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  #1   ^
Old Thu, Aug-05-04, 17:43
tamarian's Avatar
tamarian tamarian is offline
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Default Eating lots of carbs may raise the risk of breast cancer, study finds

NATION: Eating lots of carbs may raise the risk of breast cancer, study finds

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer

High-carb diets may increase more than just waistlines. New research suggests they might raise the risk of breast cancer.

Women in Mexico who ate a lot of carbohydrates were more than twice as likely to get breast cancer than those who ate less starch and sugar, scientists found.

The study is hardly the last word on the subject, but it is one of the few to examine how the popular but controversial low-carb diet craze might affect the odds of getting cancer, as opposed to its effects on cholesterol and heart disease.

The new findings also don't mean that it is safe or healthful to eat lots of meat, cheese or fats, as many people who go on low-carb diets do, experts say.

"There are many concerns with eating diets high in animal fat," said Dr. Walter Willett, chief of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If people do want to cut back on carbohydrates, it's really important to do it in a way that emphasizes healthy fats, like salads with salad dressings."

Willett worked on the study with doctors at Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica in Cuernavaca, Mexico. It was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ministry of Health of Mexico, and the American Institute for Cancer Research. Results were published Friday in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Fats, fiber and specific foods have long been studied for their effects on various types of cancer, but few firm links have emerged. Being overweight is known to raise risk, but the new study took that into account and still found greater risk from high carbohydrate consumption.

Scientists think carbs may increase cancer risk by rapidly raising sugar in the blood, which prompts a surge of insulin to be secreted. This causes cells to divide and leads to higher levels of estrogen in the blood, both of which can encourage cancer.

A study earlier this year suggested that high-carb diets modestly raised the risk of colon cancer. Little research has been done on their effect on breast cancer, and results have been mixed. One study last year found greater risk among young women who ate a lot of sweets, especially sodas and desserts.

For this study, researchers enrolled 475 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer and a comparison group of 1,391 healthy women in Mexico City who were matched for age, weight, childbirth trends and other factors that affect the odds of getting the disease.

Women filled out a lengthy food questionnaire developed by Willett and widely used in nutrition studies, and were divided into four categories based on how much of their total calories came from carbohydrates.

Those in the top category -- who got 62 percent or more of their calories from carbs -- were 2.22 times more likely to have breast cancer than those in the lowest category, whose carb intake was 52 percent or less of their diet.

"The findings do raise concern about the possible adverse effects of eating lots of carbohydrates," especially for people who have diabetes, insulin resistance or are overweight, Willett said.

"It adds to the information that diet's important" with respect to cancer risk, said John Milner, the National Cancer Institute's chief of nutrition.

How applicable the results are to American women is debatable. Carbohydrates make up half of the typical American diet -- less than what most of the women in this study consumed.

"The main carbohydrates these women ate were corn-derived, including tortillas, and soft drinks and bread," said Dr. Eduardo Lazcano-Ponce, one of the Mexican physicians who did the study.

Corn isn't fortified with folate and other nutrients as are many grains, cereals and other sources of carbohydrates eaten in the United States, and those nutrients might help prevent cancer, noted Sandra Schlicker, executive director of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition.

Breast cancer rates in the United States are among the highest in the world. Nearly 132 cases are diagnosed for every 100,000 women. In Mexico, incidence is rising and is currently estimated at 38 cases per 100,000 women. But Willett cautioned that those rates are not adjusted for age differences and that the U.S. population is considerably older than Mexico's and therefore more at risk of cancer.

In the study, women who ate a lot of insoluble fiber -- found in whole grains, fruits and vegetables -- had somewhat less risk of breast cancer. Fiber can modulate the absorption of carbohydrates.

"It leads me to believe that healthier carb sources, or at least diets containing fiber, would be less strongly associated with breast cancer," said Marji McCullough, a senior epidemiologist and nutrition expert at the American Cancer Society.

Experts say more research is needed through a study that, instead of relying on women's memories about what they ate, asks them to keep food diaries and then follows them for years afterward to see which ones develop cancer.

Finding dietary links to breast cancer is important because diet is one of the few risk factors a woman can easily modify.

"This study alone isn't enough for people to make changes in their diet, but it's a cautionary sign," Willett said.

The Institute of Medicine recommends that carbohydrates constitute 45 percent to 65 percent of calories, and that no more than 20 percent should come from added sugars, said Schlicker, who served on the panel that drafted the advice. New dietary guidelines are due to be released next year.

http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/art...8/05/pm/pm3.txt
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  #2   ^
Old Thu, Aug-05-04, 23:45
dannysk dannysk is offline
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In the study, women who ate a lot of insoluble fiber -- found in whole grains, fruits and vegetables -- had somewhat less risk of breast cancer. Fiber can modulate the absorption of carbohydrates."

