Why don't Chinese women get breast cancer?

Yes, our soil, our environment, the poison in our food all contributes to cancer, but to say the Chinese women don't get cancer as often is suspect. The fact is that most women in China do not have access to medical care and the government puts out whatever stats they feel make them look good as they did during the AIDS epidemic. When the government controls all the information released it is difficult to accept any information they produce.

So true the goverment controled info cannot really be trusted.Trust me China has its share of polution especially the air quality. Less dairy in the diet is a fact and more veggies and soy products are present in their diets.It would be interesting to see some real accurate stats. would love to hear from BCO members who are living in Asia.

I think "the perfect storm" is the perfect answer. Thinking back on all the "bad" stuff I ate or was exposed to living in a western country - all were contributing factors to my bc. I wonder about swimming as a kid in the Fox river in WI where there were paper mills spewing junk upriver. I wonder about having to paint the interiors of my family's rental units. I wonder about the toxins I was exposed to while working in my ceramics studio. etc, etc, etc. Our family ate all the typical western food - steak, cereal with milk, meatloaf with gravy not to mention my parents both smoking in the car with the windows rolled up. I'm sure I did and ate everything "wrong" but at the time, no one knew.

My point is that we got it (bc), and we deal with it the best way we know how and move forward trying to live a full and meaningful life.

I pray for my daughter. . . .

I never consumed that much dairy. But during chemo the only thing that I could eat practically was cottage cheese, white bread with condensed milk, ice cream, smoothies, etc. Should I write a book claiming all that dairy brought me to NED and is keeping me there? Obviously I am not a fan of Jane Plant.

I wonder if we should start a thread for vegans. They consume no animal products.

I have also heard the theory that sugar in all its forms is poinsoning us.  That is part of the background for the Metformin trials.

Here's my take.  I have 3 children, adopted from China. (none are lactose intollerant)  Many Chinese people cannot afford medical care.  I think that even if they found a lump, they may not have the resources to get it investigated, therefore, it goes unreported. Not to mention they can be very private people, and just might not say anything. Also, there are many many American fast food places all around China, so they do eat our food.  Almost every man smokes,  not to mention there is no air quality standards, (coal stoves are prevalent) so I can totally see how lung cancer could prevail, and we don't know how many of those cases are actual mets from BC.

Amy 

It is not only Chinese, but apparently also Japanese women who have a low incidence of breast cancer.

A correlation has been made between their high consumption of soy, very little dairy, and rates of bc.

When these women move to the West, and consume a wwestern diet, then their rates of bc rise sharply.

China is indeed a third world county and we don't know the true statistic of breast cancer there, however Japan is very well developed industrialized nation and does have a good health care system but yet just like China, Japan has a very low statistic rate for developing breast cancer. 

My son developed Ulcerative Colitis at the age of 2.  Doctors were astounded that someone so young could develope UC.  Our pediatric gastroenterologist said in all of his 20+ years he was the youngest child he has diagnoised with UC.  For those that do not know what Ulcerative Colistic is, it is an auto immune disease that attacks the large colon.  Basically you bleed internally in your colon.  We used to change about 6-8 bloody diapers a day with our son.  He was only 19 lbs at the age of 2 1/2.  Not a bit of fat on his bones.  He did not grow much nor could he gain any weight, therefore the doctors told us to feed him more dairy.  This only exacerbated his symptoms.  Soon he developed large hives all over his body.  As a test we stopped giving him dairy and sure enough his hives went away.  To confirm our suspicions we put him back on dairy and sure enough the hives returned.  Later we told the GI of our findings and he just blew it off as minor.  We quit seeing him and stopped all dairy and within 6 months his symptom improved.  A year later he was symptom free.  It has now been four years since he has had blood in his stool.  He is healed to what doctor say is a life long incurable disease.  As tid bit, 50% of those who are diagnoised with UC for more than 10 years develope colon cancer. 

