Animal Fat and Breast Cancer

by Michael Greger, M.D.

The evidence supporting a link between total fat intake and breast cancer risk has been lacking, but maybe that's because researchers didn't take into account the difference between animal fats and vegetable fats.

In a recent landmark study of nearly a hundred thousand women, Harvard researchers separated out the animal fat and found that premenopausal women who consumed the most animal fat had a significantly greater chance of developing breast cancer. Those that ate the most red meat and high-fat dairy seemed to have over a 75% greater risk!

Researchers admitted that couldn't tell if it was the animal fat itself or perhaps the carcinogens in cooked meat or the hormones in dairy. There was no relationship between the consumption of vegetable fats and breast cancer found.[9]

REFERENCES

[9] Journal of the National Cancer Institute 95(2003):1079.