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Breast Cancer Survival, Butterfat, and Chicken

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.

March 27, 2012 |
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Breast Cancer Survival, Butterfat, and Chicken, 5.0 out of 5 based on 5 ratings

Sources Cited

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.

Acknowledgements

Images thanks to MCB and Renee Comet via Wikimedia Commons and http://justglasssite.com.

Transcript

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 4000 woman, with breast cancer, for 7 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 7 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 5.
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. Thencomes 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 a 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.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Note that the video said two things in their diets. I'll deal with the second tomorrow. This is not my first video on cancer survival (as opposed to prevention). See Saturated Fat & Cancer Prevention, Soy & Breast Cancer Survival, and 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. For a comparison with a plant-based chicken product, see Chicken vs. Veggie Chicken, but there are also a few saturated plant fats. See Is Coconut Milk Good For You?. And, if you'd like, hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects.

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, and How Tumors Use Meat to Grow

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Note that the video said two things in their diets. I’ll deal with the second tomorrow. This is not my first video on cancer survival (as opposed to prevention). See Saturated Fat & Cancer Prevention, Soy & Breast Cancer Survival, and 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. For a comparison with a plant-based chicken product, see Chicken vs. Veggie Chicken, but there are also a few saturated plant fats. See Is Coconut Milk Good For You?. And, if you’d like, hundreds of other videos on more than a thousand subjects.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/thea/ Thea

    I sure wish I could get all the women I know with breast cancer to listen to this stuff!!!! Not to mention all the healthy girls and women. This info should be front-page news. Our society is seriously messed up.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      I agree. The role of nutrition in health is not taken seriously. People assume chronic illnesses are a result of chance, and are incurable. People also rely on the idea of “moderation”, which is a useless word since nobody knows how much is too much. The message needs to be thrown out there more, Dr. Greger should talk on NPR.

  • Michael Greger M.D.

    Please also check out my associated blog post, Breast Cancer Survival and Soy!

  • Michael Greger M.D.

    Please also check out my associated blog post, Breast Cancer Survival and Soy!

  • viola wyderka

    I was diagnosed with breast cancer Oct of 2011. I was given the book The China Study to read. I read it three times then went cold turkey on plant based diet and never looked back. I ate chicken alot because every tells you its better, wrong!!! I opt out of chemo & radiation even though I am stage IV cancer. Some my tumors are gone & some shrunk. More women need to know this, before its too late.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=670735069 Tan Truong

       Thanks for sharing Viola. I’m glad to hear of your progress and wish you the best.

  • Josie

    Does chicken include turkey as well? And does it matter if it is organic or not? Thanks in advance!

    • Toxins

      Yes, poultry in general is the perpetrator. Organic vs conventional makes little difference in the content of the meat. Saturated fat and carcinogens from cooking meat are unavoidable whether organic or conventional.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=670735069 Tan Truong

    LOL @ 2:13. The doc’s humour is awesome.

  • Holly

    I would love to see a video detailing the study about heterocyclic amines, and addressing the question of is there a safe way then to cook meat and fish?

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