Breast Cancer Survival Vegetable

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Simple changes in diet and lifestyle may quadruple a woman’s survival rate from breast cancer.

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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

A half-million Americans are expected to die this year from cancer—equal to five jumbo jets crashing, every day. “The number of Americans who die from cancer each year is more than all those who have died in all US wars combined.” And, this happens every single year.

After a cancer diagnosis, people tend to clean up their diets. About a third to a half of breast cancer patients, for example, make healthy dietary changes following diagnosis—such as increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, and decreasing meat, fat, and sugar intakes. Does this actually help, that late in the game? Well, “the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living [WHEL] Study was undertaken in [a few thousand] breast cancer survivors to determine if a plant-based, low-fat, high-fiber diet could influence breast cancer recurrence rates and survival.”

Previously, they famously reported that simple changes—five or more servings of fruits and veggies a day, and just, like, walking thirty minutes a day, six days a week, was associated with a significant survival advantage—cutting risk nearly in half. Note; I said fruits and veggies and exercise. Here’s the proportion of women with breast cancer surviving nine years in the study, if they had low fruit and vegetable consumption, and low physical activity—or, high in one, and low in the other. But, here’s the survival curve of those high in both.

And, it worked just as well in women with estrogen receptor negative tumors, which normally have twice the mortality—unless, you eat a few fruits and veggies, and take a few strolls. The High should really be in quotes. I mean, you could eat five servings in a single meal, and certainly walk more than, like, two miles a day.

Imagine, for a second, you have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Imagine sitting in that chair, in the doctor’s office, as your doctor gives you the news. But, there’s a new experimental treatment that can cut your chances of dying in the next few years from, like, 16% down to just 4%. To quadruple their survival rate, many women would remortgage their homes to fly to some quack clinic in Mexico, would lose all their hair to chemo, but most, apparently, couldn’t stand the thought of eating broccoli.

And, indeed, that’s what the latest report from the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living Study found. Fruits and vegetables may be good, but cruciferous vegetables may be better. For women on tamoxifen, for example, if one of their five daily servings of fruits and veggies was broccoli or cauliflower, collards, cabbage, or kale, the risk of cancer recurrence may be cut in half.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Images thanks to the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Navy via Wikimedia

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

A half-million Americans are expected to die this year from cancer—equal to five jumbo jets crashing, every day. “The number of Americans who die from cancer each year is more than all those who have died in all US wars combined.” And, this happens every single year.

After a cancer diagnosis, people tend to clean up their diets. About a third to a half of breast cancer patients, for example, make healthy dietary changes following diagnosis—such as increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, and decreasing meat, fat, and sugar intakes. Does this actually help, that late in the game? Well, “the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living [WHEL] Study was undertaken in [a few thousand] breast cancer survivors to determine if a plant-based, low-fat, high-fiber diet could influence breast cancer recurrence rates and survival.”

Previously, they famously reported that simple changes—five or more servings of fruits and veggies a day, and just, like, walking thirty minutes a day, six days a week, was associated with a significant survival advantage—cutting risk nearly in half. Note; I said fruits and veggies and exercise. Here’s the proportion of women with breast cancer surviving nine years in the study, if they had low fruit and vegetable consumption, and low physical activity—or, high in one, and low in the other. But, here’s the survival curve of those high in both.

And, it worked just as well in women with estrogen receptor negative tumors, which normally have twice the mortality—unless, you eat a few fruits and veggies, and take a few strolls. The High should really be in quotes. I mean, you could eat five servings in a single meal, and certainly walk more than, like, two miles a day.

Imagine, for a second, you have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Imagine sitting in that chair, in the doctor’s office, as your doctor gives you the news. But, there’s a new experimental treatment that can cut your chances of dying in the next few years from, like, 16% down to just 4%. To quadruple their survival rate, many women would remortgage their homes to fly to some quack clinic in Mexico, would lose all their hair to chemo, but most, apparently, couldn’t stand the thought of eating broccoli.

And, indeed, that’s what the latest report from the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living Study found. Fruits and vegetables may be good, but cruciferous vegetables may be better. For women on tamoxifen, for example, if one of their five daily servings of fruits and veggies was broccoli or cauliflower, collards, cabbage, or kale, the risk of cancer recurrence may be cut in half.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Images thanks to the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Navy via Wikimedia

Doctor's Note

I recommend that all women with breast cancer eat broccoli sprouts. See my eight-part video series:

  1. DNA Protection from Broccoli
  2. Sulforaphane: From Broccoli to Breast
  3. Broccoli vs. Breast Cancer Stem Cells
  4. Liver Toxicity Due to Broccoli Juice?
  5. How Much Broccoli Is Too Much?
  6. The Best Detox
  7. Sometimes the Enzyme Myth Is True
  8. Biggest Nutrition Bang for your Buck

They may also help out with other cancers (see Lung Cancer Metastases & Broccoli and Raw Broccoli & Bladder Cancer Survival).

For more on breast cancer survival, see:

And, even better, preventing it in the first place! Check out dozens more videos on the breast cancer topic page.

Some of this video may sound familiar—I included it in my 2013 live presentation, More than an Apple a Day: Combating Common Diseases.

For further context, check out my associated blog post: Quadrupling Breast Cancer Survival.

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