High-fat dairy

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Momine
Momine Member Posts: 7,859
edited June 2014 in Clinical Trials, Research News, Podcasts, and Study Results

http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/report-suggests-limited-intake-of-dairy-for-breast-cancer-survival--bj95llh-198691691.html

"According to a study of 1,893 women, breast cancer survivors who average as little as one serving per day of high-fat dairy foods have a 49% higher risk of dying from breast cancer than those who eat little or no high-fat dairy.

In absolute terms, breast cancer survivors who consumed the most high-fat dairy had about a 12% risk of dying of the disease."

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  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 7,859
    edited March 2013

    Question: What counts as a serving of high-fat dairy? I am especially curious about different kinds of cheese.

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  • wallycat
    wallycat Member Posts: 3,227
    edited March 2013

    Ah, my good old Journal Sentinal (I'm a Wisconsin gal for 40 years before we moved here!)...I would love to see the questionairre they were given. 

    I hope there is a glitch in that study because I am not giving up my cheese!

    (a serving would be whatever the food is, based on current guidelines--1 oz. of cheese; 6-8 oz yogurt, 8 oz. glass of milk, etc...)

    p.s. I am sure I eat MORE than 1 oz of cheese in a sitting.  I assumed everyone did.  Surprised

    Editing to add:  here is the abstract from Pubmed.

    J Natl Cancer Inst. 2013 Mar 14. [Epub ahead of print]

    High- and Low-Fat Dairy Intake, Recurrence, and Mortality After Breast Cancer Diagnosis.


    Source

    Affiliations of authors: Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA (CHK, MLK, AC, BJC); Division of Epidemiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (CS).


    Abstract

    BackgroundDietary fat in dairy is a source of estrogenic hormones and may be related to worse breast cancer survival. We evaluated associations between high- and low-fat dairy intake, recurrence, and mortality after breast cancer diagnosis.MethodsWe included 1893 women from the Life After Cancer Epidemiology study diagnosed with early-stage invasive breast cancer from 1997 to 2000, who completed the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Food Frequency Questionnaire after diagnosis. A total of 349 women had a recurrence and 372 died during a median follow-up of 11.8 years, with 189 deaths from breast cancer. We used delayed entry Cox proportional hazards regression to evaluate associations between categories of the cumulative average of dairy fat at baseline and at follow-up 5 to 6 years later and subsequent outcomes. Tests of statistical significance were two-sided.ResultsIn multivariable-adjusted analyses, overall dairy intake was unrelated to breast cancer-specific outcomes, although it was positively related to overall mortality. Low-fat dairy intake was unrelated to recurrence or survival. However, high-fat dairy intake was positively associated with outcomes. Compared with the reference (0 to <0.5 servings/day), those consuming larger amounts of high-fat dairy had higher breast cancer mortality (0.5 to <1.0 servings/day: hazard ratio [HR] = 1.20, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.82 to 1.77; and ≥1.0 servings/day: HR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.00 to 2.24, P trend = .05), higher all-cause mortality (P trend < .001), and higher non-breast cancer mortality (P trend = .007); the relationship with breast cancer recurrence was positive but not statistically significant. The higher risk appeared consistent across different types of high-fat dairy products.ConclusionsIntake of high-fat dairy, but not low-fat dairy, was related to a higher risk of mortality after breast cancer diagnosis.


    PMID:
    23492346
    [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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  • smo23915
    smo23915 Member Posts: 165
    edited March 2013

    I just wanted to share- I was just a John Hopkins for a 4th opinion.  I spoke to a BC dietician, OC and Lillie (who is the nurse that answers the ask the expert)  They "all" told me to make sure the dairy I consume is from skim milk. 

    Sharon

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  • wallycat
    wallycat Member Posts: 3,227
    edited March 2013

    My doubt lays with the fact that high-fat diary versus low-fat dairy is being implicated, whereas other fats are not.  If hormones are to blame, wouldn't the skim/low-fat dairy contain the same hormones?  I know fat holds onto fat-soluble vitamins, but I don't know if that is true for hormones.  I also wonder if the survey asked if the women ate grass fed butter/cheese, raw cheeses or "american-type-processed blocks-o-stuff" cheeses....and would it matter...??

