Dairy Products and Health
MOST CONSUMERS THINK OF DAIRY PRODUCTS as being just milk, butter, and cheese from cows, along with eggs taken from chickens. But dairy should also be thought of as a category that includes any foods produced from sheep and goat milk, even though such products are less common in North America than in many other countries.
What all dairy products, to one extent or another, have in common is a high saturated fat content. This is a key trigger for many health problems. With the explosion in the numbers of processed food products, even those claiming to be “healthy,” dairy products show up frequently as hidden ingredients. For example, you will find them in such products as boxed cereals, crackers, granola bars, “energy” bars, and even as a staple in many vegetarian “meat” products.
At least eighteen forms of cancer have been linked to dairy product consumption in studies assembled here as collected from throughout the world, though the weight of evidence for each cancer’s relationship to dairy varies widely. There is also ample evidence showing associations with coronary heart disease, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and metabolic syndrome, among other ailments.
Diet in acne: further evidence for the role of nutrient signaling in acne pathogenesis. Melnik BC. Acta Derm Venereol. 2012 May;92(3):228-31. Key Finding: “Acne is absent in populations consuming Palaeolithic diets with low glycemic load and no consumption of milk or dairy products. Epidemiological evidence confirms that milk consumption has an acne-promoting or acne-aggravating effect.”
Dietary intervention in acne: Attenuation of increased mTORC1 signaling promoted by Western diet Melnik B. Dermatoendocrino. 2012 Jan 1;4(1):20-32. Key Finding: Dietary intervention in acne to attenuate mTORC1 signaling means reducing consumption of leucine-rich meat and dairy proteins.
Evidence for acne-promoting effects of milk and other insulinotropic dairy products. Melnik BC. Nestle Nutr Workshop Ser Pediatr Program. 2011;67:131-45. Key Finding: “Restriction of milk consumption will have an enormous impact on the prevention of epidemic western diseases like obesity, diabetes mellitus, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and acne.”
Acne, dairy and cancer: The Salpha-P link. Danby FW. Dermatoendocrinol. 2009 Jan;1(1):12-6. Key Finding: “A potent link to dairy seems to exist for three hormone-responsive glands. Acne, breast cancer and prostate cancer have all been linked epidemiologically to dairy intake. Although mechanisms postulated here remain to be accurately defined, the likely link involves Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 as a general stimulant, synergized by the steroid hormones present in milk. The IGF-1 may be either absorbed from milk, or stimulate by its ingestion, or both. The Salpha-reduced compound Salpha-pregnanedione (Salpha-P) present in milk is a direct precursor of dihydrotestosterone and may act through that pathway in prostate cancer, but Salpha-P has also recently been shown to be capable of inducing estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells, upregulating cancer cells’ sensitivity to estrogen.”
Milk-induced wheezing in children with asthma. Murray MG, et al. Allergol Immunopathol. 2012 Nov 6. (Epub ahead of print.) Key Finding: “This study shows that cow’s milk can cause wheezing in children with asthma.”
EuroPrevall survey on prevalence and pattern of self-reported adverse reactions to food and food allergies among primary schoolchildren in Vilnius, Lithuania. Kavaliunas A, et al. Medicina. 2012;48(5):265-71. Key Finding: A total of 3084 questionnaires were returned in a survey of school children in Vilnius. Almost half of the children had an illness or a disorder caused by eating food. The prevalence of adverse reactions to food was found to be increasing with age from 6 to 10 years. Food allergy was diagnosed in 16.4% of children. Milk and dairy were found to be among the most common foods to cause adverse reactions. The most relevant foods for children with IgE-mediated food allergy were cow’s milk and hazelnuts.”
Prevalence of self-reported food allergy in Hong Kong children and teens—a population survey. Ho MH, et al. Asian Pac J Allergy Immunol. 2012 Dec;30(4):275-84. Key Finding: “A cross-sectional population-based questionnaire survey targeted at children aged 0-14 years was conducted in Hong Kong. A total of 7,393 children aged 14 and below were recruited. Of that number 352 reported having adverse reactions to foods. Shellfish was the top allergen followed by hen’s egg, and milk and dairy products.”
Food hypersensitivity and otolaryngologic conditions in young children. Paddack A, et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2012 Aug;147(2):215-20. Key Finding: One hundred ninety-one children with suspected cow’s milk protein allergy were reviewed. Ninety-one percent demonstrated improved symptoms following dairy elimination.”
Does milk increase mucus production? Bartley J, McGlashan SR. Med Hypotheses. 2010 Apr;74(4):732-4. Key Finding: “Excessive milk consumption has a long association with increased respiratory tract mucus production and asthma. A subgroup of the population who have increased respiratory tract mucus production find that many of their symptoms, including asthma, improve on a dairy elimination diet In the human colon, beta-casomorphin-7 (beta-CM-7) an exorphin derived from the breakdown of A1 milk, stimulates mucus production from gut MUC5AC glands.”
Cow’s milk allergy related pediatric constipation: appropriate time of milk tolerance. El-Hodhod MA, et al. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2010 Mar;21(2 Pt 2):e.407-12. Key Finding: “This study included 60 patients suffering from chronic functional constipation. Thirty infants and children were studied as a control group. Withdrawal of cow milk and dairy products for a 1 month period was then followed by cow milk re-challenge over 2 weeks. Cow’s milk allergy is shown to be a significant etiologic factor for constipation in infants and young children. Tolerance is better achieved after 12 months of strict cow’s milk elimination.”
Milk protein IgG and IgA: the association with milk-induced gastrointestinal symptoms in adults. Anthoni S, et al. World J Gastroenterol. 2009 Oct 21;15(39):4915-8. Key Finding: “Subjects drinking milk (among 400 subjects randomly selected from outpatient clinics in southern Finland, 265 of whom were milk drinkers, and 119 of those reported gastrointestinal problems) had higher levels of milk protein IgG in their sera than non-milk drinkers. Subjects with gastrointestinal problems related to milk drinking consumed less milk but had higher milk protein IgG levels thanthose with no milk-related gastrointestinal symptoms. The association of high milk protein IgG levels with constipation was close to the level of statistical significance. Milk protein IgG but not milk IgA seems to be associated with self-reported milk-induced gastrointestinal symptoms.”
Dietary intake of fatty acids, antioxidants and selected food groups and asthma in adults. Nagel G, Linsisen J. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005 Jan;59(1):8-15. Key Finding: “A total of 105 newly physician-diagnosed cases of asthma from the European Prospective investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Heidelberg cohort were identified and matched with 420 controls. The present results provide evidence that even in adulthood, a high margarine intake increases the risk of clinical onset of asthma.”
Atherosclerosis (cardiovascular disease)
Dietary intake of saturated fat by food source and incident cardiovascular disease: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. De Oliveira Otto MC, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Aug;96(2):397-404. Key Finding: A 120-item food-frequency questionnaire was used with 5209 participants who were 45-84 years old and were followed for 10 years. A higher intake of meat saturated fat was associated with greater cardiovascular disease risk. The substitution of 2% energy from meat saturated fat with energy from dairy saturated fat was associated with a 25% lower CVD risk. Associations of saturated fat with health may depend on food-specific fatty acids or other nutrient constituents.”
Relations between dairy food intake and arterial stiffness: pulse wave velocity and pulse pressure. Crichton GE, et al. Hypertension. 2012 May;59(5):1044-51. Key Finding: Arterial stiffness is an independent predictor of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. “No association was found between dairy food intake and lipid levels. A negative relationship was found between pulse wave velocity and pulse pressure and cardiovascular disease risk.”
Dietary patterns and risk of cardiovascular deaths among middle-aged Japanese: JACC Study. Maruyama K, et al. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2012 Mar 10. (Epub ahead of print.) Key Finding: At baseline 26,598 men and 37,439 women aged 40-79 years enrolled in the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study with 13 year follow-up. The animal food and dairy food pattern was not associated with mortality from stroke, coronary heart disease or total cardiovascular disease for either sex.”
Dairy products consumption is associated with decreased levels of inflammatory markers related to cardiovascular disease in apparently healthy adults: the ATTICA study. Panaqiotakos DB, et al. J Am Coll Nutr. 2010 Aug;29(4):357-64. Key Finding: ATTICA study enrolled 1514 men (18 to 87 years old) and 1528 women (18 to 89 years old) from the Attica region of Greece. Fasting blood samples were collected and dietary habits (including consumption of dairy products) were evaluated. We identified an inverse association between dairy products consumption and levels of various inflammatory markers among healthy adults. Consuming between 11 and 14 servings of dairy products per week were almost 16%, 5% and 12% lower (in markers) than in those consuming fewer than 8 servings per week.”
Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating pattern and risk of elevated blood pressure in adolescent girls. Moore LL, et al. Br J Nutr. 2012 Nov 14;108(9):1678-85. Key Finding: “Data from 2185 girls followed-up over 10 years until the girls were 18-20 years of age. In this study, adolescent girls whose diets were rich in dairy products and fruits and vegetables during the early and mid-adolescent years were less likely to have elevated blood pressure levels in later adolescence.”
Dietary protein and risk of hypertension in a Dutch older population: the Rotterdam study. Altorf-van der Kuil W, et al. J Hypertens. 2010 Dec;28(12):2394-400. Key Finding: “In 559 participants aged at least 70 years, the intake of animal protein {dairy and meat} was positively related to risk of hypertension. For participants aged below 70 years no association was found.”
Nutrition and blood pressure. MacGregor GA. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 1999 Aug;9(4 SUppl):6-15. Key Finding: “A reduction in meat and dairy products, with an increase in fish consumption, will have large effects on blood pressure but, at the same time, will decrease other cardiovascular risk factors, particularly cholesterol and glucose intolerance.”
Food group intake and brain lesions in late-life vascular depression. Payne ME, et al. Int Psychogeriatr. 2007 Apr;19(2):295-305. Key Finding: “Food intake was assessed in 54 elderly vascular depression subjects using a food frequency questionnaire. High-fat dairy was significantly positively correlated with brain lesion volume.”
Cancer—Bladder
Cultured milk, yogurt, and dairy intake in relation to bladder cancer risk in a prospective study of Swedish women and men. Larsson SC, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Oct;88(4):1083-7. Key Finding: “We prospectively followed 82,002 Swedish women and men who were cancer-free and completed a 96-item food-frequency questionnaire in 1997. Incident cases of bladder cancer were identified in the Swedish cancer registries. Total dairy intake was not significantly associated with risk of bladder cancer. However, a statistically significant inverse association was observed for the intake of cultured milk (sour milk and yogurt). These findings suggest that a high intake of cultured milk may lower the risk of developing bladder cancer.”
Cancer—Brain
An international case-control study of maternal diet during pregnancy and childhood brain tumor risk: a histology-specific analysis by food group. Pogoda JM, et al. Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Mar;19(3):148-60. Key Finding: “Nine study centers from seven countries contributed 1218 cases and 2223 controls. Most cases were diagnosed between 1982 and 1992 and ranged in age from 0 to 19 years. Dietary consumption was measured as average grams per day. Foods generally associated with increased risk of brain tumors were cured meats, eggs/dairy, and oil products. The cured meat association was specific to astrocytomas.”
Cancer—Breast
Dairy products, calcium intakes, and breast cancer risk: a case-control study in China. Zhang CX, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2011;63(1):12-20. Key Finding: In Guangdong province 438 recruited cases with primary breast cancer were frequency-matched with 438 controls on age, residence, and dietary intake. “No significant association was found between dairy products measured either by dry weight of dairy product or dairy product protein intake and breast cancer risk.”
Factors associated with oxidative stress in women with breast cancer. Vieira FG, et al. Nutr Hosp. 2011 May-Jun;26(3):528-36. Key Finding: Oxidative stress measured by plasma lipid hydroperoxides (LH) is associated in women with breast cancer. “The intake of chicken and high-fat dairy products was associated with increased levels of LH and may be an important determinant of oxidative stress in women with breast cancer.”
Diet, insulin-like growth factor-1 and cancer risk. Key TJ. Proc Nutr Soc. 2011 May 3:1-4. Key Finding: “Men and women with relatively high intakes of protein from dairy products have higher blood levels of IGF-1. Insulin-like growth factor-1 is positively associated with the risk for both breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.”
Quantitative measurement of endogenous estrogen metabolites, risk-factors for development of breast cancer, in commercial milk products by LC-MS/MS. Farlow DW, et al. J Chromatogr B Analyt Biomed Life Sci. 2009 May 1;877(13):1327-34. Key Finding: “Increased levels of estrogen metabolites are associated with cancers of the reproductive system. One potential dietary source of EM is milk. In this study, the absolute quantities of unconjugated (free) and unconjugated plus conjugated (total) EM were measured in a variety of commercial milks (whole, 2%, skim, and buttermilk). The results show that the milk products tested contain considerable levels of EM. As anticipated, soy milk did not contain the mammalian EM measured using this method. The relatively high levels of catechol estrogens detected in milk products supports the theory that milk consumption is a source of EM and their ingestion may have a dietary influence on cancer risk.”
Acne, dairy and cancer: The Salpha-P link. Danby FW. Dermatoendocrinol. 2009 Jan;1(1):12-6. Key Finding: “A potent link to dairy seems to exist for three hormone-responsive glands. Acne, breast cancer and prostate cancer have all been linked epidemiologically to dairy intake. Although mechanisms postulated here remain to be accurately defined, the likely link involves Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 as a general stimulant, synergized by the steroid hormones present in milk. The IGF-1 may be either absorbed from milk, or stimulate by its ingestion, or both. The Salpha-reduced compound Salpha-pregnanedione (Salpha-P) present in milk is a direct precursor of dihydrotestosterone and may act through that pathway in prostate cancer, but Salpha-P has also recently been shown to be capable of inducing estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells, upregulating cancer cells’ sensitivity to estrogen.”
Conjugated linoleic acid intake and breast cancer risk in a prospective cohort of Swedish women. Larsson SC, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Sep;90(3):556-60. Key Finding: “Studies in animals and in vitro suggest that conjugated linoleic acids, a group of fatty acids found mainly in dairy products and in the meat of ruminants, have protective effects against mammary carcinogenesis. The objective of this study was to examine the association in 61,433 cancer-free women who completed a food frequency questionnaire from which we estimated each woman’s CLA intake and the incidence of invasive breast cancer. The results provide no evidence of a protective effect of CLA against breast cancer development in women.”
Meat, eggs, dairy products, and risk of breast cancer in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. Pala V, Krogh V. et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Sep;90(3):602-12. Key Finding: “We investigated the relation of meat, egg and dairy product consumption with breast cancer risk by using data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Information on diet was collected from 319,826 women. We have not consistently identified intakes of meat, eggs, or dairy products as risk factors for breast cancer. Future studies should investigate the possible role of high-temperature cooking in the relation of red meat intake with breast cancer risk.”
Diet and breast cancer in Latin-America. Torres-Sanchez L, et al. Salud Publica Mex. (Spanish). 2009;51 Suppl 2:s181-90. Key Finding: “A systematic search in Mexico identified 27 epidemiological studies that evaluated associations between diet and breast cancer. The research suggests a potential risk associated with elevated caloric consumption, consumption of red meat and processed meats, certain meat cooking techniques, milk and some other dairy products. The impact of specific foods and nutrients on breast cancer incidence is inconclusive. Further research is needed on this topic.”
Impact of lactose containing foods and the genetics of lactase on diseases: an analytical review of population data. Shrier I, Szilagyi A. Correa JA. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(3):292-300. Key Finding: “Dairy foods contain complex ingredients that could affect different diseases. The control of lactose digestion phenotypically divides populations into those who can (lactase persistent LP) and those who cannot (lactase nonpersistent LNP) assimilate lactose. We evaluated the relationship between dairy foods and LNP with colorectal, breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, and stomach cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). There were statistically significant increases in risk for colorectal and prostate cancer and ulcerative colitis with dairy foods and a statistically decreased risk for stomach cancer. There were trends for lung and ovarian cancers and Crohn’s disease. As LNP prevalence increased, stomach cancer risk increased, whereas risks of all other conditions decreased. In 3 cancers (prostate, ovarian, and breast) meta-analyses of case-based studies support ecological data. In colorectal cancer, on the contrary, meta-analyses of case-based studies suggest protection. The possible importance of distinguishing LNP/LP status in studies is discussed.”
Identification of a dietary pattern characterized by high-fat food choices associated with increased risk of breast cancer: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)—Potsdam Study. Schulz M, et al. Br J Nutr. 2008 Nov;100(5):942-6. Key Finding: “Study participants were 15,351 female subjects free of cancer at baseline and with complete dietary and outcome information followed for an average of 6 years. We identified a food pattern characterized by high consumption of processed meat, fish, butter and other animal fats, and margarine explaining >42% of total variation in fatty acid intake. Adherence to this food pattern was associated with a two-fold risk of breast cancer. A food pattern characterized by high-fat food choices was significantly associated with increased risk of breast cancer.”
Dairy products, calcium and the risk of breast cancer: results of the French SU.VI.MAX prospective study. Kesse-Guyot E., et al. Ann Nutr Metab. 2007;51(2):139-45. Key Finding: “Our data support the hypothesis that dairy products, through calcium content or a correlated component, might have a negative association with the risk of breast cancer, particularly among premenopausal women.”
Dairy products and breast cancer risk: a review of the literature. Al Sarakbi W, et al. Int J Fertil Womens Med. 2005 Nov-Dec;50(6):244-9. Key Finding: “Thirty-nine case-control and 11 cohort studies were identified since 1981. There is no substantial epidemiological evidence to support a significant link between the intake of dairy products and breast cancer risk.”
The possible role of female sex hormones in milk from pregnant cows in the development of breast, ovarian and corpus uteri cancers. Ganmaa D, Sato A. Med Hypotheses. 2005;65(6):1028-37. Key Finding: “Increased consumption of animal-derived food may have adverse effects on the development of hormone-dependent cancers. Among dietary risk factors, we are most concerned with milk and dairy products, because the milk we drink today is produced from pregnant cows, in which estrogen and progesterone levels are markedly elevated.”
Dairy product consumption and the risk of breast cancer. Parodi PW. J Am Coll Nutr. 2005 Dec;24(6 Suppl):5565-685. Key Finding: “Evidence from animal studies and epidemiology does not support a role for fat in the etiology of breast cancer. Evidence from more than 40 case control studies and 12 cohort studies does not support an association between dairy product consumption and the risk of breast cancer.”
Dairy, calcium, and vitamin D intake and postmenopausal breast cancer risk in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort. McCullough ML, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2005 Dec;14(12):2898-904. Key Finding: “Our results support the hypothesis that dietary calcium and/or some other components in dairy products may modestly reduce risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. The stronger inverse associations among estrogen receptor-positive tumors deserve further study.”
Dietary patterns and the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. Fung TT, et al. Int J Cancer. 2005 Aug 10;116(1):116-21. Key Finding: “Between 1984 and 2000, we ascertained 3,026 incident cases of postmenopausal breast cancer. The Western-type diet characterized by higher intake of red and processed meats and high-fat dairy products may elevate the risk of breast cancer among smokers.”
Consumption of dairy products and the risk of breast cancer: a review of the literature. Moorman P,. Terry PD. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Jul;80(1):5-14. Key Finding: “Milk products may contain contaminants such as pesticides which have carcinogenic potential, and growth factors such as insulin-like growth factor I, which have been shown to promote breast cancer growth. Most of the studies reviewed showed no consistent pattern of increased or decreased breast cancer risk with a higher consumption of dairy products as a whole.”
Conjugated linoleic acid blocks estrogen signaling in human breast cancer cells. Tanmahasamut P, et al. J Nutr. 2004 Mar;134(3):674-80. Key Finding: “Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a mixture of positional and geometric isomers of linoleic acid found in dairy products and has been widely shown to possess anticarcinogenic activity against breast cancer both in vitro and in animal models. Our findings demonstrate that CLA compounds possess potent antiestrogenic properties that may at least partly account for their antitumor activity on breast cancer cells.”
Dietary intake of conjugated linoleic acids and risk of premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer. Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer Study (WEB Study). McCann SE, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2004 Sep;13(9):1480-4. Key Finding: “We examined breast cancer risk and CLA intake among 1,122 women with primary, incident, histologically confirmed breast cancer and 2,036 controls. Diet was assessed with a self-administered 104-item food frequency questionnaire. Our findings suggest that, although CLA intakes was not related to overall breast cancer risk, there may be associations with tumor biology at least among premenopausal women.”
The experience of Japan as a clue to the etiology of breast and ovarian cancers: relationship between death from both malignancies and dietary practices. Li XM, et al. Med Hypotheses. 2003 Feb;60(2):268-75. Key Finding: “Over the past 50 years (1947-1997) the age-standardized death rates of breast and ovarian cancers in Japan increased about 2- and 4-fold, respectively, and the respective intake of milk, meat and eggs increased 20-, 10- and 7-fold. The increase in the annual death rates from breast and ovarian cancers might be due to the lifestyle changes (increased consumption of animal-derived food) that occurred after 1945. Among the food, milk and dairy products should receive particular attention since they contain considerable amounts of estrogens.”
Premenopausal fat intake and risk of breast cancer. Cho E, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003 Jul 16;95(14):1079-85. Key Finding: “Dietary fat intake and breast cancer risk were assessed among 90,655 premenopausal women aged 26 to 46 years in 1991. Among food groups contributing to animal fat, red meat and high-fat dairy foods were each associated with an increased risk of breast cancer during premenopausal years.”
Dietary intake and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer (United States). Shannon J, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2003 Feb;14(1):19-27. Key Finding: “A food-frequency questionnaire was completed by 441 women with in-situ or invasive breast cancer and 370 population controls. Red meat intake was significantly associated with an increased breast cancer risk. Fish (including fried fish) and dairy product intake was inversely associated with breast cancer risk.”
Dairy foods and risk of breast cancer: a case-control study in Montevideo, Uruguay. Ronco AL, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2002 Oct;11(5):457-63. Key Finding: “A total of 333 women were interviewed with a specific questionnaire; 111 of them had been diagnosed with breast cancer and 222 were frequency-matched healthy women. A multivariate analysis found that high intakes of whole milk, chocolate milk and Gruyere cheese were associated with significant increased risk of breast cancer, whereas ricotta cheese and skim yoghurt were associated with significant decreased risks. Low-fat and fermented products combined appear to be the most protective dairy foods.”
Intake of dairy products, calcium, and vitamin d and risk of breast cancer. Shin MH, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2002 Sep 4;94(17):1301-11. Key Finding: “We followed 88,691 women in the Nurses’Health Study cohort for 16 years. We found no association between intake of dairy products and breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Among premenopausal women, high intake of low-fat dairy foods, especially skim/low-fat milk was associated with reduced risk of breast cancer.”
