Episode 69
The Egg: From Villain to Victory
The Great Egg Redemption: How Science Saved Breakfast (But Not Your Wallet)
For decades, the humble egg was treated like a ticking time bomb for your arteries. Nutrition guidelines told us to avoid them, doctors warned us about cholesterol, and many Americans swapped their morning omelet for a sad bowl of processed cereal. But here’s the kicker—those recommendations weren’t based on strong science. Instead, industry interests heavily influenced them, outdated theories, and a lot of fear-mongering.
Now, eggs are back on the menu. Science has finally caught up, and experts agree that dietary cholesterol isn’t the villain it was made out to be. But just when we thought we could enjoy eggs guilt-free, bird flu struck, prices skyrocketed, and suddenly, eggs became the new luxury item. So, how did we get here? Let’s crack open the truth.
The Food Pyramid: A Big Business, Not Big Science
If you grew up in the 90s, you probably remember the Food Pyramid. It told us to eat 6-11 servings of bread, pasta, and cereal every day, while foods like eggs, meat, and fats were placed at the top—basically labeled "Eat Sparingly."
But was this pyramid built on solid science? Not exactly.
The grain industry played a huge role in shaping these guidelines. In the 1970s and 80s, low-fat diets became the gold standard for heart health. The idea was simple: eating fat leads to heart disease, so cutting out fat would make us healthier. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.
Instead, food companies removed fat from products and replaced it with sugar and processed carbs—because, let’s face it, fat-free food tastes terrible without something to make it palatable. As a result, Americans ended up eating way more refined carbs and sugar, leading to a spike in obesity and type 2 diabetes (Ludwig et al., 2018).
Meanwhile, eggs—one of nature’s most nutrient-dense and affordable foods—were put on the naughty list.
The War on Eggs: How a Bad Idea Became Dietary Dogma
The real egg panic began in 1968 when the American Heart Association (AHA) declared that dietary cholesterol was a major cause of heart disease. They recommended eating no more than three eggs per week (Kritchevsky, 1999).
But here’s the problem—this recommendation wasn’t based on strong human studies. Instead, it was based on:
- Animal Studies – Scientists fed cholesterol to rabbits, which are naturally herbivores, and (shocker!) their cholesterol went up. But rabbits process cholesterol differently than humans (McNamara, 2000).
- Epidemiological Correlations – Early studies linked high cholesterol intake to heart disease, but they didn’t separate it from other factors like saturated fat, smoking, or lack of exercise (Hu et al., 1999).
- Clinical Studies With Unrealistic Diets – Some studies tested cholesterol intake using six eggs per day—which is way more than most people eat (Fernandez, 2006).
Meanwhile, many scientists already knew that dietary cholesterol had minimal impact on blood cholesterol for most people. Our bodies naturally regulate cholesterol production—when we eat more cholesterol, the liver produces less to balance it out (Griffin & Lichtenstein, 2013).
But by the time the science caught up, the damage was done. Food companies had already flooded the market with "cholesterol-free" products like margarine and egg substitutes. And people believed the hype.
The Egg Industry Fights Back (With Science!)
While eggs were being villainized, the egg industry wasn’t about to sit back and let breakfast be ruined. In 1984, they established the Egg Nutrition Center (ENC) to fund research and set the record straight.
Over the next few decades, study after study debunked the myth that eggs were bad for your heart. In fact, major research showed:
- Eating eggs does NOT increase heart disease risk. A Harvard study of 117,000 people found no link between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease (Hu et al., 1999).
- Eggs can even be good for you. They’re packed with protein, choline (for brain health), and lutein and zeaxanthin (for eye health) (McNamara, 2000).
- Cholesterol guidelines were flawed. By 2015, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans finally removed cholesterol restrictions because there was no strong evidence linking dietary cholesterol to heart disease (USDA & HHS, 2015).
After 47 years of bad press, the egg was officially redeemed. Here is a link for some science (ref)
Just When Eggs Made a Comeback… Prices Went Through the Roof
Now that science finally supports eating eggs, you’d think we’d be in a golden age of omelets. But no—2023 and 2024 have given us record-breaking egg prices.
Why? One word: Bird flu.
