Word: willette
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According to Dr. Walter Willett at the Harvard School of Public Health, overall calories may play a larger role than fat: Americans may simply be eating too well. Willett points out that breast-cancer rates tend to be highest in prosperous countries where people are well nourished. In such lands of plenty, girls begin to menstruate at an earlier age, women tend to have their children later in life and menopause also comes later. Late menopause (after 50), delayed childbearing (after 30) and early onset of menstruation (before 12) are all acknowledged "risk factors" for breast cancer. For older women...
...poultry and fish in the nurses' diet, the lower their chances of getting colon cancer. Women who consumed skinless chicken two or more times a week had half the risk of those who ate it less than once a month. "The less red meat the better," says Dr. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, who directed the study. "At most, it should be eaten only occasionally. And it may be maximally effective not to eat red meat...
...many, Willett's words sound like a call to vegetarianism. The meat industry, which has watched sales slip as health consciousness has climbed, was particularly incensed. Nutritionist David Hurt of the National Livestock and Meat Board points out that the study does not demonstrate cause and effect, and that cattle and pigs increasingly are being bred to produce less fatty meat. "Beef is 27% leaner than it was in 1986 and pork 31%," he observes...
There is another reason that doctors are hesitant to advise women to stop drinking: many studies have suggested that moderate consumption of alcohol reduces the risk of heart disease, which annually kills more than nine times as many women as does breast cancer. Walter Willett, the principal author of the Harvard study, admits, "We're also missing one piece of information -- specifically, whether decreasing or stopping in the middle of life will influence the risk of breast cancer. It's possible that whatever damage may have been done early on cannot be reversed...
Women with a high risk for breast cancer may be the most affected by the implications of the research because alcohol may increase the risk even more, said Dr. Graham Colditz, who worked with Willett on the study. This high-risk group includes all women who are planning to have children after spending years in graduate school or a career as well as those with a family history of breast cancer...