Public Health and Nutrition

Dietary guidelines for egg consumption for general population differ among public health agencies. Our aim was to investigate the association between egg intake and both all-cause and specific-cause of mortality in a Mediterranean population. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Spain cohort included 40,621 men and women aged 29-69 years old in the nineties from 5 Spanish regions. Data on egg consumption was collected using a validated diet history at baseline. Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for confounders, were used in the analyses. The mean egg consumption was 22.0g/d in women and 30.9g/d and men. After a mean of 18 years of follow-up, 3,561 deaths were recorded, of whom 1,694 were from cancer, 761 from CVD, and 870 from other causes. No association was observed between egg consumption and all-cause mortality for the highest vs the lowest quartile (HR = 1.01; 95% CI 0.91-1.11; P-trend = 0.96). Likewise, no association was observed with cancer and cardiovascular diseases mortality. However, an inverse association was found between egg consumption and deaths for other causes (HR = 0.76; 95% CI 0.63-0.93; P-trend = 0.003), particularly for deaths from the nervous system (HR = 0.59; 95% CI 0.35-1.00; P-trend = 0.036). In conclusion, this study shows no association between moderate egg consumption, up to 1 egg per day, and main causes of mortality in a large free-living Mediterranean population.