The type of fats that fathers eat may affect the risk of breast cancer in their daughters, according to a study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research. The researchers of this study experimented on rats who ate either animal-based or vegetable-based fats.
Medical News Today reported that the male rats who ate a diet high in animal fat had daughters who were more likely to develop breast cancer. In contrast, daughters of male rats who ate a diet high in vegetable fat had a lower risk of developing breast cancer.
Dad's fatty diet could affect more than just his own healthhttps://t.co/BWBuXqgTzQ
— i newspaper (@theipaper) July 26, 2016
Animal Fat Vs. Vegetable Fat And Breast Cancer
The researchers from Brazil had three different groups of male rats for their breast cancer study, the Daily Mail reported. One group ate food that was 60 percent lard, the second group ate food high in vegetable fat while the last group of male rats had a normal diet.
The female offspring of these rats were treated so that they were prone to developing breast cancer, according to the report. Breast cancer was found to develop more often for the offspring of those who had an animal fat-based diet and they also had more breast cancer tumors which grew quickly than those of the offspring of male rats that ate a diet high in vegetable fat.
Decreased Breast Cancer Risk Unexpected
"Because the consumption of high levels of fat is considered bad for health, the decreased breast cancer risk in the female offspring of fathers that consumed corn oil was surprising," said lead author Thomas Ong, as per I News. Ong is from the University of Sao Paolo.
The findings are yet to be tested in research involving human subjects. Ong was quoted as saying that if the breast cancer findings of their current research are replicated in humans, strategies to prevent breast cancer focusing on the diet of fathers before having children could be developed.
