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American Morning
Paging Dr. Gupta: Woman's Risk of Breast Cancer Can be Affected by Diet
Aired July 16, 2003 - 09:23 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A woman's risk of breast cancer could increase because of what she eats in her 20s, her 30s and her 40s.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us with more on that.
This comes from a giant study.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: A huge study, over 90,000 women, and those are the sort of studies that you pay attention to, no question. There's been a long-standing belief, sort of things out there in the medical community, suggesting that the foods you eat might actually lead to certain kinds of cancer, and this is another thing to provide some fodder to that evidence. Again, women's in their 20s, 30s and 40s, most studies looking at breast cancer and food looked at post-menopausal women. This is the first time they really look at pre-menopausal women.
Take a look at the study itself. Again, women, about 90,000 the number, ages 26 to 46. A much younger age group, and they were followed for eight years. What they found at the end of this eight- year period, was that women who took in the highest concentration of animal fat, and specifically, animal fat, not total fat overall, had a 33 percent risk increase in breast cancer in that particular population.
So pretty startling numbers there. Obviously, a lot of questions as to why this might occur, why would animal fat lead to breast cancers? There are theories out there as well. But certainly, I think the point from the study, this large study, is that if your diet is made up of a large percentage of animal fat, it's probably a good idea to cut that down. We already knew that because of heart disease, but breast cancer as well now.
O'BRIEN: So red meat from animal fat, but then in addition to that, the study also cited cheese and butter and...
GUPTA: That's right, so dairy products as well. High-fat content dairy products, such as whole milk, cheese, you mentioned things like that.
O'BRIEN: Ninety-thousand people, but it's self-purported, meaning the women basically kept track of what they were eating. Is there a high risk of people misreporting what they perceiving they were eating, do you think? GUPTA: There can be. And dietary patterns tend to be one of the most difficult, because you probably can't remember what had you for dinner two nights ago, and most people can't, and I think that's a problem as well. But this whole link between animal fat and cancer is a very interesting one, Soledad, because there's been a belief that, first of all, maybe it's the foods themselves that might actually cause cancer, but it also might be the fact that it increases estrogen levels, which also might be a marker for breast cancer.
O'BRIEN: It certainly is an interesting study. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Affected by Diet>
Aired July 16, 2003 - 09:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A woman's risk of breast cancer could increase because of what she eats in her 20s, her 30s and her 40s.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us with more on that.
This comes from a giant study.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: A huge study, over 90,000 women, and those are the sort of studies that you pay attention to, no question. There's been a long-standing belief, sort of things out there in the medical community, suggesting that the foods you eat might actually lead to certain kinds of cancer, and this is another thing to provide some fodder to that evidence. Again, women's in their 20s, 30s and 40s, most studies looking at breast cancer and food looked at post-menopausal women. This is the first time they really look at pre-menopausal women.
Take a look at the study itself. Again, women, about 90,000 the number, ages 26 to 46. A much younger age group, and they were followed for eight years. What they found at the end of this eight- year period, was that women who took in the highest concentration of animal fat, and specifically, animal fat, not total fat overall, had a 33 percent risk increase in breast cancer in that particular population.
So pretty startling numbers there. Obviously, a lot of questions as to why this might occur, why would animal fat lead to breast cancers? There are theories out there as well. But certainly, I think the point from the study, this large study, is that if your diet is made up of a large percentage of animal fat, it's probably a good idea to cut that down. We already knew that because of heart disease, but breast cancer as well now.
O'BRIEN: So red meat from animal fat, but then in addition to that, the study also cited cheese and butter and...
GUPTA: That's right, so dairy products as well. High-fat content dairy products, such as whole milk, cheese, you mentioned things like that.
O'BRIEN: Ninety-thousand people, but it's self-purported, meaning the women basically kept track of what they were eating. Is there a high risk of people misreporting what they perceiving they were eating, do you think? GUPTA: There can be. And dietary patterns tend to be one of the most difficult, because you probably can't remember what had you for dinner two nights ago, and most people can't, and I think that's a problem as well. But this whole link between animal fat and cancer is a very interesting one, Soledad, because there's been a belief that, first of all, maybe it's the foods themselves that might actually cause cancer, but it also might be the fact that it increases estrogen levels, which also might be a marker for breast cancer.
O'BRIEN: It certainly is an interesting study. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Affected by Diet>
