A study published in the May 2007 issue of Epidemiology suggests that eating grilled, barbecued and smoked meat for a long period may raise the likelihood of developing breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
Dr. Susan E. Steck from the
University of
South Carolina in
Columbia and colleagues found that the risk of breast cancer can be raised by 47 percent in the postmenopausal women over their lifetime because of consumption of the noted meats.
The risk can even be as high as 74 percent in those postmenopausal women who ate the noted cooked meats, but skipped on fruit and vegetables.
The current patterns of meat consumption were not linked with the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
And consumption of barbecued, smoked and grilled meat was not associated with risk of breast cancer in pre-menopausal women.
The findings suggest that women should have high intake of fruits/vegetables and reduce intake of meats processed at high temperatures such as grilled, smoked, and barbecued meat.
These types of meat may carry high amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic amines, which are known carcinogens produced by cooking meat at high temperatures, according to the authors.
However, the researchers cautioned that the results were an association between meat consumption and risk of breast cancer.
It is not a causal relationship between the two.
Some other possible risk factors can not be excluded.
For the study, Steck and team compared the lifetime and recent consumption of meat in 1,500 women with breast cancer and a similar number of health women.
Postmenopausal women who consumed high amounts of smoked, grilled or barbecued meats, more than once a week, were 47 percent more likely to develop breast cancer compared to those who ate those meats less than once a week, the authors found.
Those postmenopausal women who ate high amounts of those cooked meats, but ate less than five servings of fruits and vegetables a day were 74 percent more likely to develop breast cancer.
But the association was not found with consumption of fish and chicken even if they were barbecued, smoked or grilled.
