By David Liu, Ph.D.

Tuesday July 19,2011 (foodconsumer.org) -- Drinking coffee may help cut risk of breast cancer, particularly estrogen-receptor negative breast cancer in postmenopausal women, a new study in the May 2011 issue of Breast Cancer Research suggests.

The study shows that postmenopausal women who drank five or more cups of coffee per day were 57 percent less likely to be diagnosed with ER-negative breast cancer, compared with those who drank only one or fewer cups per day.

The study was not a trial and did not prove that drinking coffee could indeed reduce the risk of breast cancer even though the possibility could not be excluded either.

For the study, Jingmei Li and colleagues of Karolinska Institutet in Sweden found the association after analyzing data from 2,818 cases of breast cancer and 3,111 controls without the disease.

In addition, the researchers also found postmenopausal women who drank 5 or more cups of coffee per day were 20 percent likely to develop breast cancer.

They concluded that "A high daily intake of coffee was found to be associated with a statistically significant decrease in ER-negative breast cancer among postmenopausal women."

In the United States, an estimated 175,000 women are diagnosed each year with breast cancer, which kills about 50,000 people annually, according to the National Cancer institute.

Breast cancer in many cases can be prevented by simply following a healthy lifestyle including a healthy diet.  Numberous studies have suggested the risk factors for the disease include vitamin D deficiency, second-hand smoking, alcohol drinking and night-shift jobs.

Foods that may help fight breast cancer include beans, berries, cruciferous vegetables, dark green leafy vegetables, flaxseed, garlic, grapes and grape juice, green tea, soy, tomatoes, whole grain and certain spices like turmeric.