I completely agree that this type of study needs to be taken with a grain of salt. We need to look at the entire body of evidence and emphasize results from higher quality controlled trials. Recent meta-analyses seem to agree that IN GENERAL there is no evidence of harm of several eggs per day.

At the same time, when you drill into the details, you also see that part of the cause of the conflicting results lies in the massive inter-individual variation in the extent to which dietary cholesterol influences blood cholesterol (and LDL in particular). Some “responders” will indeed see a rise in cholesterol with greater dietary cholesterol, whereas others will not.

Genetics appear to be a major driver but we don’t know enough yet to predict who will be a “responder”. If I had high cholesterol, I would try cutting back my dietary cholesterol, but knowing that this may or may not have a noticeable impact on my LDL cholesterol. Worth a shot, if you ask me!

I agree that emphasizing plants, and high fiber foods, is one of the best strategies for cardiovascular health.

I am not familiar with the PURE studies but look forward to checking them it and seeing why these results are dissimilar to some of the other observational studies (e.g. EPIC) that I’ve seen championed by the plant-based community.