Every so often, nutrition headlines give us a story so perfect, so poetic, that it single-handedly exposes decades of dietary fear-mongering. Enter Dr. Nick Norwitz, a Harvard-trained PhD and medical student who decided to do what every “cholesterol-phobic” dietitian warns against: eat 720 eggs in 30 days. That’s 24 eggs a day. A full carton… daily.
And the punchline?
His cholesterol went down.
If there were ever a moment to stand up, clap, and whisper “I knew it” while frying six sunny-side-ups in butter, this is it.
Let’s break down each meme — in order — and unpack what this experiment reveals about the human body, cholesterol, and why eggs remain one of nature’s most perfect foods.
Harvard Student Eats 720 Eggs and His Cholesterol DROPS
The story sounds fake — like something out of a broscience forum — yet it’s real. A Harvard medical student consumed 720 eggs in a month and experienced an improvement in his blood lipids. His LDL dropped. His HDL stayed strong. His triglycerides remained stable.
In the age of cereal, oat oils, and plant-based “fake eggs,” nothing is more rebellious than eating real food and watching your health markers improve. It’s a reminder that whole foods don’t obey the outdated dietary models built around fear instead of physiology.
Media Coverage Confirms His Cholesterol Actually Dropped
Mainstream outlets picked up the story because it flips the old narrative upside down. For decades, people believed eating cholesterol raised cholesterol — a myth debunked repeatedly since the 1990s. The Harvard egg experiment adds a colorful, data-rich example to what researchers already know: dietary cholesterol has minimal impact on blood cholesterol for most people. The body tightly regulates its own cholesterol production, increasing or decreasing synthesis as needed.
Eggs weren’t the problem — but maybe the breakfast cereal aisle was.
720 Eggs, 133,000 mg Cholesterol… and LDL Drops 20%
Dr. Norwitz outlined the numbers himself:
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720 eggs
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133,000+ mg cholesterol
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24 eggs per day
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LDL down 20%
If cholesterol behaved the way nutrition textbooks from the 1970s predicted, this experiment should have ended with a medical emergency, not improved biomarkers. Instead, it demonstrates what metabolic researchers and lipidologists have known for years: your body adjusts its internal cholesterol production based on dietary intake. Flood the system with cholesterol, and your liver simply makes less.
Meanwhile, when you deprive the body of cholesterol — cereal-for-breakfast culture — the liver ramps up production, often leading to worse numbers.
Eggs + Steak vs. Cereal: The Great Nutritional Downgrade
One of the memes in your lineup hits a cultural nerve: humans swapped eggs and steak — the foods our ancestors thrived on — for technicolor cereal coated in sugar, vegetable oils, and synthetic vitamins. Looking at the two side-by-side is almost depressing. One is real food with complete proteins, bioavailable nutrients, and healthy fats. The other is… cereal.
The bigger downgrade in human history might genuinely be impossible to name.
“I Swapped Eggs for Cereal to Watch My Cholesterol” — The Face Says It All
This meme is funny because it’s true. People still avoid eggs due to cholesterol fears but think cereal is safe because it’s “low-fat.” Meanwhile, cereal spikes blood sugar, raises triglycerides, increases hunger, and contributes zero meaningful nutrients compared to eggs.
Avoiding eggs to “protect your heart” is like throwing away your fire extinguisher during a kitchen fire because someone once told you it looked threatening.
Cholesterol Is Required for Vitamin D Production
“No cholesterol, no vitamin D.”
This isn’t an opinion — it’s physiology.
Cholesterol is the substrate your skin converts into vitamin D using UVB light. If you artificially lower cholesterol through diet, you reduce your ability to synthesize vitamin D, a deficiency linked to:
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fatigue
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immune dysfunction
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chronic disease
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mood disorders
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metabolic issues
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weakened bones
Nature didn’t make cholesterol optional — it made it foundational.
The Most Nutritious Foods on Earth Are Rich in Cholesterol
If cholesterol were harmful, evolution did a terrible job designing the human menu. The world’s most nutrient-dense foods — eggs, fish eggs, shellfish, grass-fed meats, liver — are naturally high in cholesterol. These foods fuel:
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hormone production
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brain development
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cellular repair
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fertility
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immune function
The meme’s message is simple: you cannot fear cholesterol without also fearing the most nutritious foods that have nourished humans for millennia.
Breastmilk: Nature’s High-Cholesterol Superfood
If cholesterol were dangerous, why would breastmilk — the sole food infants rely on for rapid brain growth — be loaded with it?
Infants require cholesterol to:
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develop the myelin sheath
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build brain tissue
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form synapses
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establish hormone signaling
Nature didn’t get it wrong. The dietary guidelines did.
Breastmilk contains cholesterol because life requires cholesterol. Growth requires cholesterol. Healing requires cholesterol. So does hormonal balance, cognition, and immune function.
Do. Not. Fear. Cholesterol.
🥩 Closing Thoughts
The Harvard egg experiment isn’t just a quirky nutrition story — it’s a cultural reset button. After decades of fear-based guidelines, cholesterol emerges as the hero it always was. Eggs aren’t dangerous. Steak isn’t dangerous. Real food isn’t dangerous.
What’s dangerous?
The decades we spent replacing real nourishment with sugar-coated, seed-oil-soaked, lab-fortified breakfast products.
Carnivore Bar was built on the simple truth Dr. Norwitz just proved in spectacular fashion: when you finally feed the body what it’s designed to eat, your health improves — effortlessly.
Now pass the eggs.
References
- Astrup, Arne, et al. “Dietary Cholesterol, Egg Intake, and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: Recent Evidence and Clinical Implications.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 110, no. 6, 2019, pp. 1441–1450.
- Fernandez, Maria Luz, and Kevin L. M. Ru. “The Effect of Dietary Cholesterol on Serum Cholesterol Levels and Lipoprotein Profiles.” Current Atherosclerosis Reports, vol. 18, no. 5, 2016.
- Piers, Leonie S., et al. “Substituting Breakfast Cereal with Eggs Results in Better Satiety and Improved Metabolic Health Markers.” Nutrition Research, vol. 32, no. 5, 2012, pp. 318–326.