# Would a real life "Cood Luke" style egg contest trigger a heart attack

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-real-life-cood-luke-style-egg-contest-trigger-a-heart-attack/249778>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 11, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-real-life-cood-luke-style-egg-contest-trigger-a-heart-attack/249778 "2004-06-11T04:24:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-real-life-cood-luke-style-egg-contest-trigger-a-heart-attack/249778/1 "2004-06-11T04:24:31Z")

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In the film _Cool Hand Luke_, there’s a famous scene where Luke is challenged to eat 50 boiled eggs at one setting.

I assume that eating any kind of food in that quantity would make most people pass out. But if a person ate a whole load of eggs at one time, (maybe less than 50), wouldn’t the cholesterol quickly clog a blood vessel and kill you?

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**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-real-life-cood-luke-style-egg-contest-trigger-a-heart-attack/249778/2 "2004-06-11T05:02:48Z")

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Nah. Recent research shows that dietary cholesterol doesn’t have the huge impact it was once thought to have on blood cholesterol levels. Go ahead and eat your eggs, it won’t hurt you. (Well, eating 50 might. But not by clogging your arteries with cholesterol.)

[Cite.](http://www.aeb.org/food/eggs-health.html)

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**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-real-life-cood-luke-style-egg-contest-trigger-a-heart-attack/249778/3 "2004-06-11T05:21:21Z")

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They did this on MTV’s Jackass. It didn’t make anybody’s heart stop, but it did make everybody puke. Rather a lot… :eek:

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**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-real-life-cood-luke-style-egg-contest-trigger-a-heart-attack/249778/4 "2004-06-11T06:27:28Z")

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It takes a long, long time (relatively speaking) for arteries to clog. Even if cholesterol were as harmful as has been claimed, you’d probably still have to eat that quantity every day for months or possibly even years before it would kill you.

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**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-real-life-cood-luke-style-egg-contest-trigger-a-heart-attack/249778/5 "2004-06-11T14:45:22Z")

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> [@Hail Ants](#):
>
> They did this on MTV’s Jackass. It didn’t make anybody’s heart stop, but it did make everybody puke. Rather a lot… :eek:

Yes, but they were \*encouraged \* to puke.