Women who ate a lot of fiber ate fewer "net carbs". As long as science won't make the distinction they are going to wind up with skewed results.

danny
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  #3   ^
Old Fri, Aug-06-04, 07:58
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Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
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Well, this is good news! I wonder how many of our ills will eventually be found to be linked to our high carb lives?
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  #4   ^
Old Fri, Aug-06-04, 08:16
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toofattoo toofattoo is offline
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Yeh, I'd like to know that too. Peg
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  #5   ^
Old Fri, Aug-06-04, 08:25
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tofi tofi is offline
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And just to add another "At LAST" someone is getting it.
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  #6   ^
Old Fri, Aug-06-04, 09:56
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Turtle2003 Turtle2003 is offline
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Corn isn't fortified with folate and other nutrients as are many grains, cereals and other sources of carbohydrates eaten in the United States, and those nutrients might help prevent cancer, noted Sandra Schlicker, executive director of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition.

I particularly loved this little comment from one of the 'experts' who recommends we eat huge amounts of carbs. What she is really saying is that the Mexicans don't fortify the carbage they eat with folate and other vitamins like we do, so our carbage is OK to eat. Well, honey, I got news for you. It's still carbage.

I think we will be seeing more and more studies like this. The blinders are off for many scientists, especially those who have not already bet their prestige on the low fat nonsense. And it is now 'safe' for them to publish their results. A few years ago we would never have seen a study like this.
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  #7   ^
Old Fri, Aug-06-04, 18:36
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RoseTattoo RoseTattoo is offline
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I think it's necessary to be skeptical about preliminary studies like this one. The sample was relatively small, and much more damning, the study was based on self-reporting of food intake, a notoriously untrustworthy method. So I think a lot of caution is warranted in drawing conclusions.

BUT--as I understand it, there IS a modest association between breast cancer and folate deficiency. This link has been documented on the basis of several studies, and over time. So why isn't this a plausible explanation of the Mexican findings? On the basis of the food journals, we can see that the Mexican women ate most of their carbs in the form of folate-deficient foods. They apparently also ate these folate-deficient carbs as a far greater proportion of their diet than American women tend to do--and many of Americans' carbs ARE supplemented with folate. The variable, therefore, doesn't seem to be carb intake--it's the intake of folate-deficient carbs.

It's not good science to suggest that ALL carbs are therefore implicated as being associated with breast cancer. What this study showed in a very preliminary way is that SOME carbs--specifically, corn products which lack folate--are associated with a higher risk of breast cancer when eaten as a fairly high proportion of the diet.

Science can't work by drawing generalizations until all variables have been considered. I agree that it's good that carb intake is finally being examined. But we've got to be careful about conclusions we draw.
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  #8   ^
Old Tue, Jan-18-05, 18:46
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CLASYS CLASYS is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RoseTattoo
the study was based on self-reporting of food intake, a notoriously untrustworthy method. So I think a lot of caution is warranted in drawing conclusions.

But wasn't the recent report claiming that 2 [female] or 3 [male] ounces twice a week of red meat was "too much" and led to colon cancer, etc., based on entirely the same methodology [people guessing what they eat and filling in a questionaire, etc.]?

Gee, we shouldn't jump to conclusions; we just let the LC-bashers do that!

cjl (Are you now, or have you ever eaten a carbohydrate you didn't like?)
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  #9   ^
Old Tue, Feb-01-05, 07:00
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Duparc Duparc is offline
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Regarding BC. My late wife passed away 6 years ago with this complaint and a year ago I lost a 45 year old daughter to the same complaint.

My wife ate what she thought was a healthy diet as it was known then. It included unsaturated fats and especially vegetable oils and of course grains and fibers of all kinds. She also had a penchant for soft drinks; had she been drinking alcohol she would have been an alcoholic. She believed that those drinks were healthy. Unknown to us at the time she was probably prediabetic. Whenever her liver was tested it was found to be fatty and the physicians suspected that she was a closeted alcoholic but that was not so. There is little doubt that her diet, which included vasts amounts of processed foods, was the main culprit in bringing about her early demise.

The situation was almost identical with my daughter who as single woman was size 24 and 5' 6" tall. She ate anything and everything from the supermarket that could easily be cooked in the microwave.

Common features of both instances was that they elevated the medical profession to the level of the divine and took their word as gospel, yet, in each case they were initially misdiagnosed! The medics hastened their demise. I tried to advise them but regretfully they would not take heed; to them I was just the 'carpenter's son'!