    Questions: what is a breast cancer dietitian?  I am a dietitian...and I have breast cancer.  To my knowledge, there is no specialty in dietetics to qualify someone to be a "breast cancer dietitian."  Some dietitians are more versed on diet as it relates to chemo side effects, etc., but not for treatments....

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  • dltnhm
    dltnhm Member Posts: 873
    edited March 2013

    A serving of dairy is



    1 cup of milk

    1 1/2 ounces of natural cheese

    1/2 cup of icecream



    I read to visualize the cheese as 4 small pieces (cubes) that are the size and shape of 4 small die.



    Have to start watching the consumption and fat content of the cheese myself - love all kinds with just about everything.



    Diana





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  • Heidihill
    Heidihill Member Posts: 5,476
    edited March 2013

    It says overall dairy intake was unrelated to breast cancer-specific outcomes, but positively related to overall mortality.  And then the relationship of high fat dairy intake with breast cancer recurrence was not statistically significant. I'll keep eating cheese for my bones and for my taste buds and not worry about getting a heart attack.

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  • cp418
    cp418 Member Posts: 7,079
    edited March 2013

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/high-fat-dairy-foods-may-increase-mortality-risk-in-women-who-have-had-breast-cancer/2013/03/18/be0aeb26-8d72-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html

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  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 7,859
    edited March 2013

    Thanks for all the responses. I have tried to cut out cheese, and that is not happening. So plan B has been to stick with tiny amounts most of the time and stick to local cheeses made from goat and sheep milk. I figure those are a little less likely to be full of weird hormones and things.

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  • GG27
    GG27 Member Posts: 2,128
    edited March 2013

    I just read the study & did some research on dairy products in the US & Canada.  Because there are no growth hormones used in dairy products in Canada, does this mean I can eat high fat dairy?  I have changed my diet to high fat/low carb & have lost 15 lbs & don't want to go back to eating the low fat way I was.

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  • wenweb
    wenweb Member Posts: 1,107
    edited March 2013

    Oy!!  If it's not one thing, it's another.  I started eating a low fat diet when it became the healthy thing to do.  That was way over 20 years ago.  About 10 years ago I stopped drinking milk all together and only used it in my coffee, ate the harder lowfat cheeses, and rarely lowfat ice cream.  Did I get breast cancer?  yep :(  Of course I realize that it could be cumulative, or it could be a crap shoot.

     Now, due to stress and weight loss, my PCP told me that I should eat whole fat yogurt (which turns out isn't that easy to find) and whole cheeses etc so that I can put some weight back on.  Believe me, it's been incredibly difficult for me to do this since I have been a low fat freak for so long.

    It has been my understanding that whether one consumes organic/non-organic/whole fat/low fat dairy products, that it's the fact that the mammal who produces the milk is lactating which means they have more estrogen in their systems regardless of whether they are fed hormones or not.  Not only that, in the states, the dairy industy keeps it's cows lactating almost constantly which compared to (some) other countries means that our cows probably have more estrogen than those elsewhere.  More food for thought.  If anyone knows differently, please let me know!!

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  • curveball
    curveball Member Posts: 3,040
    edited March 2013

    @wenweb, I don't remember the name of the thread, but the topic of hormones in dairy products came up recently on bco and someone posted a link to an article about that topic. As I recall, the gist of the article was that most if not all of the hormones present in milk (whether naturally occurring or otherwise) end up in the milk-fat, so removing the fat reduces the hormone content as well.

    Did your PCP say specifically to eat full-fat dairy products, or just to increase the amount of fat in your diet? I would guess there are other food options to help you maintain your weight without increasing your exposure to hormones.

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  • wenweb
    wenweb Member Posts: 1,107
    edited March 2013

    curveball, thanks for the info, I did not know that and will check it out.  Yes, my PCP did specifically say to eat full fat dairy.  I'll have to revisit that when I revisit her later today :)

    Thank again!!

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  • pupmom
    pupmom Member Posts: 5,068
    edited March 2013

    I eat a serving, or a little more Smile, of low fat organic cheese almost every day. I wish I could find a fat free organic cheese, but to my knowledge, one doesn't exist. Other than that, I eat no meat and everything I fry is in olive oil, which I'm hoping is ok. It's great for the heart.