Many people are lactose intolerance.  This intolerance is do to the milk "sugar", however this is not what causes the major problem in people.  It is the protein called "Casein" found in milk.  Some people, like my son has an allergery (not intolerance) to this milk protein.  There are over a dozen protein in milk such as "whey" protein.  The problem with milk protein is the large composition or makeup which is unlike other food items.  These proteins (especially casein) looks foreign or in many cases, poison to the human body which leads to many problems.  These proteins are made for a large animal (cow) to digest who will one day weigh over 1000 lbs.  Human are not made to digest this large and harsh substance on a daily basis.  It will cause inflammation throughout the body.  No telling what Growth Hormones (rBST) in Milk is additionally causing. 

I wouldn't be surprised if one day we do find proof that milk contributes to many types of cancer!

Just as a side note...

I know there are true allergies and intolerances to milk, but my niece,who has been lactose intolerant all her life, asked me about organic milk. I told her that I prefer it because it doesn't have all the hormones, antibiotics, etc., and it frankly tastes better and lasts much longer. 

She called me up the next day, very excited. She had bought some organic milk and had been trying little bits of it all day long...and had absolutely no problem. Then she drank a glass of "regular" milk, and all her issues returned. 

I have heard the same thing about gluten intolerance in wheat. Why is it that when my mom was a kid, no one had ever heard of gluten intolerance (or even, according to her, any kind of wheat/bread intolerance or allergies)? But some people who are supposedly intolerant to gluten find that consuming organic wheat is perfectly safe. 

I'm not trying to discount those who have true allergies or intolerance to foods. But sometimes it may just not be the food itself, but the pesticides, hormones, dyes, or other additives that are the true problem. And a lifetime of consuming those additives, plus a genetic disposition, plus stress, pollution, you name it...and there's the "perfect storm" of breast cancer. 

This article is dangerously misleading.

1) Chinese women do get breast cancer & it's increasing

2) Although dairy isn't prevalent in the traditional Chinese diets, Chinese women in large cities do eat dairy - e.g. Milk on cereal and in coffee.

3) Many women - western & Chinese who have never eaten dairy have contracted breast cancer

I knew that most of Prof Plant's information was inaccurate owing to working with several Chinese students and colleagues,and my facts have since been corroborated by several articles & Chinese breast cancer sufferers & survivors, with whom I'm in contact via a closed group.

I read somewhere that breast size can be a contributing factor.

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me (I got the 404 error message) so I googled the topic under Huffpost and found the following article.:

The information here seems to directly contract the facts presented by Cancer Research UK, who claim there's no such thing as a 'superfood' (I.e. Broccoli etc won't stop you from getting cancer) and also that there's no proof that sugar feeds cancer - these are theories hyped up by the press.

See link here: (10 cancer myths debunked)

Ultimately, I guess it depends who you have more trust & faith in and personally, I trust Cancer Research UK over the Huffington Post - perhaps partly because I'm British

I tried submitting the above with the two links but the system informed me that I'm not allowed to submit links at this time

Just stumbled on this post that's long outdated. First of all, I'm Asian born in Vietnam came to the US at 11. In my family, maternal side, mother and five or six aunts all have no breast cancer, it was unheard of in my mother's days. My two sisters don't have it neither. It may be true to some point that the number of Asian women are less compared to Caucasian and Africans. We don't really know why, it could be genetic or it could be environment. I know there the number of lung, colon, liver cancer are increasing in Vietnam, so breast cancer could be one of them. I never suspected to have breast cancer even living here because I don't drink, smoke, not a sugar person, eat meat mostly fish or chicken. I personally suspected how I get breast cancer now that I researched about the causes and risks so looking back I know why I have it. It's true Asian women are smaller, not drinking milk or eating cheese or butter, and western food are more fattening. However to pinpoint on race, culture, or food to diagnosed cancer is silly. It is an individual disease that means you have to look back on what you've done, and what you can change for the better and move forward.

Hi all, I know this post is old, but I'd like to share a study opportunity here just in case anyone read it and can benefit from it.

I'm now helping with a research project at Duke University School of Nursing, studying breast cancer survivors' quality of life, and the effect with the use of technology and coaching support. It's a culturally tailored study that gives one-to-one coaching support from a nurse who is able to address all concerns regarding breast cancer care.

If you are Asian American, living in the States, have breast cancer diagnosis in the past 5 years, and have access to internet, you may be eligible for this paid study! If you're interested, please let me know! You can also search TICAA Duke nursing online for our website (I'm not allowed to post link in the forum)

Thank you all!