A massive avian flu outbreak led to the culling of millions of hens, drastically reducing egg supply and sending prices soaring (USDA, 2023). In some stores, eggs were even locked up like high-end electronics.
So now, after decades of unnecessary restrictions, eggs are back on the menu—but they’re too expensive for many people to enjoy daily. Irony at its finest.
The Bottom Line: Eat the Egg
So, what’s the takeaway?
- The demonization of eggs wasn’t based on strong science.
- Many dietary guidelines (like the Food Pyramid) were heavily influenced by industry, not just research.
- Science finally caught up, and now eggs are recognized as a nutrient powerhouse.
- Just as eggs were redeemed, bird flu made them a luxury item.
If history has taught us anything, it’s that we need to question nutrition trends—especially when big industries stand to profit. Eggs were wrongly blamed for heart disease, just like fat was wrongly blamed for obesity. But science eventually wins.
So next time you crack open an egg, enjoy it. It took nearly five decades of bad science, industry influence, and misinformation for us to get here.
References
- Fernandez, M. L. (2006). Effects of eggs on plasma lipoproteins in healthy populations. Food & Function, 7(3), 156-164.
- Griffin, B. A., & Lichtenstein, A. H. (2013). Dietary cholesterol and plasma lipoprotein profiles: Randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 98(6), 1465S-1470S.
- Hu, F. B., Stampfer, M. J., Rimm, E. B., et al. (1999). A prospective study of egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in men and women. JAMA, 281(15), 1387-1394.
- Kritchevsky, S. B. (1999). Dietary cholesterol, serum cholesterol, and heart disease: Are the associations valid? The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 69(4), 1210S-1215S.
- Ludwig, D. S., Willett, W. C., & Volek, J. S. (2018). The low-fat diet: A failed experiment. Annual Review of Nutrition, 38, 37-57.
- McNamara, D. J. (2000). The impact of egg limitations on coronary heart disease risk: Do the numbers add up? Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 19(5), 540-548.
- USDA & HHS. (2015). Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2015-2020.
- USDA. (2023). Avian Influenza and Egg Supply Reports.
Transcript
>> Dr. Terry Simpson: Today, we're talking about the egg.
Speaker:Once demonized, now celebrated, and
Speaker:currently so expensive you might need a loan to make an
Speaker:omelet. Let's break it down. Why did the egg
Speaker:get canceled? How did it make a comeback? And why
Speaker:are we all suddenly paying luxury taxes for
Speaker:breakfast? M.
Speaker:I am your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terri Simpson,
Speaker:and this is Fork U Fork
Speaker:University, where we make sense of the madness, bust
Speaker:a few myths, and teach you a little bit about food and
Speaker:its intersection with medicine.
Speaker:Picture it. 1968,
Speaker:the Beatles are topping the charts, man is about to
Speaker:land on the moon, and the American Heart association
Speaker:is dropping a bombshell. Eggs, they
Speaker:say, are trying to kill us. They declared that
Speaker:dietary cholesterol was a heart attack waiting to
Speaker:happen, and told everyone to eat fewer than three
Speaker:eggs a week. Three eggs a week? That's not
Speaker:enough for a proper brunch. But here's the kicker.
Speaker:That decision was not
Speaker:driven by physicians or medical
Speaker:evidence or some new groundbreaking
Speaker:study. Nope. This was a classic of,
Speaker:well, we really don't know how to
Speaker:decrease the risk of heart disease in this country,
Speaker:but cutting cholesterol might help, so let's just roll with
Speaker:was a precautionary principal move, basically
Speaker:meaning they were saying, we don't have proof
Speaker:this will work, but sounds logical, so let's ban eggs
Speaker:anyway. There weren't any randomized control
Speaker:trials. There was no solid clinical data,
Speaker:just an assumption wrapped in a dietary
Speaker:guideline. Meanwhile, real
Speaker:scientists, those annoying people who actually study
Speaker:this stuff, had known since 1950
Speaker:because they had tested it. Dietary
Speaker:cholesterol had minimal impact on
Speaker:blood cholesterol. Saturated fat had a
Speaker:huge impact. Dietary cholesterol, not so
Speaker:much. But did the policymakers listen?
Speaker:Nope. Instead, we got decades of
Speaker:people swapping eggs for cereal and
Speaker:margarine, which, fun fact, turned out to
Speaker:be worse for heart health.
