A position paper issued by The National Commission on Egg Nutrition provides some basic facts about a controversial subject on which there has been much confusion.

DR. WILLIAM HANDLER once said, "The world's poorly fed people may pay a big price for the actions of scientists in dealing with opinions rather than facts." This statement seems to describe the situation wherein the American Heart Association recommends that everyone limits consumption of eggs to three per week.

This recommendation has been made in numerous pamphlets which were distributed directly to the American people by the AHA as well as in more sophisticated material going to doctors, particularly those specializing in the field of heart disease.

When one considers that eggs are undoubtedly the best nutritional buy available in the grocery store today, the statement by Dr. Handler begins to come into focus. The retail price of large eggs has 'averaged not more than $3 per dozen over the past several years.'

Most nearly perfect natural protein
Eggs are the most nearly perfect, naturally occurring protein food for mankind. Egg protein is the yardstick of perfection against which other protein foods are measured. The essential amino acids are all found in eggs. Almost complete requirements for seven of the ten essential amino acids are met by eating of two eggs daily. The protein-to-fat ratio in eggs is the highest of that of any easily available food.

Logical source of iron
The high iron content of eggs is of excel- lent quality and is already combined with the protein so it will be of the greatest use. Eggs are the logical source of iron, particularly for women during the period of their life when they have the greatest need. It takes over twice as much iron in chemical form, as would be found in capsules from the drug store or in "fortification" of food products, to do the same job because of greater availability of iron from eggs.

The vitamin content of eggs is a similar story. Eggs are particularly rich in thiamine, riboflavin and vitamins A and D. '

The alternative foods, which are heavily advertised on television, are likely to be made mostly from refined flour and sugar or processed grains, which sell at a comparatively high price per ounce and provide very little food value.

The American public is being done a great disservice by the American Heart Association when it recommends that everyone limit consumption of eggs to three per week.

What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a requirement of every living cell and we can't live without it. It is the building block of sex hormones. Cholesterol is also one of the fat-like materials that are deposited on the inner linings of human arteries causing atherosclerosis, a form of hardening of the arteries. Probably 90% of all cases of strokes and heart attacks are due to atherosclerosis.

All foods of animal origin contain some cholesterol. Eggs are higher in natural, pre- formed cholesterol than any other heavily consumed food. Eggs are not high in saturated fats.

If a source of cholesterol (such as eggs) is daily, diet, the normal body will excrete more of the cholesterol as bile acids and manufacture less from other dietary sources such as sugar and fats.

Those rabbit experiments
Spokesmen for the American Heart Association have taken the stand that the eating of foods containing cholesterol adds directly to the cholesterol already in a person's blood, there- fore increasing the chance of that person having a heart attack or stroke. This idea originated with the experiments of Anitschkow who fed some rabbits cholesterol about 1913 and produced atherosclerosis in them. It is now known that cholesterol is a food foreign to rabbits and they handle it very poorly.

The result of this work with rabbits was extrapolated to man and the conclusion was drawn that man should not eat food containing cholesterol. Since then, millions of dollars have been spent attempting, to prove that eating eggs increases the risk of humans having a heart attack. In spite of this large expenditure, there is no indication that consumption of eggs, even in large quantities, will increase the risk of a heart attack.

Egg protein high quality
Many doctors and researches think heart patients when rebuilding the damaged heart need the high quality protein of eggs.

Research does not indicate that eating eggs will increase serum cholesterol in the average person or that high level of serum cholesterol is correlated with high risk of heart disease.

Literally hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on research attempting to prove that foods high in natural cholesterol and foods containing saturated fats are an important contributing factor to the incidence of coronary heart disease in man. Much of the money spent has been spent trying to get scientific proof to back up statements the American Heart Association, had already made concerning dietary cholesterol. No such proof has been forthcoming.

Several leading researchers have expressed concern that badly needed research in other directions is being delayed because of the heart association's hang-up with dietary cholesterol.