Meat and dairy food consumption and breast cancer: a pooled analysis of cohort studies. Missmer SA, et al. Int J Epidemiol. 2002 Feb;31(1):78-85. Key Finding: “More than 20 studies have investigated the relation between meat and dairy food consumption and breast cancer risk with conflicting results. We combined the primary data from eight prospective cohort studies from North American and Western Europe with at least 200 incident breast cancer cases. The pooled database included 351,041 women, 7,379 of whom were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during up to 15 years of follow-up. We found no significant associations between intake of meat or dairy products and risk of breast cancer. Breast cancer risk slightly increased among women who consumed one or more eggs per day compared to women who did not eat eggs.”
Cancer—Colon
Colorectal cancer risk factors among the population of South-East Siberia: a case-control study. Zhivotovskiy AS, et al. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2012;13(10):5183-8. Key Finding: Significant factors identified affecting colorectal cancer risk was found for “excessive red meat consumption, excessive intake of dairy products, excessive sour cream and cheese consumption.”
Colorectal cancer risk and dietary intake of calcium, vitamin D, and dairy products: a meta-analysis of 26,335 cases from 60 observational studies. Huncharek M, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2009;61(1):47-69. Key Finding: “In vivo and in vitro studies suggest that dairy products, calcium and dietary vitamin D inhibits the development of colorectal cancer. A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate this relationship in observational studies. Milk intake was unrelated to rectal cancer risk. High calcium intake had a greater protective effect against tumors of the distal colon and rectal cancer vs. proximal colon. Higher consumption of milk/dairy products reduces the risk of colon cancer.”
Intake of dairy products and risk of colorectal neoplasia. Putfulete M. Nutr Res Rev. 2008 Jun;21(1):56-67. Key Finding: “Dairy products contain potential chemopreventive components which may have chemopreventive effects in the colon, such as vitamin D, calcium, butyric acid, conjugated linoleic acid, sphingolipids, and probiotic bacteria in fermented products such as yoghurt.”
Food intake and colorectal cancers; an ecological study in Romania. Fira-Mladinescu C. Fira-Mladinescu O. Doroftei S. Sas F. Ursoniu S. Ionut R. Putnoky S. Suciu O. Vlaicu B. Rev Med Chir Soc Med Nat Iasi. (Romanian). 2008 Jul-Sept;112(3):805-11. Key Finding: “The malignancies of the rectum and anus showed both a strong positive correlation with the intake of red meat, sausages, margarine, butter. Negative correlations were reported for the recto-anal cancer and the consumption of fish and cheese.”
Dairy products, polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor gene and colorectal adenoma recurrence. Hubner RA, et al. Int J Cancer. 2008 Aug 1;123(3):586-93. Key Finding: “These findings indicate dairy products, and in particular milk, have chemopreventive activity against colorectal adenoma recurrence.”
Impact of lactose containing foods and the genetics of lactase on diseases: an analytical review of population data. Shrier I, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(3):292-300. Key Finding: “Dairy foods contain complex ingredients that could affect different diseases. The control of lactose digestion phenotypically divides populations into those who can (lactase persistent LP) and those who cannot (lactase nonpersistent LNP) assimilate lactose. We evaluated the relationship between dairy foods and LNP with colorectal, breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, and stomach cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). There were statistically significant increases in risk for colorectal and prostate cancer and ulcerative colitis with dairy foods and a statistically decreased risk for stomach cancer. There were trends for lung and ovarian cancers and Crohn’s disease. As LNP prevalence increased, stomach cancer risk increased, whereas risks of all other conditions decreased. In 3 cancers (prostate, ovarian, and breast) meta-analyses of case-based studies support ecological data. In colorectal cancer, on the contrary, meta-analyses of case-based studies suggest protection. The possible importance of distinguishing LNP/LP status in studies is discussed.”
Childhood dairy intake and adult cancer risk: 65-y follow-up of the Boyd Orr cohort. Van der Pols JC, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Dec;86(6):1722-9. Key Finding: “Dairy consumption affects biological pathways associated with carcinogenesis. Evidence for a link between cancer risk and dairy consumption in adulthood is increasing, but association with childhood dairy consumption have not been studied adequately. Some 4,999 children living in England and Scotland participated in a study of family food consumption from 1937 through 1939. The National Health Service central register was used to ascertain cancer registrations and deaths between 1949 and 2005 in the 4,383 traced cohort members. High childhood total dairy intake was associated with a near-tripling in the odds of colorectal cancer. Milk intake showed a similar association with colorectal cancer risk. Childhood dairy intake was not associated with breast and stomach cancer risk.”
Diet and vitamin or mineral supplementation and risk of colon cancer by subsite in Canada. Hu J, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2007 Aug;16(4):275-91. Key Finding: “Significant positive associations were observed between proximal colon cancer risk in men and consumption of red meat and dairy products, and between distal colon cancer risk in women and total intake of meat and processed meat. We also saw strong associations between bacon intake and both subsites of colon cancer in women.”
Calcium and vitamin D intake and risk of colorectal cancer: the Multiethnic Cohort Study. Park SY, et al. Am J Empidemiol. 2007 Apr 1;165(7):784-93. Key Finding: “The findings support the hypothesis of protective roles for calcium, vitamin D. and dairy products in the risk of colorectal cancer.”
The effect of lactose maldigestion on the relationship between dairy food intake and colorectal cancer: a systematic review. Szilagyi A, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2006;55(2):141-50. Key Finding: “Dairy food consumption has been inconsistently shown to protect against colorectal cancer in case-based studies, and no clear benefits against recurrent colonic polyps have been reported. Based on population-based studies we have hypothesized that dairy food intake may have anti-colorectal cancer effects at both low intake lactase non-persistent populations and at high intake lactase persistent subjects. We separately analyse existing case-based studies and divide origins into high LNP, low LNP, and mid LNP, which coincide with low, high and mid quantity dairy food intake regions. Eighty studies met stipulated criteria. This meta-analysis supports that the highest level of dairy food consumption protects subjects in both high and low LNP regions but not in areas with significant mixed LNP/LP populations. In both groups, dairy foods had no effect on polyp formation, suggesting it may only protect against colorectal cancer at late stages of formation. These results raise the possibility that LNP/LP status may be partly responsible for the discrepant results with respect to the relationship between dairy food consumption and colorectal cancer.”
Selenium, apoptosis, and colorectal adenomas. Connelly-Frost A, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006 Mar;15(3):486-93. Key Finding: “Selenium is an essential trace element found in dairy products, meat and fish. This micronutrient may prevent carcinogenesis through several biochemical pathways. The study population included 451 participants in the analysis of selenium and adenoma prevalence and 351 participants in the analysis of selenium and apoptosis. High selenium was associated with a reduced prevalence of colorectal adenomas. Apoptosis, however, did not seem to be the mechanism by which selenium was related to adenoma prevalence in our data.”
Calcium and dairy food intakes are inversely associated with colorectal cancer risk in the Cohort of Swedish Men. Larsson SC, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Mar;83(3):667-73. Key Finding: “In 1997, 45,306 men aged 45-79 y and without a history of cancer completed a food-frequency questionnaire. During a mean follow-up of 6.7 y we ascertained 449 incident cases of colorectal cancer. A high consumption of dairy foods was associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer.”
Foodstuffs and colorectal cancer risk: a review. Marques-Vidal P, et al. Clin Nutr. 2006 Feb;25(1):14-36. Key Finding: “A systematic review of available prospective studies on dietary intake and colorectal cancer was conducted. Excessive consumption of meat or smoked/salted/processed food appears to be deleterious. The consumption of smoked or salted fish also increases risk for colorectal cancer. The consumption of white meat, fish/seafood and dairy products was mostly unrelated to colorectal cancer risk.”
High-fat dairy food and conjugated linoleic acid intakes in relation to colorectal cancer incidence in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. Larsson SC, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Oct;82(4):894-900. Key Finding: “These prospective data suggest that high intakes of high-fat dairy foods and conjugated linoleic acid may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.”
Dietary calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D, dairy products and the risk of colorectal adenoma and cancer among French women of the E3N-EPIC prospective study. Kesse E, et al. Int J Cancer. 2005 Oct 20;117(1):137-44. Key Finding: “Our data support the hypothesis that calcium, dairy products and phosphorus exert a protective effect at certain steps of the adenoma-carcinoma sequence.”
Dietary patterns and colorectal adenomas in Japanese men: the Self-Defense Forces Health Study. Mizoue T, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2005 Feb 15;161(4):338-45. Key Finding: “A significant inverse association was found for the high-dairy pattern diet”
Intakes of calcium and vitamin D and risk of colorectal cancer in women. Lin, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2005 Apr 15;161(8):755-64. Key Finding: “The authors prospectively assessed intakes of calcium and vitamin D in relation to risk of colorectal cancer in 39,876 women enrolled in the US Women’s Health Study. Intakes of total calcium and vitamin D (from dairy products) were not associated with risk of colorectal cancer.”
The C/C-13910 genotype of adult-type hypolactasia is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer in the Finnish population. Rasinpera H, et al. Gut. 2005 May;54(5):643-7. Key Finding: “Absorption of lactose, the main sugar of milk, is regulated by the activity of the lactase enzyme in the gut wall. The activity of lactase if genetically determined and is associated with a C/T single nucleotide polymorphism residing 13910 bp upstream of the lactase coding sequence. Here we have studied the relationship between the C/T(-13910) polymorphism and colorectal cancer in Finnish, British and Spanish populations. Low lactase enzyme activity, defined by genotyping of the C/T(-13910) variant, may increase the risk of colorectal cancer. Further studies are warranted to investigate the role of milk and other dairy products in the pathogenesis of colon cancer in different populations.”
Dairy foods, calcium, and colorectal cancer: a pooled analysis of 10 cohort studies. Cho E, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2004 Jul 7;96(13):1015-22. Key Finding: “We pooled the primary data from 10 cohort studies in five countries that assessed usual dietary intake by using a validated food frequency questionnaire at baseline. The studies included 534,536 individuals, among whom 4,992 incident cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed between 6 and 16 years of follow-up. These results were consistent across studies and sex. The inverse association for milk was limited to cancer of the distal colon. Higher consumption of milk and calcium is associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer.”
Food groups and colon cancer risk in African-Americans and Caucasians. Satia-About a J, et al. Int J Cancer. 2004 May 1;109(5):728-36. Key Finding: “In Caucasians, high refined carbohydrate and red meat consumption was associated with a statistically significant 2-fold increased risk of colon cancer. In African-Americans, frequent intake of dairy foods was associated with a doubling in risk for colon cancer.”
Calcium, vitamin D, dairy products, and risk of colorectal cancer in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort (United States). McCullough ML, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2003 Feb;14(1):1-12. Key Finding: “Participants included 60,866 men and 66,883 women who completed detailed questionnaires on diet, medical history and lifestyle, 1992-3. Dairy product intake was not related to overall risk. Our results support the hypothesis that calcium modestly reduces risk of colorectal cancer. Vitamin D was associated with reduced risk of colorectal cancer only in men.”
Dairy products and colorectal cancer: A review of possible mechanisms and epidemiological evidence. Norat T, Riboli E. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2003 Jan;57(1):1-17. Key Finding: “This review provides an overview of the principal hypotheses and epidemiological evidence of the possible links between colorectal cancer and intake of milk and/or dairy products. Cohort studies consistently found a protective effect of total dairy products and milk intake, but the evidence is not supported by case-control studies. No relationship was found with cheese or yoghurt intake.”
Comparison of calcium supplementation or low-fat dairy foods on epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation. Holt PR, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2001;41(1-2):150-5. Key Finding: “These data indicate that increased dietary calcium given as supplements or in the diet in low-fat dairy foods lowers epithelial cell proliferation indexes in the colon from a higher to a lower risk pattern.”
Calcium, vitamin D, sunshine exposure, dairy products and colon cancer risk (United States). Kampman E, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2000 May;11(5):459-66. Key Finding: “Consumption of total low-fat dairy products was associated with a statistically significant decreased risk in men and women for colon cancer risk.”
Dairy foods and prevention of colon cancer: human studies. Holt PR. J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Oct;18(5 Suppl):3795-3915. Key Finding: “These combined data suggest that administration of supplemental calcium or low-fat dairy foods may have a significant inverse effect upon colonic polyp and perhaps colon cancer incidence.”
Cancer—Endometrial
Milk, dairy intake and risk of endometrial cancer: a 26-year follow-up. Ganmaa D, et al. Int J Cancer. 2012 Jun 1;130(11):2664-71. Key Finding: “Milk and dairy products are a source of steroid hormones and growth factors that might have physiological effects in humans. This was a prospective cohort study with 68,019 female participants in the Nurses’ Health study aged 34-59. The association between total dairy intake and endometrial cancer was significant only among the postmenopausal women.”
Cancer—Gastric
The role of diet and other environmental factors in the causation of gastric cancer in Iran—a population based study. Pourfarzi F, et al. Int J Cancer. 2009 Oct 15;125(8):1953-60. Key Finding: “The rates of gastric cancer reported from Ardabil Province, Iran, are among the highest in the world. To investigate risk factors for gastric cancer in Ardabil, we undertook a population-based case-control study. Consumption of red meat and dairy products increases the risk of gastric cancer in Ardabil.”
Dietary factors and the risk of gastric cancer in Mexico City. Ward MH, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 1999 May 15;149(10):925-32. Key Finding: “The authors conducted a population-based case-control study of gastric cancer in the Mexico City metropolitan area. A total of 220 patients with histologically confirmed gastric adencarcinomas were interviewed and given a dietary questionnaire. There was approximately a threefold increased risk of gastric cancer for frequent consumption of both fresh meat and processed meat. Odds ratios were also significantly elevated for frequent consumption of dairy products and fish.”
Cancer—General
Cancer and non-cancer health effects from food contaminant exposures for children and adults in California: a risk assessment. Vogt R, et al. Environ Health. 2012 Nov 9;11:83. Key Finding: “We estimated exposure to multiple food contaminants based on dietary data from 207 preschool-age children (2-4 years), 157 school-age children (5-7 years), and 466 parents of young children, and 149 older adults. We compared exposure estimates for eleven toxic compounds based on food frequency data by age group. Cancer benchmark levels were exceeded by all children (100%) for arsenic, dieldrin, DDE, and dioxins. Non-cancer benchmarks were exceeded by >95% of preschool-age children for acrylamide. Preschoolage children had significantly higher estimated intakes of 6 of 11 compounds compared to school-age children. Strategies to reduce risk include consuming less animal foods (meat, dairy and fish) and lower quantities of chips, crackers and other processed carbohydrate foods to reduce acrylamide intake.”
The association between diet and serum concentrations of IGF-1, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-3 in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition. Crowe FL, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 May;18(5):1333-40. Key Finding: “Circulating concentrations of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-1) and IGF binding proteins (IGFBP) have been associated with the risk of several types of cancer. The results from this large cross-sectional analysis show that either the intake of dairy protein or calcium is an important dietary determinant of IGF-1 and IGFBP-2 concentrations; however, we suggest that it is more likely to be protein from dairy products.”
Impact of lactose containing foods and the genetics of lactase on diseases: an analytical review of population data. Shrier I, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(3):292-300. Key Finding: “Dairy foods contain complex ingredients that could affect different diseases. The control of lactose digestion phenotypically divides populations into those who can (lactase persistent LP) and those who cannot (lactase nonpersistent LNP) assimilate lactose. We evaluated the relationship between dairy foods and LNP with colorectal, breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, and stomach cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). There were statistically significant increases in risk for colorectal and prostate cancer and ulcerative colitis with dairy foods and a statistically decreased risk for stomach cancer. There were trends for lung and ovarian cancers and Crohn’s disease. As LNP prevalence increased, stomach cancer risk increased, whereas risks of all other conditions decreased. In 3 cancers (prostate, ovarian, and breast) meta-analyses of case-based studies support ecological data. In colorectal cancer, on the contrary, meta-analyses of case-based studies suggest protection. The possible importance of distinguishing LNP/LP status in studies is discussed.”
Cancer—Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Dairy products, leanness, and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Peters ES, et al. Head Neck. 2008 Sep;30(9):1193-205. Key Finding: “There were 504 cases and 717 controls enrolled who completed a validated food frequency questionnaire. We observed a positive association between the consumption of dairy products and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Intake of animal fat was positively associated with an elevation in cancer risk.”
Cancer—Kidney
Dietary risk factors for kidney cancer in Eastern and Central Europe. Hsu CC, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2007 Jul 1;166(1):62-70. Key Finding: “The authors examined the role of diet in the high-risk population of Central Europe among 1,065 incident kidney cancer cases and 1,509 controls in Russia, Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. They observed an increased association with kidney cancer for consumption of milk, yogurt, as well as all meat. The increased risk associated with dairy products, preserved vegetables, and red meat provides clues to the high rates of kidney cancer in this population.”
Cancer—Lung
Impact of lactose containing foods and the genetics of lactase on diseases: an analytical review of population data. Shrier I, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(3):292-300. Key Finding: “Dairy foods contain complex ingredients that could affect different diseases. The control of lactose digestion phenotypically divides populations into those who can (lactase persistent LP) and those who cannot (lactase nonpersistent LNP) assimilate lactose. We evaluated the relationship between dairy foods and LNP with colorectal, breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, and stomach cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). There were statistically significant increases in risk for colorectal and prostate cancer and ulcerative colitis with dairy foods and a statistically decreased risk for stomach cancer. There were trends for lung and ovarian cancers and Crohn’s disease. As LNP prevalence increased, stomach cancer risk increased, whereas risks of all other conditions decreased. In 3 cancers (prostate, ovarian, and breast) meta-analyses of case-based studies support ecological data. In colorectal cancer, on the contrary, meta-analyses of case-based studies suggest protection. The possible importance of distinguishing LNP/LP status in studies is discussed.”
A case-control study of lifestyle and lung cancer associations by histological types. Kubik A, et al. Noeplasma. 2008;55(3):192-9. Key Finding: “Comparing the effects of diet/physical activity on lung cancer risk among nonsmokers versus smokers, interactions with smoking appeared for the intake of milk/dairy products among women. In men, the intake of fat foods was directly associated with the risk of squamous cell cancer.”
Interactions between smoking and other exposures associated with lung cancer risk in women: diet and physical activity. Kubik A, et al. Neoplasma. 2007;54(1):83-8. Key Finding: “Protective effects were observed for intake of milk/dairy products among smokers only, while no similar effects were found among nonsmokers.”
Diet and lung cancer mortality: a 1987 National Health Interview Survey cohort study. Breslow RA, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2000 May;11(5):419-31. Key Finding: “Red meats, including pork and ground beef, were associated with increased risk of lung cancer. Dairy products were inversely associated with lung cancer morality.”
Cancer—Multiple Myeloma
Diet and risk of multiple myeloma in Connecticut women. Hosgood HD, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2007 Dec;18(10):1065-76. Key Finding: “A population-based case-control study, consisting of 179 incident cases and 691 controls was conducted to examine the impact of diet on multiple myeloma risk. Consumption of cream soups, jello, ice cream, and pudding were positively associated. The findings from this study concur with previously published studies suggesting an inverse association for consumption of fish, cruciferous vegetables and green vegetables, and a positive association for some dairy products.”
Dietary factors and risk of non-hodgkin lymphoma in men and women. Chang ET, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2005 Feb;14(2):512-20. Key Finding: “Diet could influence non-hodgkin lymphoma risk by modulating the immune system. We did a population-based case control study. A total of 597 NHL cases and 467 population controls in Sweden completed a food frequency questionnaire. High consumption of dairy products and fried red meat was associated with increased risk of NHL.”
Diet and nutrient intakes and risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Connecticut women. Zheng T, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2004 Mar 1;159(5):454-66. Key Finding: “A population-based case-control study (601 cases and 717 controls) was conducted in 1995-2001 among Connecticut women to evaluate the relation between diet and nutrient intakes and the risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The authors found an increased risk associated with animal protein and saturated fat. An increased risk was also observed for higher intakes of retinol, eggs, and dairy products.”
Cancer—Oral
Dietary pattern and oral cancer risk: a factor analysis study. Helen-Ng LC, et al. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2012 Dec;40(6):560-6. Key Finding: “Intakes of dairy, fermented/salted and meat/by-products were found to be significant risks, thrice the risk, of oral cancer.”
Cancer—Ovarian
Use of dairy products, lactose, and calcium and risk of ovarian cancer—results from a Danish case-control study. Faber MT, et al. Acta Onco. 2012 Apr;51(4):454-64. Key Finding: “We included 554 womenwith epithelial ovarian cancer and 1554 randomly selected age-matched controls, 35-79 years. The total dairy intake was associated with ovarian cancer risk. The association was strongest for milk.”
Should dairy be recommended as part of a healthy vegetarian diet? Counterpoint. Lanou AJ. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;89(5):16385-16425. Key Finding: “Osteoporotic bone fracture rates are highest in countries that consume the most dairy, calcium and animal protein. Most studies of fracture risk provide little or no evidence that milk or other dairy products benefit bone. Accumulating evidence shows that consuming milk or dairy products may contribute to the risk of prostate and ovarian cancers, autoimmune diseases, and some childhood ailments.”
Impact of lactose containing foods and the genetics of lactase on diseases: an analytical review of population data. Shrier I, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(3):292-300. Key Finding: “Dairy foods contain complex ingredients that could affect different diseases. The control of lactose digestion phenotypically divides populations into those who can (lactase persistent LP) and those who cannot (lactase nonpersistent LNP) assimilate lactose. We evaluated the relationship between dairy foods and LNP with colorectal, breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, and stomach cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). There were statistically significant increases in risk for colorectal and prostate cancer and ulcerative colitis with dairy foods and a statistically decreased risk for stomach cancer. There were trends for lung and ovarian cancers and Crohn’s disease. As LNP prevalence increased, stomach cancer risk increased, whereas risks of all other conditions decreased. In 3 cancers (prostate, ovarian, and breast) meta-analyses of case-based studies support ecological data. In colorectal cancer, on the contrary, meta-analyses of case-based studies suggest protection. The possible importance of distinguishing LNP/LP status in studies is discussed.”
No Association of Consumption of Animal Foods with Risk of Ovarian Cancer. Schulz M, et al. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. April 2007;16:852. Key Finding: “Study participants from 10 European countries were recruited. We observed no significant association between the major animal food groups (total meat, eggs, fish, total dairy products) and risk of ovarian cancer.”
Relationship between calcium, lactose, vitamin D, and dairy products and ovarian cancer. Koralek DO, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2006;56(1):22-30. Key Finding: “Higher intakes of total dairy food (comparing four or more servings per day vs. less than one serving per day) were associated with a statistically significant decreased risk of ovarian cancer, although the trend was not significant.”
