It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a recent article from One Green Planet reported on one group that is doing its part to help spread the word. Apparently physician members of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine are attempting to get breast cancer warning labels on cheese. On October 3rd, the group petitioned the FDA to add labels that read “Dairy cheese contains reproductive hormones that may increase breast cancer mortality risk.”
They aren’t wrong; several studies have linked dairy and breast cancer, and estrogen in cow dairy products does increase breast cancer mortality. A study from 2013 found that women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer had a 49% higher mortality rate if they ate one or more servings of high fat dairy. If the group is successful, cheese manufacturers would be required to include a warning label on all dairy cheese products.
