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Low-fat diet may stem breast cancer recurrence

Oncologist Dr. Rowan Chlebowski explains the results of a new study on post-menopausal women.
/ Source: TODAY

A low-fat diet contains what percentage of fat?
We wanted the women on the low-fat diet to get 20 percent of their calories from fat, no more.  Each woman worked with a dietitian and the low-fat patients saw the dietitian every other week for eight visits. The standard group went every three months.  The dietitian asked patients what they were eating, helped them identify the fat in their diet, and would try to get them to change that part of their diet.  The dieticians also helped with portion sizes, suggesting minimal oil use and many other changes.

What kind of foods should the women on the low-fat diet be eating?  
It's really easy — it goes right along with the food pyramid.  Red meat should be reduced in portion size — women are eating too much.  Baked goods are high in fat and should be minimized, and women also should eat bread without  spreads and learn to cook with less oil.  These changes are knowledge-based — women need help to make these changes and need to be educated about their nutrition.

Should this change what every woman is doing?Women should talk to their oncologists — there is no nutritional downside to the study. This could help in other areas too.  Making changes to your diet is much better than taking a lot of different drugs that have lots of side effects.

Why does this affect only post-menopausal women, not pre-menopausal?We studied women aged 48 to 79, so the information only applies to the post-menopausal woman.  We would like to do a pre-menopausal study, but we don't have anything in the works right now.