breast cancer

Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women. To demonstrate how dramatically lifestyle choices can impact breast cancer risk, researchers followed for about seven years a group of about 30,000 postmenopausal women without history of breast cancer and found that simply limiting alcohol, eating mostly plant foods, and maintaining a normal body weight was associated with a 62 percent lower breast cancer risk.

Remarkably, eating a plant-based diet along with walking every day may improve our cancer defenses within just two weeks. Researchers attributed this effect to a decrease in levels of a cancer-promoting growth hormone called IGF-1, likely due to the reduced intake of animal protein.

It isn’t only animal protein that may be harmful, but the carcinogens in cooked meat. The Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project reported that women who eat more grilled, barbecued, or smoked meats over their lifetimes may have as much as 47 percent higher odds of breast cancer, and the Iowa Women’s Health Study found that women who ate their bacon, beefsteak, and burgers “very well done” had nearly five times the odds of getting breast cancer compared with women who preferred these meats rare or medium. Scientists were able to link the consumption of fried meat with the amount of DNA damage found within women’s breast tissue, the type of damage that can potentially cause a normal cell to mutate into a cancer cell.

Cholesterol may also play a role in the development and progression of breast cancer, as cancer appears to feed on it. The cancer is thought to be using the cholesterol to make estrogen or to shore up tumor membranes to help the cancer migrate and invade more tissue. In other words, breast tumors may take advantage of high circulating cholesterol levels to fuel and accelerate their own growth.

Consuming less meat and more fruits, vegetables, and fiber, as well as flaxseeds, soy foods, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli sprouts may reduce breast cancer risk and improve survival chances.

In 2018 I did a whole series on mammograms. Check it out here.

For substantiation of any statements of fact from the peer-reviewed medical literature, please see the associated videos below.

Image Credit: DragonImages / Thinkstock. This image has been modified.

216 videos

All Videos for Breast Cancer

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How to Delay the Age of Menopause with Diet and Lifestyle Factors

Approximately half of the variability of age of menopause among women is explained by genetics. What behaviors or circumstances can help explain the rest?

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Randomized interventional trials are necessary to establish cause-and-effect.

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Soy milk is compared to dairy milk and other plant-based milks.

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What kind of diet should cancer patients eat?

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Do the benefits of short-term fasting during cancer therapy found in the lab translate into the clinical setting?

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Might short-term fasting during cancer treatment minimize side effects while boosting efficacy?

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I quantify the risks of colon and rectal cancers from eating bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausage, and lunch meat.

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Breast Cancer and the Bovine Leukemia Virus in Meat and Dairy

Exposure to the bovine leukemia virus from meat and dairy (or a blood transfusion from those who eat meat or dairy) is a risk factor for cancer.

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As many as 37 percent of breast cancer cases may be attributable to exposure to bovine leukemia virus.

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The foundation of cancer prevention is plants, not pills.

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Pesticides and Cancer Risk

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What did randomized controlled human trials find about the ways we may—or may not—benefit from eating onions?

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The Food That Can Downregulate a Metastatic Cancer Gene

Women with breast cancer should include the “liberal culinary use of cruciferous vegetables.”

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Randomized controlled trials show lowering saturated fat intake can lead to improved breast cancer survival.

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Studies on Millet Nutrition: Is It a Healthy Grain?

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Plant-Based Protein: Are Pea and Soy Isolates Harmful?

Plant-Based Protein: Are Pea and Soy Protein Isolates Harmful?

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Calories eaten in the morning count less and are healthier than calories eaten in the evening.

Popular Videos for Breast Cancer