Eating lots of carbs may raise breast cancer risk

Filed under: Health — Tags: breast-cancer — luis @ 11:37 am

New research published today suggests that high-carb diets might raise the risk of breast cancer. Scientists found that women in Mexico who ate a large number of carbs were more than twice as likely to get breast cancer than those who ate less starch and sugar.

Scientists think carbs may increase cancer risk by rapidly raising sugar in the blood, which causes a surge of insulin to be secreted. This causes cells to divide and leads to higher levels of estrogen in the blood, both of which can encourage cancer.

Dr. Walter Willett, chief of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, worked on the study with doctors at Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica in Cuernavaca, Mexico. It was funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ministry of Health of Mexico, and the American Institute for Cancer Research.