Speaker:Well played. So
Speaker:let's follow the money. Who really wrote
Speaker:those guidelines? Because if you thought they were
Speaker:written by a group of independent scientists
Speaker:sitting in a lab analyzing data, I have
Speaker:some bad news for you. The truth is,
Speaker:dietary guidelines are heavily influenced by
Speaker:industry. The food industry, which incorporates
Speaker:the agricultural industry, the processed food
Speaker:companies. They all have a seat at the table.
Speaker:Why? First of all, they're the experts
Speaker:in the field. But these guidelines
Speaker:shape what's in school lunches, hospital meals,
Speaker:military rations, and what is pushed in public
Speaker:health campaigns. And when billions of dollars
Speaker:are on the line, you can better believe it, that
Speaker:industry wants a say in what's healthy.
Speaker:That's why for decades, we got a food pyramid that, that
Speaker:told us to eat six to 11 servings of bread, pasta
Speaker:and cereal a day. That was brought to you by the
Speaker:grain industry because the grain industry
Speaker:had way too much excess grain based on the
Speaker:agricultural policies started during the Nixon administration
Speaker:because they could demonize fat. Low
Speaker:fat processed foods were the hot new
Speaker:product. And it's why eggs,
Speaker:unprocessed at that time, inexpensive,
Speaker:nutritionally dense food was, was literally thrown under
Speaker:the bus. I mean, they were. Seriously, they had ads where
Speaker:they threw eggs under a bus while cholesterol free
Speaker:cookies and sugary cereals got a pass.
Speaker:That makes no sense, does it? So
Speaker:when eggs got this bad for your heart label,
Speaker:it wasn't just because of misunderstood
Speaker:science. It was because processed food
Speaker:companies saw the opportunity to push
Speaker:alternatives like egg beaters.
Speaker:Cholesterol free margin, and all of that heart
Speaker:healthy, low fat junk food
Speaker:flooded the market. The worst part, the
Speaker:public believed it. But we
Speaker:wouldn't be fitting our Star wars theme if we didn't say
Speaker:science strikes back. So after
Speaker:the 1968 egg panic, egg farmers found
Speaker:themselves in the middle of a PR nightmare. If
Speaker:they defended eggs, they'd be accused of prioritizing
Speaker:profits over public health. If they stayed
Speaker:quiet, eggs would go the way of the
Speaker:dinosaurs. Or maybe the way of canned
Speaker:asparagus. But science wasn't
Speaker:on the American Heart Association's side. The
Speaker:egg industry backed real research, which found
Speaker:shockingly, eating an egg does not
Speaker:instantly clog your arteries like stuffing butter into a
Speaker:straw. But did that matter?
Speaker:Nope. By the 1980s, the
Speaker:low cholesterol craze was in its full
Speaker:swing. People were buying cholesterol free
Speaker:peanut butter because, you know, peanut butter
Speaker:was such a notorious source of cholesterol before.
Speaker:Meanwhile, eggs got the reputation of being worse than junk
Speaker:food. It was better in their minds to eat a Pop
Speaker:Tart for breakfast, but not an egg. Can you believe
Speaker:this nonsense? Finally, we get the great
Speaker:egg redemption. I'm not sure what Star wars
Speaker:theme we're on here, but let's Fast forward to 2015.
Speaker:After five decades of, uh, scaring
Speaker:people away from eggs, nutrition
Speaker:experts said, you know, that's
Speaker:just not right. That policy you guys made in
Speaker:the American Heart association, that wasn't right.
Speaker:Because we've known that dietary cholesterol does
Speaker:not significantly impact blood cholesterol levels except in a few
Speaker:people. And we know you can eat eggs without
Speaker:becoming a walking heart attack. Oh,
Speaker:and we've known this since 2 1/2
Speaker:decades before you made that spurious claim.
Speaker:And here is where it all gets really Crazy.
Speaker:When these policymakers actually finally got
Speaker:convinced by the research to look at the actual evidence,
Speaker:they found out that eggs weren't bad for you, they were
Speaker:actually great for you. It's a high quality
Speaker:protein. It contains choline for brain health.
