Seems we’re being inundated with scientific studies these days about the links of dietary habits to increased or reduced risk of contracting a huge range of conditions and diseases. In the same week, we’ve seen the following findings about reducing your risk of breast and prostate cancer…
We keep hearing it, so it must be true: Eating more Fruits and Veggies
can improve your health in SO many ways!
Fruits and Veggies reduce risk of Breast Cancer
Seems reducing one’s risk of breast cancer may be as simple as upping her intake of Fruits and Veggies. Results of a data mining expedition into massive health survey results by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health show that women who ate more than 5.5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day had an 11% lower risk of breast cancer than those who ate 2.5 or fewer servings. (A serving is defined as one cup of raw leafy vegetables, half a cup of raw or cooked vegetables, or half a cup of chopped or cooked fruits.)
They also found that higher consumption of fruits and vegetables was particularly associated with lower risk of more aggressive tumors including ER-negative, HER2-enriched, and basal-like tumors.
Researchers analyzed diet questionnaires submitted every four years by participants in the Nurses’ Health Study (88,301 women, starting in 1980) and the Nurses’ Health Study II (93,844 women, starting in 1991). Data on other potential breast cancer risk factors such as age, weight, smoking status, and family cancer history were taken from biennial questionnaires.
This same research group had previously used similar techniques to reveal that increased fibre intake could reduce the risk of some cancers.
Earlier supper may reduce risk of Breast and prostate cancer
A new study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (BIGH) included data from 621 cases of prostate cancer and 1,205 cases of breast cancer, as well as 872 male and 1,321 female control subjects selected randomly from primary health centres. The participants, who represented various parts of Spain, were interviewed about their meal timing, sleep habits and chronotype (an individual attribute correlating with preference for morning or evening activity) and completed a questionnaire on their eating habits and adherence to cancer prevention recommendations.
Data showed a strong connection between sleeping and eating habits and tre development of two of the most common cancers..
Having an early supper or leaving an interval of at least two hours before going to bed are both associated with a lower risk of breast and prostate cancer. Specifically, people who take their evening meal before 9 p.m. or wait at least two hours before going to sleep have an approximate 20% lower risk of those types of cancer compared to people who have supper after 10pm or those who eat and go to bed very close afterwards, respectively. The study is the first to analyse the association between cancer risk and the timing of meals and sleep.
“Our study concludes that adherence to diurnal eating patterns is associated with a lower risk of cancer,” explained researcher Manolis Kogevinas, Lead Author of the study. He added, the findings, “highlight the importance of assessing circadian rhythms in studies on diet and cancer.”
I’ll be presenting these UPDATE compendia of new diet- and food-related research findings occasionally, as opportunities present themselves.
~ Maggie J.