Eating a “sweet-meat” diet full of red meat, starches and sweets has been found to increase the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal Chinese women -- particularly those who were overweight.

Among overweight women who ate a highly “meat-sweet” diet, breast cancer risk increased more than two-fold compared to women who ate a “vegetable-soy” diet of vegetables, fish and soy-based products.

The researchers posit that limiting intake of a “Western dietary pattern” while controlling weight is a good way to protect against breast cancer. While I agree that limiting your intake of sweets and most starches is essential to good health, their recommendations to avoid red meat and include soy-based food fall short.

Red meat can be an incredibly healthy part of your diet, as long as you eat the right varieties for your nutritional type and only eat meat that has come from healthy, preferably grass-fed, organic, animals -- NOT those that are conventionally factory-farmed.

Meanwhile, soy is clearly not a health food unless you consume it in a fermented capacity.

Sweeping dietary claims rarely ever hold true for whole populations. Remember to seek out the foods your individual biochemistry has adapted to (according to your nutritional type), and base your diet on the freshest, cleanest sources of these foods as possible.

Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention July 1, 2007, 16, 1443-1448

Science Daily July 13, 2007