Speaker:It has great nutrients for your eyes. Eggs are
Speaker:basically nature's multivitamin, except
Speaker:tastier and cheaper than things in
Speaker:the health food store. Well, that used to be
Speaker:cheaper. So the 2015
Speaker:Dietary Guidelines finally lifted the egg
Speaker:restriction. But let's be real, this should have happened
Speaker:decades earlier. Or to be even more exact, they
Speaker:should have never banned eggs in the first place. In
Speaker:fact, the United States was one of the last countries
Speaker:to drop its dietary cholesterol restrictions.
Speaker:Taking 47 years to reverse an idea
Speaker:that wasn't based on strong science in the first
Speaker:place. That's almost half the century
Speaker:of unnecessary egg guilt.
Speaker:Imagine how many sad eggless
Speaker:breakfasts that adds up to. The
Speaker:egg's new enemy now is a virus.
Speaker:Just when eggs were making their comeback,
Speaker:along comes the new generation of
Speaker:bird flu. Millions of hens had to be
Speaker:culled, destroyed, and suddenly eggs
Speaker:are more expensive than gasoline. At some stores, they're
Speaker:basically locked up like high end electronics.
Speaker:Meanwhile, oat milk soy based egg
Speaker:substitutes are cackling in the background, waiting for their
Speaker:moment to shine. I mean, I actually like oat milk and soy milk,
Speaker:but you know, but none of those replaces
Speaker:the egg. Scrambled, fried, poached, deviled, in
Speaker:a cake, in a quiche, doing it with flaxseed,
Speaker:whatever. But even if eggs are pricey now, they are
Speaker:still one of the most nutritious and versatile foods you can get. So
Speaker:yes, eggs are back. Of course, now they're a luxury
Speaker:item. I mean, eggs are expensive as caviar, which is
Speaker:basically a fish egg.
Speaker:Here's what we have learned today, which I hope you
Speaker:have. Public policy about
Speaker:food is not the same as science
Speaker:about food. Whole eggs are bad
Speaker:for you was just bad policy
Speaker:made by people making policy without
Speaker:any basis of evidence at all. But with
Speaker:this oh, we better be safe than sorry approach
Speaker:mixed with industry influence, eggs have always
Speaker:been nutritional powerhouses. And just when you're
Speaker:finally allowed to enjoy an egg guilt free, they
Speaker:are too expensive to eat. Life's kind of
Speaker:unfair like that. But don't let history or high
Speaker:prices scare you away. Eggs are still one of the
Speaker:better foods out there. They deserve a place on your plate. Meanwhile, if
Speaker:you want to learn more about food science
Speaker:without the nonsense, give me a subscription here to
Speaker:fork you. Because eating smart is always in
Speaker:style. Unlike that cholesterol free peanut butter
Speaker:fad. Let's make a couple of other things
Speaker:clear. When you hear food policy, please don't blame the
Speaker:scientists or the doctors. We didn't do that. We
Speaker:didn't tell you to eat trans fats. Honestly, we
Speaker:didn't. We've been going against that. But that's for
Speaker:another episode. This
Speaker:episode was written and researched by me, Dr. Terri
Speaker:Simpson. And while I am a doctor, I am not
Speaker:your doctor. And making any dietary changes, please see
Speaker:a western trained physician or registered
Speaker:dietitian. Do check out my blog
Speaker:post on YourDoctorsOrders.com
Speaker:and check out my new substack at Ah,
Speaker:Tsimpson substack,
Speaker:where I have for our, uh, subscribing members great ways that
Speaker:you can interact with me. I want to thank
Speaker:our friends at Simpler Media for the distribution and making
Speaker:me sound awesome. And especially my good
Speaker:friend, the pod God, Mr.
Speaker:Evotera. Have a good
Speaker:week, everyone. In fact, have an egg
Speaker:cellent.
Speaker:Hey, Ivo, here's the dirty little secret.
Speaker:I'm not a big fan of eggs. I mean, they're
Speaker:okay. They're like something I put on. Something
Speaker:like huevos rancheros. Wouldn't be anything without the
Speaker:huevos. But I prefer the rancheros. Most
Speaker:eggs are kind of bland to me. I like hot sauce on
Speaker:eggs. All right, how about you? Are you an egg
Speaker:fan?
Speaker:I'm, um, still not talking to you after that egg pun.
