Harvard Medical Student Eats Over 700 Eggs In One Month To Prove It Doesn't Increase "Bad" Cholesterol

Talk about an egg-citing approach to nutritional science.

Nick Norwitz, a metabolic researcher, made headlines for eating over 700 eggs in a month to prove a point about cholesterol.

The bold experiment was designed to challenge the commonly held belief that dietary cholesterol—often found in eggs—leads to elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad” cholesterol, which is associated with heart disease.

Nick Norwitz ate over 700 eggs in a month to prove it wouldn’t increase his “bad” cholesterol levels

The Harvard Medical student undertook this self-experiment after noticing that people were still fearful of eating eggs due to long-standing health guidelines warning about dietary cholesterol.

Norwitz explained that he consumed around 25 eggs per day, amounting to over 700 eggs during the month.

Norwitz found that while his cholesterol levels increased drastically, his “bad” cholesterol levels actually decreased

“I hypothesized that eating 720 eggs in one month, which alone amounts to 133,200mg of cholesterol, would not increase my cholesterol,” Dr. Norwitz told Daily Mail. “Specifically, it would not increase my LDL cholesterol.

“And, indeed, it didn’t, not a smidge.”

He added: “Even though my dietary intake of cholesterol more than quintupled, my LDL cholesterol actually dropped.”

Pairing his egg-streme egg consumption with a small amount of carbohydrates prevented his “bad cholesterol” levels from spiking

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Norwitz explains that when “lean, insulin-sensitive” people go on ketogenic diets, their LDL cholesterol levels tend to spike.

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He prevented this by consuming just enough carbs to pull himself out of ketosis — around 60 grams per day — which he attained by eating either 2 bananas or 21 ounces of blueberries.