no miracle solution.
A low-fat diet does not appear to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease in women.
ARS / USDA
A massive study of nearly 49,000 older women examining the links between diet and low-fat health found that diets do not seem to ward off the disease of cancer and heart - but confusion remained over how to interpret the results. Women have trouble sticking to the diet, and the study may not have been long enough to assess the effects of diet on slow-growing cancers.
The study of eating 8 years is the second of three of the Initiative for Women's Health (WHI), an effort launched in early 190, because few women were included in clinical trials. He sought to examine whether a low-fat diet may help prevent breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and cardiovascular disease. The first WHI found that hormone replacement therapy raised the risk of breast cancer and heart disease, causing a stampede away from drugs ( Science NOW, July 9, 02). The third examines the effects of calcium and vitamin D on bone health and will be released next week.
The diet study, published in the Feb. 8 Journal of the American Medical Association , included 40 medical centers in the United States. More than 19,000 women have a diet low in fat and rich in fruits, vegetables and grains. Some 29,000 others have acted as a comparison group. WHI researchers hoped that the dieters could reduce their fat intake to 20% of calories, while the comparison group would hover around 40%. But, as is common in nutrition studies, participants had trouble sticking to the diet. After 6 years, the diet consumed 30% of their calories from fat, compared to 38% in the control group
after 8 years there was no difference in colorectal cancer rates cardiovascular diseases. Today it is believed that the type of fat consumed plays a more powerful role in heart disease and stroke than quantity. Dieters will suffer 9% fewer cases of breast cancer, but this result was not statistically significant, meaning it could have occurred by chance.
This frustrates researchers. "We have a very disappointing situation," said epidemiologist Walter Willett of Harvard University. While praising the dedication of the investigators of the WHI, he noted that "it was the largest and most expensive [diet] study ever fact "and arrived at" a very gross income. "in addition to membership, the study was limited by its length, because the effect of diet on cancer can take more than 8 years on the surface, said Willett
It is also unclear whether the older age of women had an effect. the researchers do not know whether to intervene earlier in life to prevent cancer works better than to speak later. Still, some consider breast cancer to find a way. "I do not think he can be rejected," says Lynn Rosenberg of the School of public health of the University of Boston. A low fat diet is being tested against breast cancer in young women in Canada.
Related Sites
- Initiative on women's health
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