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  • Momine
    Momine Member Posts: 7,859
    edited March 2013

    Wenweb, I needed to put on about 5 pounds after chemo, since both my docs kept complaining that I was too thin. I did it by counting calories and making up the missing calories with extra olive oil, nut butters and the like. It took about 2-3 months, but it worked just fine.

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  • wenweb
    wenweb Member Posts: 1,107
    edited March 2013

    Momine, I am also counting my calories on a web application called "My Fitness Pal".  There was a recommendation on another thread from a member who also uses it.  Most people are looking to try and lose weight, but I'm sure there are a few like us who need to gain weight.  What I have discovered is that by the end of the day, I have usually consumed more sugar, not fat which I imagine I can juggle.  My  sugar intake is not from refined sources so it's a little hard to gauge whether I am really consuming too much sugar or not.  I'm wondering whether I need to eat more than the recommended amount of fat Surprised which brings me to the main topic of this thread...

    curveball, perhaps I did not find the exact thread you were referring to, but I did find one that mentioned low fat was better than whole fat.  It did not however say it was becasue the estogens remained in the whole fat, and not in the lowfat products.  I searched the web for any information that lead in that direction and could find nothing specific either.  There are so many opinions/studies floating around out there that it is difficult to know what the best option is.  Many times something is ok one week and not on the next.  What to do what to do...  Thanks for passing along the info!

    Edited to add- Since I couldn't find any solid info about whole vs low fat, I did not bring it up on my visit to my PCP yesterday.  I decided that I could make my own decision about what I wanted to do.

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  • indenial
    indenial Member Posts: 504
    edited March 2013

    The whole-fat/estrogens theory was at the bottom of the article linked:

    Instead, the estrogens in milk might be the problem, researchers say. These hormones, which promote some breast cancers, reside in milk fat. Less milk fat means less estrogens, so the estrogen content of skim, 1% and 2% milk and products made from them is relatively low.

    Another reason to suspect estrogens rather than fat itself was that eating more saturated fat of all kinds did not raise the women’s chances of dying of breast cancer as strongly as high-fat dairy did. That suggests that fat consumption per se is unrelated to breast-cancer mortality: nuts, chocolate, coconut and vegetable fats such as those in avocados did not increase the risk.

    This study is really weighing on me.

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  • wenweb
    wenweb Member Posts: 1,107
    edited March 2013

    indenial, glad you found the information I was searching for.  What I am pondering is that the researchers state estrogens in milk might be the problem.  It's nothing definative, (yet a call for concern) as so many studies are.  It makes me feel that moderation should be the guide.  If one stops doing everything that supposedly causes cancer or recurrence of, and then gets cancer or a recurrence, there would be no way to know which (if any) of the things they did or didn't do were the cause.  As I mentioned earlier, I was on a lowfat diet for many years and still got BC.  That said, there it doesn't seem like it would do much harm to start using 2% milk in my coffee Smile

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  • SelenaWolf
    SelenaWolf Member Posts: 1,724
    edited March 2013

    wenweb... you are so right.  I cringe when I see words like "linked", "may be", "might be", "possibly associated to".  It's frustrating.  Is it or isn't it?  Will somebody PLEASE make up their minds?

    And don't get me started on the "this is bad", "no it isn't", "yes, might be", "well, perhaps not", "no, wait, we've looked at it again" aspect of studies.  Gah!  IS IT OR ISN'T IT???

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  • indenial
    indenial Member Posts: 504
    edited March 2013

    You are right. I am probably the poster child for someone who should NOT have gotten BC. Aside from genetics & being a woman, I have none of the risk factors, have always eaten a very clean/healthy/all-natural diet, breastfed for over 3 years, etc., and yet here I am. I think you are right, moderation is key. It's just hard not to get scared of all the things we could do to increase our risk of recurrence/mortality.

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  • wenweb
    wenweb Member Posts: 1,107
    edited March 2013

    Selenawolf, you said it way better than I did!!

    indenial, I too was a poster child, but agree that it is difficult not to get scared.

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  • wallycat
    wallycat Member Posts: 3,227
    edited March 2013

    Then you read about how great CLA is, which is found in beef and dairy fat and find studies like this...

