Western Diet Pushes Breast Health South

SHANGHAIPostmenopausal Asian women who eat a meat-sweet or Western diet are at greater risk of developing breast cancer than those who eat a vegetable-soy diet, according to a new study published in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention (2007;16(7):1443-8)(DOI:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-07-0059).
The study involved women in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study, including women age 25 to 64 recently diagnosed with breast cancer (from August 1996 to March 1998). Controls were selected from the Shanghai Resident Registry of permanent residents in urban Shanghai.
Researchers conducted in-person interviews with the breast cancer participants and the control group. Of 1,602 eligible breast cancer cases identified during the study period, 1,459 (91.1 percent) in-person interviews were completed; of the 1,724 eligible controls, 1,556 (90.3 percent) interviews were completed.
Researchers noted the existence of two primary dietary patternsthe meat-sweet diet and a vegetable-soy diet. The meat-sweet diet included various meatsprimarily pork but also poultry, organ meats, beef, lamb, saltwater fish, shrimp and other shellfishalong with candy, dessert, bread and milk. The vegetable-soy pattern was associated with a variety of vegetables, soy-based products and freshwater fish.
The meat-sweet pattern was significantly associated with increased risk of breast cancer among overweight postmenopausal women. Specifically, high intake of the meat-sweet diet was associated with more than twofold increased risk of estrogen-receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer among these women. The results showed no overall association of breast cancer risk with the vegetable-soy pattern.
Our study suggests the possibility that the meat-sweet pattern increased breast cancer risk by increasing obesity, said Marilyn Tseng, Ph.D., an associate member in the population science division at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Low consumption of a Western dietary pattern plus successful weight control may protect against breast cancer in a traditionally low-risk Asian population poised to more broadly adopt foods characteristic of Western societies.
Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Cancer Society and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the findings mark the first time an association between a Western diet and breast cancer has been identified in Asian women.
 
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