Drinking a lot of whole milk might raise your risk of dying from cancer, and the more you drink, the higher the risk — especially if you drink a lot.

People who drink whole milk regularly may be a bit more likely to die from any cause, heart disease, or cancer than those who drink skim or low-fat milk — but this doesn’t mean milk is the direct cause.

If you’ve had breast cancer, eating a lot of full-fat dairy like whole milk, cheese, or butter might make you more likely to die from any cause — including things other than cancer — compared to eating only small amounts.

Eating a lot of full-fat dairy like cheese and butter might be linked to a higher chance of dying from cancers other than breast cancer — and it could be because it harms your heart or metabolism, not just because it feeds cancer.

For women who’ve had breast cancer, eating a lot of full-fat dairy like whole milk, cheese, or butter might raise their risk of dying from other health problems like heart disease or diabetes—not from the cancer coming back.

Eating dairy overall doesn’t seem to make breast cancer come back or kill more women from breast cancer, but it might be linked to dying from other causes — and that’s probably because the bad stuff (like full-fat dairy) is hiding in the average.