    I agree....YES or NO....(But I suppose it is based on some genetic minutia they have yet to understand).

    Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Oct;82(4):894-900.

    High-fat dairy food and conjugated linoleic acid intakes in relation to colorectal cancer incidence in the Swedish Mammography Cohort.


    Source

    Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, the National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. susanna.larsson@imm.ki.se


    Abstract

    BACKGROUND:

    High-fat dairy foods contain many potentially anticarcinogenic factors, including conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). However, few epidemiologic studies have specifically evaluated high-fat dairy food consumption, and none have evaluated CLA intake, in relation to colorectal cancer risk.

    OBJECTIVE:

    The aim of this study was to prospectively examine the associations of long-term high-fat dairy food consumption and CLA intake and the incidence of colorectal cancer.

    DESIGN:

    Our study population consisted of 60 708 women aged 40-76 y who participated in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. The women's consumption of high-fat dairy foods was assessed at baseline, which was from 1987 to 1990, and again in 1997.

    RESULTS:

    We ascertained 798 incident cases of colorectal cancer during an average 14.8 y of follow-up. After adjustment for age and other potential confounders, the women who consumed > or =4 servings of high-fat dairy foods/d (including whole milk, full-fat cultured milk, cheese, cream, sour cream, and butter) had a multivariate rate ratio of colorectal cancer of 0.59 (95% CI: 0.44, 0.79; P for trend = 0.002) when compared with the women who consumed <1 serving/d. Each increment of 2 servings of high-fat dairy foods/d corresponded to a 13% reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer (multivariate rate ratio: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.78, 0.96). For CLA, the multivariate rate ratio of colorectal cancer in a comparison of the 2 extreme quartiles of intake was 0.71 (95% CI: 0.55, 0.91; P for trend = 0.004).

    CONCLUSION:

    These prospective data suggest that high intakes of high-fat dairy foods and CLA may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.



    PMID:
    16210722
    [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
    OR

     


    Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2013 Feb;138(1):175-83. doi: 10.1007/s10549-013-2446-9. Epub 2013 Feb 16.

    A proof of principle clinical trial to determine whether conjugated linoleic acid modulates the lipogenic pathway in human breast cancer tissue.


    Source

    Section of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (MM & GS) and White River Junction VA Hospital (NK), and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH, 03756, USA.


    Abstract

    Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is widely used as a "nutraceutical" for weight loss. CLA has anticancer effects in preclinical models, and we demonstrated in vitro that this can be attributed to the suppression of fatty acid (FA) synthesis. We tested the hypothesis that administration of CLA to breast cancer patients would inhibit expression of markers related to FA synthesis in tumor tissue, and that this would suppress tumor proliferation. Women with Stage I-III breast cancer were enrolled into an open label study and treated with CLA (1:1 mix of 9c,11t- and 10t,12c-CLA isomers, 7.5 g/d) for ≥10 days before surgery. Fasting plasma CLA concentrations measured pre- and post-CLA administration, and pre/post CLA tumor samples were examined by immunohistochemistry for Spot 14 (S14), a regulator of FA synthesis, FA synthase (FASN), an enzyme of FA synthesis, and lipoprotein lipase (LPL), the enzyme that allows FA uptake. Tumors were also analyzed for expression of Ki-67 and cleaved caspase 3. 24 women completed study treatment, and 23 tumors were evaluable for the primary endpoint. The median duration of CLA therapy was 12 days, and no significant toxicity was observed. S14 expression scores decreased (p = 0.003) after CLA administration. No significant change in FASN or LPL expression was observed. Ki-67 scores declined (p = 0.029), while cleaved caspase 3 staining was unaffected. Decrements in S14 or Ki-67 did not correlate with fasting plasma CLA concentrations at surgery. Breast tumor tissue expression of S14, but not FASN or LPL, was decreased after a short course of treatment with 7.5 g/day CLA. This was accompanied by reductions in the proliferation index. CLA consumption was well-tolerated and safe at this dose for up to 20 days. Overall, CLA may be a prototype compound to target fatty acid synthesis in breast cancers with a "lipogenic phenotype".


    PMID:
    23417336
    [PubMed - in process]

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