Breast Cancer Survival and Trans Fat

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM · March 28, 2012 · Volume 8

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Breast cancer survivors may reduce their chances of survival if they eat too much trans fat, found primarily in the American diet in junk food and animal products.

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Transcript

“With a growing number of breast cancer survivors, there is tremendous interest in establishing whether changes in lifestyle influence breast cancer outcome.” So started the introduction of this 2011 study, suggesting two things about our diet can significantly alter the survival of women with breast cancer.

We talked about one already: saturated fat—increasing one’s risk of dying 41%, and what foods to avoid. The second factor was even more significant: trans fat—increasing one’s risk of dying 78% after diagnosis, within a seven-year period. How do we avoid that stuff?

Once again, cakes, cookies, and animal products top the list. And then, it’s basically margarine, French fries, potato chips, and Crisco. So, junk food and animal products may be contributing to a 78% increase in mortality in women already burdened with breast cancer.

As the federal 2010 Dietary Guidelines concluded for everyone, not just those with cancer, Americans should keep their intake of trans fatty acids as low as possible.

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.

Sources

Acknowledgements

Topics

“With a growing number of breast cancer survivors, there is tremendous interest in establishing whether changes in lifestyle influence breast cancer outcome.” So started the introduction of this 2011 study, suggesting two things about our diet can significantly alter the survival of women with breast cancer.

We talked about one already: saturated fat—increasing one’s risk of dying 41%, and what foods to avoid. The second factor was even more significant: trans fat—increasing one’s risk of dying 78% after diagnosis, within a seven-year period. How do we avoid that stuff?

Once again, cakes, cookies, and animal products top the list. And then, it’s basically margarine, French fries, potato chips, and Crisco. So, junk food and animal products may be contributing to a 78% increase in mortality in women already burdened with breast cancer.

As the federal 2010 Dietary Guidelines concluded for everyone, not just those with cancer, Americans should keep their intake of trans fatty acids as low as possible.

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.

Doctor's Note

For the role of saturated fat in breast cancer survival, see Breast Cancer Survival, Butterfat, and Chicken. When the dietary guidelines recommend keeping intake of trans fat as low as possible, what does that mean on a practical level? See Trans Fat, Saturated Fat and Cholesterol: Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero. Nice to see public health trump corporate interests. See Dietary Guidelines: USDA Conflicts of Interest for one of my other videos on the guidelines.

Also be sure to check out my associated blog posts: Breast Cancer Survival and Soy; Health Food Store Advice: Often Worthless or Worst; Mushrooms for Breast Cancer Prevention; Flax and Breast Cancer Survival; and Trans Fat in Animal Fat.

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