Eating whole eggs has gotten a bad rap over many years as experts recommended reducing dietary cholesterol.
Current guidelines recommend consumption of less than 300 milligrams of dietary cholesterol per day or about the same amount found in one whole egg.
The decades-long recommendation against eating food that is high in cholesterol, though, may no longer appear in the 2015 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Although the government has long warned of diets that contain high levels of cholesterol, many nutritionists now believe that the intake of cholesterol may not have a significant impact on the cholesterol blood level and odds of developing heart diseases in healthy adults.
The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services about the changes in the nation's official dietary guidelines, said in its preliminary recommendation in December that cholesterol no longer poses concerns for overconsumption.
"The panel laid out the cholesterol decision in December, at its last meeting before it writes a report that will serve as the basis for the next version of the guidelines," the Washington Post reported. "A video of the meeting was later posted online and a person with direct knowledge of the proceedings said the cholesterol finding would make it to the group's final report, which is due within weeks."
The proposed changes to the dietary guidelines on cholesterol mark a major shift on how cholesterol is scientifically viewed. While serum cholesterol remains a crucial risk factor, cholesterol from food is now believed to have a relatively insignificant role in determining cholesterol blood levels.
Steven Nissen, Cleveland Clinic's chairman of cardiovascular medicine, said that recent research has found that diet only affects about 20 percent of blood cholesterol levels and that the rest is influenced by genetics.
Some experts, however, pointed out that saturated fat has a direct and more important role in blood cholesterol levels compared with cholesterol consumed from food.
Although a person can consume more eggs, shrimp and lobster under the new proposed guidelines, he may still have to limit his consumption of food that is heavy in saturated fat, such as cheese, butter, prime rib and bacon, according to Connie Diekman from the Washington University in St. Louis in Missouri.
"The potential elimination of a cholesterol recommendation isn't a concern in terms of health but is a concern in that many will view this as, 'Good, I can eat what I want,'" Diekman said.
