Red, Processed Meats May Double Breast Cancer Risk

Women looking to avoid getting breast cancer may want to decrease their consumption of hotdogs and hamburgers. In a recent study of thousands of British women it was revealed that red and processed meats had a strong link to breast cancer risk. Diet and breast cancer have been connected in previous studies, but this study collected more detailed dietary information.

In a British study 35,372 women between the ages of 35 and 69 were observed and followed for eight years. Of those women, those who ate the most red meat were more likely to get breast cancer than those who did not consume red meat. Similar conclusions were drawn for both post and premenopausal women.

If a woman ate 2 or more ounces of red meat per day, she increased her risk of breast cancer by 56 percent when compared to women who did not eat red meat at all. Those women who ate more than three quarters of an ounce per day of processed meat raised their risk of contracting breast cancer by 64%

In relationship to premenopausal women, the link between red, processed meats and breast cancer was not as strong. However, premenopausal women who ate the most of these types of meats increased their risk breast cancer by 20% when compared to those women who did not consume meat. The study was published in the British Journal of Cancer by professor Janet E. Cade and her colleagues.

As mentioned before, many studies have found a relationship between the intake of meat, saturated fat and but not all studies conclude that the former increases the risk of the latter. What is different about this study was that regardless of how much food a woman ate in general, the content of her diet, age, weight, exercise, and smoking habits, red and processed meat consumption still increased her chances of getting breast cancer.

There are many reasons why a strong relationship exists between these types of foods and breast cancer. Saturated fat has been linked to the possible increase of tumor cells. Compounds that are created when meat is grilled may promote tumors in animals and possibly humans.