A “vegan for life” Plant-Based Barb, or username @plantloverbarb on Twitter, claims in a tweet that egg yolks’ cholesterol is more damaging for the health than smoking cigarettes.
She tweeted: “One egg = five cigarettes!? Egg yolks are loaded with cholesterol. A medium-sized egg contains 186 mg of cholesterol, which is 62 percent of the recommended intake. Eating eggs is worse for your health than smoking!”
One egg = five cigarettes!? Egg yolks are loaded with cholesterol.
A medium-sized egg contains 186 mg of cholesterol, which is 62 percent of the recommended intake.
Eating eggs is worse for your health then smoking!— plantbasedbarb (@plantloverbarb) July 22, 2019
This tweet = one extra large bag of garbage
Reading a medium sized tweet of this type is 90% of the recommended daily intake.
Believing what you read on the internet like this is worse for your health than eating an egg!— Mark Salvatore (@marksalvatore__) July 23, 2019
Some replies to the original tweet challenged her calculations and her tweet:
How much cholesterol is in a filter-tipped cigarette?
Is vaping eggs safer than eating them?— George Henderson (@puddleg) July 23, 2019
Actually, you might be right. Have you ever tried smoking an egg? It’s bloody hard! They’re so hard to lite up.
— DiscoStew (@DiscoStew66) July 24, 2019
While others gave their insight regarding her claims:
Are you aware that cholesterol is made by the body, that it is an integral part of the immune system +other things and that the brain makes its own cholestertol? 25% of the weight of ur brain is made up of it. Dietary cholesterol is a jk. And by the way, plants make sterols 2.
— LadyBlues (@Ladyblues666) July 22, 2019
if you had been keeping up with the science you would know that the cholesterol diet/heart thing is rubbish it has been debunked & yet some medical people still haven’t found out about it still pushing the fat it dangerous nonsense plenty of peer reviewed studies read them
— mareefeb (@mareefeb) July 23, 2019
Good day to learn something.https://t.co/nllOkpIYeU
— Tat Loo (@Tat_Loo) July 23, 2019
According to a senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, Victoria Taylor, she shared: “Current research shows that for most healthy people, cholesterol in food, such as eggs, has a much smaller effect on blood levels of total cholesterol and harmful LDL cholesterol, especially when compared with the much greater and more harmful effects of saturated fatty acids found in foods such as butter and fatty meat. Eggs are, in fact, low in saturated fat.
“Recent research has also shown that moderate egg consumption – up to one a day – does not increase heart disease risk in healthy individuals and can be part of a healthy diet,” she added.
Even if eggs were incredibly bad for your health, it’s still quite a long stretch to be as damaging as smoking.
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