French Fries in Youth Tied to Breast Cancer?

WebMD Medical News article by Miranda Hitti, August 15, 2005

In a new study, women were more likely to get breast cancer if they had regularly eaten french fries decades earlier as preschoolers.

The report appears in the online edition of the International Journal of Cancer. It's based on the Nurses' Health Study, a long-term health study of a large group of nurses.

The study focused on 582 nurses who had breast cancer and more than 1,500 who didn't have breast cancer in 1993. Their mothers were asked how often the nurses had eaten 30 different foods as preschoolers.

French Fries Stood Out

The findings:

• French fries were the only food associated with higher risk of breast cancer.
• Foods that were not linked to an increase in breast cancer include cheese, butter, eggs, ground beef, and cookies.
• Whole milk was linked to a slightly lower risk of breast cancer, the study shows.

For every extra weekly serving of french fries that the women reportedly ate as preschoolers, their risk of breast cancer as adults rose 27%, write Karin Michels, ScD, PhD, and colleagues.

Michels is an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital.

View Results With Caution

Keep in mind:

• French fries weren't tested for any cancer-causing properties.
• People's memories of long-ago diets aren't perfect.
• The moms were in their 60s, 70s, and 80s when they were interviewed about what their kids ate decades earlier.
• The moms knew if their daughters had had breast cancer, which could skew their views of foods.

"We have to interpret this very cautiously," Michels tells WebMD. "We really would very much like other studies to confirm our findings before we go out to make public health recommendations."

Image of French fries sunning at the beach from The Potato Museum collection