Saturday June 29, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study recently released in Cancer Causes & Control suggests that eating flexseed may help reduce the risk of breast cancer.  

The study shows that eating flaxseed and flax bread was associated with 18% and 23% reduced risk for developing breast cancer, respectively.

Flaxseed is high in lignans - a class of phytoestrogen.  It is possible that estrogenic lignans may interfere with estrogen which would otherwise promote the development and progression of breast cancer.

For the current case-control study, 3370 healthy women and 2999 women with breast cancer who were enrolled in the Ontario Women's Diet and Health Study between 2002 and 2003 completed a food frequency questionnaire.

The study suggests that eating flaxseed and or flax bread may help reduce the risks of breast cancer, which is diagnosed in more than 230,000 women each year in the United States and kills about 40,000 women annually in the country.

There are many things women can do or not do to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer. (reporting by Jimmy Downs)