Teen's Diet May Affect Breast Cancer Risk

[Guest guest]

Doubt but verify. Your bodies are at issue.

Vegan teens should eat VEGETABLES, not only veggieieburgers.

Keep the animal rights teens alive later, to continue their protests

 

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 16:47:26 -0800

Andrew Davie <graffis_fan

Teen's Diet May Affect Breast Cancer Risk

 

Teen's Diet May Affect Breast Cancer Risk (through later life)

Monday, February 24, 2003, 3:04 PM ET

 

NEW YORK, NY (Reuters Health) -

Teens who eat one egg every day may be somewhat protected from developing breast

cancer later in life, according to new research.

 

Adolescent eaters of vegetable fat and fiber were also less likely to be

diagnosed with breast cancer as adults, while consumption of butter appeared to

increase risk.

 

Recently, researchers have uncovered a potential link between eating and

lifestyle habits in the teen years and a woman's risk of breast cancer as an

adult. The current findings may encourage investigators to continue to examine

this relationship.

 

Still, Dr. A. Lindsay Frazier of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts

and her colleagues caution that the findings are preliminary, and must be

confirmed.

 

The study required adult women to report what they had eaten as teens up to 47

years prior, they write, and memories of such a long time ago may certainly be

flawed.

 

But an increasing body of evidence suggests that what girls do and eat as teens

is related to their health risks as adults, Frazier and her team report.

 

For instance, Asian-American girls do not show rates of breast cancer similar to

those of American women unless they belong to the second or third generation of

immigrants born in the US. The Western diet has been implicated in the higher

risk of breast cancer among US women relative to those from Asia, and the

pattern seen in daughters of immigrants suggests that only young eaters of the

American diet are susceptible to its health risks.

 

In addition, teen girls who follow a relatively low-fat diet starting in puberty

have lower blood levels of hormones linked to breast cancer in adulthood, while

another study has shown that heavy exercise during adolescence may cut later

risk of breast cancer by 30%.

 

During the current study, Frazier and her colleagues reviewed information

collected from 121,700 women. When these women were between 40 and 65 years old,

they completed a questionnaire detailing the foods they ate when they were 12 to

18 years old.

 

Reporting in the journal Breast Cancer Research, Frazier and her colleagues

found that women who ate one egg each day as teenagers were 18% less likely to

develop breast cancer as adults. Adult risk was also reduced among teens who ate

the most vegetable oils and fiber, relative to those who reported having eaten

the least.

 

Women who said they ate one pat of butter each day as teens were at a slightly

higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer as adults.

 

Eggs contain many healthy elements, Frazier and her team note, such as essential

amino acids, minerals, and vitamins. In terms of why fiber may protect women

against breast cancer, they suggest the nutrient could lower body levels of

estrogen, a hormone that encourages the growth of the disease.

 

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute.

 

SOURCE: Breast Cancer Research 2003;5:R59-R64.