Dairy products and ovarian cancer: a pooled analysis of 12 cohort studies. Genkinger JM, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006 Feb;15(2):364-72. Key Finding: “The study population consisted of 553,217 women among whom 2,132 epithelial ovarian cases were identified. No statistically significant associations were observed between intakes of milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and dietary and total calcium intake and risk of ovarian cancer. A modest elevation in the risk of ovarian cancer was seen for lactose intake at the level that was equivalent to three or more servings of milk per day. Because a new dietary guideline recommends two to three servings of dairy products per day, the relation between dairy product consumption and ovarian cancer risk at these consumption levels deserves further examination.”
Milk, milk products and lactose intake and ovarian cancer risk: a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. Larsson SC, et al. Int J Cancer. 2006 Jan 15;118(2):431-41. Key Finding: “”Prospective cohort studies, but not case-control studies, support the hypothesis that high intakes of dairy foods and lactose may increase the risk of ovarian cancer.”
Dairy consumption and ovarian cancer risk in the Netherlands Cohort Study on Diet and Cancer. Mommers M, et al. Br J Cancer. 2006 Jan 16;94(1):165-70. Key Finding: “A self-administered questionnaire on dietary habits was completed by 62,573 postmenopausal women. After 11.3 years of follow-up, data of 252 incident epithelial ovarian cancer cases and 2216 subcohort members were available for analysis. Our results do not support an association between consumption of dairy products or lactose intake and ovarian cancer.”
Milk/dairy products consumption, galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer: meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. Qin L, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2005 Feb;14(1):13-9. Key Finding: “We collected epidemiological studies related to the association between milk/dairy products consumption or galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer published between January 1966 and August 2003 and found 27 items from 22 independent studies. In general, we did not find any association between milk/dairy products of galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer risk in this meta-analysis. The consumption of whole milk and butter, which contain relatively high amounts of fat, was positively but not significantly associated with an increased risk for ovarian cancer.”
Lactase persistence and ovarian carcinoma risk in Finland, Poland and Sweden. Kuokkanen M, et al. Int J Cancer. 2005 Oct 20;117(1):90-4. Key Finding: “Consumption of dairy products and lactase persistence has been suggested to be a risk factor for ovarian carcinoma. Our results do not support the hypothesis that lactase persistence increased the ovarian carcinoma risk. On the contrary, lactase persistence may decrease the ovarian carcinoma risk at least in the Finnish population.”
A prospective study of dietary lactose and ovarian cancer. Fairfield KM, et al. Int J Cancer. 2004 Jun 10;110(2):271-7. Key Finding: “The milk sugar lactose is an hypothesized risk factor for epithelial ovarian cancer because of possible direct toxic effects of its metabolites on oocytes or by compensatory gonadotropin stimulation. The objective of our study was to prospectively assess lactose, milk and milk product consumption in relation to ovarian cancer risk among 80,326 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study who had no history of cancer. Our findings provide some support for the hypothesis that lactose intake increases risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. However, the observed excess risk appeared limited to the serious subtype of ovarian cancer in our study.”
Milk and lactose intakes and ovarian cancer risk in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. Larsson SC., et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Nov;80(5):1353-7. Key Finding: “This was a prospective population-based cohort study of 61,084 women aged 38-76 y who were enrolled in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. Our data indicate that high intakes of lactose and dairy products, particularly milk, are associated with an increased risk of serious ovarian cancer but not of other subtypes of ovarian cancer.”
The experience of Japan as a clue to the etiology of breast and ovarian cancers: relationship between death from both malignancies and dietary practices. Li XM, et al. Med Hypotheses. 2003 Feb;60(2):268-75. Key Finding: “Over the past 50 years (1947-1997) the age-standardized death rates of breast and ovarian cancers in Japan increased about 2- and 4-fold, respectively, and the respective intake of milk, meat and eggs increased 20-, 10- and 7-fold. The increase in the annual death rates from breast and ovarian cancers might be due to the lifestyle changes (increased consumption of animal-derived food) that occurred after 1945. Among the food, milk and dairy products should receive particular attention since they contain considerable amounts of estrogens.”
Association of dairy products, lactose, and calcium with the risk of ovarian cancer. Goodman MT, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2002 Jul 15;156(2):148-57. Key Finding: “The authors conducted a case-control study in Hawaii and Los Angeles with a total of 558 patients with ovarian cancer and 607 controls who were interviewed regarding their diet Consumption of all dairy products, all types of milk and low-fat milk, but not consumption of whole milk, was significantly inversely related to the odds of ovarian cancer.”
A case-control study of galactose consumption and metabolism in relation to ovarian cancer. Cramer DW. Greenberg ER, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2000 Jan;9(1):95-101. Key Finding: “We assessed consumption of dairy products and obtained blood for biochemical and molecular genetic assessment of galactose metabolism in 563 women with newly diagnosed epithelial ovarian cancer and 523 control women. We observed no significant differences between cases and controls in usual consumption of various types of dairy products or total daily lactose. We conclude that certain genetic or biochemical features of galactose metabolism may influence disease risk for particular types of ovarian cancer.”
Milk consumption, galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer (Australia). Webb PM, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 1998 Dec;9(6):637-44. Key Finding: “Approximately 800 histologically-confirmed cases of ovarian cancer, 800 community controls and 300 controls recruited through breast-screening clinics completed dietary questionnaires. Ovarian cancer risk was positively associated with increasing consumption of whole milk and other full-fat dairy foods, but not associated with consumption of low-fat dairy foods and was inversely related to consumption of skimmed milk.”
Cancer—Pancreatic
The relative influence of diet and serum concentrations of organochlorine compounds on K-ras mutations in exocrine pancreatic cancer. Gasuli M, et al. Chemosphere. 2010 Apr;79(7):686-97. Key Finding: Dairy products are a source of organochlorine compounds and mechanistic relationships exist with pancreatic cancer onset “Consumption of milk and other dairy products was positively associated with concentrations of p,p’-DDT, PCB 138 and PCB 153.”
Dietary fatty acids and pancreatic cancer in the NIH-AARP diet and health study. Thiebaut AC, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2009 Jul 15:101(14):1001-11. Key Finding: “A US cohort of 308,736 men and 216,737 women completed a 124-item food frequency questionnaire. Pancreatic cancer risk was found to be directly related to the intakes of total fat, saturated fat and monounsaturated fat, but not polyunsaturated fat. The associations were strongest for saturated fat from animal food sources, specifically; intakes from red meat and dairy products were both statistically significantly associated with increased pancreatic cancer risk.”
Pancreatic cancer, animal protein and dietary fat in a population-based study, San Francisco Bay Area, California. Chan JM, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2007 Dec;18(10):1153-67. Key Finding: “A semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire was administered to 532 cases and 1,701 controls between 1995 and 1999. Positive associations with pancreatic cancer risk were observed for beef/lamb as a main dish, regular hamburger, whole eggs, butter, and total dairy. Some high-fat/processed meat products (sausage, salami, bacon) were also positively associated with risk. An inverse association was noted for greater chicken/turkey consumption.”
Food and nutrient intakes and K-ras mutations in exocrine pancreatic cancer. Morales E, et al. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007 Jul;61(7):641-9. Key Finding: “K-ras mutations were more common among daily consumers of milk and other dairy products than among non-daily consumers. Results support the hypothesis that in exocrine pancreatic cancer exposure to specific dietary components or contaminants may influence the occurrence of K-ras mutations.”
Dietary meat, dairy products, fat, and cholesterol and pancreatic cancer risk in a prospective study. Michaud DS, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2003 Jun 15;157(12):1115-25. Key Finding: “In a cohort of US women, the authors confirmed 178 pancreatic cancer cases over 18 years of follow-up. The authors’ data do not support previous findings that meat or saturated fat intakes are related to pancreatic cancer risk. Future prospective studies should examine the influence of cooking practices as well as other dietary habits on the risk of pancreatic cancer.”
Epidemiology of pancreatic cancer: an overview. Ghadirian P, et al. Cancer Detect Prev. 2003;27(2):87-93. Key Finding: “A positive association has been reported between pancreatic cancer risk and dietary intake such as fat and oil, meat, dairy products, and fried foods.”
Cancer—Pharyngeal
Nutrition and the risk of oral and pharyngeal cancer: the evidence for any association remains weak and clinical significance remains limited. Barasch A, Litaker M. J Evid Based Dent Pract. 2012 Sep;12(3 Suppl0:263-4. Key Finding: “Incident oral/pharyngeal cancer cases from 3 Italian geographic areas recruited from 1992 to 2005 were compared with 2080 contemporaneous patients admitted with non-neoplastic diagnoses at the same hospitals. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables, cereals, and olive oil confer protection against oral/pharyngeal cancer, whereas foods rich in animal products such as dairy and meat increase the risk for the disease.”
Cancer—Prostate
Risk factors for the onset of prostatic cancer: age, location, and behavioral correlates. Leitzmann MF, Rohrmann S. Clin Epidemiol. 2012;4:1-11. Key Finding: “Factors that may enhance prostate cancer risk include frequent consumption of dairy products and, possibly, meat.”
Milk and dairy consumption among men with prostate cancer and risk of metastases and prostate cancer death. Pettersson A, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2012 Mar;21(3):428-36. Key Finding: Cohort consisted of 3,918 men diagnosed with apparently localized prostate cancer between 1986 and 2006, and followed to 2008. “Men with the highest versus the lowest intake of whole milk were at an increased risk of progression of prostate cancer.”
A cross-sectional analysis of the association between diet and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, IGF-II, IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-2, and IGFBP-3 in men in the United Kingdom. Young NJ, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2012 Jun;23(6):907-17. Key Finding: Dairy product and dairy protein intake increases IGF-1 and IGFBP-2 levels and “these peptides warrant further investigation as part of randomized trials of dietary interventions to reduce the risk of progression of prostate cancer.”
Insulin-like growth factor-I concentration and risk of prostate cancer: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Price AJ, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2012 Sep;21(9):1531-41. Key Finding: “High circulating insulin-like growth factor-I(IGF-I) concentrations have been associated with increased risk for prostate cancer. In this study, we investigate the association between circulating IGF-I concentration and risk of prostate cancer over the long term with 1,542 incident prostate cancer cases from eight European countries matched to 1,542 controls. Circulating IGF-I concentration was associated with a significant increased risk for prostate cancer over the short and long term.”
Diet, insulin-like growth factor-1 and cancer risk. Key TJ. Proc Nutr Soc. 2011 May 3:1-4. Key Finding: “Men and women with relatively high intakes of protein from dairy products have higher blood levels of IGF-1. Insulin-like growth factor-1 is positively associated with the risk for both breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.”
Diet and cancer prevention: Contributions from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Gonzalez CA, Riboli E. Eur J Cancer. 2010 Sep;46(14):2555-62. Key Finding: “EPIC is a multicentre prospective study carried out in 23 centres in 10 European countries including 519,978 participants, most aged 35-70 years. We observed that high intake of dairy protein and calcium from dairy products and high serum concentration of IGF-1 were associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.”
Calcium intake increases risk of prostate cancer among Singapore Chinese. Butler LM, et al. Cancer Res. 2010 Jun 15;70(12):4941-8. Key Finding: “Dietary calcium might be a risk factor for prostate cancer even at relatively low intake.”
Dairy intake and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D levels in men at high risk for prostate cancer. Tseng M, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2009 Jul 4 (Epub ahead of print). Key Finding: “Dairy food intake has been associated with prostate cancer in previous work, but the mechanism by which this occurs is unknown. Dairy calcium may suppress circulating levels of potentially cancer-protective 1,25-hydroxyvitamin. We examined the associations of dairy, milk, calcium and vitamin D intake with plasma 1,25(OH)(2)(D) levels among 296 men enrolled in a high risk program for prostate cancer. Our findings do not confirm previous findings showing an inverse association between calcium intake and 1,25(OH)(2)(D) levels.”
Acne, dairy and cancer: The Salpha-P link. Danby FW. Dermatoendocrinol. 2009 Jan;1(1):12-6. Key Finding: “A potent link to dairy seems to exist for three hormone-responsive glands. Acne, breast cancer and prostate cancer have all been linked epidemiologically to dairy intake. Although mechanisms postulated here remain to be accurately defined, the likely link involves Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 as a general stimulant, synergized by the steroid hormones present in milk. The IGF-1 may be either absorbed from milk, or stimulate by its ingestion, or both. The Salpha-reduced compound Salpha-pregnanedione (Salpha-P) present in milk is a direct precursor of dihydrotestosterone and may act through that pathway in prostate cancer, but Salpha-P has also recently been shown to be capable of inducing estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells, upregulating cancer cells’ sensitivity to estrogen.”
Should dairy be recommended as part of a healthy vegetarian diet? Counterpoint. Lanou AJ. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;89(5):16385-16425. Key Finding: “Osteoporotic bone fracture rates are highest in countries that consume the most dairy, calcium and animal protein. Most studies of fracture risk provide little or no evidence that milk or other dairy products benefit bone. Accumulating evidence shows that consuming milk or dairy products may contribute to the risk of prostate and ovarian cancers, autoimmune diseases, and some childhood ailments.”
A systematic review of the effect of diet in prostate cancer prevention and treatment. Ma RW, Chapman K. J Hum Nutr Diet 2009 Jun;22(3):187-99. Key Finding: “The current data are indicative that avoiding high energy intake, excessive meat, excessive dairy products and calcium intake is possibly effective in preventing prostate cancer.”
Dairy products, dietary calcium and vitamin D intake as risk factors for prostate cancer: a meta-analysis of 26,769 cases from 45 observational studies. Huncharek M. et al. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(4):421-41. Key Finding: “The data from observational studies do not support an association between dairy product use and an increased risk of prostate cancer.”
Dietary fat intake and risk of prostate cancer in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Crowe FL, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 May;87(5):1405-13. Key Finding: “The objectives were to assess whether intakes of dietary fat, subtypes of fat, and fat from animal products were associated with prostate cancer risk. The results from this large multicenter study suggest that there is no association between dietary fat and prostate cancer risk.”
Impact of lactose containing foods and the genetics of lactase on diseases: an analytical review of population data. Shrier I, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(3):292-300. Key Finding: “Dairy foods contain complex ingredients that could affect different diseases. The control of lactose digestion phenotypically divides populations into those who can (lactase persistent LP) and those who cannot (lactase nonpersistent LNP) assimilate lactose. We evaluated the relationship between dairy foods and LNP with colorectal, breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, and stomach cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). There were statistically significant increases in risk for colorectal and prostate cancer and ulcerative colitis with dairy foods and a statistically decreased risk for stomach cancer. There were trends for lung and ovarian cancers and Crohn’s disease. As LNP prevalence increased, stomach cancer risk increased, whereas risks of all other conditions decreased. In 3 cancers (prostate, ovarian, and breast) meta-analyses of case-based studies support ecological data. In colorectal cancer, on the contrary, meta-analyses of case-based studies suggest protection. The possible importance of distinguishing LNP/LP status in studies is discussed.”
A dietary intervention for recurrent prostate cancer after definitive primary treatment: results of a randomized pilot trial. Carmody J, et al. Urology. 2008 Dec;72(6):1324-8. Key Finding: “Considerable evidence has shown that diet can affect both the incidence and the progression of prostate cancer. The objective of this study was to determine whether men in this situation could make a change to a diet emphasizing plant-based foods and fish and to examine the effect on quality of life (QOL) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) velocity. A total of 36 men and their partners were randomly assigned to attend a series of 11 dietary and cooking classes that also integrated mindfulness practice as a support in making the change. The intervention group showed significant reductions in the consumption of saturated fat and increased consumption of vegetable proteins with accompanying reductions in animal proteins, including dairy products. They also showed increased quality of life. The mean PSA doubling time for the intervention group was substantially longer at the 3-month follow-up visit than that of the controls.”
Dairy product, saturated fatty acid, and calcium intake and prostate cancer in a prospective cohort of Japanese men. Kurahashi N, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008 Apr;17(4):930-7. Key Finding: “Many epidemiologic studies have reported a positive association between dairy products and prostate cancer. Calcium or saturated fatty acid in dairy products has been suspected as the causative agent. We conducted a population-based prospective study in 43,435 Japanese men ages 45 to 74 years. Participants responded to a validated questionnaire that included 138 food items. Dairy products were associated with a dose-dependent increase in the risk of prostate cancer. A statistically significant increase in risk was observed for both calcium and saturated fatty acid. Some specific saturated fatty acids increased the risk of prostate cancer in a dose-dependent manner. Our results suggest that the intake of dairy products may be associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.”
Animal foods, protein, calcium and prostate cancer risk: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Allen NE, et al. Br J Cancer. 2008 May 6;98(9):1574-81. Key Finding: “We examined consumption of animal foods, protein and calcium in relation to risk of prostate cancer among 142,251 men. After calibration to allow for measurement error, we estimated that a 35-g day(-1) increase in consumption of dairy protein was associated with an increase in the risk of prostate cancer of 32%. Calcium from dairy products was also positively associated with risk, but not calcium from other foods. The results support the hypothesis that a high intake of protein or calcium from dairy products may increase the risk for prostate cancer.”
Calcium, dairy foods, and risk of incident and fatal prostate cancer: the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Park Y, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2007 Dec 1;166(11):1270-9. Key Finding: “Although the authors cannot definitively rule out a weak association for aggressive prostate cancer, their findings do not provide strong support for the hypothesis that calcium and dairy foods increase prostate cancer risk.”
Calcium, vitamin D, and dairy product intake and prostate cancer risk: the Multiethnic Cohort Study. Park SY, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2007 Dec 1;166(11):1259-69. Key Finding: “Although the findings from this study do not support an association between the intakes of calcium and vitamin D and prostate cancer risk, they do suggest that an association with milk consumption may vary by fat content, particularly for early forms of this cancer.”
Dairy products, calcium intake, and risk of prostate cancer in the prostate, lung, colorectal, and ovarian cancer screening trial. Ahn J. Albanes D, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007 Dec;16(12):2623-30. Key Finding: “We prospectively examined the association of dairy products and calcium intake with prostate cancer risk in 29,509 men. Greater dietary intake of calcium and dairy products, particularly low-fat types, may be modestly associated with increased risks for nonaggressive prostate cancer, but was unrelated to aggressive disease.”
Milk consumption is a risk factor for prostate cancer in Western countries: evidence from cohort studies. Qin LQ, et al. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2007;16(3):467-76. Key Finding: “These findings suggest that the consumption of milk and dairy products increases the risk of prostate cancer. This is biologically plausible since milk contains considerable amounts of fat, hormone, and calcium that are associated with prostate cancer risk.”
Meat and dairy consumption and subsequent risk of prostate cancer in US cohort study. Rohrmann S, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2007 Feb;18(1):41-50. Key Finding: “Consumption of processed meat, but not total meat or red meat, was associated with a possible increased risk of total prostate cancer in this prospective study. Higher intake of dairy foods but not calcium was positively associated with prostate cancer.”
A prospective study of dietary calcium, dairy products and prostate cancer risk (Finland). Mitrou PN, et al. Int J Cancer. 2007 Jun 1;120(11):2466-73. Key Finding: “We examined dietary intakes of calcium and dairy products in relation to risk of prostate cancer in a cohort of 29,133 male smokers aged 50-69 years at study entry. Total dairy intake was positively associated with risk of prostate cancer.”
Dairy products, calcium and prostate cancer risk. Koh KA, et al. Br J Cancer. 2006 Dec 4;95(11):1582-5. Key Finding: “In a prospective study of 10,011 men with 815 prostate cancer cases, despite plausible biological mechanisms, neither increasing intake levels of dairy products nor calcium from dairy products was associated with prostate cancer risk.”
Nutrition and prostate cancer—what is the scientific evidence? Theobold S. Med Monatsschr Pharm. (German). 2006 Oct;29(10):371-7. Key Finding: “Prostate cancer is the most frequently occurring form of cancer in German men. Among individual food groups/nutrients, a high consumption of total fat, saturated fats, meat, dairy and calcium are related to an increased risk.”
Dairy products, calcium and phosphorus intake, and the risk of prostate cancer: results of the French prospective SU.VI.MAX (Supplementation en VItamines et Mineraux Antioxydants) study. Kesse E, et al. Br J Nutr. 2006 Mar;95(3):539-45. Key Finding: “Our data support the hypothesis that dairy products have a harmful effect with respect to the risk of prostate cancer, largely related to calcium content. The higher risk of prostate cancer with linear increasing yoghurt consumption seems to be independent of calcium and may be related to some other component.”
A prospective study of calcium intake and incident and fatal prostate cancer. Giovannucci E, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006 Feb;15(2):203-10. Key Finding: “Over 16 years of follow-up with a cohort of 47,750 male health professionals with no history of cancer, we identified 3,544 total cases of prostate cancer, 523 advanced cases, and 312 fatal cases. Higher calcium intake (from dairy foods) was not appreciably associated with total or nonadvanced prostate cancer, but was associated with a higher risk of advanced and fatal prostate cancer.”
Diet, lifestyle and risk of prostate cancer. Wolk A. Acta Oncol. 2005;44(3):277-81. Key Finding: “In the majority of studies, it was observed that high consumption of meat and dairy products has been linked to a greater risk of prostate cancer. In contrast, frequent consumption of fatty fish and tomato products has been associated with a reduced risk.”
Prospective studies of dairy product and calcium intakes and prostate cancer risk: a meta-analysis. Gao X, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2005 Dec 7;97(23):1768-77. Key Finding: “We identified 12 publications that used total, advanced, or fatal prostate cancer and end points and reported associations as relative risks. High intake of dairy products and calcium may be associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.”
Serum levels of phytanic acid are associated with prostate cancer risk. Xu J, et al. Prostate. 2005 May 15;63(3):209-14. Key Finding. “Phytanic acid, which primarily comes from dietary intake of dairy and red meat, may be associated with prostate cancer risk. Although the results from our study suggest phytanic acid levels may be associated with prostate cancer risk, they were based on a study with a small sample size. Much larger studies are required to confirm these important findings.”
Dairy, calcium, and vitamin D intakes and prostate cancer risk in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Epidemiologic Follow-up Study cohort. Tseng M., et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 May;81(5):1147-54. Key Finding: “In a prospective study of 3,612 men followed from 1982-84 to 1992 for the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Epidemiologic Follow-up Study, 131 prostate cancer cases were identified. Dietary intake was estimated from questionnaires. Dairy consumption may increase prostate cancer risk through a calcium-related pathway.”
Diet, anthropometric measures and prostate cancer risk: a review of prospective cohort and intervention studies. Dagnelie PC, et al. BJU Int. 2004 May;93(8):1139-50. Key Finding: “We reviewed 37 prospective cohort and four intervention studies on potential dietary risk factors for prostate cancer, published between 1966 and September 2003. Overall consumption of meat, eggs, vitamins A, C and D was not consistently related to prostate cancer risk; whereas a very high calcium intake appears to be positively associated with prostate cancer risk.”
