Consuming too much red meat frequently increases the risk of breast cancer by 22 percent, a new study finds.
Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health's Department of Nutrition found that women who consume too much red meat are at a higher risk of breast cancer. The study was conducted on 89,000 women who took part in the Nurses' Health Study II. They were followed for 20 years, during which, 2,830 cases of breast cancer were reported. During the study, the participants were asked about their eating habits and the amount of red meat they consumed. Researchers found that women who consumed 1.5 servings of red meat a day were at a 22 percent higher risk of breast cancer than women who consumed one serving a week.
"Cutting down processed meat, limiting intake of red meat, and substituting a combination of poultry, fish, legumes and nuts as protein sources for red meat during early life seems beneficial for the prevention of breast cancer," said Maryam Farvid, lead researcher of the study published in the British Medical Journal.
The study authors suggested that replacing red meat with a combination of beans, peas and lentils, poultry, nuts and fish may reduce the risk in younger women.
"Reduction of red meat intake in the diet not only decreases the risk of breast cancer but also decreases the risk of other chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other kind of cancers, as well," Farvid said.
Previous studies found no significant association between how much red meat a woman consumed in her adult life and an increased risk of breast cancer. However, authors of the new study said that most of the earlier studies were conducted on the dietary habits of woman in adulthood and not what they ate in early adulthood.
Professor Tim Key, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford said that even the link found by the new U.S. study was "weak" and not enough to debunk findings of previous studies that reported no association between red meat and breast cancer.
"Women can reduce their risk of breast cancer by maintaining a healthy weight, drinking less alcohol and being physically active, and it's not a bad idea to swap some red meat - which is linked to bowel cancer - for white meat, beans or fish," he told BBC News. "The totality of the available evidence indicates that red meat consumption has little or no effect on breast cancer risk, so results from a single study cannot be considered in isolation."
While an uncertainly still lingers around the link between red meat and breast cancer, previous studies have confirmed that red meat increases the risk of bowel cancer. To reduce such risks, people who consume more than 90g of red and processed meat a day should cut down their consumption to 70g, the Department of Health suggests.
