Women who eat eggs on a daily basis may have a higher risk of dying than other women their age, study findings suggest.

Researchers in Japan found that women who consumed one or more eggs a day were more likely to die during the 14-year study than women who ate one or two eggs a week. The findings are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

After being shunned not so long ago for their cholesterol-rich yolks, eggs have made a comeback in recent years. Research has shown that moderate consumption may not raise a person’s cholesterol levels or heart disease risk, and eggs are welcome in low-carb eating plans.

However, health experts still recommend limiting egg yolks, as one yolk contains about two-thirds of a healthy adult’s suggested allotment of cholesterol. The American Heart Association says healthy adults can have up to one egg per day, as long as they watch their intake of other cholesterol sources such as meat and dairy products.

The new results support advice to eat eggs in moderation, Dr. Yasuyuki Nakamura of Kyoto Women’s University told Reuters Health.

Still, the finding that one egg per day might raise women’s death risk is at odds with some U.S. studies that have uncovered no such link. According to Nakamura’s team, it’s possible that the health effects of eggs are greater in a population such as the Japanese, who may get a relatively large portion of their dietary cholesterol from eggs.

The researchers studied data on nearly 9,300 men and women who in 1980 completed lifestyle surveys, which included questions on how frequently they ate various foods. Participants’ blood pressure, cholesterol levels and other health indicators were measured at the start of the study, and deaths were tracked over the next 14 years.

At the start of the study, the average cholesterol level among women who had a daily egg was three percent higher than that of women who ate eggs more sparingly.

The researchers found that women who ate an egg a day were 22 percent more likely to die of any cause compared with those who ate only a couple eggs per week - regardless of factors such as age, smoking habits and body weight. Those who ate two or more eggs a day showed a still higher death risk, but only small number of women fell into that category.

Women who ate the most eggs also had higher rates of death from heart disease and stroke, although in statistical terms, the link was not significant - probably, Nakamura said, because too few women overall died of either cause.

As for men, there was no connection between egg consumption and the risk of death from any cause. The reason is unclear, but Nakamura speculated that women may simply have been more accurate than men in reporting their eating habits.

The researchers did not account for all lifestyle factors, such as exercise, that are known to affect death risk and could help explain the connection between an egg-heavy diet and mortality.

However, Nakamura noted, women who ate fewer eggs actually had a slightly higher rate of smoking than the egg-a-day group, suggesting that the former group was not more health-conscious in general.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 2004.