I found this article in my local paper and am not sure what to make of it.
Judy
Study Links Fats to Breast Cancer
Young women who eat a lot of meat, cheese and other foods rich in animal fat
may be increasing their risk of breast cancer, a new study has found.
This study, a large one involving more than 90,000 nurses, found no link
between breast cancer and fats from plants, such as olive oil. But it did
find that women who ate more red meat and high-fat dairy products showed a
modestly increased risk of getting the disease.
The study is significant because it involved so many women and because they
were so young, aged 26 to 46 years. Most previous studies involved
postmenopausal women.
Breast cancer is more common after the age of 50, but it may take years to
develop, and researchers have been trying to identify factors earlier in
life that may play a role. This study suggests that what women eat in their
20's, 30's and 40's may be important.
In this study, the women filled out a detailed questionnaire about their
eating habits, first in 1991, then again in 1995.
The researchers divided them into five different groups, based on their
intake of animal fat. By 1999, 714 of the women had developed breast cancer,
134 in the high-fat group and 123 in the low-fat group. Dr. Eunyoung Cho,
of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass., and Harvard Medical School
said that even though this may seem like a small difference, it is
significant. "Women in the high-fat group had a 33 per cent greater risk of
breast cancer," she said in an interview. She said it might be wise for
young women to decrease the animal fat in their diets as reducing the animal
fat you eat also reduces the risk of heart disease.
It is not clear why a diet high in animal fat would increase the risk of
cancer, Dr. Cho said. In fact, it may be that other substances found in
foods containing animal fat are the culprits, not the fat itself.
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