282 THE CHINA STUDY
their share of positive press these days. If you've heard anything about
omega-3 fatty acids, it's that you need more of them to be healthy. Again,
more Harvard findings:- " ... contrary to the predominant hypothesis, we found an in-
creased risk of breast cancer associated with omega-3 fat from fish"
(This increased risk was statistically significant and was associated
with an increase of only 0.1 % of the total dietary energy.)l0 - "our findings suggest that eating fish once per month or more can
reduce the risk of ischemic stroke in men" 34 - "data suggest that consumption of fish at least once per week may
reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death in men [but not reduce
the] risk of total myocardial infarction, non-sudden cardiac death
or total cardiovascular mortality"35 (In other words, fish may pre-
vent some aspects of heart disease but ultimately has no effect on
mortality from heart disease, or even heart attack risk.)
Is this yet another question of deciding which disease you fear the
least? Or is this another man versus woman difference?
Here's an even older story: We have been warned for a long time to
cut down on our cholesterol intake, and it was largely for this reason
that consumption of eggs was brought into question. One egg has a
whopping 200 mg or more of cholesterol,36 which takes up a large pro-
portion of our 300 mg recommended daily limit. So, what do the Har-
vard studies tell us on this timeworn issue?
... consumption of up to one egg per day is unlikely to have sub-
stantial overall impact on the risk of CHD or stroke among healthy
men and women^3?
But, for breast cancer,Our findings [representing eight prospective studies] suggest a possi-
ble modest increase in [breast cancer] risk with egg consumption ....
breast cancer risk was found to increase by 22% with every 100-g
per day increment of egg consumption [about 2 eggsJ26 [There was
a 67% increase in risk for the Nurses' Health 5tudy.J2 6
But earlier, the Harvard researchers took a slightly different position:... among healthy men and women, moderate egg consumption
can be part of a nutritious and balanced diet^38