Meat, milk and eggs are not related to breast cancer

Most people think that Western diets are related to the risk of breast cancer.

In the framework of the European EPIC study, Dr. Valeria Pala and colleagues at the Milan National Cancer Institute, Italy, were interested in the relationship between consumption of meat, eggs and dairy products with risk of breast cancer.

During the period between 1992 and 2003, the information on diet of 319,826 women was collected and analyzed by researchers.

With an average follow-up of 8.8 years, 7,190 breast cancer cases were diagnosed.

Researchers found that no solid relationship was found between breast cancer risk and consumption of the surveyed foods. Meat processed industrially is associated with a modest increase of this risk.

"We did not realize that consumption of meat, eggs or dairy products are risk factors for breast cancer," the study authors concluded .

Other studies will continue to study the possible role of cooking red meat at high temperatures in this disease.