[off-topic] Eating too much red meat could increase breast cancer risk

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Eating too much red meat could increase breast cancer risk

By Gehlert

Posted on March 28, 2007, Printed on March 29, 2007

If animal cruelty, environmental degradation and a growing Type II diabetes

epidemic aren't enough reasons to be cautious about eating red meat, here's

another: A study published in the November 2006 issue of the Archives of

Internal Medicine has found a correlation between red meat consumption and

hormone-fueled breast cancer.

The results, part of the Nurses Health Study II conducted by Harvard University

researchers, were based on an analysis of 90,000 premenopausal women between

ages 26 and 46. Researchers followed the women for 12 years, tracking their red

meat intake, and found that as red meat consumption increased, so did the risk

of breast cancers fueled by the hormones estrogen and progesterone.

According to an article published in Kansas City infoZine, " After adjusting for

established risk factors, including weight, alcohol, and consumption of fruit,

vegetables and dairy foods, the researchers found that women who reported eating

more than one and a half servings of red meat per day had almost twice the risk

of developing hormone receptor-positive cancer compared with women who reported

eating three servings or less of red meat per week. "

The study researchers note that the use of hormones in cattle production could

be at least partly responsible for the link between meat-eating and

hormone-driven breast cancers. About two-thirds of cattle raised in the U.S.

today are injected with growth hormones.

The correlation between red meat and breast cancer might also to do with the way

the meat is cooked.

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