What kinds of foods do you eat? We’re constantly given dietary advice through advertisements on the TV and radio, as well as in the doctor’s office. Almost everyone would agree that our diet plays an important role in preventing chronic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. What many might not realize, however, is that our dietary choices also play a role in the development of cancer. Certain diets can help to cause — or prevent — the development of the disease. While bad food choices are becoming increasingly clear to most Americans, identifying good food choices can be enigmatic with regard to cancer prevention.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the most common cancer among women of every ethnicity is breast cancer: one in eight women will be diagnosed in her lifetime. While women who receive this diagnosis have a variety of available treatment options, breast cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death among women. Due to this reality, many doctors are interested in dietary changes that can be implemented in order to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer in the first place.
Diet is a very modifiable component of one’s lifestyle. Although the influence of specific dietary factors on the risk of breast cancer have not been thoroughly investigated, previous studies have determined that increased alcohol consumption is correlated with a higher risk of the disease. Recent studies have also shown there is a striking difference between rates of breast cancer in lower Mediterranean countries compared to other European countries or the United States. There are many differences between these regions including climate, economics, environment and genetics; however, one major modifiable difference is diet. The Mediterranean diet (MeDiet) is characterized by fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and fish. The diet also emphasizes limiting the intake of red meat and replacing saturated or trans fats with healthier fats like olive oil.
In September, Estefania Toledo, professor of medicine and nursing at the University of Navarra and her research team conducted a clinical study in which groups of participants were given one of three diets in order to determine whether or not there was a correlation between breast cancer incidence and the MeDiet. The study recognized that both men and women are affected by breast cancer; however, their sample group contained only women. The women in the trial had either type 2 diabetes mellitus or major cardiovascular risk factors (such as smoking, hypertension or obesity). The researchers split the 4,282 exclusively white, postmenopausal women into three groups. The first group was given the MeDiet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil (EVOO); the second group was given the MeDiet supplemented with mixed nuts; the third group functioned as the control. The participants of the control group received a suggestion to reduce the total fat content of their diets; however, no other significant modifications were made.
The women were followed from October 2003 through June 2009 and assessed for the incidence of malignant breast cancer. Malignant tumors, as opposed to benign tumors, invade normal tissue and spread throughout the body. Researchers determined that the women who were given the MeDiet with supplemental EVOO were at a 62 percent lower risk for this disease compared to those in the control group. The women who ate the MeDiet with supplemental nuts did not have a significant risk reduction compared to the control group. This suggests that the supplemental EVOO is an essential addition to the MeDiet in order to gain protection against breast cancer.
This study, along with others conducted in Mediterranean countries, gives evidence for an inverse relationship between consumption of olive oil and breast cancer incidence. One hypothesis for explaining this is that EVOO contains healthier unsaturated fats as well as a variety of biologically active compounds. These compounds are able to interact with human tissue, and they play a variety of roles including causing tumor cell death or inhibiting tumor growth and migration. In addition, these compounds can be an important part of preventing the DNA damage in a cell; this is important because DNA damage can cause a cell to become cancerous. Because of these functions, the addition of EVOO to the diet can lower a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.
The results of this study are limited; they do not prove a causal relationship between diet and incidence of breast cancer, but rather, they give strong evidence of a correlation between dietary choices and breast cancer incidence. The preliminary results, however, give hope that changing one’s diet may prevent breast cancer.
