- There is much debate about the role of dietary cholesterol in people’s health.
- An increasing number of studies into dietary cholesterol have funding from the food industry.
- A new review identifies an association between studies with food industry funding and more favorable interpretations of the role of egg cholesterol in human health.
In a systematic review, researchers looked at how authors of industry- and non-industry-funded studies interpret the results of research on egg consumption and blood cholesterol levels.
The study, which appears in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, found that the authors behind studies funded by industry were more likely to interpret results regarding the relationship between egg consumption and cholesterol favorably — and often not in line with what the data suggested.
In the past, scientists have recommended that people consume under 300 milligrams (mg) of cholesterol each day to maintain good cardiovascular health.
However, more recent research has not found a significant relationship between dietary cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular disease.
As a consequence, recent guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology have not specified a target for daily dietary cholesterol intake.
Nonetheless, there has been “intense debate” regarding the role that consuming eggs might play in increasing blood cholesterol levels. On the one hand, eggs are a major source of dietary cholesterol. On the other, they are a cheap, nutritious, and widely available food item.
In the recent study, the researchers wanted to understand how funding sources for research into egg consumption and blood cholesterol levels have changed over time.
They also wanted to know whether or not the source of funding for studies — that is, either industry or non-industry — made a difference in how researchers interpreted the results.
The researchers searched databases for articles involving adults that studied egg or egg yolk consumption and total or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
They identified 211 studies published between 1950 and 2019 that met these inclusion criteria.
The researchers found that industry-funded research into egg consumption and cholesterol increased from 0% of cholesterol studies in the 1950s to 60% of these studies in the 2010s.
The majority of the studies found that egg consumption did increase blood cholesterol concentrations.
However, the authors of the review found that 49% of the studies funded by industry did not accurately interpret their findings, being more likely to suggest a neutral or positive relationship between egg consumption and blood cholesterol concentrations. This compares with 13% of the studies not funded by industry.
Medical News Today spoke with corresponding study author Dr. Neal Barnard, an adjunct professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Barnard is also the president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).
He said: “The egg industry has a huge financial interest in making eggs seem healthy. So, industry-funded researchers have tried to downplay eggs’ cholesterol-raising effect. They have not really succeeded, though: Even their own studies show that eggs raise cholesterol.”
Dr. Barnard said that industry funding was not necessarily the problem — rather, the problem is when pressures from industry result in interpretations that do not reflect the findings.
Source: Medical News Today
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