The Physicians Committee has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require cheese manufacturers to display on all dairy cheese products this warning label:
“Dairy cheese contains reproductive hormones that may increase breast cancer mortality risk.”
A 2017 study funded by the National Cancer Institute compared the diets of women diagnosed with breast cancer to those without breast cancer and found that those who consumed the most American, cheddar cheese, and cream cheese had a 53% increased risk for breast cancer. The suspicion is growing that components in dairy, such as estrogen from cows that gets concentrated in cheese, as well as insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and other growth hormones, as well as the high saturated fat content in cheese, may explain the increased risk.