Slash the fat to cut ovarian cancer risk
If you want to reduce your risk of ovarian cancer, lower your fat intake—sooner rather than later, according to one recent study.
This was part of the larger Women's Health Initiative, which has been studying the effects of fat intake on the risk of various cancers. Participants (40,000 in all) were in the 50- to 79-age range. One group was told to continue eating the way they normally would. The second group was advised to reduce their fat intake to only 20 percent of total calories (down from an average of 35 percent).
Results showed that those who stuck with it for eight years reduced their chance of ovarian cancer by 40 percent. (It looks like you won't start seeing the benefits of that lower-fat diet until you've been at it for at least four years.)
What was especially promising to learn was that women with very poor eating habits but who made the switch to lower fat meals received the most benefit for their efforts.
Researchers believe that fat intake increases estrogen levels, which may have an impact on the ovaries. Blood tests done on the participants support this theory. For the women following a low-fat plan, their level of estradiol (the strongest hormone within the estrogen group) was reduced by 15 percent. Women who followed their normal eating habits had no change in their levels.
Ovarian cancer is a particularly lethal form of cancer, in that it doesn't tend to get diagnosed early enough. What usually occurs is that when it's finally found, it has already viciously spread. Of the patients who receive a diagnosis, only 45 percent of them live five years.
Women haven't had a lot of options to choose from in preventing ovarian cancer. Short of having your ovaries removed, the only other option has been to take birth control pills. Usage of up to five years can cut the risk by 60 percent, and the effects linger once you stop taking them.
The problem with birth control pills is that they have side effects that should make you think twice, such as increasing your risk of other cancers (cervical and liver in particular, and they've also been linked to breast cancer). Some women experience an increase in blood pressure, as well.
Plus, they're of no use to postmenopausal women, which means this group has been left with basically no options.
However, changing your eating habits to include less fat is something every woman can do, with no negative side effects attached. Keep your fat intake at around 20 percent, and be sure to get healthy fats that include avocados, omega-3-rich fatty fish such as salmon, and olive oil.
The key here is to focus on healthy fats. This study was done on people consuming the usual assortment of unhealthy trans fats (aka hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils) in packaged baked goods, salad dressings, margarines and processed cooking oils, and saturated fats from supermarket dairy and meat products. If you're enjoying a healthy, whole foods diet and getting enough regular exercise to maintain a normal body weight, you do not have to worry so much about eating a higher fat diet. So whenever you read about some new study that touts a low-fat diet, keep the above facts in mind.
