Calories, Carbs, Fat, Fiber: Unraveling The Links Between Breast Cancer And Diet

"'A Low-Fat Diet Helps Reduce The Risk of Death From Breast Cancer.' Did a headline like this catch your eye this week?"

"Dozens of news organizations, including NPR, reported on a new study that found that a low-fat diet helped women reduce their risk of dying from breast cancer."

"The findings stem from the federally funded Women's Health Initiative, a huge, long-term, national health study launched back in 1993. At the time the study began, women who enrolled were in their 50s, 60s and 70s."

"As part of the study, about 20,000 women were coached to change their diets in a number of ways for at least eight years. "We asked women to reduce their total fat intake," explains Rowan Chlebowski of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. In addition, the women were asked to eat more fruits, vegetables and grains. A comparison group of nearly 30,000 women continued to follow their normal diet."

"The strength of this study is twofold: its size, nearly 50,000 women in all, and its long-term follow-up, nearly 20 years. During the study, some women in both groups were diagnosed with breast cancer, but those who had changed their diets had a 21 percent lower risk of dying from the disease."