In a study at Highland Hospital at Oakland, California, where 13 patients were fed the equivalent in egg yolks of that found in 15 eggs per day, the serum cholesterol did not increase significantly in any except two bedridden, obese patients who had a very abnormal condition. In the seven ambulatory patients in the study, four of the seven showed a slight decrease in serum cholesterol in the three weeks in which they were getting this very high amount of egg yolk

Dr. Walter Goodale, a highly regarded internal medicine specialist, reported in a speech a-few years ago that he and a number of other men, working around Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston went on a diet which included 24 eggs per day. He stated that it was very difficult to eat that many eggs each day, but they did for a period of several weeks. Dr. Goodale said that the scrum cholesterol level dropped in every man because they were on a low calorie diet and they all lost weight. This is from a talk given by Dr. Goodale in 1962 and has never been reported as a research project.

Ireland-Boston Heart Study
In the Ireland-Boston Heart Study, the researchers followed 600 Irishmen between the ages of 30 and 60 who had lived in Boston for 10 or more years and their brothers who had never left the old country. The Irish brothers ate about twice as many eggs as their American brothers (averaging well over 14 eggs per week each), yet the Irish brothers had lower levels of cholesterol in their bloodstream, and in the category of coronary disease their hearts were rated from two to six times as healthy as those of the Boston brothers. This was based on autopsies done by the same Harvard doctor. It is assumed that less stress and more exercise ac- counted for the difference.
. . The Pearce-Dayton Study at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles is one pointed to by some of the doctors associated with the AHA as indicating a greater number of deaths from coronary heart disease among the group on a normal, saturated fat diet than in the group eating an experimental diet that was high in unsaturated fats. It was somewhat of a controversial study because of design and other complications. However, it is interesting to note that the experimental diet contained, seven eggs per week.

Dr. Michael DeBakey and his research team studied 1,700 patients hospitalised for surgical treatment of atherosclerosis due to its severity. Eight out of 10 of these patients had cholesterol levels within the normal average for Americans.

Framingham Study
The Framingham Study is considered to be probably the most comprehensive research project ever conducted in the diet-heart field. In this study the diet of the participants was not changed, but what each person ate was recorded. The report made after the study concluded said, among other things:
"There is no suggestion of any relationship between diet and the subsequent development of coronary heart disease in the study group de- spite a distinct elevation of serum cholesterol in those developing coronary heart disease."

Dr. Harold Kahn, of the National Heart and Lung Institute, reported in a recent study that despite the widely publicized hypothesis' that dietary cholesterol causes heart attacks, there has been virtually no change in the proportion of cholesterol consumed over the past 60 years. During the same period, the, heart attack rate has skyrocketed.

There is absolutely no scientific evidence that indicates that lowering serum cholesterol levels through diet or drugs will reduce the risk of a heart attack. FDA requires that any advertisement for a drug sold to lower serum cholesterol carry this warning:

Eggs not high in saturated fats
Many writers seem to be confused and tend to write as though saturated fats and cholesterol in foods of animal origin mean the same thing. In a recent issue of the USDA magazine, Agricultural Research, a writer lumped eggs in with meat and dairy products as being high in saturated fats. Eggs are not high in saturated fats.

It has been demonstrated that eating foods in which the fat is heavily saturated will tend to raise the serum cholesterol level in a person. However, it has not been found that it increases the risk of coronary heart disease unless one eats an excess amount causing the parson to gain weight. Obesity is considered a definite risk factor in coronary heart disease.

The fat in eggs is only about one-third saturated, and the protein-to-fat ratio in eggs is the highest of any naturally occurring food. Dr. Campbell Moses, of the American Heart Association, told the members of the commission when we visited his offices in September 1971, "The Fat in eggs is insignificant. Eggs are an important part of many weight-reducing diets.

High levels of serum cholesterol and high risk of coronary heart disease have been correlated only in people who inherit high cholesterol levels from both parents.

Approximately 10% of the population of Germany has an inherited high serum cholesterol and apparently @ high risk of heart attack or stroke early in life, according to Dr. Schlierf, of the Ludolf Krehl Clinic, Heidelberg, Germany. It is assumed that the population of other Western nations would be about the same. This 10% are those whose parents on both sides had high serum cholesterol levels.

In this group, high serum cholesterol and high risk of coronary heart disease are correlated. Diet has nothing to do with it. We know of no other cases in which high cholesterol levels can be correlated with high risk of coronary heart disease.

The Wilkinson studies, reported in 1948, found that high levels of cholesterol had nothing to do with life expectancy, provided this level of cholesterol was inherited from only one of the parents.