How Many Times A Week Should I Eat Eggs?

Scott Grundy, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Chair in Human Nutrition; Professor in Internal Medicine, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

December 24, 2008

Question: What part of the egg contains bad cholesterol, and how many times a week should I eat eggs?

Answer: Everyone asks about eggs because it's known that eggs are high in cholesterol. It's the yolk of the egg that contains the cholesterol. That's not the bad cholesterol itself. The bad cholesterol is the LDL, but the cholesterol in the egg can help to raise the bad cholesterol.

ABC News Photo Illustration

What we recommend is that people consume daily the amount of cholesterol that is roughly in one egg yolk. So you can get cholesterol from other animal products. And so you would have to adjust the egg intake to try to stay within the guidelines of about the amount of cholesterol in one egg yolk, which is about 200 to 250 milligrams of cholesterol.

So rather than telling you how many eggs a week you can eat, we just have to keep in mind that you should keep your cholesterol intake not much more than what's in one egg everyday.

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