Research

Mixed

Dietary cholesterol intake between 216 and 373 mg/day is associated with the lowest all-cause mortality risk, forming a U-shaped curve where both lower and higher intakes increase mortality risk.

Aim for a daily dietary cholesterol intake of approximately 300 mg (roughly 1-2 eggs) to potentially minimize all-cause mortality risk. Avoid both very low intake (under 124 mg/day) and very high intake (over 373 mg/day), as both are associated with higher mortality risks in this study. This suggests that moderate consumption of cholesterol-rich foods is healthy, and extreme restriction may be detrimental.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
The association between cholesterol intake and the risk of all-cause mortality followed a U-shaped curve, with the cholesterol intake associated with the lowest mortality being 328 mg/day.
Xiang-Peng Du et al. · Central European Journal of Public Health · 2021

Why this rating

Observational cohort study using NHANES data; adjusted for many covariates but subject to residual confounding and reverse causality.

Source

Association between cholesterol intake and all-cause mortality: NHANES-linked mortality study

Xiang-Peng Du et al. · Central European Journal of Public Health · 2021

DOI 10.21101/cejph.a6276

cohort · n=7728Cited 5×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →