Thursday May 7, 2015 (foodconsumer.org) -- A study recently released in the FASEB Journal suggests that eating too much inflammatory foods can increase risk of death from breast cancer.

The study led by Fred Tabung at Epidemiology & Biostatistics University of South Carolina and colleagues found that women with breast cancer in the highest tertile of intake of a pro-inflammatory diet or inflammatory foods were 48 percent more likely not to survive, compared with their peers in the lowest terile of intake of pro-inflammatory foods.  After adjustment for other risk factors, the death risk was still found 30% higher in those who ate the highest amount of inflammatory foods.

The study also found that eating a pro-inflammatory diet can boost the risk of developing HER2+ breast cancer although it does not seem to increase the overall risk of breast cancer.

The study was based on data from 117,510 postmenopausal women at risk of breast cancer in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study and Clinical Trials.  The participants were followed up for 12.3 years during which 5,889 were diagnosed with breast cancer and 406 died.

Inflammation is now believed to be a major cause or something involved in the development of breast cancer and other malignancies.  Pro-Inflammatory foods that can promote accelerated aging are mainly carbohydrate-containing foods such as sugar and or starch-rich foods including bagels, breads, candy, cake, cookies, cereals, cornstarch, corn bread, doughnuts, egg rolls, French fries, and fruit juice among many others.

The problem with pro-inflammatory foods is the carbohydrates that can react with proteins, enzymes and amino acids and cause damage to these biochemicals.  High concentration of sugars can promote the damage through a reaction called Maillard reaction, which leads to the formation of advanced glycation end products, which are in turn associated with aging and other aging-related diseases like cancer.  High intake of sugar has been linked to elevated risk of breast cancer in other studies.

Many things can be risk factors for breast cancer.   But an authoritative organization says that two major risk factors for breast cancer are hormone replacement therapy and exposure to radiation.

Reference

Fred Tabung, Susan Steck, Angela Liese, Jiajia Zhang, Yunsheng Ma, Bette Caan, Rowan Chlebowski, Jo Freudenheim, Lifang Hou, Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Nitin Shivappa, Mara Vitolins, Jean Wactawski-Wende, Judith Ockene and James Hebert   Association between Dietary Inflammatory Potential and Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality: Results from the Women's Health Initiative, The FASEB Journal, May, 2015.