Of taters and tots
By Janet Raloff
Diets rich in french fries may be toxic—at least to little girls, according to a new study. Researchers found that for each serving of french fries that a preschool girl typically consumed per week, her adult risk of developing breast cancer climbed 27 percent.
The long-running Nurses’ Health Studies I and II have been following nearly 240,000 female nurses born between 1921 and 1963. In the new analysis, epidemiologists looked for an association between foods that study participants consumed as children and their subsequent risk of breast cancer. Researchers analyzed information that had been provided by mothers of 582 participants who developed breast cancer and of 1,569 who didn’t. They had estimated how much of 30 foods—from apples to hot dogs—their daughters had regularly eaten between the ages of 3 and 5.