Milk seems to guard against breast cancer

Milk isn't just a boon to a woman's bones. A new study finds that it might also protect her breasts. Norwegian scientists have linked high milk consumption to low incidence of breast cancer.

A decade ago, researchers launched the still ongoing Norwegian Women and Cancer (NOWAC) study. They recruited 100,000 participants, all 35 or older, from throughout the nation. Though the thrust of the study was to evaluate factors that affect hormones and cancer, the researchers also initially administered a rudimentary dietary survey to some 53,000 women. It surveyed current eating habits and recorded estimates of childhood milk and vegetable intake.

In 1995, Anette Hjartker, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Oslo, decided to consider milk consumption among the NOWAC participants.

Another Norwegian study that year had reported that drinking five or more glasses of milk per day appeared to increase a woman's risk of breast cancer. Confusing the issue, a few ot