Women's Health: A Possible Link Between Red Meat and Breast Cancer
Burgers, bacon, hot dogs, bologna–their effect on health has taken another hit. Researchers are now reporting that younger women who indulge a taste for red meat may raise their chances of getting a common type of breast cancer.
The connection between eating red meat and breast cancer has been studied before, with no clear conclusions. This study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, zeroed in on premenopausal women between the ages of 26 to 46 and looked not just at overall rates of breast cancer but at the incidence of different types of the disease. About 60 percent of breast cancers are fueled by the hormones estrogen and progesterone; the thought is that certain components of red meat, including compounds that develop when it's cooking and hormones fed to the animals to spur growth, could encourage the development of that kind of cancer.
Researchers analyzed the diets and health records of more than 90,000 women over a period of 12 years. About 1,000 cases of breast cancer developed. Of those, the women who developed cancers sensitive to estrogen and progesterone (about half of all cases in the study) had a history of eating more red meat than either women who didn't get cancer at all or those who had cancers not fueled by the hormones. The extra risk ranged from 14 percent more for those who ate between three and five servings per week up to nearly double for women who ate more than 1.5 servings a day. Red meat included beef, lamb, or pork–as a main dish, in sandwiches, and in processed form.
The study does not definitively prove cause and effect. But given that red meat has also been implicated in other forms of cancer and in heart disease, "it's another reason for women to reduce consumption," says Eunyoung Cho, an epidemiologist with the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and an author of the study. There's little downside in choosing fish or chicken or tofu instead.
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