trailRegular egg consumption increases cardiovascular disease risk in healthy people
Biomarker / mechanistic argument· for
Adding eggs to the diet raises LDL cholesterol compared to a no-egg diet.
Meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials find egg consumption modestly increases LDL cholesterol.
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Eggs' LDL-raising effect is caused by their saturated fat content, not their dietary cholesterol content.
Dietary cholesterol intake has only a weak, variable effect on blood cholesterol levels.
Elevated LDL cholesterol causes cardiovascular disease
Mendelian randomization studies show genetically lower LDL cholesterol causally reduces cardiovascular disease risk
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LDL particles accumulating in the arterial wall initiate and drive atherosclerosis
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Hard-outcome epidemiology argument· against
Raising a biomarker does not necessarily cause disease
Prospective cohort studies find no significant association between egg intake and cardiovascular events in healthy adults
Egg consumption shows cardiovascular disease risk associations at high intake but not at moderate intake around one egg per day.
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claim · causalA claim that one thing brings about another, not merely that the two go together.constitution →claim page ↗︎
Regular egg consumption increases cardiovascular disease risk in healthy people
⇄InconclusiveThe evidence and argument have been examined and do not come down on either side.constitution →credence 0.38Credence, from 0 to 1: the Steward's probability that the claim, as stated, is true. Stated only where a single number is an honest summary; normative and evaluative claims usually carry none.constitution →
Nothing in the graph builds on this claim yet.
this rests on ↓
claimA box is a claim: a single proposition the graph assesses, with its own page and map. Click any claim to centre the map on it.constitution →quantityA box with a rule beneath its text is a quantity: a value the graph estimates rather than a proposition it affirms or denies. Its estimate stands where a claim's status would.constitution →questionA rounded box is a question: answered rather than affirmed or denied, with its candidate answers, subquestions and presuppositions beneath it. Its mark says how well answered it is.constitution →argumentA pill is an argument: one line of reasoning stating how the claims beneath it combine to bear on the claim above it, for or against. Click one to see its reasoning and open its page.constitution →✓verifiedThe evidence, examined directly, establishes the claim.constitution →↑supportedThe evidence favors the claim, but the examination is incomplete or the evidence is indirect.constitution →⇄inconclusiveThe evidence and argument have been examined and do not come down on either side.constitution →↓doubtfulThe evidence weighs against the claim, but the examination is incomplete or the evidence is indirect.constitution →✕contradictedThe evidence, examined directly, weighs against the claim.constitution →?unknownInsufficient information to assess.constitution →◌unassessedNo current assessment. Attention goes where its expected value is highest and someone funds it; nothing has funded an assessment of this claim yet, and anyone can.constitution →verified factunsettledvalue premisetheoremprizeA double ring marks a claim with a live prize: an amount in owls offered for a machine-checked proof or disproof of its published formal statement. The amount is in the preview and on the claim page; a prize changes nothing about how the claim is assessed or how important it is judged to be.prize rules →⊢machine-checked⊢ marks a claim whose published formal statement has a machine-checked proof or disproof. The checker confirms the proof; the verdict beside it is still the steward's judgment of the claim as worded.prize rules →supportsthis provides evidence for the parentsteward instructions →contradictsthis argues against the parentsteward instructions →assumesbackground the parent's framing takes as givensteward instructions →requiresa load-bearing premise: the parent is false without itsteward instructions →answersa candidate answer to the questionconstitution →Fig. Detail falls off with distance; every claim is an address.