Breast cancer survivors may reduce their chances of survival if they eat too much saturated fat, found primarily in the American diet in cheese, chicken, and junk food.
Breast Cancer Survival, Butterfat, & Chicken
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Though small consolation, one benefit of the fact that breast cancer is now the #1 cancer among women is that breast cancer survival is a very active area of research. For example, this major 2011 study, which followed about 4,000 women with breast cancer for seven years.
Not all of them made it.
The researchers tried to figure out if there were any dietary factors that may have been associated with their early demise. They found two things, and the first was saturated fat intake. Those women who ate the most saturated fat after diagnosis increased their disk of dying in those seven years by 41%. So, where is saturated fat found in our diet, so we can avoid it?
First thing people tend to think of when they think of saturated fat is beef, like a big fat juicy steak. But no, beef doesn’t even make the top five. This is from the National Cancer Institute. #1, cheese; #2, pizza; which is basically another way of saying cheese; #3 is grain-based desserts, which means primarily cakes, cookies, and doughnuts—which is why pink doughnuts may not be the best way to celebrate breast cancer awareness month—then #4, ice cream; and #5, chicken.
You thought pink doughnuts were bad? I’m not making this up. And, of course, grilling and frying meats makes them particularly carcinogenic due to heterocyclic amine formation, so KFC better donate to breast cancer research.
You’ve heard me talk about this before. Chicken is not a low-fat food—even skinless and steamed, and, in fact, one of the top five contributors of saturated fat in the American diet. Then comes pork, burgers, Mexi—which uses lots of lard—beef, and reduced fat milk, which is only 2% fat—by weight. But by calories (which is what matters in the body), reduced fat milk is 30% fat. It’s like if you took a stick of butter, and dunked it into a cup of water, and said see, now it’s only 50% fat. No, it’s 100% fat. The water doesn’t count.
But anyways, these are the top ten foods to stay away from to decrease our saturated fat intake, which may not only help prevent breast cancer in the first place, but to improve survival for those that have it.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Beasley JM, Newcomb PA, Trentham-Dietz A, Hampton JM, Bersch AJ, Passarelli MN, Holick CN, Titus-Ernstoff L, Egan KM, Holmes MD, Willett WC. Post-diagnosis dietary factors and survival after invasive breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2011 Jul;128(1):229-36.
- American Cancer Society. Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2011-2012.
- National Cancer Institute. 2010. Top Food Sources of Saturated Fat among US Population.
- Sugimura T, Wakabayashi K, Nakagama H, Nagao M. Heterocyclic amines: Mutagens/carcinogens produced during cooking of meat and fish. Cancer Sci. 2004 Apr;95(4):290-9.
- Cho E, Spiegelman D, Hunter DJ, Chen WY, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Willett WC. Premenopausal fat intake and risk of breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003 Jul 16;95(14):1079-85.
Images thanks to MCB and Renee Comet via Wikimedia Commons.
Though small consolation, one benefit of the fact that breast cancer is now the #1 cancer among women is that breast cancer survival is a very active area of research. For example, this major 2011 study, which followed about 4,000 women with breast cancer for seven years.
Not all of them made it.
The researchers tried to figure out if there were any dietary factors that may have been associated with their early demise. They found two things, and the first was saturated fat intake. Those women who ate the most saturated fat after diagnosis increased their disk of dying in those seven years by 41%. So, where is saturated fat found in our diet, so we can avoid it?
First thing people tend to think of when they think of saturated fat is beef, like a big fat juicy steak. But no, beef doesn’t even make the top five. This is from the National Cancer Institute. #1, cheese; #2, pizza; which is basically another way of saying cheese; #3 is grain-based desserts, which means primarily cakes, cookies, and doughnuts—which is why pink doughnuts may not be the best way to celebrate breast cancer awareness month—then #4, ice cream; and #5, chicken.
You thought pink doughnuts were bad? I’m not making this up. And, of course, grilling and frying meats makes them particularly carcinogenic due to heterocyclic amine formation, so KFC better donate to breast cancer research.
You’ve heard me talk about this before. Chicken is not a low-fat food—even skinless and steamed, and, in fact, one of the top five contributors of saturated fat in the American diet. Then comes pork, burgers, Mexi—which uses lots of lard—beef, and reduced fat milk, which is only 2% fat—by weight. But by calories (which is what matters in the body), reduced fat milk is 30% fat. It’s like if you took a stick of butter, and dunked it into a cup of water, and said see, now it’s only 50% fat. No, it’s 100% fat. The water doesn’t count.
But anyways, these are the top ten foods to stay away from to decrease our saturated fat intake, which may not only help prevent breast cancer in the first place, but to improve survival for those that have it.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Beasley JM, Newcomb PA, Trentham-Dietz A, Hampton JM, Bersch AJ, Passarelli MN, Holick CN, Titus-Ernstoff L, Egan KM, Holmes MD, Willett WC. Post-diagnosis dietary factors and survival after invasive breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2011 Jul;128(1):229-36.
- American Cancer Society. Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2011-2012.
- National Cancer Institute. 2010. Top Food Sources of Saturated Fat among US Population.
- Sugimura T, Wakabayashi K, Nakagama H, Nagao M. Heterocyclic amines: Mutagens/carcinogens produced during cooking of meat and fish. Cancer Sci. 2004 Apr;95(4):290-9.
- Cho E, Spiegelman D, Hunter DJ, Chen WY, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Willett WC. Premenopausal fat intake and risk of breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003 Jul 16;95(14):1079-85.
Images thanks to MCB and Renee Comet via Wikimedia Commons.
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Breast Cancer Survival, Butterfat, & Chicken
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Content URLDoctor's Note
Note that the video said two things on their diets. I’ll deal with the second tomorrow. This is not my first video on cancer survival (as opposed to prevention). See also Slowing the Growth of Cancer. I also have a bunch of videos on saturated fat. The two most popular are probably Dietary Guidelines: From Dairies to Berries, and Trans Fat, Saturated Fat and Cholesterol: Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero. There are also a few saturated plant fats.
For more context, check out my associated blog posts: Breast Cancer Survival and Soy; Health Food Store Advice: Often Worthless or Worst; How Does Meat Cause Inflammation?; Breast Cancer Survival and Soy; Eating Green to Prevent Cancer; How Tumors Use Meat to Grow; Mushrooms for Breast Cancer Prevention; Foods That May Block Cancer Formation; and Flax and Breast Cancer Survival.
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