Heart Attack: Eating Huge Amounts Of This Breakfast Favorite Increases Risk

When there is blockage of the blood flowing to the heart, the result is a heart attack. In most cases, it can be life-threatening.

The blockage is oftentimes the product of cholesterol, fat buildup, and many other substances that combine to create a plaque in the coronary arteries which carry blood to the heart. Unhealthy lifestyle choices, like eating foods high in saturated fats, have been linked to heart attacks.

Fat and Atherosclerosis

According to the National Health Service, having a diet that is high in fat will result in atherosclerosis or the buildup and hardening of the inner walls of the arteries. This can increase your risk of suffering from a heart attack.

The worst culprits said the health body, are foods that have high saturated fat content. Eating too much of these foods can further add to the amount of the gooey substance found in the blood called cholesterol. When this happens, the risk of developing coronary heart disease becomes higher.

The British Heart Foundation, for their part, said that while the prevailing belief is that cholesterol in foods does not raise heart attack risk, a recent study has debunked it. Researchers found that eating too many eggs, which is a rich cholesterol source, is linked to an increased risk of heart disease.

Too Many Eggs

A study conducted by Northwestern University researchers and involved almost 30,000 people found that adults who consumed more eggs are at a considerably high risk of cardiovascular disease. Their risk of dying from a heart attack compared to other causes also increased.

Norrina Allen, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said that the message is loud and clear. The study is all about cholesterol, which eggs happen to contain abundantly, particularly its egg yolks. Allen is the co-corresponding author of the study.

He also said that people need to lower their cholesterol consumption as part of their regular healthy diet. Those who eat foods with less cholesterol also are at lower heart disease risk.

Animal products like red meat, high-fat dairy products like whipped cream or butter, and processed meat have high cholesterol content. This was the revelation of Wenze Zhong, the lead author of the study, and a post-doctoral fellow in preventive medicine in the same University.

The debate on whether or not high-cholesterol foods like eggs increase cardiovascular disease risk has been raging for years. The mixed results of various studies in the past only fueled the arguments.

In previous studies, consuming eggs did not increase cardiovascular disease risk. It must be pointed out, however, that these studies are confronted with limitations. Foremost among them is a shorter follow-up time, less diverse sample, and an inability to make changes to other parts of the diet.

The recent study examined pooled data from six prospective group studies on 29,615 adults who are ethnically and racially diverse and have up to 31 years of follow-up. Researchers found that consuming daily cholesterol of at least 300 mg increases incident cardiovascular disease risk by at least 17%. The chances of dying from this condition have also increased by as much as 18%.

They also found that consuming a weekly average of three to four eggs increases cardiovascular disease risk by six percent and increases by eight percent the risk of dying from such condition.