Many researchers and doctors have long encouraged people to eat a healthful diet, such as the diet recommended by the USDA's MyPyramid, to protect you against cancer. Carefully controlled research, however, has not always found the relationship between a good diet and reduced cancer risk. But research has now found relationships between diet and supplement choices and breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer.
Breast Cancer
In a study conducted by the National Cancer Institute, the regular consumption of soy products in young girls (5 to 11) was shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer in adulthood by half. Soy products eaten can include tofu, miso, soy milk, soy flour, and textured vegetable protein. Adult women who began eating soy products during adolescence or later had a reduced breast cancer risk of about 25 percent.
Researchers do not recommend that you suddenly start eating a soy-based diet. Further research is needed to find the actual reason for the reduction in breast cancer and to make sure there are no unpleasant side effects. In the meantime, try a tofu recipe. You might like it.
Colorectal Cancer
Men who ate fish five times a week or more had a 40 percent lower risk of developing colorectal cancer, according to data from a 19-year Physicians' Health Study. Men who consumed fish fewer than five times a week still had a lower risk of developing colorectal cancer – 20 percent for men who ate fish two to five times and 13 percent for men who ate fish fewer than two times a week.
Researchers believe that the health effect is largely due to the high levels of n-3 fatty acids in fish. These n-3 fatty acids have previously been shown to protect the heart. These new results are promising. But as in the previous breast cancer study, researches suggest not making major dietary changes until further results become available. A little fish is always a good dietary choice, however.
Lung Cancer
Everyone knows that smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. The best protection against lung cancer is not smoking or stopping smoking. Many smokers believe they can't stop or just don't want to. But they also don't want to get lung cancer or emphysema.
Research from Columbia University has shown that male smokers who ate foods high in vitamin E (a-tocopherol) had a reduced risk of developing lung cancer. It worked best for men with a certain genetic variation. However, vitamin E intake seemed to have no beneficial effect for women who smoked. Vitamin E is found in oils, nuts, whole grains, fish, green leafy vegetables, and many other foods.
The benefits of this study would be mainly for men who were trying to quit smoking, cutting down on smoking, or already battling lung disease from smoking.
Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. A study conducted at Johns Hopkins University concluded that men with lower cholesterol levels were less likely to have fast growing prostate cancer. Low cholesterol didn't seem to be a protective factor in getting prostate cancer initially, but was protective once the cancer was growing.
Cholesterol might stimulate the survival of abnormal prostate cells, although there is no definitive research to prove it at this time. It was shown earlier, however, that men who took statin drugs to lower cholesterol levels had only half the risk of developing prostate cancer as men who did not take statin drugs.
Men with cholesterol levels in the lowest quartile were only half as likely to get high-grade or advanced prostate cancer as those in the highest quartile. |