Food groups and risk of prostate cancer in Italy. Bosetti C, et al. Int J Cancer. 2004 Jun 20;110(3):424-8. Key Finding: “Among the 19 food groups considerate, 4 showed some significant association with prostate cancer risk. A significant trend of increasing risk with more frequent consumption was found for milk and dairy products.”
Branched fatty acids in dairy and beef products markedly enhance alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase expression in prostate cancer cells in vitro. Mobley JA, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2003 Aug;12(8):775-83. Key Finding: “An enzyme previously identified as alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) is overexpressed in high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and in a majority (60-100%) of prostate cancers. There is an established correlation between prostate cancer risk and the consumption of dairy and beef products, which also contain marked quantities of these two phytols, phytanic acid and pristanic acid. Our findings find a link between the consumption of dietary fatty acids and the enhanced expression of AMACR, an enzyme that may play an important role in genesis and progression of prostate cancer.”
Calcium, dairy products, and risk of prostate cancer in a prospective cohort of United States men. Rodriguez C, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2003 Jul;12(7):597-603. Key Finding: “We examined the association between calcium, dairy intake, and prostate cancer incidence in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort. Participants in the study, 65,321 men, completed a detailed questionnaire on diet, medical history and lifestyle. During follow-up six years later we documented 3,811 cases of incident prostate cancer. Our results support the hypothesis that very high calcium intake may modestly increase risk of prostate cancer.”
Incidence and mortality of testicular and prostatic cancers in relation to world dietary practices. Ganmaa D, et al. Int J Cancer. 2002 Mar 10;98(2):262-7. Key Finding: “The incidence and mortality rates of testicular and prostatic cancers in 42 countries were correlated with the dietary practices in these countries using the cancer rates (1988-92) provided by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The results of our study suggest a role of milk and dairy products in the development and growth of testicular and prostatic cancers. The close correlation between cheese and testicular cancer and between milk and prostatic cancer suggests that further mechanistic studies should be undertaken concerning the development of male genital organ cancers.”
Calcium intake and prostate cancer risk in a long-term aging study: the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Berndt SI, et al. Urology. 2002 Dec;60(6):1118-23. Key Finding: “We included in the analysis 454 male participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging who were 46 to 92 years old at the time of completion of a food frequency questionnaire. Dairy products, including milk, were not associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. The results of this study suggest that calcium intake within moderate limits is not associated with a notably increased risk of prostate cancer.”
Dairy products, calcium, and prostate cancer risk in the Physicians’ Health Study. Chan JM, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2001 Oct;74(4):549-54. Key Finding: “The men answered dietary questionnaires. During 11 y of follow-up, we documented 1012 incident cases of prostate cancer among 20,885 men. We estimated calcium intake on the basis of consumption of 5 major dairy products. Compared with men consuming < or =150 mg Ca/d from dairy products, men consuming <600 mg/d had a 32% higher risk of prostate cancer. These results support the hypothesis that dairy products and calcium are associated with a greater risk of prostate cancer.”
A prospective study on intake of animal products and risk of prostate cancer. Michaud DS, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2001 Aug;12(6):557-67. Key Finding: “We examined the association between animal products and prostate cancer among 51,529 men who contributed detailed dietary data in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Between 1986 and 1996, 1,897 total cases of prostate cancer and 249 metastatic cancers were identified. Intakes of red meat and dairy products appear to be related to increased risk of metastatic prostate cancer. While known nutrients, such as calcium and fatty acids, may explain most of the dairy association observed, it appears that a portion of the risk of metastatic prostate cancer associated with red meat intake remains unexplained.”
Fraction of prostate cancer incidence attributed to diet in Athens, Greece. Bosetti C, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2000 Apr;9(2):119-23. Key Finding: “We found that dairy products, butter and seeds oil were positively associated with risk of prostate cancer. The incidence of prostate cancer in Greece could be reduced by about two-fifths if the population reduced the intake of dairy products.”
Dairy products, calcium, phosphorous, vitamin D, and risk of prostate cancer (Sweden). Chan JM, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 1998 Dec;9(6):559-66. Key Finding: “We analyzed data from a population-based case-control study of prostate cancer conducted in Orebro, Sweden, with 526 cases and 536 controls. High consumption of dairy products was associated with a 50 percent increased risk of prostate cancer.”
Cancer—Rectal
Vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms, dietary promotion of insulin resistance, and colon and rectal cancer. Murtaugh MA, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2006;55(1):35-43. Key Finding: “Functional vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms may influence carcinogenesis through modification of cell growth, protection from oxidative stress, cell-cell matrix effects, or insulin and insulin-like growth factor pathways. We investigated interactions between foods (dairy products, red and processed meat) and dietary patterns associated with insulin resistance with the Foki polymorphism of the VDR gene and colon and rectal cancer risk. Rectal cancer risk decreased with greater consumption of dairy products and increased with red or processed meat consumption and the FF genotype. The lowest colon cancer risk was observed with the Ff//ff Foki genotypes and a low sucrose-to-fiber ratio.”
Cancer—Renal Cell Carcinoma
Food groups and renal cell carcinoma: results from a case-control study. Grieb SM, et al. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009 Apr;109(4):656-67. Key Finding: “This study used 335 incident cases identified from hospital records and the Florida cancer registry, and 337 population controls matched by age, sex and race. Eating habits were assessed through the use of the 70-item Block food frequency questionnaire. Increased risk of renal cell carcinoma was observed among all subjects and among women with increased consumption of red meat. White bread consumption increased renal cell carcinoma risk among women only, as did total dairy consumption.”
Dietary fat and risk of renal cell carcinoma in the USA: a case-control study. Brock KE. Gridley G, et al. Br J Nutr. 2009 Apr;101(8):1228-38. Key Finding: “Dietary nutrient intake of animal fat, saturated fat, oleic acid and cholesterol was associated with an elevated risk of renal cell carcinoma. Increased risks were also associated with high-fat spreads, red and cured meats and dairy products. In both the food groups and nutrients, there was a significant dose-response with increased intake.”
Dietary risk factors for renal cell carcinoma in Denmark. Mellemgaard A, et al. Eur J Cancer. 1996 Apr;32A(4):673-82. Key Finding: “Dairy products may be associated with risk of renal cell cancer for women using thickly spread butter compared to thinly spread, and for women who drank more than one glass of milk with 3.5% fat content compared to never drink milk.”
Cancer—Stomach
Impact of lactose containing foods and the genetics of lactase on diseases: an analytical review of population data. Shrier I. Szilagyi A, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(3):292-300. Key Finding: “Dairy foods contain complex ingredients that could affect different diseases. The control of lactose digestion phenotypically divides populations into those who can (lactase persistent LP) and those who cannot (lactase nonpersistent LNP) assimilate lactose. We evaluated the relationship between dairy foods and LNP with colorectal, breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, and stomach cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). There were statistically significant increases in risk for colorectal and prostate cancer and ulcerative colitis with dairy foods and a statistically decreased risk for stomach cancer. There were trends for lung and ovarian cancers and Crohn’s disease. As LNP prevalence increased, stomach cancer risk increased, whereas risks of all other conditions decreased. In 3 cancers (prostate, ovarian, and breast) meta-analyses of case-based studies support ecological data. In colorectal cancer, on the contrary, meta-analyses of case-based studies suggest protection. The possible importance of distinguishing LNP/LP status in studies is discussed.”
Incidence and mortality of testicular and prostatic cancers in relation to world dietary practices. Ganmaa D, et al. Int J Cancer. 2002 Mar 10;98(2):262-7. Key Finding: “The incidence and mortality rates of testicular and prostatic cancers in 42 countries were correlated with the dietary practices in these countries using the cancer rates (1988-92) provided by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The results of our study suggest a role of milk and dairy products in the development and growth of testicular and prostatic cancers. The close correlation between cheese and testicular cancer and between milk and prostatic cancer suggests that further mechanistic studies should be undertaken concerning the development of male genital organ cancers.”
Consumption of dairy products and associations with incident diabetes, CHD and mortality in the Whitehall II study. Soedamah-Muthu SS, et al. Br J Nutr. 2012 Jun 7:1-9. Key Finding: “We examined whether intakes of total dairy, high-fat dairy, low-fat dairy, milk and fermented dairy products were related to risks of type 2 diabetes, CHD and mortality. Assessment was among 4526 subjects, mean age 56 years, with 10 years of follow-up. Intakes of total dairy and types of dairy products showed no consistent relationship with incident diabetes, CHD or all-cause mortality.”
Dietary fats and coronary heart disease. Willett WC. J Intern Med. 2012 Jul;272(1):13-24. Key Finding: “All lines of evidence indicate that specific dietary fatty acids play important roles in the cause and prevention of CHD, but total fat as a percentage of energy is unimportant. Trans fatty acids from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils have clear adverse effects and should be eliminated. In practice, reducing red meat and dairy products in a food supply and increasing intakes of nuts, fish, soy products and nonhydrogenated vegetable oils will improve the mix of fatty acids and have a markedly beneficial effect on rates of CHD.”
Dairy intake and coronary heart disease or stroke—A population-based cohort study. Dalmeijer GW, et al. Int J Cardiol. 2012 Apr 4. (Epub ahead of print). Key Finding: This cohort study was among 33,625 Dutch men and women. “Our results provide no evidence that dairy products are associated with risk of CHD or stroke. High intakes of total and low-fat dairy may be associated with a lower risk of CHD among participants without hypertension.”
The consumption of milk and dairy foods and the incidence of vascular disease and diabetes: an overview of the evidence. Elwood PC, et al. Lipids. 2010 Oct;45(10):925-39. Key Finding: “Meta-analyses suggest a reduction in risk in the subjects with the highest dairy consumption relative to those with the lowest intake for ischaemic heart disease, stroke and for incident diabetes.”
Triglyceride-mediated pathways and coronary disease: collaborative analysis of 101 studies. Sarwar N, et al. Lancet 2010 May 8;375(9726):1634-9. Key Finding: “We compared disease risk among 20,842 patients with coronary heart disease and 35,206 controls.” Triglycerides are produced in the liver and derived from foods such as meat and dairy products. We assessed the -1131T>C promoter polymorphism of the apolipoprotein A5 gene in relation to triglyceride concentration. For every C allele inherited, mean triglyceride concentration was 16% higher. Those with the variation in the gene boosting triglyceride levels have an 18% greater risk of heart disease. Lowering triglyceride levels by reducing meat and dairy intake may reduce the risk of heart disease.
Childhood dairy and calcium intake and cardiovascular mortality in adulthood: 65-year followup of the Boyd Orr cohort. Van der Pols JC, et al. Heart. 2009 Oct;95(19):1600-6. Key Finding: “cause of death was ascertained between 1948 and 2005 in 4,374 tracted cohort members. No strong evidence that a family diet in childhood high in dairy products was associated with coronary heart disease or stroke mortality was found. Children whose family diet in the 1930s was high in calcium were at reduced risk of death from stroke.”
Associations of dietary protein with disease and mortality in a prospective study of postmenopausal women. Kelemen LE, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2005 Feb 1;161(3):239-49. Key Finding: “In 1986, 29,017 postmenopausal Iowa women without cancer, coronary heart disease or diabetes were followed prospectively for 15 years. Mailed questionnaires assessed dietary, lifestyle, and medical information. Coronary heart disease mortality was associated with red meats and dairy products.”
Prospective study of major dietary patterns and risk of coronary heart disease in men. Hu FB, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Oct;72(4):912-21. Key Finding: “This was a prospective cohort of 44,875 men aged 40-75 y without diagnosed cardiovascular disease or cancer at baseline. During 8 y of follow-up, we documented 1,089 cases of CHD. The Western dietary pattern characterized by higher intake of red meat, processed meat, refined grains, sweets and dessert, French fries and high-fat dairy products predict the risk of coronary heart disease independent of other lifestyle variables.”
Dietary saturated fats and their food sources in relation to the risk of coronary heart disease in women. Hu FB, et al. Am J Clin Nurt. 1999 Dec;70(6):1001-8. Key Finding: “This was a prospective cohort study of 80,082 women in the Nurses’ Health Study aged 34-59 y. During 14 y of follow-up, we documented 939 incident cases of major coronary heart disease events. Higher ratios of red meat to poultry and fish consumption and of high-fat to low-fat dairy consumption were associated with significantly greater risk of coronary heart disease.”
Are proinflammatory cytokines involved in an increased risk for depression by unhealthy diets? Ekmekcioglu C. Med Hypotheses. 2012 Feb;78(2):337-40. Key Finding: An unhealthy diet consisting of red and processed meat, fatty dairy products and little amounts of vegetables are attributed in “several recent studies” as “associated with an increased risk of depression.”
Dairy intake and cognitive health in middle-aged South Australians. Crichton GE, et al. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2010;19(2):161-71. Key Finding: Analyses were undertaken of 432 men and 751 women aged 39 to 65 years. “Intakes of whole fat dairy products, including ice-cream and cream, were associated with increased depression, anxiety, stress, cognitive failures, poorer memory functioning and general health.”
International variations in the outcome of schizophrenia and the prevalence of depression in relation to national dietary practices: an ecological analysis. Peet M. Br J Psychiatry. 2004 May;184:404-8. Key Finding: “A higher national dietary intake of refined sugar and dairy products predicted a worse 2-year outcome of schizophrenia. A high national prevalence of depression was predicted by a lower dietary intake of fish and seafood. The dietary predictors of outcome of schizophrenia and prevalence of depression are similar to those that predict illnesses such as coronary heart disease and diabetes, which are more common in people with mental health problems.”
Consumption of dairy products and associations with incident diabetes, CHD and mortality in the Whitehall II study. Soedamah-Muthu SS, et al. Br J Nutr. 2012 Jun 7:1-9. Key Finding: “We examined whether intakes of total dairy, high-fat dairy, low-fat dairy, milk and fermented dairy products were related to risks of type 2 diabetes, CHD and mortality. Assessment was among 4526 subjects, mean age 56 years, with 10 years of follow-up. Intakes of total dairy and types of dairy products showed no consistent relationship with incident diabetes, CHD or all-cause mortality.”
Leucine signaling in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and obesity. Melnik BC. World J Diabetes. 2012 Mar 15;3(3):38-53. Key Finding: “Epidemiological evidence points to increased dairy and meat consumption, staples of the Western diet, as major risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes. Dairy proteins and meat stimulate insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 signaling and provide high amounts of leucine, a primary and independent stimulator for mTORC1 activation.”
Higher regular fat dairy consumption is associated with lower incidence of metabolic syndrome but not type 2 diabetes. Louie JC, et al. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2012 Sep 27. (Epub ahead of print.) Key Finding: “Ten year incidence of MetSyn and type 2 diabetes were obtained from 1807 and 1824 subjects respectively. There was no association between total dairy consumption and risk of MetSyn or type 2 diabetes. We found an inverse association between regular fat dairy consumption and risk of MetSyn among Australian older adults.”
The consumption of milk and dairy foods and the incidence of vascular disease and diabetes: an overview of the evidence. Elwood PC, et al. Lipids. 2010 Oct;45(10):925-39. Key Finding: “Meta-analyses suggest a reduction in risk in the subjects with the highest dairy consumption relative to those with the lowest intake for ischaemic heart disease, stroke and for incident diabetes.”
Calcium, vitamin D and dairy intake in relation to type 2 diabetes risk in a Japanese cohort. Kirii K, et al. Diabetologia. 2009 Dec;52(12):2542-50. Key Finding: “Participants were 59,796 middle-aged and older men and women in the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study and had no history of type 2 diabetes. During a 5 year followup, 1,114 cases of types 2 diabetes wee documented. Overall, calcium intake was not associated with a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes. However, among participants with a higher vitamin D intake, calcium intake was inversely associated with diabetes risk. Calcium and vitamin D may not be independently associated with type 2 diabetes risk. Our finding suggesting a joint action of these nutrients against type 2 diabetes warrants further investigation.”
Milk intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and prostate cancer. Martini LA, Wood RJ. Arq Bras Endocrinol Metabol. 2009 Jul;53(5):688-94. Key Finding: “Based on the current evidence, it is possible that milk/dairy products, when consumed in adequate amounts and mainly with reduced fat content, has a beneficial effect on the prevention of hypertension and diabetes. Its potential role in the pathogenesis of prostate cancer is not well supported.”
Dietary fats and prevention of type 2 diabetes. Riserus U, et al. Prog Lipid Res. 2009 Jan;48(1):44-51. Key Finding: “This paper focuses on the prevention of type 2 diabetes and summarizes the epidemiologic literature on associations between types of dietary fat and diabetes risk. The evidence suggests that replacing saturated fats and trans fatty acids with unsaturated (polyunsaturated and/or monounsaturated) fats has beneficial effects on insulin sensitivity and is likely to reduce risk of type 2 diabetes. In dietary practice, foods rich in vegetables oil, including non-hydrogenated margarines, nuts, and seeds, should replace foods rich in saturated fats from meats and fat-rich dairy products. Consumption of partially hydrogenated fats should be minimized.”
Dairy product consumption and the metabolic syndrome. Van Meiji LE, et al. Nutr Res Rev. 2008 Dec;21(2):148-57. Key Finding: “The metabolic syndrome is an important risk factor in type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Epidemiological studies have now suggested protective effects of dairy product consumption on the development of this syndrome. Here we review the physiological effects and possible mechanisms involved of three main dairy constitutents (calcium, protein, fat) on important components of the metabolic syndrome. Calcium supplements improve the serum lipoprotein profile, particularly by decreasing serum total and LDL-cholesterol concentrations. They also lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Dairy proteins are precursors of angiotensin-I-converting enzyme-inhibitory peptides, which may lower blood pressure. Such effects, however, have inconsistently been reported in human studies. The consumption of low-fat instead of high-fat dairy products is recommended.”
Enhanced levels of cow’s milk antibodies in infancy in children who develop type 1 diabetes later in childhood. Luopajarvi K, et al. Pediatr Diabetes. 2008 Oct;9(5):434-41. Key Finding: “Early exposure to cow’s milk proteins have been implicated in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. We studied a subgroup of 94 children with 7 years of follow-up. The children with later type 1 diabetes showed increased IgG antibodies to beta-lactoglobulin from 3 to 18 months of age and enhanced IgA levels to cow’s milk formula at the age of 9 months compared with controls. An enhanced humoral immune response to various cow’s milk proteins in infancy is seen in a subgroup of those children who later progress to type 1 diabetes.”
Dietary patterns and risk of incident type 2 diabetes in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Nettleton JA, et al. Diabetes Care. 2008 Sep;31(9):1777-82. Key Finding: “We characterized dietary patterns and their relation to incident type 2 diabetes in 5,011 participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. High intake of refined grains, high-fat dairy and red meat was associated with an 18% greater risk of type 2 diabetes.”
Does dairy calcium intake enhance weight loss among overweight diabetic patients? Shahar DR, et al. Diabetes Care. 2007 Mar;30(3):485-9. Key Finding: “This was an ancillary study of a 6-month randomized clinical trial. A total of 259 diabetic patients were recruited with a mean age of 55 years. Dairy calcium intake was associated with percentage of weight loss. No association was noted between dairy calcium and other health indexes except for triglyceride levels.”
A prospective study of dairy intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes in women. Liu S, et al. Diabetes Care. 2006 Jul;29(7):1579-84. Key Finding: “We prospectively examined the association between intake of dairy foods and calcium and incident type 2 diabetes in 37,183 women without a history of diabetes. During an average of 10 years of follow-up, we documented 1,603 incident cases. Each serving per day increase in dairy intake was associated with a 4% lower risk of type 2 diabetes. The inverse association with type 2 diabetes appeared to be mainly attributed to low-fat dairy intake.”
Dairy, magnesium, and calcium intake in relation to insulin sensitivity: approaches to modeling a dose-dependent association. Ma B, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2006 Sep 1;164(5):449-58. Key Finding: “Data from the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study for 1,036 US adults without diabetes at baseline were examined. No association was found between dairy intake and insulin sensitivity; however, associations were positive for magnesium and calcium intake and suggests that magnesium and calcium intake specifically, but not dairy intake, is associated with insulin sensitivity.”
Dietary patterns and metabolic syndrome—a review of epidemiologic evidence. Baxter AJ, et al. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2006;15(2):134-42. Key Finding: “Diet patterns with high meat intake were frequently associated with components of metabolic syndrome, particularly impaired glucose tolerance. High dairy intake was generally associated with reduced risk for components of metabolic syndrome with some inconsistency in the literature regarding risk of obesity. Minimally processed cereals appeared to be associated with decreased risk of metabolic syndrome, while highly processed cereals with high glycaemic index are associated with higher risk.”
Dairy consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in men: a prospective study. Choi HK, et al. Arch Intern Med. 2005 May 9;165(9):997-1003. Key Finding: “We prospectively examined the relation between dairy intake and incident cases of type 2 diabetes in 41,254 male participants with no history of diabetes. During 12 years of follow-up we documented 1,243 incident cases. Dairy intake, especially low-fat dairy intake, was associated with a modestly lower risk of type 2 diabetes in men.”
Prudent diet and the risk of insulin resistance. Villegas R, et al. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2004 Dec;14(6):334-43. Key Finding: “We performed a cross sectional study involving a group of 1,018 men and women sampled in the south of Ireland. Participants completed a detailed health and lifestyle questionnaire and provided fasting blood samples for analysis. A lower intake of meat (red meat), meat products, sweets, high fat dairy and white bread (white bread and unrefined cereal) may be associated with enhanced insulin sensitivity and a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.”
Ischaemic heart disease, type 1 diabetes, and cow milk A1 beta-casein. Laugesen M, Elliott R. N Z Med J. 2003 Jan 24;116(1168):U295. Key Finding: “To test the correlation of per capita A1 beta-casein and milk protein with: 1) ischaemic heart disease (IHD) mortality; 2) Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus (DM-1) incidence in 20 countries. We conclude that cow A1 beta-casein per capita supply in milk and cream was significantly and positively correlated with IHD in 20 affluent countries over a 20-year period. For DM-1, this study confirms the A1/capita and milk protein/capita correlations. They raise the possibility that intensive dairy cattle breeding may have emphasized a genetic variant in milk with adverse effects in humans.”
Dietary patterns and risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus in U.S. men. Van Dam RM, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2002 Feb 5;136(3):201-9. Key Finding: “Participants were 42,504 male health professionals, 40 to 75 years of age, without diagnosed diabetes at baseline. Using a food frequency questionnaire analysis, a ‘western’ diet characterized by higher consumption of red meat, processed meat, French fries, high-fat dairy products, refined grains, and sweets and desserts is associated with a substantially increased risk for type 2 diabetes in men.”
