A large, prospective study of premenopausal women suggests that high intake of animal fat, especially from red meat and dairy products, is associated with an increase in risk of breast cancer. The study appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Eunyoung Cho, Sc.D., of the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues examined the relationship between dietary fat intake and breast cancer risk among 90,655 premenopausal women ages 26 to 46 who were participating in the Nurses' Health Study II. The women completed questionnaires about how frequently they consumed certain foods and were followed for 8 years.