Dietary Fat The conclusion of a study on dietary fat and breast cancer in the March 10 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that a diet high in fat may not increase a woman’s risk for breast cancer. A low fat diet does not necessarily reduce risk for the disease either. Researchers examined the diets of more than 88,700 female nurses over 14 years and found that the women whose fat intake made up more than 40 percent of their daily calories had a somewhat lower risk of breast cancer than women whose diet was less than 20 percent fat. Nutritionists recommend that no more than 30 percent of daily calories come from fat. Questions about a link between dietary fat and breast cancer came about as diets and incidence of breast cancer were looked at in other countries. Higher breast cancer rates are found in Western countries such as the US where diets have a higher fat content than in countries such as China and Japan, where fat consumption and breast cancer rates are lower. Breast cancer is, however, a complicated disease and singling out one variable such as fat doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s more likely that many factors affect breast cancer risk. The March Journal of the National Cancer Institute published an analysis of 13 previously published studies on this issue. The analysis suggests that lowering dietary fat can reduce estrogen in the blood. Estrogen is thought to promote the growth of some types of breast cancer. As the debate continues, beware of the simple-fix Breast Cancer Diet Prevention books, but keep in mind that a low fat diet is important for good health. The US Department of Agriculture provides nutritional data on thousands of foods in their on-line database. Calorie counts are noted as energy/kcal and fats are called lipids or fatty acids.
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