Eating veggies, fruit, soy cuts breast cancer risk

A new study suggests that eating lots of vegetables, fruit and soy may cut risk of developing breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

The study led by Dr. Lesley M. Butler, of Colorado State University and colleagues showed the Singapore Chinese women who followed a diet full of vegetables, fruit and soy products were significantly less likely to acquire breast cancer than those who followed a diet high in meat, starch, saturated fat, and sugar.

For the study, Dr. Butler and colleagues analyzed data collected during 1993 and 1995 through in-person interviews with 34,000 women aged 45 to 74 years in Singapore including information on diet, weight, education, smoking and exercise habits and hormone use.

They compared those who used the meat-starch-saturated fat based diet with the vegetable-fruit-soy diet which was characterized by high amounts of veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage and bok choy for their risks of breast cancer.

During a 10-year follow-up, 629 cases of breast cancer were identified.

Those who ate highest amounts of vegetables, fruit and soya products were 30 percent less likely to develop  breast cancer compared to those who ate the least amounts, the study found.  

During a-5-year follow-up, the risk for developing breast cancer was apparently reduced by about 50 percent among the postmenopausal women who ate the highest amounts of vegetables, fruits and soybeans compared to those who ate low amounts.

The results were published in the Feb 24, 2010 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.