What
Latest Breast Cancer Study Really Said
The effect
of diet on breast cancer generated quite a bit of news recently,
as results from a large multi-center study were released.
The findings were just the latest in a line of reports from
the seven-year Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL)
trial on the effect of diet in more than 3,000 pre-and postmenopausal
women who were survivors of early-stage breast cancer.
The newest findings appeared in the July 18th Journal
of the American Medical Association, and the headlines
that followed might have convinced you that eating fruits
and vegetables are totally ineffective against breast cancer.
But that’s not at all what the study found.
Previous
Positive Findings. In June, the same WHEL trial
reported that fruits and vegetables were indeed protective
against recurrence of breast cancer in the women. In fact,
those who followed a recommendation to eat five fruits and
vegetables daily and who remained physically active were almost
50% less likely to die during the seven years of the study.
The WHEL
study from which both reports were drawn divided the women
into two groups. One group ate at least five servings a day
of fruits and vegetables. The other group was instructed to
eat eight a day (five vegetables and three fruits) plus 16
ounces of vegetable juice, as part of a low-fat, high-fiber
diet.
More
No Better? Surprisingly, eating more than the
commonly recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables
a day provided no additional protection against the recurrence
of breast cancer.
However,
the study was not designed to address whether extra fruits
and vegetables might help protect women against developing
breast cancer in the first place. Yet that was the mistaken
impression conveyed by many headlines.
EN’s
Fruit and Vegetable Advice. The findings from
the WHEL study clearly suggest a benefit to breast cancer
survivors who eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a
day and are physically active. But additional research is
needed to determine whether fruits and vegetables may actually
help prevent breast cancer from developing initially, as some
other studies have suggested, and, if so, how much is optimal.
Until
then, EN recommends you “Strive for 5.”
Fruits and vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals and
naturally occurring phytonutrients that experts believe can
help provide protection against a wide range of diseases,
including other forms of cancer.
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