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Results of the Low Dietary Fat WHI Clinical Trial
The news reports last week picked up on the surprising fact (surprising to many of us, anyway) that a low fat diet does not decrease the incidence of invasive breast cancer in post-menopausal women. The prevailing wisdom was, of course, that a low fat diet was good for, well... everything.
But the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, measured no statistically significant reduction in invasive breast cancer between nearly 20,000 women who reduced their fat intake and 30,000 women who did not alter their diets. There was a slightly lower incidence, but not enough to be certain that the difference wasn't caused by random chance.
A closer look at the data, however, did provide some evidence for a benefit of a low fat diet. Those women who began the clinical trial with particularly high amounts of fat in their diets demonstrated a wider difference in cancer incidence between the experimental and control groups. This would suggest that dietary fat does play some role, but perhaps only when fat intake is reduced by a relatively large amount.
Does the seemingly "negative" result mean the clinical trial was not helpful? I don't think so. There were many other variables measured in this very important and impressive study. Because of the care with which it was designed and executed, much has been learned that will lead to further research. Equally significant, perhaps, is the spotlight it has focused on women's health.
-Joe
Related Topics: Healthy Eating, Cancer Information
Technorati Tags: lowfatdiet, cancer, women,
But the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, measured no statistically significant reduction in invasive breast cancer between nearly 20,000 women who reduced their fat intake and 30,000 women who did not alter their diets. There was a slightly lower incidence, but not enough to be certain that the difference wasn't caused by random chance.
A closer look at the data, however, did provide some evidence for a benefit of a low fat diet. Those women who began the clinical trial with particularly high amounts of fat in their diets demonstrated a wider difference in cancer incidence between the experimental and control groups. This would suggest that dietary fat does play some role, but perhaps only when fat intake is reduced by a relatively large amount.
Does the seemingly "negative" result mean the clinical trial was not helpful? I don't think so. There were many other variables measured in this very important and impressive study. Because of the care with which it was designed and executed, much has been learned that will lead to further research. Equally significant, perhaps, is the spotlight it has focused on women's health.
-Joe
Related Topics: Healthy Eating, Cancer Information
Technorati Tags: lowfatdiet, cancer, women,
