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# Low fat diet cost-effective in preventing breast cancer, ovarian cancer
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/low_fat_diet_0101110354/
- Published: 2011-01-01T16:53:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T13:06:12.000Z
- Description: Modelling the Women's Health Initiative dietary change as a public programme, researchers put its cost at $13,773 per quality-adjusted life year for 50-year-olds and $10,544 for women at high breast cancer risk, cost-effective for society and Medicare but not for private insurers.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Cancer, Avoiding Illness, Low-Fat Diet, Breast Cancer, #vivvo-import

David Liu and editing by Denise Reynolds

Researchers of Tusculum College in Tennessee suggest that using a low fat diet could be more cost effective in preventing breast cancer and ovarian cancer, compared to what health insurance companies would otherwise pay to treat the diseases.

Antônio M. Bós and colleagues assessed how cost-effective the Women's Health Initiative - Dietary Modification (WHI-DM) could be if implemented as a public health intervention sponsored by private health insurance insurers and Medicare. Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), a measure of disease burden, was used to assess the effectiveness.

The researchers analyzed data for two groups of women: one consumed more than 36.8 percent of energy from fat at baseline while the other, who were at high risk for breast cancer, consumed 32 percent or more of energy from fat.

They found the cost for the 50-year-olds would be $13,773/QALY for those consuming more than 36.8 percent of energy from fat at baseline, compared to $10,544/QALY for those at high risk for breast cancer.

In contrast, the price private insurers would have to pay was $66,059/QALY and Medicare would have to pay $15,051/QALY.

The researchers explained why private health care payers would not use this approach to reduce their cost.

"The WHI-DM is a cost-effective strategy for the prevention of breast and ovarian cancers in the target population, from both societal and Medicare perspectives. Private health care payers have a relative short time-frame to realize a return on investment, since after age 65 years the financial benefits associated with the prevention program would accrue to Medicare. For this reason, the intervention is not cost-effective from a private health care payer perspective."

The study was published in the Jan 2011 issue of Journal of American Dietetic Association.

**Low fat diet prevents breast cancer**

A study reported in 2008 in the Nutrition and Cancer suggests eating a low fat diet may help prevent breast cancer.

For the study, J. Wang and colleagues of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts compared 1,703 patients with breast cancer diagnosed between 1995 and 1999 and 2,045 controls without the disease in the San Francisco Bay area for their dietary habits and determined how dietary fat intake, cooking fat usage would affect the risk of breast cancer.

The researchers found high fat intake was correlated with elevated risk of breast cancer. Those in the highest quartile of fat intake were 35 percent more likely to be diagnosed with the disease, compared with those in the lowest quartile.

Women who cooked with hydrogenated fats or vegetable/corn oil were 58 percent and 30 percent more likely to develop breast cancer respectively, compared with those who used olive oil or canola oil, which are high in oleic acid.

Vegetable oils like corn oil contain high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, which have been associated with increased risk of cancer. (DL)

Photo credit: wikipedia