Happy news for meat-eating women like myself: consuming animal food, including meat, eggs and dairy, doesn’t increase the risk of breast cancer, according to three studies in next month’s edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. One small study conducted on women in the US and two larger studies in Europe showed that contrary to popular belief and some prior research, consumption of animal food neither increased nor decreased women’s odds of developing breast cancer.
Interestingly, the small U.S. study did find that women who took conjugated linoleic acid (CLA, an acid found in meat and dairy products) for 36 weeks had less abdominal fat than those who took safflower oil–and belly fat is a major risk factor for breast cancer and countless other diseases.
I’m taking this as a sign to keep on eating steak–but I’m going to make sure it’s grass-fed–which is higher in CLA–whenever possible.
–Camille
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Camille