Dietary calcium intake and risks of stroke, its subtypes, and coronary heart disease in Japanese: the JPHC Study Cohort I. Umesawa M, et al. Stroke. 2008 Sep;39(9):2449-56. Key Finding: “A total of 41,526 Japanese men and women age 40 to 59 years without a history of cardiovascular disease or cancer completed a food frequency consumption questionnaire. Dairy calcium intake was inversely associated with risks of total and ischemic stroke. Dietary calcium intake was not significantly associated with risk of coronary heart disease.”
Incident heart failure is associated with lower whole-grain intake and greater high-fat dairy and egg intake in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. Nettleton JA, et al. J Am Diet Assoc. 2008 Nov;108(11):1881-7. Key Finding: “A cohort of 14,153 African-American and white adults, age 45 to 64 years, were sampled from four US communities with a 66-item food frequency questionnaire. Intake of eggs and high-fat dairy were associated with greater heart failure risk.”
Ischaemic heart disease, type 1 diabetes, and cow milk A1 beta-casein. Laugesen M, Elliott R. N Z Med J. 2003 Jan 24;116(1168):U295. Key Finding: “To test the correlation of per capita A1 beta-casein and milk protein with: 1) ischaemic heart disease (IHD) mortality; 2) Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus (DM-1) incidence in 20 countries. We conclude that cow A1 beta-casein per capita supply in milk and cream was significantly and positively correlated with IHD in 20 affluent countries over a 20-year period. For DM-1, this study confirms the A1/capita and milk protein/capita correlations. They raise the possibility that intensive dairy cattle breeding may have emphasized a genetic variant in milk with adverse effects in humans.”
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis)
Dietary Patterns and Self-Reported Associations of Diet with Symptoms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Cohen AB, et al. Dig Dis Sci. 2012 Aug 26. (Epub ahead of print.) Key Finding: Milk, red meat, and dairy were among foods more frequently reported to worsen symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease.
Effects of dairy products on crohn’s disease symptoms are influenced by fat content and disease location but not lactose content or disease activity status in a New Zealand population. Nolan-Clark D, et al. J Am Diet Assoc. 2011 Aug;111(8):1165-72. Key Finding: Dietary survey was done of 165 men and women diagnosed with crohn’s disease. “Dairy products with a high fat content were most frequently reported to worsen perceived crohn’s disease symptoms.”
Does evidence exist to include dietary therapy in the treatment of Crohn’s disease? Brown AC, Roy M. Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2010 Apr;4(2):191-215. Key Finding: “Prescription drugs and surgery are two common medical therapies for Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the GI tract. Unfortunately, certain drugs can cause serious side effects, and surgeries must often be repeated. Although not all patients respond equally to diet, many simply remove symptom-provoking foods such as dairy.”
Impact of lactose containing foods and the genetics of lactase on diseases: an analytical review of population data. Shrier I. Szilagyi A, Correa JA. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(3):292-300. Key Finding: “Dairy foods contain complex ingredients that could affect different diseases. The control of lactose digestion phenotypically divides populations into those who can (lactase persistent LP) and those who cannot (lactase nonpersistent LNP) assimilate lactose. We evaluated the relationship between dairy foods and LNP with colorectal, breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, and stomach cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). There were statistically significant increases in risk for colorectal and prostate cancer and ulcerative colitis with dairy foods and a statistically decreased risk for stomach cancer. There were trends for lung and ovarian cancers and Crohn’s disease. As LNP prevalence increased, stomach cancer risk increased, whereas risks of all other conditions decreased. In 3 cancers (prostate, ovarian, and breast) meta-analyses of case-based studies support ecological data. In colorectal cancer, on the contrary, meta-analyses of case-based studies suggest protection. The possible importance of distinguishing LNP/LP status in studies is discussed.”
Higher regular fat dairy consumption is associated with lower incidence of metabolic syndrome but not type 2 diabetes. Louie JC, et al. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2012 Sep 27. (Epub ahead of print.) Key Finding: “Ten year incidence of MetSyn and type 2 diabetes were obtained from 1807 and 1824 subjects respectively. There was no association between total dairy consumption and risk of MetSyn or type 2 diabetes. We found an inverse association between regular fat dairy consumption and risk of MetSyn among Australian older adults.”
Dietary calcium, vitamin D, and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and older U.S. women. Liu S, et al. Diabetes Care. 2005 Dec;28(12):2926-32. Key Finding: “We analyzed data from 10,066 women aged > or =45 years participating in the Women’s Health Study. Our results indicate that intakes of calcium and dairy products may be associated with lower prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and older women.”
Low-Carbohydrate Diets and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality. Fung TT, et al. Annals of Internal Medicine. Sep 7, 2010:153(5):289-298. Key Finding: “A prospective cohort of 85,168 women (aged 34 to 59 years at baseline) and 44,548 men (aged 40 to 75 years at baseline) without heart disease, cancer, or diabetes, had 26 years of follow-up for women and 20 years of follow-up for men. Low-carbohydrate diets, either animal-based (emphasizing animal sources of fat and protein) or vegetable-based (emphasizing vegetable sources of fat and protein) were computed from several validated food-frequency questionnaires assessed during follow-up. The animal low-carbohydrate diet based on animal sources was associated with a higher all-cause mortality in both men and women, whereas a vegetable-based low-carbohydrate diet was associated with lower all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality rates.”
Dietary intake and blood lipid profile in overweight and obese schoolchildren. Rinaldi AE, et al. BMC Res Notes. 2012 Oct 30;5:598. Key Finding: “The high blood lipid levels and obesity are one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and the atherosclerotic process begins in childhood. This is a cross-sectional study with 147 overweight and obese schoolchildren in Botucatu City, Brazil. Total cholesterol levels were positively related to full-fat dairy products and triglycerides levels to saturated fat percentage.”
Leucine signaling in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and obesity. Melnik BC. World J Diabetes. 2012 Mar 15;3(3):38-53. Key Finding: “Epidemiological evidence points to increased dairy and meat consumption, staples of the Western diet, as major risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes. Dairy proteins and meat stimulate insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 signaling and provide high amounts of leucine, a primary and independent stimulator for mTORC1 activation.”
Lack of association of dairy food, calcium, and vitamin D intake with the risk of Parkinson’s disease: a case-control study in Japan. Miyake Y, et al. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2011 Feb;17(2):112-6. Key Finding: “Three previous cohort studies in the USA reported that dairy product consumption was significantly associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease in men, but not in women. We examined the relationship using data from 249 cases with 368 controls without a neurodegenerative disease. Our results suggest that intake of dairy products, calcium and vitamin D was not related to Parkinson’s disease, regardless of sex. However, such null relationships might be a consequence of Parkinson’s disease.”
Consumption of dairy products and risk of Parkinson’s disease. Chen H, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2007 May 1;165(9):998-1006. Key Finding: “The authors prospectively investigated the association between intake of dairy products and risk of Parkinson’s disease among 57,689 men and 73,175 women from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort. These data suggest that dairy consumption may increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease, particularly in men.”
International variations in the outcome of schizophrenia and the prevalence of depression in relation to national dietary practices: an ecological analysis. Peet M. Br J Psychiatry. 2004 May;184:404-8. Key Finding: “A higher national dietary intake of refined sugar and dairy products predicted a worse 2-year outcome of schizophrenia.”
Delay of stroke onset by milk proteins in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats. Chiba T, et al. Stroke. 2012 Feb;43(2):470-7. Key Finding: “These data suggest that the inverse association between dairy food consumption and incidence of stroke in epidemiological studies is causal and that peptides in milk protein, but not fat, might be responsible for this effect.”
Dairy intake and coronary heart disease or stroke—A population-based cohort study. Dalmeijer GW, et al. Int J Cardiol. 2012 Apr 4. (Epub ahead of print). Key Finding: This cohort study was among 33,625 Dutch men and women. “Our results provide no evidence that dairy products are associated with risk of CHD or stroke. High intakes of total and low-fat dairy may be associated with a lower risk of CHD among participants without hypertension.”
The consumption of milk and dairy foods and the incidence of vascular disease and diabetes: an overview of the evidence. Elwood PC, et al. Lipids. 2010 Oct;45(10):925-39. Key Finding: “Meta-analyses suggest a reduction in risk in the subjects with the highest dairy consumption relative to those with the lowest intake for ischaemic heart disease, stroke and for incident diabetes.”
Childhood dairy and calcium intake and cardiovascular mortality in adulthood: 65-year follow-up of the Boyd Orr cohort. Van der Pols JC, et al. Heart. 2009 Oct;95(19):1600-6. Key Finding: “cause of death was ascertained between 1948 and 2005 in 4,374 tracted cohort members. No strong evidence that a family diet in childhood high in dairy products was associated with coronary heart disease or stroke mortality was found. Children whose family diet in the 1930s was high in calcium were at reduced risk of death from stroke.”
Dietary calcium intake and risks of stroke, its subtypes, and coronary heart disease in Japanese: the JPHC Study Cohort I. Umesawa M, et al. Stroke. 2008 Sep;39(9):2449-56. Key Finding: “A total of 41,526 Japanese men and women age 40 to 59 years without a history of cardiovascular disease or cancer completed a food frequency consumption questionnaire. Dairy calcium intake was inversely associated with risks of total and ischemic stroke. Dietary calcium intake was not significantly associated with risk of coronary heart disease.”
Dietary intake of calcium in relation to mortality from cardiovascular disease: the JACC Study. Umesawa M, et al. Stroke. 2006 Jan;37(1):20-6. Key Finding: “Between 1988 and 1990, 110,792 Japanese subjects 40 to 79 years of age completed a lifestyle questionnaire. Dietary calcium intake from dairy products was associated with reduced mortality from stroke for Japanese men and women.”
Influence of dairy product and milk fat consumption on cardiovascular disease risk: a review of the evidence. Huth PJ, Park KM. Adv Nutr. 2012 May 1;3(3):266-85. Key Finding: “A diet higher in saturated fat from whole milk and butter increases LDL cholesterol. Cheese intake lowers LDL cholesterol compared with butter of equal milk fat content.”
Dairy consumption and 10-y total and cardiovascular mortality: a prospective cohort study in the Netherlands. Goldbohm RA, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Mar;93(3):615-27. Key Finding: “A slightly increased risk of all-cause and ischemic heart disease mortality was found for both butter and dairy fat intake in women.”
Nutrition and prostate cancer. Vlajinac H, et al. J BUON. 2010 Oct-Dec;15(4):698-703. Key Finding: “This case-control study comprised 101 cases of prostate cancer and 202 hospital controls. Risk factors for prostate cancer included high intake of processed meat, fish (mostly canned) and butter.”
Dairy intake and the risk of bladder cancer in the Netherlands Cohort Study on Diet and Cancer. Keszel AP, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2010 Feb 15;171(4):436-46. Key Finding: “The authors examined the association between the intake of different dairy products and the risk of bladder cancer in 120,852 men and women aged 55-69 years. The cohort was followed for 16.3 years. These results suggest a positive association with butter intake in women.”
Food intake and colorectal cancers; an ecological study in Romania. Fira-Mladinescu C, et al. (Romanian). 2008 Jul-Sept;112(3):805-11. Key Finding: “The malignancies of the rectum and anus showed both a strong positive correlation with the intake of red meat, sausages, margarine, butter. Negative correlations were reported for the recto-anal cancer and the consumption of fish and cheese.”
Identification of a dietary pattern characterized by high-fat food choices associated with increased risk of breast cancer: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)—Potsdam Study. Schulz M, et al. Br J Nutr. 2008 Nov;100(5):942-6. Key Finding: “Study participants were 15,351 female subjects free of cancer at baseline and with complete dietary and outcome information followed for an average of 6 years. We identified a food pattern characterized by high consumption of processed meat, fish, butter and other animal fats, and margarine explaining >42% of total variation in fatty acid intake. Adherence to this food pattern was associated with a two-fold risk of breast cancer. A food pattern characterized by high-fat food choices was significantly associated with increased risk of breast cancer.”
Major dietary patterns and cardiovascular risk factors from childhood to adulthood. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. Mikkila V, et al. Br J Nutr. 2007 Jul;98(1):218-25. Key Finding: “This is an on-going prospective cohort study with a 21 year follow-up date. The subjects were children and adolescents at baseline. High consumption of butter, sausages, milk and coffee was independently associated with total and LDL cholesterol concentrations, apolipoprotein B and C-reactive protein concentrations among both genders, and also with systolic blood pressure and insulin levels among women and concentrations of homocysteine among men. Our results support earlier findings that dietary patterns have a role in the development of cardiovascular disease.”
Pancreatic cancer, animal protein and dietary fat in a population-based study, San Francisco Bay Area, California. Chan JM, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2007 Dec;18(10):1153-67. Key Finding: “A semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire was administered to 532 cases and 1,701 controls between 1995 and 1999. Positive associations with pancreatic cancer risk were observed for beef/lamb as a main dish, regular hamburger, whole eggs, butter, and total dairy. Some high-fat/processed meat products (sausage, salami, bacon) were also positively associated with risk. An inverse association was noted for greater chicken/turkey consumption.”
Consumption of dairy products and cancer risks. Matsumoto M, et al. Epidemiol. 2007 Mar;17(2):38-44. Key Finding: “a baseline survey was conducted for 11,349 residents in 12 communities in Japan. Deaths from hematopoietic neoplasm were significantly associated with consumption of butter, though they exhibited a nearly-significant association with milk consumption. Consumption of milk and butter was significantly associated with non-lymphoma deaths.”
Exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in food and cancer risk: recent advances. Roveda AM, et al. Sanita Pubbl. (Italian) 2006 Nov-Dec;62(6):677-96. Key Finding: “Humans continue to be exposed to the toxic effects of PCBs because of their resistance to chemical and biological decomposition, their capacity of bio-accumulation and their long half-life. Studies performed so far have pointed out a possible association between exposure to PCBs and increased risk of developing breast, prostate, testicular, ovarian and uterine cancers. These compounds may also act as disruptive endocrine and cause infertility. PCBs accumulate in organisms through the food chain, and food accounts for 90% of exposure. The highest concentrations being found in fish (such as salmon and shellfish) dairy products (especially milk and butter) and animal fat.”
Milk/dairy products consumption, galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer: meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. Qin L, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2005 Feb;14(1):13-9. Key Finding: “We collected epidemiological studies related to the association between milk/dairy products consumption or galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer published between January 1966 and August 2003 and found 27 items from 22 independent studies. In general, we did not find any association between milk/dairy products of galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer risk in this meta-analysis. The consumption of whole milk and butter, which contain relatively high amounts of fat, was positively but not significantly associated with an increased risk for ovarian cancer.”
Adolescent diet and risk of breast cancer. Frazier AL, et al. Breast Cancer Res. 2003;5(3):R59-64. Key Finding: “A nested case-control study was conducted among participants in the Nurses’ Health Study, There were 843 eligible cases diagnosed. Women who had, during adolescence, a higher consumption of eggs, vegetable fat and fiber had a lower risk of breast cancer, whereas risk of breast cancer was increased among women who consumed more butter.”
Skin wrinkling: can food make a difference? Purba MB, et al. J Am Coll Nutr. 2001 Feb;20(1):71-80. Key Finding: “This study addressed whether food and nutrient intakes were correlated with skin wrinkling in a sun-exposed site. 177 Greek-born subjects living in Melbourne, 69 Greek subjects living in rural Greece, 48 Anglo-Celtic Australian elderly living in Melbourne and 159 Swedish subjects living in Sweden, participating in the International Union of Nutritional Science Food Habits in Later Life study, had their dietary intakes measure and their skin assessed. Food and nutrient intakes were assessed using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Correlation analyses on the pooled data and using the major food groups suggested that there may be less actinic skin damage with a higher intake of vegetables, olive oil, fish and legumes, and lower intake of butter, margarine, milk products, and sugar products.”
Food groups, oils and butter, and cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx. Franceschi S, et al. Br J Cancer. 1999 May;80(3-4):614-20. Key Finding: “A study was carried out in 1992-1997 in the province of Pordenone in Northeastern Italy with 512 men and 86 women with cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx (lip, salivary glands and nasopharynx excluded) and controls were 1008 men and 483 women. Significant trends of increasing risk emerged for eggs, processed meats, and butter.”
Diet and squamous-cell cancer of the oesophagus: a French multicentre case-control study. Launoy G, et al. Int J Cancer. 1998 Mar 30;76(1):7-12. Key Finding: “We conducted a multcentre case-control study in 3 regions (Normandy, Burgundy and Midi Pyrenees). Two hundred eight cases and 399 controls, all males, were interviewed. High consumption of butter and low consumption of fresh fish, vegetables and fruits were associated strongly and independently with an increase in oesophageal-cancer risk. Our findings suggest that more than one-third of the high incidence of oesophageal cancer in northwest France could be explained by the local excess butter consumption.”
Dietary risk factors for renal cell carcinoma in Denmark. Mellemgaard A, et al. Eur J Cancer. 1996 Apr;32A(4):673-82. Key Finding: “Dairy products may be associated with risk of renal cell cancer for women using thickly spread butter compared to thinly spread, and for women who drank more than one glass of milk with 3.5% fat content compared to never drink milk.”
Levels of organochlorine contaminants in organic and conventional cheeses and their impact on the health of consumers: an independent study in the Canary Islans (Spain). Almeida-Gonzalez M, et al. Food Chem Toxicol. 2012 Dec;50(12):4325-32. Key Finding: “We evaluated the levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in 61 commercially available brands of cheese. Our results showed that hexachlorobenzene, a-HCH, dieldrin, p,p’-DDE, and PCBs 153 and 180 were present in most of the samples independent of the cheese type. There were higher levels of PCBs in organic than in conventional brands. Levels of dioxin-like PCBs in both organic and conventional types of cheese reached concentrations above 100% of the levels established by the EU.”
Is dairy product consumption associated with the incidence of CHD? Avalos EE, et al. Public Health Nutr. 2012 Oct 2:1-9. Key Finding: “Participants were 751 men and 1008 women aged 50-93 years. Analyses indicated that women who consumed low-fat cheese sometimes/often and women who consumed non-fat milk sometimes/often had an increased risk of incident coronary heart disease compared with women who never/rarely ate these dairy products.”
Consumption of animal products, olive oil and dietary fat and results from the Belgian case-control study on bladder cancer risk. Brinkman MT, et al. Eur J Cancer. 2011 Feb;47(3):436-42. Key Finding: “Dietary data were collected from 200 cases and 386 controls participating in a Belgian case-control study on bladder cancer. We observed evidence for a protective effect by olive oil and a possible increased risk of bladder cancer associated with a high intake of cheese.”
Oral exposure to acrolein exacerbates atherosclerosis in apoE-null mice. Srivastava S, et al. Atherosclerosis. 2011 Apr;215(2):301-8. Key Finding: “Acrolein is a dietary aldehyde that is present in high concentrations in foods including cheese. Eight week-old male apoE-null mice were fed acrolein for 8 weeks. Acrolein feeding increased the concentration of cholesterol in the plasma. Dietary exposure to acrolein exacerbates atherosclerosis.”
Food intake patterns associated with carotid artery atherosclerosis in the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study. Liese AD, et al. Br J Nutr. 2010 May;103(10):1471-9. Key Finding: Inflammatory pathways on progression of atherosclerosis were followed among 802 middle-aged adults with 5-year follow-up. “We identified a food pattern characterized by higher intakes of red and processed meat and cottage cheese” as positively associated with coronary artery atherosclerosis progression.
Food intake patterns associated with incident type 2 diabetes: the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study. Liese AD, et al. Diabetes Care. 2009 Feb;32(2):263-8. Key Finding: “The cohort included 880 middle-aged adults initially free of diabetes. At the 5-year follow-up, 144 individuals had developed diabetes. High intake of the food groups red meat, low-fiber bread and cereal, fried potatoes, eggs, cheese and cottage cheese was positively associated with both biomarkers of type 2 diabetes.”
Food intake and colorectal cancers; an ecological study in Romania. Fira-Mladinescu C, et al. (Romanian). 2008 Jul-Sept;112(3):805-11. Key Finding: “The malignancies of the rectum and anus showed both a strong positive correlation with the intake of red meat, sausages, margarine, butter. Negative correlations were reported for the recto-anal cancer and the consumption of fish and cheese.”
Food intake and risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin in a community: the Nambour skin cancer cohort study. Hughes MC, et al. Int J Cancer. 2006 Oct 15;119(8):1953-60. Key Finding: “There is some evidence that dietary factors may modify the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin. We examined the association between food intake and SCC incidence among 1,056 randomly selected adults living in an Australian sub-tropical community. Consumption of unmodified dairy products, such as whole milk, cheese and yoghurt, may increase SCC risk in susceptible persons.”
Epidemiology of testicular cancer: An Overview. Garner MJ, et al. Int J Cancer. 2005 Sep;116(3):331-339. Key Finding: “Testicular cancer is the most common malignancy among young men 25 to 35 years. The worldwide incidence of testicular cancer has doubled over the last 40 years. Switzerland, Denmark and Norway have the highest incidence rates. Dairy products, particularly milk and cheese, have been linked to testicular cancer in five studies. These foods contain the female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone. It is reasonable to hypothesize that estrogens or progesterone in milk and dairy products may be associated with the development of testicular cancer. The strength of this association is further supported by the recent increasing trend in testicular cancer incidence and the increased consumption of dairy products in developed countries starting in the 1940s and 1950s. Another factor contributing to the level of estrogens in dairy products may be the treatment of cattle with hormones and antibiotics.”
The effects of estrogen-like products in milk on prostate and testes. Li XM, et al. (Chinese). 2003 Jun;9(3):186-90. Key Finding: “The incidence rates of testicular and prostatic cancers in 42 countries (regions), collected from the cancer incidence in five continents database (1988-92), were correlated with the relative food consumption in these countries. Milk was most closely correlated with prostatic cancer incidence, followed by meat and coffee. As for testicular cancer, cheese was most closely correlated with the incidences in ages of 20-39, followed by animal fat and milk.”
Dietary risk factors for testicular carcinoma. Garner MJ, et al. Int J Cancer. 2003 Oct;106(6):934-941. Key Finding: “Data from 601 cases of testicular cancer and 744 population-based controls collected in 8 of the 10 Canadian provinces were used to explore the relationship between diet and testicular cancer risk. Our results suggest that high dairy product intake, in particular high intake of cheese, is associated with an elevated risk.”
Diet and risk of seromucinous benign ovarian cysts. Chaiffarino R, et al. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2003 Oct 10;110(2):196-200. Key Finding: “We used data from a case-control study on risk factors for benign ovarian cysts conducted in Italy. Cases included 225 women with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of benign seromucinous ovarian neoplasm and controls were 450 women below the age of 65 years. Women with seromucinous cysts reported more frequent consumption of beef and other red meat and cheese.”
Dairy products and colorectal cancer: A review of possible mechanisms and epidemiological evidence. Norat T, Riboli E. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2003 Jan;57(1):1-17. Key Finding: “This review provides an overview of the principal hypotheses and epidemiological evidence of the possible links between colorectal cancer and intake of milk and/or dairy products. Cohort studies consistently found a protective effect of total dairy products and milk intake, but the evidence is not supported by case-control studies. No relationship was found with cheese or yoghurt intake.”
