Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Weight & Breast Cancer
Aired July 16, 2003 - 06:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You are what you eat, but when matters, too. If you ate fat in your 20s, 30s and 40s, you may have increased your risk for breast cancer. It's all in a new study in the "Journal of the National Cancer Institute." If you don't have time to read it, Dr. Sandy Fryhofer is here to tell us all about it.
DR. SANDRA FRYHOFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the bottom line, Carol, the more fat you eat, the higher the risk of getting breast cancer. And the researchers at Harvard Medical School followed the dietary habits of over 90,000 pre-menopausal women aged 26 to 46. They followed them for eight years. During this time, more than 700 of these women were diagnosed with breast cancer. And when they looked at the diets of these women, they found a link.
The women who consumed the highest amounts of animal fat had a higher risk of breast cancer. Now, this includes saturated fats in red meat, in high dairy products like whole milk, ice cream, butter, cheese. Vegetable or polyunsaturated fats like those found in sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil, were not linked to breast cancer. And even though the trans fats are really bad for your heart, they were not linked to breast cancer in this study. The same goes for cholesterol.
Also, the omega 3 fatty acids, those heart healthy fats found in fish, these weren't linked to breast cancer risk, either. The link was only seen in animal fats, which are mostly saturated and monounsaturated fats.
COSTELLO: So why do they think this is happening?
FRYHOFER: Well, what we've known is that fat in general is thought to increase the risk of breast cancer by elevating levels of estrogen circulating in the blood. But some of this data has been conflicting and since this study showed that the link was only in animal fat, but not with vegetable fat, they don't think it's related to estrogen. It's more likely due to some other food component, for example, cooked red meat is a source of carcinogens that have been found to cause breast tumors in animals. Also, high fat dairy products contain growth factors. And these could be related to breast cancer risk.
COSTELLO: So all of this has been studied before and how is this one different? Or is it?
FRYHOFER: Well, there have been lots of studies done on this and some of the results are conflicting. But unlike this study, previous studies contained relatively few pre-menopausal women. This contained 90,000 pre-menopausal women and although these findings need to be verified, this is an additional reason to limit the fat in your diet.
We already know that these diets that are high in fat increase your risk of heart disease and fat's not only dietary factor that's been linked to breast cancer. Alcohol, more than two drinks a day of alcohol has been found to increase the risk of breast cancer by about 30 percent, so you need to watch that. There are also studies that have linked diets low in folic acid to an increased risk of breast cancer.
So you still have to eat those fruits and vegetables as well as limit the fat.
COSTELLO: Yes, all those people on the Atkins Diet, take note.
Thank you.
FRYHOFER: Fruits and vegetables.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
And Dr. Sanjay Gupta will have more on this on AMERICAN MORNING.
FRYHOFER: Yes, this is a big story. You're going to be hearing about it all today.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Dr. Sandy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 16, 2003 - 06:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You are what you eat, but when matters, too. If you ate fat in your 20s, 30s and 40s, you may have increased your risk for breast cancer. It's all in a new study in the "Journal of the National Cancer Institute." If you don't have time to read it, Dr. Sandy Fryhofer is here to tell us all about it.
DR. SANDRA FRYHOFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the bottom line, Carol, the more fat you eat, the higher the risk of getting breast cancer. And the researchers at Harvard Medical School followed the dietary habits of over 90,000 pre-menopausal women aged 26 to 46. They followed them for eight years. During this time, more than 700 of these women were diagnosed with breast cancer. And when they looked at the diets of these women, they found a link.
The women who consumed the highest amounts of animal fat had a higher risk of breast cancer. Now, this includes saturated fats in red meat, in high dairy products like whole milk, ice cream, butter, cheese. Vegetable or polyunsaturated fats like those found in sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil, were not linked to breast cancer. And even though the trans fats are really bad for your heart, they were not linked to breast cancer in this study. The same goes for cholesterol.
Also, the omega 3 fatty acids, those heart healthy fats found in fish, these weren't linked to breast cancer risk, either. The link was only seen in animal fats, which are mostly saturated and monounsaturated fats.
COSTELLO: So why do they think this is happening?
FRYHOFER: Well, what we've known is that fat in general is thought to increase the risk of breast cancer by elevating levels of estrogen circulating in the blood. But some of this data has been conflicting and since this study showed that the link was only in animal fat, but not with vegetable fat, they don't think it's related to estrogen. It's more likely due to some other food component, for example, cooked red meat is a source of carcinogens that have been found to cause breast tumors in animals. Also, high fat dairy products contain growth factors. And these could be related to breast cancer risk.
COSTELLO: So all of this has been studied before and how is this one different? Or is it?
FRYHOFER: Well, there have been lots of studies done on this and some of the results are conflicting. But unlike this study, previous studies contained relatively few pre-menopausal women. This contained 90,000 pre-menopausal women and although these findings need to be verified, this is an additional reason to limit the fat in your diet.
We already know that these diets that are high in fat increase your risk of heart disease and fat's not only dietary factor that's been linked to breast cancer. Alcohol, more than two drinks a day of alcohol has been found to increase the risk of breast cancer by about 30 percent, so you need to watch that. There are also studies that have linked diets low in folic acid to an increased risk of breast cancer.
So you still have to eat those fruits and vegetables as well as limit the fat.
COSTELLO: Yes, all those people on the Atkins Diet, take note.
Thank you.
FRYHOFER: Fruits and vegetables.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
And Dr. Sanjay Gupta will have more on this on AMERICAN MORNING.
FRYHOFER: Yes, this is a big story. You're going to be hearing about it all today.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Dr. Sandy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
