1. Skip to navigation
  2. Skip to content
  3. Skip to sidebar
ConsumerAffairs
Write a ReviewWrite a Review

PhotoBreast cancer patients who eat high-fat dairy products increase their chance of dying from the disease years later, a new study finds.

“Specifically, women consuming one or more servings per day of high-fat dairy had a 64 percent higher risk of dying from any cause and a 49 percent increased risk of dying from their breast cancer during the follow-up period,” said Candyce H. Kroenke, ScD, MPH, staff scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.

The category of high-fat dairy products researchers tracked included cream, whole milk, condensed or evaporated milk, pudding, ice cream, custard, flan and also cheeses and yogurts that were not low-fat or non-fat.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the first to examine the relationship between high-fat and low-fat dairy consumption following a diagnosis of breast cancer and long-term breast cancer survival.

Estrogen levels

Previous studies have shown that higher lifetime exposure to estrogen is a  pathway to breast cancer. Estrogen levels are believed to be elevated in dairy products consumed in the Western world, because most of its milk comes from pregnant cows. Estrogenic hormones reside primarily in fat, so levels are higher in high-fat than in low-fat dairy products.

The researchers studied a cohort of women who were diagnosed with early-stage, invasive breast cancer between 1997 and 2000, primarily Northern California and Utah.

Those consuming larger amounts of high-fat dairy (one serving or more per day) had “higher breast cancer mortality as well as higher all-cause mortality and higher non-breast cancer mortality,” Kroenke wrote.

In general, the women studied reported that they consumed low-fat milk and butter most often, and they consumed relatively limited amounts of low-fat dairy desserts, low-fat cheese and high-fat yogurt. Overall, low-fat dairy intake was greater than high-fat dairy.

Switch to low-fat 

The study found an association between high-fat dairy and breast cancer mortality, but no association with low-fat dairy products and breast cancer outcomes.

“High-fat dairy is generally not recommended as part of a healthy diet,” said senior author Bette J. Caan, DrPH, a Kaiser research scientist. “Switching to low-fat dairy is an easy thing to modify.”

Share your Comments

Please enable javascript to comment on this page
Connie Walcott Tyler
I think it is the sugar content and not the fat that is the culprit as cancer feeds on sugar.
Connie Walcott Tyler
Could it be that Breast cancer patients who eat high-fat dairy products increase their chance of dying from the disease years later because of the chemo and radiation they received for treatment? I would think so.The only breast cancer survivors I know that lived into their elderly years after breast cancer were the ones that never had chemo or radiation and that included two mother-in-laws and and one sister-in-law. All the others that I knew died within 5 years and they all had the chemo and radiation.
Connie Walcott Tyler
Could it be that Breast cancer patients who eat high-fat dairy products increase their chance of dying from the disease years later because of the chemo and radiation they received for treatment? I would think so.The only breast cancer survivors I know that lived into their elderly years after breast cancer were the ones that never had chemo or radiation and that included two mother-in-laws and and one sister-in-law. All the others that I knew died within 5 years and they all had the chemo and radiation.
Janie Orsburn
It is all still confusing, people as a rule tend to do what makes them feel the best, it is hard to tell what you should or should not do. You could be dead before another study comes out!
Quantcast