Incidence and mortality of testicular and prostatic cancers in relation to world dietary practices. Ganmaa D, et al. Int J Cancer. 2002 Mar 10;98(2):262-7. Key Finding: “The incidence and mortality rates of testicular and prostatic cancers in 42 countries were correlated with the dietary practices in these countries using the cancer rates (1988-92) provided by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The results of our study suggest a role of milk and dairy products in the development and growth of testicular and prostatic cancers. The close correlation between cheese and testicular cancer and between milk and prostatic cancer suggests that further mechanistic studies should be undertaken concerning the development of male genital organ cancers.”
Dairy foods and risk of breast cancer: a case-control study in Montevideo, Uruguay. Ronco AL, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2002 Oct;11(5):457-63. Key Finding: “A total of 333 women were interviewed with a specific questionnaire; 111 of them had been diagnosed with breast cancer and 222 were frequency-matched healthy women. A multivariate analysis found that high intakes of whole milk, chocolate milk and Gruyere cheese were associated with significant increased risk of breast cancer, whereas ricotta cheese and skim yoghurt were associated with significant decreased risks. Low-fat and fermented products combined appear to be the most protective dairy foods.”
Inverse association between dietary and serum conjugated linoleic acid and risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Aro A, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2000;38(2):151-7. Key Finding: “We studied dietary and serum CLA in Finnish patients with breast cancer. Participants were women with breast cancer (68 premenopausal and 127 postmenopausal) and population-based control women matched for age and area of residence. A diet composed of CLA-rich foods, particularly cheese, may protect against breast cancer in postmenopausal women, but it is impossible to assess the independent effects of CLA in this study.”
Food groups and risk of prostate cancer: a case-control study in Uruguay. Deneo-Pellegrini H, et al. Cancer Causes Control.2012 Jul;23(7):1031-8. Key Finding: “Data were derived from 326 cases with incident and microscopically confirmed adenocarcinomas of the prostate and 652 controls. We identified the following food items as risk factors: lamb meat, salted meat, whole milk, total eggs, and mate’ consumption. The highest association was with total eggs.”
Dietary habits and prostate cancer prevention: a review of observational studies by focusing on South America. Niclis C, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2012;64(1):23-33. Key Finding: “There is some suggestion that dairy products, red meat, processed meat, and higher intakes of eggs may play some role in the development of prostate cancer.”
Egg yolk consumption and carotid plaque. Spence JD, et al. Atherosclerosis. 2012 Oct;224(2):469-73. Key Finding: “Our findings suggest that regular consumption of egg yolk should be avoided by persons at risk of cardiovascular disease.”
Food sources of fat and sex hormone receptor status of invasive breast tumors in women of the Malmo Diet and Cancer cohort. Wirfalt E, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2011;63(5):722-33. Key Finding: “We examined associations between food intakes and incident breast cancer in 17,000 women aged 45-73 years with 10 years of follow-up. Increased risk with eggs was found. Margarine also showed increased risks.”
Dietary patterns are associated with stroke in Chinese adults. Li Y, et al. J Nutr. 2011 Oct;141(10):1834-9. Key Finding: “We examined dietary patterns and risk of stroke among 26,276 Chinese adults by using data from the 2002 China National Nutrition and Health Survey. The Western dietary pattern characterized by high consumption of beef, eggs, poultry is associated with an elevated risk of stroke, which was largely mediated by obesity, hypertension, hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia.”
Dietary cholesterol and egg yolks: not for patients at risk of vascular disease. Spence JD, et al. Can J Cardiol. 2010 Nov;26(9):e336-9. Key Finding: “A single large egg yolk contains approximately 275 mg of cholesterol (more than a day’s worth of cholesterol.) Among participants who became diabetic during observation, consumption of one egg a day doubled their risk compared with less than one egg a week. Dietary cholesterol, including egg yolks, is harmful to the arteries. Patients at risk of cardiovascular disease should limit their intake of cholesterol. Stopping the consumption of egg yolks after a stroke or myocardial infarction would be like quitting smoking after a diagnosis of lung cancer: a necessary action, but late.”
Food intake patterns associated with incident type 2 diabetes: the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study. Liese AD, et al. Diabetes Care. 2009 Feb;32(2):263-8. Key Finding: “The cohort included 880 middle-aged adults initially free of diabetes. At the 5-year follow-up, 144 individuals had developed diabetes. High intake of the food groups red meat, low-fiber bread and cereal, fried potatoes, eggs, cheese and cottage cheese was positively associated with both biomarkers of type 2 diabetes.”
Animal origin foods and colorectal cancer risk: a report from the Shanghai Women’s Health Study. Lee SA, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2009;61(2):194-205. Key Finding: “High egg intake and high intake of total cholesterol were related to risk of colorectal cancer. Milk intake was inversely associated with the risk of colon cancer. The smoking method of cooking was positively associated with colon cancer.”
Meat, eggs, dairy products, and risk of breast cancer in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. Pala V, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Sep;90(3):602-12. Key Finding: “We investigated the relation of meat, egg and dairy product consumption with breast cancer risk by using data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Information on diet was collected from 319,826 women. We have not consistenly identified intakes of meat, eggs, or dairy products as risk factors for breast cancer. Future studies should investigate the possible role of high-temperature cooking in the relation of red meat intake with breast cancer risk.”
Egg consumption and the risk of cancer: a multisite case-control study in Uruguay. Aune D, et al. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2009;10(5):869-76. Key Finding: “Previous studies have suggested that egg consumption may increase the risk of colorectal cancer and some other cancers. To further explore the association between egg intake and cancer risk we conducted a case-control study of 11 cancer sites in Uruguay between 1996 and 2004, including 3,539 cancer cases and 2,032 hospital controls. With high egg consumption there was a significant increase in the odds of cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, upper aerodigestive tract, colorectum, lung, breast, prostate, bladder.”
Incident heart failure is associated with lower whole-grain intake and greater high-fat dairy and egg intake in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. Nettleton JA, et al. J Am Diet Assoc. 2008 Nov;108(11):1881-7. Key Finding: “A cohort of 14,153 African-American and white adults, age 45 to 64 years, were sampled from four US communities with a 66-item food frequency questionnaire. Intake of eggs and high-fat dairy were associated with greater heart failure risk.”
Pancreatic cancer, animal protein and dietary fat in a population-based study, San Francisco Bay Area, California. Chan JM, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2007 Dec;18(10):1153-67. Key Finding: “A semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire was administered to 532 cases and 1,701 controls between 1995 and 1999. Positive associations with pancreatic cancer risk were observed for beef/lamb as a main dish, regular hamburger, whole eggs, butter, and total dairy. Some high-fat/processed meat products (sausage, salami, bacon) were also positively associated with risk. An inverse association was noted for greater chicken/turkey consumption.”
Vegetarian nutrition: preventive potential and possible risks. Part 2: animal foods and recommendations. Strohle A, et al. Wien Klin Wochenschr (German). 2006 Dec;118(23-24):728-37. Key Finding: “Based on the evidence criteria of the WHO/FAQ, colorectal cancer risk reduction by a high intake of milk and milk products is assessed as probable, while a higher risk of prostate and ovarial carcinomas is also probable. The evidence of a risk-increasing effect of eggs relating to cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer and breast cancer is assessed as probable.”
Diet, anthropometric measures and prostate cancer risk: a review of prospective cohort and intervention studies. Dagnelie PC, et al. BJU Int. 2004 May;93(8):1139-50. Key Finding: “We reviewed 37 prospective cohort and four intervention studies on potential dietary risk factors for prostate cancer, published between 1966 and September 2003. Overall consumption of meat, eggs, vitamins A, C and D was not consistently related to prostate cancer risk; whereas a very high calcium intake appears to be positively associated with prostate cancer risk.”
A case-control study of diet and the risk of ovarian cancer. Pan SY, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2004 Sep;13(9):1521-7. Key Finding: “Diet information was collected on 442 incident cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed in 1994 to 1997 and 2,135 population controls via a self-administered questionnaire. Our findings suggested that ovarian cancer risk was positively associated with higher consumption of dietary cholesterol and eggs.”
Diet and colorectal cancer mortality: results from the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study. Okima M, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2004;50(1):23-32. Key Finding: “The relationship between diet and colorectal cancer mortality was analyzed in a a prospective study of 45,181 men and 62,643 women aged 40-79 y enrolled in the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study. Yogurt intake was inversely associated with male rectal cancer mortality. Egg consumption was positively associated with male colon cancer mortality.”
Diet and nutrient intakes and risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Connecticut women. Zheng T, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2004 Mar 1;159(5):454-66. Key Finding: “A population-based case-control study (601 cases and 717 controls) was conducted in 1995-2001 among Connecticut women to evaluate the relation between diet and nutrient intakes and the risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The authors found an increased risk associated with animal protein and saturated fat. An increased risk was also observed for higher intakes of retinol, eggs, and dairy products.”
Egg consumption and mortality from colon and rectal cancers: an ecological study. Zhang J, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2003;46(2):158-65. Key Finding: “Colon and rectal cancer mortality and egg consumption data in 34 countries were derived from the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization. Egg consumption was significantly and positively correlated with mortality from colon and rectal cancers in both sexes.”
The experience of Japan as a clue to the etiology of breast and ovarian cancers: relationship between death from both malignancies and dietary practices. Li XM, et al. Med Hypotheses. 2003 Feb;60(2):268-75. Key Finding: “Over the past 50 years (1947-1997) the age-standardized death rates of breast and ovarian cancers in Japan increased about 2- and 4-fold, respectively, and the respective intake of milk, meat and eggs increased 20-, 10- and 7-fold. The increase in the annual death rates from breast and ovarian cancers might be due to the lifestyle changes (increased consumption of animal-derived food) that occurred after 1945. Among the food, milk and dairy products should receive particular attention since they contain considerable amounts of estrogens.”
Adolescent diet and risk of breast cancer. Frazier AL, et al. Breast Cancer Res. 2003;5(3):R59-64. Key Finding: “A nested case-control study was conducted among participants in the Nurses’ Health Study, There were 843 eligible cases diagnosed. Women who had, during adolescence, a higher consumption of eggs, vegetable fat and fiber had a lower risk of breast cancer, whereas risk of breast cancer was increased among women who consumed more butter.”
Meat and dairy food consumption and breast cancer: a pooled analysis of cohort studies. Missmer SA, et al. Int J Epidemiol. 2002 Feb;31(1):78-85. Key Finding: “More than 20 studies have investigated the relation between meat and dairy food consumption and breast cancer risk with conflicting results. We combined the primary data from eight prospective cohort studies from North American and Western Europe with at least 200 incident breast cancer cases. The pooled database included 351,041 women, 7,379 of whom were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during up to 15 years of follow-up. We found no significant associations between intake of meat or dairy products and risk of breast cancer. Breast cancer risk slightly increased among women who consumed one or more eggs per day compared to women who did not eat eggs.”
Foods groups and laryngeal cancer risk: a case-control study from Italy and Switzerland. Bosetti C, et al. Int J Cancer. 2002 Jul 20;100(3):355-60. Key Finding: “Our study included 527 incident histologically confirmed cases and 1,297 frequency-matched controls. A significant trend of increasing risk for laryngeal cancer was observed for eggs, red meat, processed meat, fish, and sugars. Significant inverse associations were observed for pulses, raw vegetables, cooked vegetables, citrus fruit and other fruit.”
Food groups and oesophageal cancer risk in Vaud, Switzerland. Levi F, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2000 Aug;9(4):257-63. Key Finding: “The influence of food groups on oesophageal cancer risk was analysed using data from a case-control study conducted between 1992 and 1999 in the Swiss Canton of Vaud on 101 incident, histologically confirmed cases and 327 controls. Significant increased risks emerged for red meat (OR=1.7 for an increase of one serving per day), pork and processed meat (OR=1.6) and eggs (OR=1.5) whereas inverse associations were observed for milk (OR=0.7).”
Systematic review of epidemiological studies on meat, dairy products and egg consumption and risk of colorectal adenomas. Yoon H, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2000 Jun;9(3):151-64. Key Finding: “Eleven case-control and two cohort studies on colorectal polyps and meat, dairy products and eggs were identified. A quantitative review of these studies and a meta-analysis were carried out. The combined odds ratios suggest a positive association between the risk of colorectal polyps and beef consumption and a negative association with fish or combined poultry/fish consumption. An increase in the ratio of the consumption of red meat to consumption of fish/chicken was associated with an increase in the colorectal polyp risk. Neither dairy product nor egg consumption had a substantial effect on the development of colorectal polyps.”
Food groups, oils and butter, and cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx. Franceschi S, et al. Br J Cancer. 1999 May;80(3-4):614-20. Key Finding: “A study was carried out in 1992-1997 in the province of Pordenone in Northeastern Italy with 512 men and 86 women with cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx (lip, salivary glands and nasopharynx excluded) and controls were 1008 men and 483 women. Significant trends of increasing risk emerged for eggs, processed meats, and butter.”
Food groups and risk of oral and pharyngeal cancer. Levi F, et al. Int J Cancer. 1998 Aug 31;77(5):705-9. Key Finding: “Using data from a case-control study conducted between 1992 and 1997 in the Swiss Canton of Vaud; cases were 156 patients and 284 controls. Significant trends of increasing risk was found with more frequent intake for eggs, red meat, pork and processed meat. High meat intake accounted for 49% of oral and pharyngeal cancers in this population.”
Milk and dairy consumption among men with prostate cancer and risk of metastases and prostate cancer death. Pettersson A, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2012 Mar;21(3):428-36. Key Finding: Cohort consisted of 3,918 men diagnosed with apparently localized prostate cancer between 1986 and 2006, and followed to 2008. “Men with the highest versus the lowest intake of whole milk were at an increased risk of progression of prostate cancer.”
Milk intake in early life and risk of advanced prostate cancer. Torfadottir JE, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2012 Jan 15;175(2):144-53. Key Finding: A cohort of 8,894 men born between 1907 and 1935 were studied. “Daily milk consumption in adolescence (vs. less than daily) but not in midlife or currently was associated with a 3.2-fold risk of advanced prostate cancer.”
Dietetic factors associated with prostate cancer: protective effects of Mediterranean diet Ferris-Tortajada J, et al. Actas Urol Esp. 2012 Apr;36(4):239-45. Key Finding: “Low intakes of animal saturated fat, processed red meat, milk and dairy products” are considered necessary for a protective effect against prostate carcinoma.
Milk, dairy intake and risk of endometrial cancer: a 26-year follow-up. Ganmaa D, et al. Int J Cancer. 2012 Jun 1;130(11):2664-71. Key Finding: “Milk and dairy products are a source of steroid hormones and growth factors that might have physiological effects in humans. This was a prospective cohort study with 68,019 female participants in the Nurses’ Health study aged 34-59. The association between total dairy intake and endometrial cancer was significant only among the postmenopausal women.”
Diet in acne: further evidence for the role of nutrient signaling in acne pathogenesis. Melnik BC. Acta Derm Venereol. 2012 May;92(3):228-31. Key Finding: “Acne is absent in populations consuming Palaeolithic diets with low glycemic load and no consumption of milk or dairy products. Epidemiological evidence confirms that milk consumption has an acne-promoting or acne-aggravating effect.”
Is dairy product consumption associated with the incidence of CHD? Avalos EE, et al. Public Health Nutr. 2012 Oct 2:1-9. Key Finding: “Participants were 751 men and 1008 women aged 50-93 years. Analyses indicated that women who consumed low-fat cheese sometimes/often and women who consumed non-fat milk sometimes/often had an increased risk of incident coronary heart disease compared with women who never/rarely ate these dairy products.”
Milk-induced wheezing in children with asthma. Murray MG, et al. Allergol Immunopathol. 2012 Nov 6. (Epub ahead of print.) Key Finding: “This study shows that cow’s milk can cause wheezing in children with asthma.”
The impact of cow’s milk-mediated mTORC1-signaling in the initiation and progression of prostate cancer. Melnik BC, et al. Nutr Metab. 2012 Aug 14;9(1):74. Key Finding: “Increased cow’s milk protein-mediated TORC1 signaling along with constant exposure to commercial cow’s milk estrogens derived from pregnant cows may explain the observed association between high dairy consumption and increased risk of prostate cancer in Westernized societies.”
High glycemic load diet, milk and ice cream consumption are related to acne vulgaris in Malaysian young adults: a case control study. Ismail NH, et al. BMC Dermatol. 2012 Aug 16;12:13. Key Finding: “A case control study was conducted among 44 acne vulgaris patients and 44 controls aged 18 to 30 years. The frequency of milk and ice cream consumptions was significantly higher in cases compared to control. Milk and ice cream were positively associated with acne vulgaris.”
Use of dairy products, lactose, and calcium and risk of ovarian cancer—results from a Danish case-control study. Faber MT, et al. Acta Onco. 2012 Apr;51(4):454-64. Key Finding: “We included 554 womenwith epithelial ovarian cancer and 1554 randomly selected age-matched controls, 35-79 years. The total dairy intake was associated with ovarian cancer risk. The association was strongest for milk.”
Whole cow’s milk in early life. Thorsdottir I, Thorisdottir AV. Nestle Nutr Workshop Ser Pediatr Program. 2011;67:29-40. Key Finding: “Whole cow’s milk is known to be detrimental to infants, mainly due to its low iron content. More recently, the literature suggests that consuming whole cow’s milk in infancy has unfortunate effects on growth, especially weight acceleration and development of overweight in childhood.”
Milk and dairy consumption and risk of bladder cancer: a meta-analysis. Li R, et al. Urology. 2011 Dec;78(6):1298-305. Key Finding: “The findings of this meta-analysis (20 studies) are not supportive of an independent relationship between the intake of milk or dairy products and the risk of bladder cancer. However, these findings are based on limited research.”
Milk consumption and bladder cancer risk: a meta-analysis of published epidemiological studies. Mao QQ, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2011 Nov;63(8):1263-71. Key Finding: “Studies investigating the association of milk consumption with bladder cancer risk have reported inconsistent findings. Nineteen cohort and case-control studies were included. High milk intake was significantly associated with decreased risk of bladder cancer when comparing the highest with the lowest category of milk intake. The inverse association was stronger in Asia than North America and no association was observed in Europe. This relationship also varied significantly by specific dairy products.”
Milk stimulates growth of prostate cancer cells in culture. Tate PL, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2011 Nov;63(8):1361-6. Key Finding: “Cow’s milk stimulated the growth of LNCaP prostate cancer cells in each of 14 separate experiments, producing an average increase in growth rate of over 30%.”
Evidence for acne-promoting effects of milk and other insulinotropic dairy products. Melnik BC. Nestle Nutr Workshop Ser Pediatr Program. 2011;67:131-45. Key Finding: “Restriction of milk consumption will have an enormous impact on the prevention of epidemic western diseases like obesity, diabetes mellitus, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and acne.”
Dairy intake and cognitive health in middle-aged South Australians. Crichton GE, et al. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2010;19(2):161-71. Key Finding: Analyses were undertaken of 432 men and 751 women aged 39 to 65 years. “Intakes of whole fat dairy products, including ice-cream and cream, were associated with increased depression, anxiety, stress, cognitive failures, poorer memory functioning and general health.”
Dietary factors and gastric cancer risk: hospital-based case control study. Lazarevic K, et al. J BUON. 2010 Jan-Mar;15(1):89-93. Key Finding: “A low risk diet for gastric cancer should have limited processed meat and milk intake.”
Milk—the promoter of chronic Western diseases. Melnik BC. Med Hypotheses. 2009 Jun;72(6):631-9. Key Finding: “The adverse long-term effects of milk and milk protein consumption on human health have been neglected. A hypothesis is presented showing for the first time that milk protein consumption is an essential adverse environmental factor promoting most chronic diseases of Western societies. Milk protein consumption induces postprandial hyperinsulinaemia and shifts the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) axis to permanently increased IGF-1 serum levels. Of special concern is the possibility that milk intake during pregnancy adversely affects the early fetal programming of the IGF-1 axis which will influence health risks later in life.”
Should dairy be recommended as part of a healthy vegetarian diet? Counterpoint. Lanou AJ. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 May;89(5):16385-16425. Key Finding: “Osteoporotic bone fracture rates are highest in countries that consume the most dairy, calcium and animal protein. Most studies of fracture risk provide little or no evidence that milk or other dairy products benefit bone. Accumulating evidence shows that consuming milk or dairy products may contribute to the risk of prostate and ovarian cancers, autoimmune diseases, and some childhood ailments.”
Prevalence of aflatoxin M1 in milk and its potential liver cancer risk in Taiwan. Peng KY, Chen CY. Food Prot. 2009 May;72(5):1025-9. Key Finding: “Pasteurized milk may contain the liver carcinogen aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) if the cows that produce the milk ingest feed contaminated with aflatoxin B1. In this study, we collected 144 milk samples of three main brands in Taiwan twice a month over a 1-year period and purchased two samples each of eight domestic and imported brands of infant formula at two different times in 2005. We found higher concentrations of AFM1 in low-fat milk than in whole-fat milk. We were able to detect trace amounts of AFM1 in all of our milk samples. We were unable to detect AFM1 in any of the infant formulae. Using a World Health Organization method of evaluating risk of liver cancer, the group we found to be at greatest risk was 6- to 9-year-old girls; the group with the lowest risk was men of 45 to 64 years of age, the latter consuming less milk than all other groups.”
Diet and breast cancer in Latin-America. Torres-Sanchez L, et al. Salud Publica Mex. (Spanish). 2009;51 Suppl 2:s181-90. Key Finding: “A systematic search in Mexico identified 27 epidemiological studies that evaluated associations between diet and breast cancer. The research suggests a potential risk associated with elevated caloric consumption, consumption of red meat and processed meats, certain meat cooking techniques, milk and some other dairy products. The impact of specific foods and nutrients on breast cancer incidence is inconclusive. Further research is needed on this topic.”
Milk inhibits the regression of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-induced mammary tumors in ovarietcomized rats. Qin LQ, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2008;60(4):505-10. Key Finding: “Commercial milk inhibited the regression of carcinogen-induced mammary tumors in ovarietomized rats.”
Dairy products, polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor gene and colorectal adenoma recurrence. Hubner RA, et al. Int J Cancer. 2008 Aug 1;123(3):586-93. Key Finding: “These findings indicate dairy products, and in particular milk, have chemopreventive activity against colorectal adenoma recurrence.”
Unpasteurized milk consumption and subsequent risk of cancer. Sellers TA, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2008 Oct;19(8):805-11. Key Finding: “These data suggest that consumption of unpasteurized milk does not increase risk of cancer.”
