Healthy Nutrition
Can a Low-Fat Diet Really Prevent Ovarian Cancer?
A new study has been touted as showing that a low-fat diet can reduce the risk for ovarian cancer. But the results are a lot iffier than you might believe.
The data came from the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification trial. Women who decreased the amount of dietary fat they ate were 40 percent less likely to develop ovarian cancer than women who followed “normal dietary patterns.”
Here’s the problem. When people follow what they think is “healthy” advice (like eat less fat), they are also more likely to do other things that can have health benefits (like stop smoking or eat more vegetables or exercise more). There’s no way to account for how much the results are due to outside factors (what researchers call “confounding variables”) like these.
In addition, a lot of research has shown that even when people are counseled to “eat less fat,” eventually their fat intake starts to creep up. In this study the women were counseled to eat a diet containing 20 percent fat. By the end of the first year they were in fact up to 24 percent. By the end of the study, it was 29 percent.
Most important, the “fat reducing” women also increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables. There’s absolutely no way to know whether their lower rate of ovarian cancer had to do with the reduced fat or the increased anti-cancer compounds, anti-inflammatories and anti-oxidants from the plant foods.
There’s no doubt that obesity puts you at increased risk for a host of diseases, including some cancers. But fat on the body isn’t the same as fat in the diet. We need to we get over the idea that “fat makes you fat.” Insulin makes you fat, and carbohydrates, especially processed carbs, drive up insulin. The real culprits in our diet are sugar, processed carbs and junk food.
[Ed. note: Dr. Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and health. A board certified nutritionist with a Master's degree in psychology, he is the author of several best-selling books including "Living the Low Carb Life" and "The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth." For more information, click here.]
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Tags: low fat diet, ovarian cancer, women's health
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