Fatty foods & breast cancer

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Nov, 2003

Women who eat more animal fat have a higher risk of premenopausal breast cancer. (In earlier studies, the same researchers found no link in postmenopausal women.) For roughly eight years, researchers tracked the diets of more than 90,000 premenopausal women, 700 of whom were diagnosed with breast cancer (average age: 43) during that time. The risk of breast cancer was linked to red meat, whole milk, cream, ice cream, butter, cream cheese, and other cheeses (except cottage and ricotta).

What to do: Not all studies agree with the new findings, though few have tracked so many premenopausal women. Nevertheless, it's worth cutting back on full-fat dairy foods and red meat to lower the risk of heart disease.

J. Nat. Cancer Inst. 95: 1079, 2003.