My other two daughters are running scared believing that BC runs in the family; it doesn't, but I can't convince them.

I suspect that LC diets, especially those that avoid processed foods, are probably the best for our health, and personal experience and current research findings are lending support to this belief. I hope that this anecdotal experience will be of benefit to some of you.
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  #10   ^
Old Fri, May-01-15, 20:33
sarahnya sarahnya is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Turtle2003
Corn isn't fortified with folate and other nutrients as are many grains, cereals and other sources of carbohydrates eaten in the United States, and those nutrients might help prevent cancer, noted Sandra Schlicker, executive director of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition.

I particularly loved this little comment from one of the 'experts' who recommends we eat huge amounts of carbs. What she is really saying is that the Mexicans don't fortify the carbage they eat with folate and other vitamins like we do, so our carbage is OK to eat. Well, honey, I got news for you. It's still carbage.

I think we will be seeing more and more studies like this. The blinders are off for many scientists, especially those who have not already bet their prestige on the low fat nonsense. And it is now 'safe' for them to publish their results. A few years ago we would never have seen a study like this.


Thus is so true, I can't believe they pedal this rubbish.
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  #11   ^
Old Sat, Aug-07-04, 11:52
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Wickedways Wickedways is offline
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Default High carb diet and increase breast cancer risk

Just caught this on Canoe today...

very interesting!

Last edited by Wickedways : Sat, Aug-07-04 at 12:05.
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  #12   ^
Old Sun, Aug-08-04, 01:47
Demi's Avatar
Demi Demi is offline
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Interestingly, have just come across the same story at cancerfacts.com:

http://www.cancerfacts.com/Home_New...&CancerTypeId=4
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  #13   ^
Old Mon, Aug-09-04, 04:55
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cartmanis cartmanis is offline
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Default Carb-Rich Diet May Increase Risk of Breast Cancer

Just Saw this one this morning,

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?ch...94183414B7F4945

Carbohydrates have been taking a beating for their putative effect on the waistline in recent years. Now they're coming under fire for potentially putting women at an increased risk of breast cancer.
A study of 1,866 Mexican women has found that those who obtained more than 62 percent of their calories from carbs were more than twice as likely to develop breast cancer compared to women whose carb intake accounted for 52 percent or less of their diet. (The investigators accounted for body mass index and other potentially confounding factors.) "Scientists have long suspected that diet was among the factors contributing to breast cancer," says study co-author Walter Willet of Harvard University. "Now, with studies like ours, we are beginning gradually to understand what elements of diet specifically are associated with the disease, and to grasp the chemical and biological processes that contribute to it at the cellular level."

The new work found a particularly strong link between consumption of sweets and elevated breast cancer risk, whereas ingestion of insoluble fiber was associated with lower risk. In explanation, the researchers note that eating carbs triggers a cascade of events leading to increased secretion of insulin and another protein that can boost cell proliferation and thus lead to cancer. Fiber, on the other hand, may mitigate the effects of carbs by interfering with their absorption.
"This study raises important questions about high carbohydrate diets, particularly among populations or individuals prone to insulin resistance," Willet remarks. "However, one study is not enough to make major changes in diet, and more work on this topic is urgently needed." A report detailing the findings appears in the current issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. --Kate Wong
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  #14   ^
Old Mon, Aug-09-04, 11:26
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doreen T doreen T is offline
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Breast, ovarian and prostate cancer are closely linked to sugar intake and insulin levels. A Canadian study from 2002, Fasting Insulin and Outcome in Early-Stage Breast Cancer: Results of a Prospective Cohort Study, showed that women with breast cancer who had higher fasting insulin levels had poorer outcomes and lowered survival than those with lower insulin levels. This included increased likelihood of the cancer re-occuring. That's because insulin exerts some growth hormone-like effects and can stimulate proliferation of hormone-sensitive cancer cells.


Some other articles of interest about low-carb, high-fat diet and breast cancer:
previous lowcarber forum discussion about breast cancer and lowcarb

The Skinny on Fats & Breast Cancer by Stephen Byrnes, PhD, N.D.

Three Case Histories from Weston A. Price foundation, where the women improved their cancer survival odds and over-all health by eating a natural diet with plenty of animal fats.


hth,

Doreen
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  #15   ^
Old Thu, Sep-23-04, 12:15
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Gloria27 Gloria27 is offline
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I agree with Rose Tatoo... I'm a carb lover and I'm a Mexican woman and the food I miss the most while on an LC diet is tortillas. I applaud the study and hope it helps some or all of these women with cancer, but most of our delicious meals just don't taste the same without a corn tortilla right off the stove. When I reach my goal, tacos de deshebrada will be my first treat!
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