 milligrams of cholesterol -- just 100 milligrams shy of the daily limit advocated for those at risk for heart disease, the researchers added.

On the other hand, eggs are a source of minerals, folate, B vitamins, protein and monounsaturated fats -- all of which have the potential to lower overall risk.

To explain the finding on diabetic men, the researchers theorized that diabetics might somehow convert dietary cholesterol more readily into blood cholesterol than people without diabetes.

"We need additional data to confirm these findings, so it's kind of premature to advise against egg consumption until we have more information," Djousse said.

Donald McNamara, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Egg Nutrition Center, said that while diabetics need to carefully assess all aspects of their diet, "no one food exists in isolation."

"And when we look at all the other studies that have been published, they show that easily an egg a day can fit into a healthy diet with no change in heart-disease risk for the average person and those with diabetes," McNamara added. "Eggs also provide some very important nutrients in terms of high quality protein and choline, which we know is insufficient in the diet today. So, you have to balance out the nutritional contribution of eggs in the diet relative to this kind of a study, which presents a very unique finding which has not been presented anywhere else, and has a lot of variables included that we don't know enough about."

In an accompanying editorial published in the journal, Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Colorado and co-chair of both the Cardiometabolic Health Congress and the Committee on Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases, echoed some of McNamara's comments and called for more research to validate the study findings.

"Eggs are like all other foods -- they are neither 'good' nor 'bad', and they can be part of an overall heart-healthy diet," Eckel said. But he suggested that those wary of the high cholesterol content in whole eggs might want to skip yolks in favor of egg whites, which are ripe with protein, riboflavin and selenium.