UCSF Nutrition & Breast Cancer Booklet

BlindedByScience

http://cancer.ucsf.edu/crc/nutrition_breast.pdf

The link above is to an exceptional manuscript on nutrition and breast cancer. The author is Natalie Ledesma, an oncology dietician. The booklet is worth downloading & saving if you want an up-to-date reference on foods and their effect on bc.

Much of it you'll have read already as it talks about green tea, omega-3 fatty acids, soy foods, flax seed...but she also includes a discussion on the fruits & veggies most likely to be high in pesticide residue and other issues.

mkl48

I read it and wonder if it was a typo that says large amounts of uncooked cabbage inhibits cell death? Beth This is in the section on the polish study

BlindedByScience

I think I found the section--check out the excerpt below. I believe the use of the word 'inhibit' is incorrect and they actually mean 'induce', but note they say that cooking cabbage for a long time inactivates its cancer-fighting properties--and I think that's correct.

o The U.S. component of the Polish Women’s Health Study found that women who consumed raw- or short-cooked cabbage and sauerkraut 3 or more times weekly had a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer [3 ].

o Cabbage that was cooked for a long time had no effect on breast cancer risk.

o Researchers suggested that glucosinolates, compounds in cabbage, may affect both the
initiation phase of carcinogenesis*, cell mutation*, and (?) inhibit(?) apoptosis*.

LizM

Thank you so much for the link. I am printing it off now. I have read many many books on diet and breast cancer. This booklet has a lot of really good information.

Pio

Great resource. Really liked the section on meal plans and recipes. I was wondering, what do you think about the recommendations for eating soy products. I've heard/read so many conflicting ideas about this, especially for HER2+ cancer.

Rabbit_fan

I'm bumping this thread because this booklet is the most useful resource I've found on BCO.   It cites hundreds of studies showing that specific nutritional choices can reduce risk of breast cancer, recurrence, and mortality in survivors. 

For all of the naysayers, the operative word is REDUCE - no one is saying nutrition is a guarantee that none of those things will happen.  Obviously some people could follow all of the advice and still get cancer or a recurrence.  But the evidence here shows that a great number of people would benefit from the same nutritional choices.

RunswithScissors

I'm confused about this point made in the booklet:

"Additionally, a low fat, high carbohydrate diet may result in a significant reduction in breast density,
particularly in women going through menopause."

Why would we want to decrease breast density?   Isn't losing density a sign of aging - therefore degenerative? 

Blundin2005

This is a good reminder.  Thanks for the bump.  

Best wishes,

Marilyn 

Rabbit_fan

Pill - take a look at the clinical trials and research forum - there is a recent thread there that mentions breast density as a risk factor for cancer.  So I think that would be why you want to reduce it.  I'd go for saggy over cancer any day!

Rabbit_fan

You're welcome, Marilyn.  Best wishes to you, too!

Morgan513

Thank you!

Lorrie 

RunswithScissors

I'm having trouble making sense of that.    I'll have to look a that thread you mentioned. It just sounds cockeyed.  

Jelson

Pill,

with regards to breast density, I too had always thought it was a good thing and when told I had thin tissue breasts while in my twenties, I was, well crushed. I was curious too about a quote from a British doc regarding the study on breast density and BC and recurrence implying that  women can do to reduce breast density, I wondered what those things were. Apparently, from the booklet discussed in this thread, diet is one thing.

I found reference to the publication of the study on breast density and breast cancer recurrence on the BBC website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8345245.stm, I also tried to read the original article in CANCER but it is only available if you pay when it is online before actual publication?? anyway, what I found intriguing in the BBC article was this quote:

Dr. Steven Narod, of the Women's College Hospital in Toronto, Canada, said: "The composition of the breast tissue surrounding the breast cancer is important in predicting whether or not a breast cancer will return after surgery.

"Breast density has been found to be modifiable to some extent by physical activity and hormone therapy."