Consumption of commercial whole and non-fat milk increases the incidence of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene-induced mammary tumors in rats. Qin LQ, et al. Cancer Detect Prev. 2007;31(4):339-43. Key Finding: “We found the consumption of milk promoted the development of DMBA-induced mammary tumors in rats independent of the fat level.”
Calcium, vitamin D, and dairy product intake and prostate cancer risk: the Multiethnic Cohort Study. Park SY, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2007 Dec 1;166(11):1259-69. Key Finding: “Although the findings from this study do not support an association between the intakes of calcium and vitamin D and prostate cancer risk, they do suggest that an association with milk consumption may vary by fat content, particularly for early forms of this cancer.”
Major dietary patterns and cardiovascular risk factors from childhood to adulthood. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. Mikkila V, et al. Br J Nutr. 2007 Jul;98(1):218-25. Key Finding: “This is an on-going prospective cohort study with a 21 year follow-up date. The subjects were children and adolescents at baseline. High consumption of butter, sausages, milk and coffee was independently associated with total and LDL cholesterol concentrations, apolipoprotein B and C-reactive protein concentrations among both genders, and also with systolic blood pressure and insulin levels among women and concentrations of homocysteine among men. Our results support earlier findings that dietary patterns have a role in the development of cardiovascular disease.”
Childhood dairy intake and adult cancer risk: 65-y follow-up of the Boyd Orr cohort. Van der Pols JC, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Dec;86(6):1722-9. Key Finding: “Dairy consumption affects biological pathways associated with carcinogenesis. Evidence for a link between cancer risk and dairy consumption in adulthood is increasing, but association with childhood dairy consumption have not been studied adequately. Some 4,999 children living in England and Scotland participated in a study of family food consumption from 1937 through 1939. The National Health Service central register was used to ascertain cancer registrations and deaths between 1949 and 2005 in the 4,383 traced cohort members. High childhood total dairy intake was associated with a near-tripling in the odds of colorectal cancer. Milk intake showed a similar association with colorectal cancer risk. Childhood dairy intake was not associated with breast and stomach cancer risk.”
Milk consumption is a risk factor for prostate cancer in Western countries: evidence from cohort studies. Qin LQ, et al. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2007;16(3):467-76. Key Finding: “These findings suggest that the consumption of milk and dairy products increases the risk of prostate cancer. This is biologically plausible since milk contains considerable amounts of fat, hormone, and calcium that are associated with prostate cancer risk.”
Food and nutrient intakes and K-ras mutations in exocrine pancreatic cancer. Morales E, et al. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007 Jul;61(7):641-9. Key Finding: “K-ras mutations were more common among daily consumers of milk and other dairy products than among non-daily consumers. Results support the hypothesis that in exocrine pancreatic cancer exposure to specific dietary components or contaminants may influence the occurrence of K-ras mutations.”
Effect of milk on the 7,12-dimethylbenz{a}-anthracene-induced mammary tumor model in rat. Zhou H, et al. Food Chem Toxicol. 2007 Oct;45(10):1868-72. Key Finding: “Milk may be one of the risk factors in the development of breast cancer from epidemiological investigations. Our study investigated the hormones and main ingredients in milk and assessed the effects of milk on the development of 7,12-deimtheylbenz{a}anthracene (DMBA)-induced mammary tumors in rats. These findings suggested that DMBA-induced mammary tumors are more prevalent in milk-fed groups due in part to the contribution of estrogen and progesterone in milk.”
Lactase persistence, dietary intake of milk, and the risk for prostate cancer in Sweden and Finland. Torniainen S. Hedelin M, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007 May;16(5):956-61. Key Finding: “Lactase persistence/nonpersistence contains no risk for prostate cancer. Analysis of different milk products showed some evidence for low-fat milk as a potential risk factor for prostate cancer.”
Dietary risk factors for kidney cancer in Eastern and Central Europe. Hsu CC, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2007 Jul 1;166(1):62-70. Key Finding: “The authors examined the role of diet in the high-risk population of Central Europe among 1,065 incident kidney cancer cases and 1,509 controls in Russia, Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. They observed an increased association with kidney cancer for consumption of milk, yogurt, as well as all meat. The increased risk associated with dairy products, preserved vegetables, and red meat provides clues to the high rates of kidney cancer in this population.”
Consumption of dairy products and cancer risks. Matsumoto M, et al. Epidemiol. 2007 Mar;17(2):38-44. Key Finding: “a baseline survey was conducted for 11,349 residents in 12 communities in Japan. Deaths from hematopoietic neoplasm were significantly associated with consumption of butter, though they exhibited a nearly-significant association with milk consumption. Consumption of milk and butter was significantly associated with non-lymphoma deaths.”
Vitamin D and reduced risk of breast cancer: a population-based case-control study. Knight JA, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2007 Mar;16(3):422-9. Key Finding: “From ages 10 to 19 reduced risk was associated with increasing milk consumption (10 glasses per week versus none). There was weaker evidence for associations from ages 20 to 29 and no evidence for ages 45-54.”
Interactions between smoking and other exposures associated with lung cancer risk in women: diet and physical activity. Kubik A, et al. Neoplasma. 2007;54(1):83-8. Key Finding: “Protective effects were observed for intake of milk/dairy products among smokers only, while no similar effects were found among nonsmokers.”
Exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in food and cancer risk: recent advances. Roveda AM, et al. Sanita Pubbl. (Italian) 2006 Nov-Dec;62(6):677-96. Key Finding: “Humans continue to be exposed to the toxic effects of PCBs because of their resistance to chemical and biological decomposition, their capacity of bio-accumulation and their long half-life. Studies performed so far have pointed out a possible association between exposure to PCBs and increased risk of developing breast, prostate, testicular, ovarian and uterine cancers. These compounds may also act as disruptive endocrine and cause infertility. PCBs accumulate in organisms through the food chain, and food accounts for 90% of exposure. The highest concentrations being found in fish (such as salmon and shellfish) dairy products (especially milk and butter) and animal fat.”
Vegetarian nutrition: preventive potential and possible risks. Part 2: animal foods and recommendations. Strohle A, et al. Wien Klin Wochenschr (German). 2006 Dec;118(23-24):728-37. Key Finding: “Based on the evidence criteria of the WHO/FAQ, colorectal cancer risk reduction by a high intake of milk and milk products is assessed as probable, while a higher risk of prostate and ovarial carcinomas is also probable. The evidence of a risk-increasing effect of eggs relating to cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer and breast cancer is assessed as probable.”
Adolescent milk fat and galactose consumption and testicular germ cell cancer. Stang A, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006 Nov;15(11):2189-95. Key Finding: “Recent case-control studies suggested that dairy product consumption is an important risk factor for testicular cancer. Our results suggest that milk fat and/or galactose may explain the association between milk and dairy product consumption and seminomatous testicular cancer.”
Evaluation of relationships among national colorectal cancer mortality rates, genetic lactase non-persistence status, and per capita yearly milk and milk product consumption. Szilagyi A, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2006;55(2):151-6. Key Finding: “One of the most studied dietary factors for colorectal cancer, dairy product intake, is still debated as a protective agent. The role of lactose as a candidate prebiotic (stimulating lactic acid bacteria) and its relation to genetic lactase non-persistence (LNP) status has not been evaluated. We undertook a review and analysis. Because some population studies contradict the hypothesis that dairy food intake promotes colorectal cancer or that LNP status protects against colorectal cancer, we hypothesize that dairy food consumption may operate by two distinct mechanisms—one that operates at low doses in LNP subjects and another in high doses in non-LNP subjects.”
Food intake and risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin in a community: the Nambour skin cancer cohort study. Hughes MC, et al. Int J Cancer. 2006 Oct 15;119(8):1953-60. Key Finding: “There is some evidence that dietary factors may modify the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin. We examined the association between food intake and SCC incidence among 1,056 randomly selected adults living in an Australian sub-tropical community. Consumption of unmodified dairy products, such as whole milk, cheese and yoghurt, may increase SCC risk in susceptible persons.”
Evidence of a novel biomarker, alphas1-Casein, a milk protein, in benign prostate hyperplasia. Xu K, et al. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. 2006;9(3):293-7. Key Finding: “Our results suggest that alphas1-Casein (a milk protein) may be a potential biomarker for early identification of benign prostate hyperplasia patients.”
Milk, dairy products and cancer risk (Italy). Gallus S. Bravi F, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2006 May;17(4):429-37. Key Finding: “We analyzed data from a large and integrated network of hospital-based control studies in Italy on cancer. There was a modest direct association between milk and dairy products and prostate cancer, and a moderate inverse one for colorectal cancer. However, our findings indicate that milk and dairy products are not strong risk indicators for any of the cancers considered.”
Dairy products and ovarian cancer: a pooled analysis of 12 cohort studies. Genkinger JM, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006 Feb;15(2):364-72. Key Finding: “The study population consisted of 553,217 women among whom 2,132 epithelial ovarian cases were identified. No statistically significant associations were observed between intakes of milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and dietary and total calcium intake and risk of ovarian cancer. A modest elevation in the risk of ovarian cancer was seen for lactose intake at the level that was equivalent to three or more servings of milk per day. Because a new dietary guideline recommends two to three servings of dairy products per day, the relation between dairy product consumption and ovarian cancer risk at these consumption levels deserves further examination.”
Milk, milk products and lactose intake and ovarian cancer risk: a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. Larsson SC, et al. Int J Cancer. 2006 Jan 15;118(2):431-41. Key Finding: “”Prospective cohort studies, but not case-control studies, support the hypothesis that high intakes of dairy foods and lactose may increase the risk of ovarian cancer.”
The possible role of female sex hormones in milk from pregnant cows in the development of breast, ovarian and corpus uteri cancers. Ganmaa D, Sato A. Med Hypotheses. 2005;65(6):1028-37. Key Finding: “Increased consumption of animal-derived food may have adverse effects on the development of hormone-dependent cancers. Among dietary risk factors, we are most concerned with milk and dairy products, because the milk we drink today is produced from pregnant cows, in which estrogen and progesterone levels are markedly elevated.”
Milk consumption in relation to incidence of prostate, breast, colon, and rectal cancers: is there an independent effect? Zhang J, Kesteloot H. Nutr Cancer. 2005;53(1):65-72. Key Finding: “The present study does not support an overall substantial effect of milk consumption on the risk of prostate, breast, colon, and rectal cancers at the population level.”
Milk/dairy products consumption, galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer: meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. Qin LQ. Xu JY, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2005 Feb;14(1):13-9. Key Finding: “We collected epidemiological studies related to the association between milk/dairy products consumption or galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer published between January 1966 and August 2003 and found 27 items from 22 independent studies. In general, we did not find any association between milk/dairy products of galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer risk in this meta-analysis. The consumption of whole milk and butter, which contain relatively high amounts of fat, was positively but not significantly associated with an increased risk for ovarian cancer.”
The C/C-13910 genotype of adult-type hypolactasia is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer in the Finnish population. Rasinpera H, et al. Gut. 2005 May;54(5):643-7. Key Finding: “Absorption of lactose, the main sugar of milk, is regulated by the activity of the lactase enzyme in the gut wall. The activity of lactase if genetically determined and is associated with a C/T single nucleotide polymorphism residing 13910 bp upstream of the lactase coding sequence. Here we have studied the relationship between the C/T(-13910) polymorphism and colorectal cancer in Finnish, British and Spanish populations. Low lactase enzyme activity, defined by genotyping of the C/T(-13910) variant, may increase the risk of colorectal cancer. Further studies are warranted to investigate the role of milk and other dairy products in the pathogenesis of colon cancer in different populations.”
Food groups and risk of prostate cancer in Italy. Bosetti C, et al. Int J Cancer. 2004 Jun 20;110(3):424-8. Key Finding: “Among the 19 food groups considerate, 4 showed some significant association with prostate cancer risk. A significant trend of increasing risk with more frequent consumption was found for milk and dairy products.”
A prospective study of dietary lactose and ovarian cancer. Fairfield KM, et al. Int J Cancer. 2004 Jun 10;110(2):271-7. Key Finding: “The milk sugar lactose is an hypothesized risk factor for epithelial ovarian cancer because of possible direct toxic effects of its metabolites on oocytes or by compensatory gonadotropin stimulation. The objective of our study was to prospectively assess lactose, milk and milk product consumption in relation to ovarian cancer risk among 80,326 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study who had no history of cancer. Our findings provide some support for the hypothesis that lactose intake increases risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. However, the observed excess risk appeared limited to the serious subtype of ovarian cancer in our study.”
Milk and lactose intakes and ovarian cancer risk in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. Larsson SC, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Nov;80(5):1353-7. Key Finding: “This was a prospective population-based cohort study of 61,084 women aged 38-76 y who were enrolled in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. Our data indicate that high intakes of lactose and dairy products, particularly milk, are associated with an increased risk of serious ovarian cancer but not of other subtypes of ovarian cancer.”
Consumption of dairy products and the risk of breast cancer: a review of the literature. Moorman PG, Terry PD. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Jul;80(1):5-14. Key Finding: “Milk products may contain contaminants such as pesticides which have carcinogenic potential, and growth factors such as insulin-like growth factor I, which have been shown to promote breast cancer growth. Most of the studies reviewed showed no consistent pattern of increased or decreased breast cancer risk with a higher consumption of dairy products as a whole.”
Low-fat milk promotes the development of 7,12-dimethylbenz(A)anthracene (DMBA)-induced mammary tumors in rats. Qin LQ, et al. Int J Cancer. 2004 Jul 1;110(4):491-6. Key Finding: “Commercially available low-fat milk promotes the development of DMBA-induced mammary tumors in rats. The high estrogen content in the milk may be responsible for the promotional effects, acting in concert with other hormones such as IGF-I.”
Fermented milks, probiotic cultures, and colon cancer. Saikali J, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2004;49(1):14-24. Key Finding: “This article analyzes the existing data from human, animal, and in vitro studies that explore whether consumption of milks fermented with probiotic cultures could play a role in colon cancer risk reduction. The data reviewed constitute a promising body of evidence supporting the protective role of milks fermented with probiotic cultures in colon cancer risk reduction.”
Estrogen: one of the risk factors in milk for prostate cancer. Qin LQ, et al. Med Hypotheses. 2004;62(1):133-42. Key Finding: “Epidemiological studies suggest that milk consumption is probably one of the risk factors for prostate cancer. Our hypothesis that estrogen levels in milk is a possible risk to cause prostate cancer is supported by the presence of estrogen receptors in the prostate gland and the genotoxic role of estrogens on the prostate gland, as possible mechanisms.”
Dairy foods, calcium, and colorectal cancer: a pooled analysis of 10 cohort studies. Cho E. Smith-Warner SA, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2004 Jul 7;96(13):1015-22. Key Finding: “We pooled the primary data from 10 cohort studies in five countries that assessed usual dietary intake by using a validated food frequency questionnaire at baseline. The studies included 534,536 individuals, among whom 4,992 incident cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed between 6 and 16 years of follow-up. These results were consistent across studies and sex. The inverse association for milk was limited to cancer of the distal colon. Higher consumption of milk and calcium is associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer.”
Dietary calcium, vitamin D, VDR genotypes and colorectal cancer. Slattery ML, et al. Int J Cancer. 2004 Sep 20;111(5):750-6. Key Finding: “These data support previous observations that high levels of calcium and vitamin D reduce risk of rectal cancer and provide support for a weak protective effect for the SS and BB VDR genotypes.”
The experience of Japan as a clue to the etiology of breast and ovarian cancers: relationship between death from both malignancies and dietary practices. Li XM, et al. Med Hypotheses. 2003 Feb;60(2):268-75. Key Finding: “Over the past 50 years (1947-1997) the age-standardized death rates of breast and ovarian cancers in Japan increased about 2- and 4-fold, respectively, and the respective intake of milk, meat and eggs increased 20-, 10- and 7-fold. The increase in the annual death rates from breast and ovarian cancers might be due to the lifestyle changes (increased consumption of animal-derived food) that occurred after 1945. Among the food, milk and dairy products should receive particular attention since they contain considerable amounts of estrogens.”
Analysis of DNA damage using the comet assay in infants fed cow’s milk. Dundaroz R, et al. Biol Neonate. 2003;84(2):135-41. Key Finding: “It has been hypothesized that non-human milk feeding may increase the risk for cancer or for a specific cancer or group of cancers as well as the risk for diseases such as type-1 diabetes mellitus and Crohn’s disease. A comparison between infants fed human milk and cow’s milk has been performed. Each group consisted of 35 infants whose ages ranged from 9 to 12 months. These results suggest that there is some level of DNA damage in the lymphocytes of infants not breast-fed and this may lead to malignancy in childhood or later in life.”
Ischaemic heart disease, type 1 diabetes, and cow milk A1 beta-casein. Laugesen M, Elliott R. N Z Med J. 2003 Jan 24;116(1168):U295. Key Finding: “To test the correlation of per capita A1 beta-casein and milk protein with: 1) ischaemic heart disease (IHD) mortality; 2) Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus (DM-1) incidence in 20 countries. We conclude that cow A1 beta-casein per capita supply in milk and cream was significantly and positively correlated with IHD in 20 affluent countries over a 20-year period. For DM-1, this study confirms the A1/capita and milk protein/capita correlations. They raise the possibility that intensive dairy cattle breeding may have emphasized a genetic variant in milk with adverse effects in humans.”
Are diet-prostate cancer associations mediated by the IGF axis? A cross-sectional analysis of diet, IGF-I and IGFBP-3 in healthy middle-aged men. Gunnell D, et al. Br J Cancer. 2003 Jun 2;88(11):1682-6. Key Finding: “We examined the association of diet with insulin-like growth factors (IGF) in 344 disease-free men. Raised levels of IGF-I and/or its molar ratio with IGFBP-3 were associated with higher intakes of milk, dairy products, calcium, carbohydrate and polyunsaturated fat; lower levels with high vegetable consumption, particularly tomatoes. These patterns support the possibility that IGFs may mediate some diet-cancer associations.”
The effects of estrogen-like products in milk on prostate and testes. Li XM, et al. Zhonghua Nan Ke Xue (Chinese). 2003 Jun;9(3):186-90. Key Finding: “The incidence rates of testicular and prostatic cancers in 42 countries (regions), collected from the cancer incidence in five continents database (1988-92), were correlated with the relative food consumption in these countries. Milk was most closely correlated with prostatic cancer incidence, followed by meat and coffee. As for testicular cancer, cheese was most closely correlated with the incidences in ages of 20-39, followed by animal fat and milk.”
Dairy products and colorectal cancer: A review of possible mechanisms and epidemiological evidence. Norat T. Riboli E. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2003 Jan;57(1):1-17. Key Finding: “This review provides an overview of the principal hypotheses and epidemiological evidence of the possible links between colorectal cancer and intake of milk and/or dairy products. Cohort studies consistently found a protective effect of total dairy products and milk intake, but the evidence is not supported by case-control studies. No relationship was found with cheese or yoghurt intake.”
Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)-enriched milk fat inhibits growth and modulates CLA-responsive biomarkers in MCF-7 and SW480 cancer cell lines. Miller A, et al. Br J Nutr. 2003 Nov;90(5):877-85. Key Finding: “The present study assessed the potency of the CLA-enriched milk fats to modulate biomarkers that had previously been observed to respond to c9,tll-CLA in the MCF-7 and SW480 cell lines. Cell numbers decreased by up to 61 and 58% following the incubation of MCF-7 and SW480 cells, respectively, for 4 d with milk fats (yielding CLA concentrations between 60.2 and 80.6 microM).”
Association of dairy products, lactose, and calcium with the risk of ovarian cancer. Goodman MT, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2002 Jul 15;156(2):148-57. Key Finding: “The authors conducted a case-control study in Hawaii and Los Angeles with a total of 558 patients with ovarian cancer and 607 controls who were interviewed regarding their diet Consumption of all dairy products, all types of milk and low-fat milk, but not consumption of whole milk, was significantly inversely related to the odds of ovarian cancer.”
Habitual intake of lactic acid bacteria and risk reduction of bladder cancer. Ohashi Y. Nakai S, et al. Urol Int. 2002;68(4):273-80. Key Finding: “A kind of lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota, shows antitumor activity in experimental animals. L. Casei is widely taken as fermented milk products in Japan. Our results strongly suggest that the habitual intake of lactic acid bacteria reduces the risk of bladder cancer.”
Dairy foods and risk of breast cancer: a case-control study in Montevideo, Uruguay. Ronco AL, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2002 Oct;11(5):457-63. Key Finding: “A total of 333 women were interviewed with a specific questionnaire; 111 of them had been diagnosed with breast cancer and 222 were frequency-matched healthy women. A multivariate analysis found that high intakes of whole milk, chocolate milk and Gruyere cheese were associated with significant increased risk of breast cancer, whereas ricotta cheese and skim yoghurt were associated with significant decreased risks. Low-fat and fermented products combined appear to be the most protective dairy foods.”
Intake of dairy products, calcium, and vitamin d and risk of breast cancer. Shin MH, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2002 Sep 4;94(17):1301-11. Key Finding: “We followed 88,691 women in the Nurses’Health Study cohort for 16 years. We found no association between intake of dairy products and breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Among premenopausal women, high intake of low-fat dairy foods, especially skim/low-fat milk was associated with reduced risk of breast cancer.”
Effects of dairy products on heterocyclic aromatic amine-induced rat colon carcinogenesis. Tavan E, et al. Carcinogenesis. 2002 Mar;23(3):477-83. Key Finding: “The results showed that dairy products decreased the incidence of aberrant crypts in rats: 66% inhibition with the milk-supplemented diet, 96% inhibition with the B. animalis fermented milk-supplemented diet and 93% inhibition with the S.thermophilus fermented-milk supplemented diet These results demonstrate the early protective effect of milk in the carcinogenesis process. The effect being more pronounced in the case of milk fermented by lactic acid bacteria.”
Dietary calcium and vitamin D intake and risk of colorectal cancer: a prospective cohort study in women. Terry P, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2002;43(1):39-46. Key Finding: “During an average 11.3 yr of follow-up of 61,463 women, we observed 572 incident cases of colorectal cancer. Women with the highest calcium intake (median 914 mg/day) had a reduced risk of colorectal cancer.”
Calcium intake and prostate cancer risk in a long-term aging study: the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Berndt SI, et al. Urology. 2002 Dec;60(6):1118-23. Key Finding: “We included in the analysis 454 male participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging who were 46 to 92 years old at the time of completion of a food frequency questionnaire. Dairy products, including milk, were not associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. The results of this study suggest that calcium intake within moderate limits is not associated with a notably increased risk of prostate cancer.”
