For decades, "on the basis of concerns from the American Heart Association and consumer groups,"

"the Federal Trade Commission carried out successful legal action - upheld by the Supreme Court -"

"to compel the egg industry to (cease and) desist from false and misleading advertising"

"that eggs had no harmful effects on health."

See, anti-cholesterol attacks on eggs resulted in severe economic loss through a reduction in egg consumption,

so the egg industry created a "National Commission on Egg Nutrition"

to combat the anti-cholesterol, anti-egg publicity with ads like this,

exclaiming there is "no scientific evidence whatsoever that eating eggs in any way increases the risk of heart attack,"

which the U.S. Court of Appeals found patently false and misleading.

Even the tobacco industry wasn't that brazen,

instead just trying to introduce the element of doubt,

arguing that the relationship between smoking and health remains an open question.

The egg ads made 7 claims, each of which, in truth and in fact,

was determined to be -bleep.

The Court determined the egg industry ads were, and are,

false, misleading, deceptive.

In fact, legal scholars view what the tobacco industry tried to do as the same

as what the American Egg Board's National Commission on Egg Nutrition tried to do.

As with the egg ads, the tobacco industry did more than just espouse one side of a genuine controversy,

but just denied the existence of scientific evidence.

Over the last 36 years, the American Egg Board has spent hundreds of millions of dollars

to convince people eggs are not gonna to kill them—and it's working.

"In combination with aggressive Nutrition Science and Public Relations efforts,"

"research shows that the advertising has been effective"

"in decreasing consumers' concerns over eggs and cholesterol/heart health."

This is from their internal strategy documents I got a hold of.

Currently they're targeting moms.

Their approach is to "surround moms wherever they are."

They pay integration fees for egg product placement in TV shows.

To integrate eggs into The Biggest Loser, for example, could be a million dollars.

But getting some kids story time reading program to integrate eggs

may only take half a million, though.

The American Egg Board keeps track of who is and is not a "friend-of-eggs"

They pays scientists $1500 to sit and answer questions like,

"What studies can help disassociate eggs from cardiovascular disease?"

From the beginning, their arch nemesis was the American Heart Association,

over which they fought a major battle over cholesterol.

In documents retrieved through the Freedom of Information Act,

we see even the USDA repeatedly chastising the egg industry for misrepresenting

the American Heart Association position. In a draft letter to magazine editors,

the egg industry tried to say that the "American Heart Association changed its recommendations"

"to approve an egg a day in 2000, and eventually eliminated its number restrictions on eggs in 2002,"

to which the head of USDA's poultry research and promotion programs had to explain,

"the 'change' in 2000 wasn't a change at all."

"Nothing in the guidelines or recommendations was changed."

What happened is that in response to a question posed by someone planted in the audience,

Heart Association reps acknowledged that even though eggs are

the most concentrated source of cholesterol in the diet,

since an individual egg has less than 300mg of cholesterol,

technically an egg could fit under the 300 mg daily limit.

And in 2002, they just eliminated the specific mention of eggs for consistency sake.

But the American Heart Association insists that they haven't changed their

position and continue to warn consumers about eggs.

Here's from the AHA website at the time.

If one egg has 213 and the limit (dietary cholesterol intake) for people with normal cholesterol is 300

you could fit in an egg, if you cut down on all other animal products.

You could have an egg for breakfast, and then if you add some coffee, some skinless turkey breast, etc.

you could end up...510, nearly twice the recommended limit.

So if you are gonna to eat an egg you need to substitute

vegetables for some of the meat, drink your coffee black, and you'll watch for hidden eggs in baked goods.

And the limit for folks with high cholesterol is 200mg a day,

which may not even allow a single egg a day.

This is how the Senior Director of Nutrition education at the American Egg Board's Egg Nutrition Center

characterized the American Heart Association guidelines:

"Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but this reads like:"

'if you insist on having those deadly high cholesterol eggs your penalty will be'

'to eat vegetables and you can't even have the yummy steak and creamy coffee you love.'

'Really it's not worth eating eggs.'

'Oh, and if you think you'll be able to enjoy some delicious baked goods,'

'forget it, the deadly eggs are there too!'"