Caloric restriction and breast cancer:
Michels and Ekbom conducted a retrospective cohort study of the impact of caloric restriction on the development of breast cancer. Specifically, they indentified 7,303 women who were hospitalized for anorexia nervosa before age 40 to determine if these women had a lower incidence of breast cancer than was expected in the general population. The authors used data from several Swedish between 1965 and 1998. The women were identified as nulliparous (not having any previous childbirth) or parous (those who have had at least one childbirth). Results indicated that women who were diagnosed with anorexia before 40 years of age had a 53% lower incidence of breast cancer than women in the Swedish general population. The reduced incidence of breast cancer in the subgroups was 23% in nulliparous women and 76% in parous women. These results suggest that caloric restriction may be associated with a protective benefit against breast cancer. (8)