Monday Aug 08, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- Eating a low fat diet can reduce risk of death from all causes and breast cancer, according to a study presented at AACR 107th Annual Meeting 2016 held on April 16 through 20, 2016 in New Orleans, LA.

The current study showed that a low fat diet with increased amounts of fruits, vegetables and grain products significantly reduced risk of death of all causes and breast cancer and increased the 10-year survival.

An early analysis of data from the same study cohort showed that dietary intervention, which led to reduced intake of fat, increased intake of fruits, vegetables and grain products, was associated with reduced risk of developing breast cancer and reduced risk of death from breast cancer during 8.3 years of dietary intervention.

The first analysis was based on data from the Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification trial involving 48,835 postmenopausal women visiting 40 US clinical centers from 1993 to 1998.  These participants ate a high fat diet (more than 32% calories from fats), but were free of breast cancer at baseline.  Participants in the dietary intervention group were helped by nutritionists while those in the control group were given diet related education materials only.

Other studies suggest that patients with breast cancer may be better off restricting intake of protein, particularly protein from animals.   High protein diet can also be a risk factor for kidney diseases.   So in terms of macronutrients, the majority of calories should come from starch-rich grain products like rice and wheat. (David Liu)

Rowan T. Chlebowski, Aaron K. Aragaki, Garnet L. Anderson, Cynthia A. Thomson, Joanne E. Manson, Michael S. Simon, Barbara V. Howard, Thomas E. Rohan, Linda Snetselaar, Dorothy Lane, Wendy E. Barrington, Mara Z. Vitolilns, Catherine Womack, LiHong Qi, Lifang Hou, Fridtjof Thomas, Ross L. Prentice. Low-fat dietary pattern and breast cancer mortality in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) randomized trial. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr CT043.