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One of the shibboleths of the animal rights movement is that eating meat is unhealthy and contributes to diseases such as cancer. But a new report from the ongoing Nurses’ Health Study suggests at least some of those claims may not prove to be true.
Researchers compared the diet of women in the study who didn’t have breast cancer with the almost 3,000 women in the study who did have breast cancer. What they found was surprising – there was no association between consumption of fat and breast cancer. In addition, researchers found that women who ate large proportions of animal fat were at no greater risk of breast cancer than those who didn’t.
As the researchers summed up their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association, "Our research indicates it’s highly unlikely that women who consume a low-fat diet are protected against breast cancer. Equally it appears a high-fat diet also poses no increased risk for the disease."
There are some limits to study, though. It only looked at a 14-year time period, and the results of low fat diets may require longer than 14 years to show any decreased risk. In addition, the study didn’t look at women with extremely low fat intakes of 10 percent or less of total calories.
There is one bright spot for animal rights activists in the study, though – it does contradict results of animal studies which found associations between high fat diets and cancer.
Source:
No link between dietary fat and breast cancer, study shows. Brenda Coleman, Associated Press, March 9, 1999.