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OBJECTIVE - Whereas limited and inconsistent findings have been reported on the relation between dietary cholesterol or egg consumption and fasting glucose, no previous study has examined the association between egg consumption and type 2 diabetes. This project sought to examine the relation between egg intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes in two large prospective cohorts.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - In this prospective study, we used data from two completed randomized trials: 20,703 men from the Physicians' Health Study I (1982-2007) and 36,295 women from the Women's Health Study (1992-2007). Egg consumption was ascertained using questionnaires, and we used the Cox proportional hazard model to estimate relative risks of type 2 diabetes.
RESULTS - During mean follow-up of 20.0 years in men and 11.7 years in women, 1,921 men and 2,112 women developed type 2 diabetes. Compared with no egg consumption, multivariable adjusted hazard ratios for type 2 diabetes were 1.09 (95% CI 0.87-1.37), 1.09 (0.88-1.34), 1.18 (0.95-1.45), 1.46 (1.14-1.86), and 1.58 (1.25-2.01) for consumption of <1, 1, 2-4, 5-6, and ≥7 eggs/week, respectively, in men (P for trend <0.0001). Corresponding multivariable hazard ratios for women were 1.06 (0.92-1.22), 0.97 (0.83-1.12), 1.19 (1.03-1.38), 1.18 (0.88-1.58), and 1.77 (1.28-2.43), respectively (P for trend <0.0001).
CONCLUSIONS - These data suggest that high levels of egg consumption (daily) are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in men and women. Confirmation of these findings in other populations is warranted.
Diabetes Care 32:295-300, 2009
Type 2 diabetes is highly prevalent and is associated with high health care costs and societal burden (1). Therefore, it is important to identify modifiable risk factors that may help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Eggs are not only major sources of dietary cholesterol (~200 mg/egg) but also contain other important nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, proteins, carotenoids, and saturated (~1.5 g/egg), polyunsaturated (~0.7 g/egg), and monounsaturated (~1.9 g/egg) fatty acids (2,3). Whereas several of these nutrients have been associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (i.e., saturated fat and cholesterol [4,5]), other nutrients may confer a lower risk of type 2 diabetes (i.e., polyunsaturated fat [4]).
Whereas egg consumption was not associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) or stroke overall, Hu et al. (6)...