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Wed 15 Nov, 2006 01:59 pm
Red Meat Linked to Breast Cancer
Published On 11/15/2006 1:58:11 AM
By Angela A. Sun
Eating red meat may be linked to breast cancer, according to a study of women's health conducted by Harvard Medical School researchers.
The study assessed 90,000 women over a 12-year period and found that higher red meat intake increased the risk of hormone-related breast cancer.
Women who ate more than 1.5 daily servings of red meat?-which includes beef, pork, and lamb?-were nearly twice as likely to be at risk than women who ate 3 or fewer servings per week.
The researchers gathered evidence by means of "a food frequency questionnaire," according to the study, published Monday in Archives of Internal Medicine. "Breast cancers were self-reported and confirmed by review of pathologic reports," the study said.
A Harvard University Dining Services spokeswoman, Crista Martin, said that campus menus do not rely heavily on red meat.
"Beef appears as an option 3 times in [the] 42 [entrees] over the coming week," Martin said.
According to Martin, HUDS receives nutrition information from the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).
"We use the tenets of Dr. Walter Willett's Healthy Eating Pyramid to guide our menus and the nutrition information we share with students," Martin said, referring to a nutritional aid developed by researchers at HSPH.
"That said," Martin added, "we believe very much in the student's right to make his or her own dietary decisions, and students are showing a growing interest in areas of healthy eating."
Told about the recent study, one Harvard female agreed that dining options on campus favor other sources of protein.
"I guess we're safe here then," said Erica S. C. Lin '10, "because all we eat here is chicken. I really haven't eaten red meat in a long time."
And one freshman offered a more philosophical approach to healthy eating.
"There are a bunch of studies that say, ?'fat good,' ?'fat bad,' that show links between this dieting trend and this disease onset," said Judith E. Fan '10. "Just don't eat too much of anything, and long life and prosperity will come to you."
The Harvard Crimson
This observation appears to be specific to female as opposed to male breast cancer.
You can probably avoid red meat and still have breast cancer, just as many non-smokers still get lung cancer.
Be sure to eat lots of chicken and turkey.
Oh, please! If sufficient studies are done, you can link damned near anything to some kind of tumor. After thrity years of anecdotal, non-scientific observation, I am totally convinced that - other than viral tumors - the most consistent factor in neoplastic occurence is genetic. There are certainly other considerations. Mammary tumors in dogs are quite common in unspayed females, and I assure you that most of them I saw ate dog food rather than red meat. The common factor for them was estrogen, not diet. On the other hand, I saw a total of two hyper-aggressive pancreatic tumors in dogs, and they were fourteen months apart - in a mother and daughter Lhasa Apso pair. Think there could have been a hereditary component there?
CowDoc wrote:... Mammary tumors in dogs are quite common in unspayed females, and I assure you that most of them I saw ate dog food rather than red meat.
COw Doc, we're talking about human breast cancer, not canine!
Even if there is a red meat connection, it may be how that meat was raised, with which hormones, rather than some factor about the meat itself.
ossobuco wrote:Even if there is a red meat connection, it may be how that meat was raised, with which hormones, rather than some factor about the meat itself.
Also, how the meat was cooked.
Quote:COw Doc, we're talking about human breast cancer, not canine!
MIT had completed a long term study on genetic components of polymorphism and disease occurences in different dog breeds and discovered that single nucleotides , genetically transferred within specific breeds leads to many of the so called "favored ailments" that dog breeds can carry. AS a result , te researchers have begun transferring their methodologies to various human populations.
If your gonna eat steaks, remember to properly select your ancestors
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