A new study has revealed that consuming red or white meat does not raise the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
The large study, conducted by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, has been published in the International Journal of Cancer.
A number of previous studies have found that eating red meat or meat cooked at high temperatures increases the risk of breast cancer. (High temperatures -caused by grilling, barbecuing or pan-frying - produce high amounts of heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in meat; HCAs and PAHs are mutagens (chemicals capable of causing mutations in DNA) that can cause breast tumors in laboratory animals.)
But a link between meat in the diet and breast cancer in women hasn't been established.
"Previous epidemiologic studies in humans looking at the amount of meat in the diet and estimated intakes of HCAs and PAHs in relation to breast cancer risk have yielded inconsistent results," says lead author Geoffrey C. Kabat, Ph.D., M.S., senior epidemiologist in the department of epidemiology and population health at Einstein.
To reach the conclusion, Kabat and his colleagues analyzed data on 120,755 postmenopausal women who participated in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health and American Association of Retired Persons. When the women enrolled in the study (between 1995 and 1996), they gave detailed information on what types of food they ate and how often they ate certain foods. In addition, they provided information on meat-preparation methods.