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Katie Couric: You might wanna think twice before you take your kids for a fast food meal today. A new study reports there may be a link between French fries and breast cancer. Dr. Karin Michels is the study's lead author. She's an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and a clinical epidemiologist at the Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. Good morning.
Dr. Karin Michels: Good morning, Katie.
Katie Couric: Is it Michels or Michelles?
Dr. Karin Michels: Michels is just(lip-reading) fine. Thank you.
Katie Couric: Ok, good. I am glad I've pronounced it correctly. So tell me a little bit about this study and the link you found between French fries and breast cancer.
Dr. Karin Michels: Yes. We found indeed that diet in pre-school age may indeed be associated with breast cancer risk later in life. We found that one additional serving of French fries per week during pre-school age was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer later in life.
Katie Couric: And, and before we talk about specifically why French fries seem to be such a problem here, how many, how many people did you study and didn't you study mothers and children, or talked to them?
Dr. Karin Michels: Yes, we interviewed mothers of participants of the Nurse's Health Studies in Boston. So we obtained information from the mothers as to what their children ate during pre-school age, that is when they were 3 to 5 years old. We studied about 2,200 women. As we asked the mothers to give us detailed information about the preferences of their daughters during pre-school age. And some of these women had developed breast cancer already. So we linked the dietary information that we got from the mothers to their daughters' breast cancer incidence later in life.
Katie Couric: And so what is it about the French fries that make them such a suspicious culprit of all these?
Dr. Karin Michels: That of course is something we would like to find out. French fries are very high in saturated and trans-fatty acids, and that could potentially be the reason that we see this as association.
Katie Couric: And what about other foods, other potatoes, for example, I understand, that mashed potatoes, including, which include butter, didn't have a link to breast cancer in any way?
Dr. Karin Michels: That is correct. We asked for a whole number of foods to be reported by the mothers, and French fries was the only food that stood out to be associated with breast cancer risk. So we've also asked about mashed potatoes, or sweet potatoes; we also asked about ice-cream consumption, hot dog consumption, hamburgers, but none of these potentially also unhealthy foods stood out here to be associated with breast cancer risk. It was really only the French fries.
Katie Couric: Were some of the people you spoke to overweight? Did that have an impact on the breast cancer incidence, in other words, does that you... make you more at risk if you are overweight or even obese?
Dr. Karin Michels: Well, it depends whether you're a young woman or older woman with respect to the obesity. But in our analysis, we controlled for all of these factors, so they should not have any influence on the results.
Katie Couric: Dr. Larry Norton, who's Deputy-Physician-in-Chief for the breast cancer program at Memorial Sloan Catering Cancer Center here in New York, warned against over-interpreting, the results of the study. He said: I wouldn't go out and change Americans' dietary habits on the basis of this, but it's certainly worth pursuing with additional research." So what are the implications here and how would you advise parents when it comes to their youngsters' diets?
Dr. Karin Michels: Yes. I think uh..we have to be very cautious and not over-interpreting the result from this one study. Of course we would like to see our findings confirmed in other studies. The reason why we looked at this early life phase is because there is increasing evidence that breast cancer may originate early in life. The breast of a young woman is much more susceptible to environmental and potentially carcinogenic influences than the breast of an adult woman. In terms of how we translate our findings for the public, there is plenty of evidence to be concerned about our youth's diet.
Katie Couric: Right.
Dr. Karin Michels: And, we are facing an epidemic of childhood obesity. There's also evidence that other chronic diseases, such as heart disease, and diabetes originate in childhood. So we really are concerned that our children adopt healthier diet and it is obviously a call on the parents to watch over their children's diet. We know that atherosclerotic plaques can always be found in the coronary arteries of children. So it is really preeminent to ensure that we're not, have a young generation grow up to have high incidence (Right.) of chronic diseases as a result of old bad diet.
Katie Couric: Clearly. We have to start kid eating in a healthy way very early because as, as you mentioned in your new study found a 27% increase in risk of breast cancer if you have an extra serving of French fries, when you are a girl between the ages of 3 and 5. Dr. Karin Michels, thanks so much for you ,for coming in this morning. We've appreciated it.
Dr. Karin Michels: My pleasure. Thank you.
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