Incidence and mortality of testicular and prostatic cancers in relation to world dietary practices. Ganmaa D, et al. Int J Cancer. 2002 Mar 10;98(2):262-7. Key Finding: “The incidence and mortality rates of testicular and prostatic cancers in 42 countries were correlated with the dietary practices in these countries using the cancer rates (1988-92) provided by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The results of our study suggest a role of milk and dairy products in the development and growth of testicular and prostatic cancers. The close correlation between cheese and testicular cancer and between milk and prostatic cancer suggests that further mechanistic studies should be undertaken concerning the development of male genital organ cancers.”
Prospective study on milk products, calcium and cancers of the colon and rectum. Jarvinen R, et al. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2001 Nov;55(11):1000-7. Key Finding: “Our results indicate that individuals showing high consumption of milk have a potentially reduced risk of colon cancer; however, the association does not appear to be due to intake of calcium, vitamin D, or to specific effects of fermented milk.”
Milk intake, circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor-I, and risk of colorectal cancer in men. Ma J, et al. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2001 Sep 5;93(17):1330-6. Key Finding: “Milk intake raises serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I). A high ratio of IGF-I to IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) has been linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer. Intake of dairy products was associated with a modest increase in circulating IGF-I levels, but intake of low-fat milk was associated with lower risk of colorectal cancer, particularly among individuals with high IGF-I/IGFBP-3. This subpopulation, which is at increased risk of colorectal cancer, might benefit the most from specific dietary intervention.”
Skin wrinkling: can food make a difference? Purba MB, et al. J Am Coll Nutr. 2001 Feb;20(1):71-80. Key Finding: “This study addressed whether food and nutrient intakes were correlated with skin wrinkling in a sun-exposed site. 177 Greek-born subjects living in Melbourne, 69 Greek subjects living in rural Greece, 48 Anglo-Celtic Australian elderly living in Melbourne and 159 Swedish subjects living in Sweden, participating in the International Union of Nutritional Science Food Habits in Later Life study, had their dietary intakes measure and their skin assessed. Food and nutrient intakes were assessed using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Correlation analyses on the pooled data and using the major food groups suggested that there may be less actinic skin damage with a higher intake of vegetables, olive oil, fish and legumes, and lower intake of butter, margarine, milk products, and sugar products.”
Growth rates of a human colon adenocarcinoma cell line are regulated by the milk protein alpha-lactalbumin. Sternhagen LG, Allen JC. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2001;501:115-20. Key Finding: “These results suggest that alpha-lactalbumin in milk may promote health by inhibiting growth of potential cancer cells.”
Dairy products, calcium, and prostate cancer risk in the Physicians’ Health Study. Chan JM, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2001 Oct;74(4):549-54. Key Finding: “The men answered dietary questionnaires. During 11 y of follow-up, we documented 1012 incident cases of prostate cancer among 20,885 men. We estimated calcium intake on the basis of consumption of 5 major dairy products. Compared with men consuming < or =150 mg Ca/d from dairy products, men consuming <600 mg/d had a 32% higher risk of prostate cancer. These results support the hypothesis that dairy products and calcium are associated with a greater risk of prostate cancer.”
Childhood and adult milk consumption and risk of premenopausal breast cancer in a cohort of 48,844 women—the Norwegian women and cancer study. Hjartaker A, et al. Int J Cancer. 2001 Sep;93(6):888-93. Key Finding: “Analyses of dairy consumption and breast cancer incidence have yielded conflicting results. In this prospective cohort study of 48,844 premenopausal Norwegian women, we examined the relationship between childhood and adult milk consumption and breast cancer incidence. Milk consumption as a child was negatively associated with subsequent breast cancer among the youngest women (34-39 years) but not among older ones (40-49 years). Analyses according to type of milk consumed and milk fat consumption did not reveal any clear associations.”
Conjugated linoleic acid and oxidative behavior in cancer cells. Devery R, et al. Biochem Soc Trans. 2001 May;29(Pt 2):341-4. Key Finding: “Given the knowledge that c9t11 conjugated linoleic acid is present in a wide range of meat and dairy food products, out studies have begun to investigate mechanisms by which CLA-enriched milk fat exerts its anti-carcinogenic effects. An oxidative mechanism appears to be involved in its growth-suppressive effects, since supplementation of growth culture medium with CLA (17-71.5 microM) made breast cancer cells more susceptible to lipid peroxidation.”
Foods and nutrients in relation to bladder cancer risk:a case-control study in Aichi Prefecture, Central Japan. Wakai K, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2000;38(1):13-22. Key Finding: “We conducted a case-control study based on 297 cases and 295 controls revealing the following: the more the intake of milk and dairy products, the lower the odds ratio for bladder cancer.”
Milk fat conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) inhibits growth of human mammary MCF-7 cancer cells. O-Shea M, et al. Anticancer Res. 2000 Sep-Oct;20(58):3591-601. Key Finding: “The data indicate that milk fat triglyceride-bound CLA, consisting primarily of the c9, t11 isomer, was cytotoxic towards MCF-7 breast cancer cells.”
Ecological study of dietary and smoking links to lymphoma. Grant WB. Altern Med Rev. 2000 Dec;5(6):563-72. Key Finding: “It is hypothesized that excess dietary calcium from milk is a significant risk factor for lymphoma.”
Animal products, calcium and protein and prostate cancer risk in The Netherlands Cohort Study. Schuurman AG, et al. Br J Cancer. 1999 Jun;80(7):1107-13. Key Finding: “At baseline in 1986, 58,279 men aged 55-69 years completed a self-administered 150-item food frequency questionnaire. Positive trends in risk were found for consumption of cured meat and milk products.”
Diet and cancer of the prostate: a case-control study in Greece. Tzonou A, et al. Int J Cancer. 1999 Mar 1;80(5):704-8. Key Finding: “A case-control study included 320 patients with histologically confirmed incident prostate cancer and 246 controls. Among major food groups, milk and dairy products as well as added lipids were marginally positively associated with risk for prostate cancer.”
An Ecologic study of dietary links to prostate cancer. Grant WB. Altern Med Rev. 1999 Jun;4(3):162-9. Key Finding: “Mortality data from 1986 for various age groups in 41 countries are compared with national consumer macronutrient supply values. These results support the results of several cohort studies which found the non-fat portion of milk to have the highest association with prostate cancer, likely due to the calcium.”
Milk consumption, galactose metabolism and ovarian cancer (Australia). Webb PM, et al. Green A. Cancer Causes Control. 1998 Dec;9(6):637-44. Key Finding: “Approximately 800 histologically-confirmed cases of ovarian cancer, 800 community controls and 300 controls recruited through breast-screening clinics completed dietary questionnaires. Ovarian cancer risk was positively associated with increasing consumption of whole milk and other full-fat dairy foods, but not associated with consumption of low-fat dairy foods and was inversely related to consumption of skimmed milk.”
Dietary risk factors for renal cell carcinoma in Denmark. Mellemgaard A, et al. Eur J Cancer. 1996 Apr;32A(4):673-82. Key Finding: “Dairy products may be associated with risk of renal cell cancer for women using thickly spread butter compared to thinly spread, and for women who drank more than one glass of milk with 3.5% fat content compared to never drink milk.”
Dietary and other environmental risk factors in acute leukaemias: a case-control study of 119 patients. Kwiatkowski A. Eur J Cancer Prev. 1993 Mar;2(2):139-46. Key Finding: “The risk of acute leukaemia was elevated in the subjects characterized by frequent drinking of milk and frequent consumption of poultry.”
Milk intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and prostate cancer. Martini LA, Wood RJ. Arq Bras Endocrinol Metabol. 2009 Jul;53(5):688-94. Key Finding: “Based on the current evidence, it is possible that milk/dairy products, when consumed in adequate amounts and mainly with reduced fat content, has a beneficial effect on the prevention of hypertension and diabetes. Its potential role in the pathogenesis of prostate cancer is not well supported.”
Dietary patterns and 15-y risks of major coronary events, diabetes, and mortality. Brunner EJ, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 May;87(5):1414-21. Key Finding: “We analyzed the prospective relation of dietary patterns with incident chronic disease and mortality during 15 y of follow-up of 106,633 person-years at risk among men and women with a mean age of 50 y at the time of dietary assessment. The unhealthy dietary pattern of white bread, processed meat, fries and full-cream milk, compared to the healthy pattern of fruit vegetables, whole-meal bread, low-fat dairy and little alcohol, was associated with increased risk for coronary death or nonfatal myocardial infarction and diabetes.”
Milk and dairy consumption, diabetes and the metabolic syndrome: the Caerphilly prospective study. Elwood PC, et al. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007 Aug;61(8):695-8. Key Finding: “Data was collected on a representative sample of men aged 45-59 years in Caerphilly, UK. Milk intake showed no significant trend with incident diabetes. However, the consumption of milk and dairy products is associated with a markedly reduced prevalence of the metabolic syndrome.”
Lower consumption of cow milk protein A1 beta-casein at 2 years of age, rather than consumption among 11- to 14-year-old adolescents, may explain the lower incidence of type 1 diabetes in Iceland than in Scandinavia. Birgisdottir BE, et al. Ann Nutr Metab. 2006;50(3):177-83. Key Finding: “To compare the consumption of the cow milk proteins A1 and B beta-casein among children and adolescents in Iceland and Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland) as this might explain the lower incidence of type 1 diabetes in Iceland. There was a significant difference between the consumption of A1 as well as the sum of A1 and B beta-casein in Iceland and Scandinavia for 2-year-old children. In the same age group, consumption of A1 beta-casein correlated with the incidence of type 1 diabetes in the countries. This study supports that lower consumption of A1 beta-casein might be related to the lower incidence of type 1 diabetes in Iceland than in Scandinavia.”
Epidemiological association between some dietary habits and the increasing incidence of type 1 diabetes worldwide. Muntoni S. Ann Nutr Metab. 2006;50(1):11-9. Key Finding: “We did an ecological study in the 37 world areas where a 3% yearly increase in type 1 diabetes incidence had been reported, and we calculated through the FAQs Food Balance Sheets the per capita daily supply of milk, meat and cereals from 1961 to 2000. A significant positive correlation with supply of milk was present from 1961 to 2000, while that with meat and cereals became significant in 1983 and 2000.”
A cross-sectional study of dietary habits and urinary glucose excretion—a predictor of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Ekblond A, et al. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2000 May;54(5):434-9. Key Finding: “The study population included 14,743 men and 18,064 women aged 50-64 y. Urinary glucose excretion is a predictor of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Intake of fish tended to reduce the risk of glycosuria in women only, whereas ingestion of milk products increased their risk significantly. The study indicates a promoting effect of milk.”
Milk intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and prostate cancer. Martini LA, Wood RJ. Arq Bras Endocrinol Metabol. 2009 Jul;53(5):688-94. Key Finding: “Based on the current evidence, it is possible that milk/dairy products, when consumed in adequate amounts and mainly with reduced fat content, has a beneficial effect on the prevention of hypertension and diabetes. Its potential role in the pathogenesis of prostate cancer is not well supported.”
Dairy foods and risk of stroke. Larsson SC, et al. Epidemiology. 2009 May;20(3):355-60. Key Finding: “We examined the association between dairy food intake and risk of stroke subtypes with 26,556 Finnish male smokers aged 50-69 years who had no history of stroke and complete a food frequency questionnaire. We observed positive associations between whole milk intake and risk of intracerebral hemorrhage, and between yogurt intake and subarachnoid hemorrhage. These findings suggest that intake of certain dairy foods may be associated with risk of stroke.”
Other Dairy or Related Products (including ice cream, margarine, yogurt)
Identification of cardiovascular risk factors in parents/caregivers of children with heart diseases. Borges CF, et al. Arq Bras Cardiol. 2012 Oct;99(4):936-43. Key Finding: “The most prevalent risk factors for cardiovascular disease included a high frequency of intake of red meat, margarine and vegetable oil and sugar.”
Food sources of fat and sex hormone receptor status of invasive breast tumors in women of the Malmo Diet and Cancer cohort. Wirfalt E, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2011;63(5):722-33. Key Finding: “We examined associations between food intakes and incident breast cancer in 17,000 women aged 45-73 years with 10 years of follow-up. Increased risk with eggs was found. Margarine also showed increased risks.”
Dairy foods and risk of stroke. Larsson SC, et al. Epidemiology. 2009 May;20(3):355-60. Key Finding: “We examined the association between dairy food intake and risk of stroke subtypes with 26,556 Finnish male smokers aged 50-69 years who had no history of stroke and complete a food frequency questionnaire. We observed positive associations between whole milk intake and risk of intracerebral hemorrhage, and between yogurt intake and subarachnoid hemorrhage. These findings suggest that intake of certain dairy foods may be associated with risk of stroke.”
Food intake and colorectal cancers; an ecological study in Romania. Fira-Mladinescu C, et al. Rev Med Chir Soc Med Nat Iasi. (Romanian). 2008 Jul-Sept;112(3):805-11. Key Finding: “The malignancies of the rectum and anus showed both a strong positive correlation with the intake of red meat, sausages, margarine, butter. Negative correlations were reported for the recto-anal cancer and the consumption of fish and cheese.”
Identification of a dietary pattern characterized by high-fat food choices associated with increased risk of breast cancer: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)—Potsdam Study. Schulz M, et al. Br J Nutr. 2008 Nov;100(5):942-6. Key Finding: “Study participants were 15,351 female subjects free of cancer at baseline and with complete dietary and outcome information followed for an average of 6 years. We identified a food pattern characterized by high consumption of processed meat, fish, butter and other animal fats, and margarine explaining >42% of total variation in fatty acid intake. Adherence to this food pattern was associated with a two-fold risk of breast cancer. A food pattern characterized by high-fat food choices was significantly associated with increased risk of breast cancer.”
Diet and risk of multiple myeloma in Connecticut women. Hosgood HD, et al. Cancer Causes Control. 2007 Dec;18(10):1065-76. Key Finding: “A population-based case-control study, consisting of 179 incident cases and 691 controls was conducted to examine the impact of diet on multiple myeloma risk. Consumption of cream soups, jello, ice cream, and pudding were positively associated. The findings from this study concur with previously published studies suggesting an inverse association for consumption of fish, cruciferous vegetables and green vegetables, and a positive association for some dairy products.”
Dietary risk factors for kidney cancer in Eastern and Central Europe. Hsu CC, et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2007 Jul 1;166(1):62-70. Key Finding: “The authors examined the role of diet in the high-risk population of Central Europe among 1,065 incident kidney cancer cases and 1,509 controls in Russia, Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. They observed an increased association with kidney cancer for consumption of milk, yogurt, as well as all meat. The increased risk associated with dairy products, preserved vegetables, and red meat provides clues to the high rates of kidney cancer in this population.”
Food intake and risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin in a community: the Nambour skin cancer cohort study. Hughes MC, et al. Int J Cancer. 2006 Oct 15;119(8):1953-60. Key Finding: “There is some evidence that dietary factors may modify the risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin. We examined the association between food intake and SCC incidence among 1,056 randomly selected adults living in an Australian sub-tropical community. Consumption of unmodified dairy products, such as whole milk, cheese and yoghurt, may increase SCC risk in susceptible persons.”
Dairy products, calcium and phosphorus intake, and the risk of prostate cancer: results of the French prospective SU.VI.MAX (Supplementation en VItamines et Mineraux Antioxydants) study. Kesse E, et al. Br J Nutr. 2006 Mar;95(3):539-45. Key Finding: “Our data support the hypothesis that dairy products have a harmful effect with respect to the risk of prostate cancer, largely related to calcium content. The higher risk of prostate cancer with linear increasing yoghurt consumption seems to be independent of calcium and may be related to some other component.”
Dairy products and ovarian cancer: a pooled analysis of 12 cohort studies. Genkinger JM, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006 Feb;15(2):364-72. Key Finding: “The study population consisted of 553,217 women among whom 2,132 epithelial ovarian cases were identified. No statistically significant associations were observed between intakes of milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and dietary and total calcium intake and risk of ovarian cancer. A modest elevation in the risk of ovarian cancer was seen for lactose intake at the level that was equivalent to three or more servings of milk per day. Because a new dietary guideline recommends two to three servings of dairy products per day, the relation between dairy product consumption and ovarian cancer risk at these consumption levels deserves further examination.”
Comparisons of prostate cancer mortality rates with dietary practices in the United States. Colli JL, Colli A. Urol Oncol. 2005 Nov-Dec;23(6):390-8. Key Finding: “This study found strong positive correlations between prostate cancer mortality and the consumption of total meat; added fats and oils; ice cream; salad/cooking oils; margarine, and vegetable shortening. The link between
salad/cooking oil consumption and prostate cancer risk may be consistent with past studies which suggest that mu-linolenic acid (a component of salad/cooking oils) is a suspected risk factor for prostate cancer.”
Reduction of beta-glucuronidase and nitroreductase activity by yoghurt in a murine colon cancer model. De Moreno de LeBlanc A, Perdigon G. Biocell. 2005 Apr;29(1):15-24. Key Finding: “Feeding yoghurt decreased procarcinogenic enzyme levels in the large intestine contents of mice bearing colon tumour. The results of this study provide another mechanism by which yoghurt starter bacteria interact with the large intestine of the mice and prevent colon cancer.”
Dietary intake of fatty acids, antioxidants and selected food groups and asthma in adults. Nagel G, Linsisen J. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005 Jan;59(1):8-15. Key Finding: “A total of 105 newly physician-diagnosed cases of asthma from the European Prospective investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Heidelberg cohort were identified and matched with 420 controls. The present results provide evidence that even in adulthood, a high margarine intake increases the risk of clinical onset of asthma.”
Diet and colorectal cancer mortality: results from the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study. Okima M, et al. Nutr Cancer. 2004;50(1):23-32. Key Finding: “The relationship between diet and colorectal cancer mortality was analyzed in a a prospective study of 45,181 men and 62,643 women aged 40-79 y enrolled in the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study. Yogurt intake was inversely associated with male rectal cancer mortality. Egg consumption was positively associated with male colon cancer mortality.”
Yogurt feeding inhibits promotion and progression of experimental colorectal cancer. De Moreno de Leblacn A. Perdigon G. Med Sci Monit. 2004 Apr;10(4):BR96-104. Key Finding: “These results show that yogurt inhibited tumor progression and promotion (in BALB/c mice) by modulating the immune response and stimulating cellular apoptosis.”
Dairy products and colorectal cancer: A review of possible mechanisms and epidemiological evidence. Norat T, Riboli E. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2003 Jan;57(1):1-17. Key Finding: “This review provides an overview of the principal hypotheses and epidemiological evidence of the possible links between colorectal cancer and intake of milk and/or dairy products. Cohort studies consistently found a protective effect of total dairy products and milk intake, but the evidence is not supported by case-control studies. No relationship was found with cheese or yoghurt intake.”
Dairy foods and risk of breast cancer: a case-control study in Montevideo, Uruguay. Ronco AL, et al. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2002 Oct;11(5):457-63. Key Finding: “A total of 333 women were interviewed with a specific questionnaire; 111 of them had been diagnosed with breast cancer and 222 were frequency-matched healthy women. A multivariate analysis found that high intakes of whole milk, chocolate milk and Gruyere cheese were associated with significant increased risk of breast cancer, whereas ricotta cheese and skim yoghurt were associated with significant decreased risks. Low-fat and fermented products combined appear to be the most protective dairy foods.”
Role of yoghurt in the prevention of colon cancer. Perdigon G. de Moreno de LeBlanc A, et al. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2002 Aug;56 Suppl 3:565-8. Key Finding: “In an experimental model in BALB/c mice we demonstrated that yoghurt added to the diet for 10 consecutive days, with the procedure repeated each 10 days for 6 months, inhibited the development of a colorectal carcinoma induced by 1,2 dimethylhydrazine (DMA). We demonstrated that yoghurt may exert antitumor activity by a decrease in the inflammatory immune response.”
Skin wrinkling: can food make a difference? Purba MB, et al. J Am Coll Nutr. 2001 Feb;20(1):71-80. Key Finding: “This study addressed whether food and nutrient intakes were correlated with skin wrinkling in a sun-exposed site. 177 Greek-born subjects living in Melbourne, 69 Greek subjects living in rural Greece, 48 Anglo-Celtic Australian elderly living in Melbourne and 159 Swedish subjects living in Sweden, participating in the International Union of Nutritional Science Food Habits in Later Life study, had their dietary intakes measure and their skin assessed. Food and nutrient intakes were assessed using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Correlation analyses on the pooled data and using the major food groups suggested that there may be less actinic skin damage with a higher intake of vegetables, olive oil, fish and legumes, and lower intake of butter, margarine, milk products, and sugar products.”
Yogurt consumption does not enhance immune function in healthy premenopausal women. Campbell CG, etal. Nutr Cancer. 2000;37(1):27-35. Key Finding: “Fermented milk products may protect against breast cancer by stimulating immunologic activity. Twenty-five women were assigned randomly to two groups: control and yogurt treatment. The yogurt treatment group consumed two cups (454 g/day) of commercially produced yogurt for three consecutive months. Three-day diet records and fasting midluteal blood samples were obtained during subjects’ first, second, and fourth menstrual cycles. No significant immune differences between the control and yogurt treatment group wee observed. Three months of yogurt consumption did not enhance ex vivo cell-mediated immune function in young women.”
Margarine intake and subsequent coronary heart disease in men. Gillman MW, et al. Epidemiology. 1997 Mar;8(2):144-9. Key Finding: “Margarine is a major source of trans fatty acids, the intake of which has risen since the early 20th century. Some data indicate that consumption of trans fatty acids increases the risk of coronary heart disease. Men from the Framingham Study, age 45-64 years and free of CHD, were administered a single 24-hour dietary recall from which we estimated total margarine intake. We calculated CHD cumulative incidence rates over 21 years of follow-up. Our data offer modest support to the hypothesis that margarine intake increases the risk of coronary heart disease.”
Intake of trans fatty acids and risk of coronary heart disease among women. Willett WC, et al. Lancet 1993 Mar 6;34(8845):581-5. Key Finding: “Trans isomers of fatty acids, formed by the partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils to produce margarine and vegetable shortening, increase the ratio of plasma low-density-lipoprotein to high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, so it is possible that they adversely influence risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). To investigate this possibility, we studied dietary data from 85,095 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study. During 8 years of follow-up, there were 431 new CHD. Intake of trans isomers was directly related to risk of CHD. Intakes of foods that are major sources of trans isomers (margarine, cookies, biscuits, cake and white bread) were each significantly associated with higher risks of CHD.”
Nutrition and lifestyle factors in fibrocystic disease and cancer of the breast. Simard A, et al. Cancer Detect Prev. 1990;14(5):567-72. Key Finding: “Within a study on diet as a risk factor for fibrocystic disease and breast cancer, 68 patients with breast cancer, aged from 40 to 59, participating in the National Breast Screening Study in Montreal, were compared to 340 patients with fibrocystic disease and to 343 controls. The cancer patients consumed significantly more poultry, fish, pastry, margarine and alcohol.”