A few months after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that processed meat can boost cancer risk, a new study has concluded that Latinas who eat processed meat appear to have increased chances of developing breast cancer. They did not find the same connection among white women.
HNGN reported that the new study, published in the journal Cancer Causes Control, aimed to identify how factors like race, genetics and ethnicity can trigger cancer risk. The research was led by Mariana Stern who was a part of the WHO international panel that categorized processed meat as a carcinogenic.
"Our focus was to understand if meat consumption is associated with breast cancer and whether there are differences between Latinas and white women," Stern explained. "To our knowledge, this is the first study that has looked at meat intake among Latinas."
The researchers studied the eating habits of 7,470 women, aged 25 to 79, from Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and the San Francisco Bay area. They found that Latinas who ate processed meat regularly were 42 percent more likely to have breast cancer than white women who consumed the same amount of meat.
"We're not entirely sure why processed meat association was restricted to Hispanics, especially since we know processed meats are carcinogens," said Andre Kim, co-author of the study. The researchers are now studying other large data sets to confirm their findings.
Last October, New York Post reported that WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified bacon, sausage and other processed meats as carcinogenic. Scientists have found them as risky as smoking cigarettes and inhaling asbestos.
The experts have reviewed more than 800 studies across the world and concluded that red meat and processed meat contain nitrites and other chemicals that boost cancer development. This can lead to multiple forms of cancer, including colorectal, prostate and pancreatic cancer.
