Good news for IJC: eating more fruits and vegetables can significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer

July 22, 2018 / BIOON / - a new study by researchers from Harvard Chen Zengxi School of public health found that women who eat a lot of vegetables and fruits every day have a lower risk of breast cancer (especially malignant breast cancer) than women who eat fewer fruits and vegetables Their study also found that cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli) and yellow and orange vegetables were significantly associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer Photo source: cc0 public domain "Although previous studies have found this connection, their research has some defects, especially on the relationship between special fruits and vegetables and malignant breast cancer." Maryam farvid, a researcher in the Department of nutrition and the first author of the study, said "This study provides the most detailed evidence of the importance of eating large quantities of fruits and vegetables for breast cancer prevention." The study was recently published in the International Journal of cancer The researchers analyzed 88301 women from the nurses' health study in 1980 and 93844 women from the nurses' Health Study II in 1991 Other breast cancer risk factors (such as age, weight, smoking, family history, etc.) were obtained through a biennial questionnaire The researchers found that women who ate more than 5.5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day had an 11% lower risk of breast cancer than women who ate 2.5 servings or less (a serving of fruits and vegetables refers to a cup of green leafy vegetables or a half cup of cut / cooked fruits) To find out whether eating fruits and vegetables has an impact on the risk of different breast cancer, the researchers analyzed the hormone receptor types and molecular subtypes of breast cancer The results showed that eating a large number of fruits and vegetables was especially related to the risk reduction of more malignant breast cancer (including ER negative, HER2 positive and basal like breast cancer) A previous study by the research team showed that breast cancer risk reduction was related to the intake of large amounts of fiber, but the role found in this study seems to be unrelated to the fiber content of fruits and vegetables This suggests that other ingredients in these foods, such as antioxidants or other micronutrients, are also important in reducing the risk of breast cancer "Although studies have found that eating large amounts of fruits and vegetables is related to other health benefits, our results provide women with more evidence of eating large amounts of fruits and vegetables." Said Heather Eliassen, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Chen Zengxi School of public health and associate director of epidemiology at Brigham women's hospital Reference: Maryam s farvid et al, fruit and vegetable consumption and burst cancer inclusion: repeated measures over 30 years of follow-up, International Journal of cancer (2018) Doi: 10.1002/ijc.31653