evening snacking linked to cancer
Evening Snacking Might Raise Odds for Breast Cancer's Return
By Emily Galloway
Summary
Kathleen Doheny published “Evening Snacking Might Raise Odds for Breast Cancer’s Return” to Healthday.com on Thursday, March 31, 2016. According to research, women who have survived breast cancer and enjoy indulging in late night snacks are more likely to have their cancer return. A study was made involving 2,400 women between the age of 27 and 70 who had been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. The original purpose of the study was to see whether eating a high fruits and vegetables diet would have an effect on breast cancer returning. The researchers were unable to draw any conclusions from the study so they decided to look into other outcomes of the study. During the study, women were to self report eating habits and those with longer fasting times during the night seemed to have a lower risk of re-developing breast cancer. In fact, it showed that women who fasted at night for less than 13 hours had a 36% higher risk for return of cancer. (Doheny, 2016) However, the fasting length did not seem to “affect the risk of death from breast cancer or any cause during the follow- up period.” (Doheny, 2016)
Article Critique
About the author/ article credibility
Kathleen Doheny is a freelance journalist in Los Angeles who covers topics such as health, fitness, and behavior. Kathleen Attended Ball State University where she earned her BS in Journalism and Public Speaking. Her articles are typically published onto magazines. She has been featured in Los Angeles Times, Fit Pregnancy, Modern Maturity, and My Generation. She is also a professor at UCLA and teaches magazine writing. She has also written for WebMD, healthyday.com, safebee.com, cancerandcareers.org, seniorplanet.org, edmunds.com, health.com, and everydayhelth.com. I do not believe she is a credible source because she has never written a real journal or scholarly article.
I believe the article is well written, but inconclusive. In the article the study is described as "provacative" and it explains that the conclusions are not ready to be shared as a recommendation to cancer patients. The Article is however based on research. The study is interesting but the article is merely stating that there may be a correlation but they don’t have enough research done to complete it.
I do not believe the source of this article is credible. It was published onto a website called Healthday.com. It was not a scholarly article, journal, or from a more credible site such as .gov, .org, or .edu. It also only uses one source, which while writing a paper based on research; you should have more than one source to back up the information. The source used is from a journal so it is more reliable which does make her article a little bit more reliable due to her reliable source. Although overall, she should use more than one source to back up her article.
I believe the information from the research is somewhat credible. It came from a journal and actual research. The only flaw I would consider is in the research. The women in the research were asked to self-report their diet which could lead to mistakes. Women may omit food consumed because they feel like they shouldn’t be eating a certain food. No one was there to actually witness these women eating so the information could be fabricated. There are also many other factors I believe go into play as well such as what the women are eating, and how they are sleeping.