The newly published “2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans” has excluded the recommendation of limiting dietary cholesterol to 300mg per day. Many people may have misunderstood that they can now take foods that are high in cholesterol as much as they like. Let us look at the facts.
Why did the Dietary Guidelines for Americans exclude the limitation on the amount of dietary cholesterol intake? The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans has excluded the recommendation of limiting dietary cholesterol to 300mg per day owing to a lack of existing evidence. In fact, the Dietary Guidelines has made reference to the Institute of Medicine's recommendation that people should eat as little dietary cholesterol as possible.
Why should we limit eating high-cholesterol foods?
In fact, some high-cholesterol foods such as butter, pig skin, fatty beef and Portuguese egg tart, also contain higher amount of saturated fat. Saturated fats and trans fats will raise the blood level of “bad cholesterol” (Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol), hence increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, it is recommended to choose foods that are low in saturated fats and trans fats. These foods are often also lower in cholesterol in general.
Can I eat eggs every day?
A few high-cholesterol foods such as eggs, squid, shrimp and cuttlefish are lower in fat; they should be counted under the “Meat, Fish, Egg and Alternatives” intake and consumed in moderation.
The healthy eating principles emphasise on having a variety of food, i.e. choosing different kinds of food. Apart from eggs and seafood, “Meat, Fish, Egg and Alternatives" also include poultry, beef, pork, dried bean and bean products. Adults are recommended to have 5-8 taels of meat and alternatives every day according to their energy requirement. One tael is approximately equivalent to meat in the size of a table tennis ball or an egg (including egg yolk).