Breast Cancer and Diet

Breast Cancer and Diet
It has been recognized by the American Cancer Society and National Cancer Association that there is an association between diet and cancer. It has been estimated that up to 35% of all cancers are related to diet. This statistic goes up to 50% for women. The relationship between diet and cancer has been established by large studies that look at dietary habits and cancer incidence among large groups of people. Because breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women, and one of the most common cancers to cause death, it is a great topic of research and concern.
Studies have shown that there is a high positive correlation between breast cancer and diets high in saturated fat, animal proteins. Because dietary fiber is not found in foods containing saturated fats and/or animal proteins, breast cancer is also correlated to a diet low in fiber.
The typical American diet is extremely high in fat and animal protein when compared to the Asian diet for example, which includes mainly fish, rice, and vegetables. Given the positive correlation between animal protein and cancer, it comes as no surprise that women living in Japan experience breast cancer at half the incidence that American women do. Further, it is telling to note that Japanese-American women experience breast cancer at the same rate as American women, when consuming an “American” diet. Examples of the “American” diet are hamburgers, french-fries, pizza, and turkey sandwiches.
The main source of protein in the Japanese diet is soy. Soy comes from legumes called soy beans. Soy beans are a source of various phytochemicals that appear to implicated in reducing incident rates of breast cancer. Genistein, daidzein and the Bowman-Birk inhibitor are three examples of phytochemicals in soy that appear to do so