Animal Fats and Breast Cancer

By Nancy Steinbach
Broadcast: August 27, 2003
This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Health Report.
The World Health Organization says more than one-million people this year will discover they have breast¹ cancer. A new study suggests that young women who eat a lot of animal fat may increase their risk.
Researchers at Harvard University near Boston, Massachusetts, published the findings² in the Journal³ of the National Cancer Institute. They studied the health information of more than ninety-thousand women. These women were involved in the Nurses Health Study. They were between the ages of twenty-six and forty-six.
The information was collected during the nineteen-nineties. Every two years, the researchers questioned the women about the foods they ate. Seven-hundred-fourteen of the women developed breast cancer during the eight years of the study.
Here is what the researchers found: The women at highest risk were the ones who ate more red meat, cheese, ice cream and butter during their twenties, thirties and forties. Those who ate the most fat had a thirty-three percent greater chance of breast cancer than those who ate the least fat.
The women with the greatest danger of developing⁴ breast cancer got twenty-three percent of their 1)calories⁶ from animal fat. Those in the lowest risk group got only twelve percent of their calories from fat.
Breast cancer can take years to develop. Experts say it is usually discovered at an age when a woman can no longer have children. This new study involved women still of child-bearing age. It showed that food eaten early in life may have an influence on the development of disease⁷ later on.
The researchers said they hope the study will get more women to eat healthier foods earlier in their lives. But they said the study does not prove that animal fat causes cancer.
Still, doctors think fat does increase levels of hormones⁸ like estrogen in the blood. Last week the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported the findings of another study involving weight and breast cancer.
This study showed a much higher risk of breast cancer in older women who are severely⁹ overweight compared to those of normal weight. The researchers found that the cancer risk, and levels of 2)estrogen in the blood, increased the more the women weighed.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Bill White.

注释：
1) calorie⁵ [5kAlEri] n.卡路里
2) estrogen [5estrEdVEn] n.（生化）雌激素

1 breast   

n.胸部；胸怀

参考例句：

• The coat is too tight at the breast.这件衣服胸部太紧了。
• He was wearing a nameplate on his left breast.他左胸前佩带着一张名牌。

2 findings   

n.发现物( finding的名词复数 )；调查（或研究）的结果；（陪审团的）裁决

参考例句：

• It behoves us to study these findings carefully. 我们理应认真研究这些发现。
• Their findings have been widely disseminated . 他们的研究成果已经广为传播。

3 journal   

n.日志，日记；议事录；日记帐；杂志，定期刊物

参考例句：

• He kept a journal during his visit to Japan.他在访问日本期间坚持记日记。
• He got a job as editor of a trade journal.他找到了一份当商业杂志编辑的工作。

4 developing   

adj.发展中的

参考例句：

• Transport has always been the key to developing trade.运输一直是发展贸易的关键。
• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。

5 calorie   

n.热卡，热量单位，卡路里，卡，卡路里

参考例句：

• The unit of heat energy commonly used in physics is the calorie.在物理学中，热能单位一般用卡表示。
• High calorie food was excepted from the menu since last year.从去年开始，高卡路里食物就被从菜单上去掉了。

6 calories   

n.大卡( calorie的名词复数 )；千卡（食物所产生的能量单位）；卡路里；卡（热量单位）；卡路里，大卡路里( calory的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• No sugar for me, thanks—I'm counting my calories . 我不要糖，谢谢。我在控制摄取的热量。
• Her diet restricts her to 1500 calories a day. 她的规定饮食限制她每天摄入1500大卡热量。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

8 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

9 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。