Paper Palate

Losing weight could reduce a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer, a study that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in February. The Hartford Courant recently wrote about the subject, indicating that it’s never too late for women to lose weight and reduce their chances.

Researchers found that if post-menopausal women lost at least 22 pounds, they could reduce their risk of breast cancer by about 40 percent. If they managed to keep the weight off for at least four years, the risk was reduced by 60 percent.

Maintaining a healthy weight has been linked to lower risks of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other heart-related disorders. This is the first research to show that staying thin can also protect against breast cancer, said Eliassen, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

This study is also the first to look at the relationship between breast cancer and fat. According to the abstract available on the JAMA website, the objective of the study was “To assess the effects of undertaking a low-fat dietary pattern on breast cancer incidence.”