Study links breast cancer to red meat

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Eating red meat on a regular basis increases the danger of premenopausal women developing breast cancer, according to a Harvard University Medical School study just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The retrospective research was based on the health records of 91,000 women and examined their eating habits. The more red meat they ate up to the age of 50, the higher their risk of breast cancer, and those who ate the most were at nearly twice the risk as those who rarely ate it. The researchers said that while more research was needed to confirm and explain the link between the two, young women should try to reduce the amount of red meat they eat, as it is already connected to a higher risk for colon cancers. Israel Cancer Association director-general Miri Ziv said that the Harvard research backs up the ICA's longstanding recommendations to include a lot of fruits and vegetables in one's diet and to minimize the consumption of red meat.