New study finds high fat diet not linked to breast cancer

October 31, 2000 in Cancer Prevention, Healthy Eating, Women's Health

New study finds high fat diet not linked to breast cancer

Eating a high fat diet does not increase the production of hormones that bring a higher risk of breast cancer, say a team of Harvard researchers. Scientists have suggested that a high fat diet would increase the levels of the female hormone estrogen, which has already been implicated in the development of breast cancer. The researchers compared hormone levels in 381 women and correlated them to the proportion of the calories in their diet came from fat.

They found that women who consumed a higher fat diet seemed to have lower levels of estrogen than did women who consumed a lower fat diet. When obesity was taken into account, each 5% increase in energy from fat brought a 2.3% decrease in estrogen level.

The authors conclude these results argue against the theory that high fat diets increase the level of estrogen and the risk of breast cancer.

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