It was recently reported that breast cancer patients can reduce their risk of recurrence by adopting low-fat diets. That comes as no surprise.
In a study of 2,437 middle-aged breast cancer patients, it was found that those who reduced fat consumption after undergoing standard treatment for early breast cancer enjoyed a 24 percent reduction in their risk of recurrence. In some cases, the risk fell by 42 percent. The federally funded Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study was performed at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
A number of past studies have found a strong association between consumption of meat and other animal fats and elevated risk of breast, colon and other forms of cancer, which kill nearly 555,000 Americans annually. A Danish study of 117,000 women in last October’s New England Journal of Medicine implicated milk consumption. Two years ago, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and the British Lancet reported that consumption of animal fat raised the risk of breast cancer among women, but vegetable fats did not.
The breast cancer study provides women one more incentive to join the rush to meat and dairy alternatives now widely available in supermarket frozen foods and produce sections.
Lawrence Rangel, Lewiston
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