The Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) Randomized Trial
This is the latest article from JAMA, which is the Journal of the American Medical Association, a respected medical journal. The journal article contends that adoption of a diet high in vegetables, fruit, and fiber, and low in fat does not reduce breast cancer recurrence. While I like the study hypothesis and the research protocol, and am displeased with the methodology and the outcome.

Of course the outcome that a low fat, high fiber-fruit-vegetable diet does not reduce breast cancer recurrence is upsetting to me, as well as probably most women in America, the fact remains that the study is not perfect, and yet just another stepping stone into figuring out what works and what doesn't. The results fly in the face of conflicting results from an earlier study called the Women's Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS). The WINS trial was a nationalized, randomized, prospective study...just about the best there is. The control and dietary oversight was much stronger as the intervention group had continuous contact with the dietitians along with group support and daily logs. This current study showed that the participants did not lose weight and did not really adhere to a low fat diet all that well. Unfortunately, that is the key!!! They did the consultations by phone, not by face to face interactions, and did not adhere to daily food logs. There was loss of motivation between the study designers and the study participants. Also, the fact that they didn't really adhere all that well to the low fat diet speaks volumes about the credibility of the study. But, like everything else in medicine, this too will blow over, will fall out of the limelight, and we will continue on our path for success.