Cruciferous Vegetables Increase Breast Cancer Survival

Momine,

There's supposedly a lower rate of breast cancer among Asian women than there is among the most of the rest.  Jane Plant decided that one of the things that is different in the western diet is that we consume milk and milk products, while Asian women usually don't . 

While they are living in Asia they have a lower breast cancer rate, but if they come to live in the US, the breast cancer rate soars in their daughters' generation.  Hawaiian daughters of Asian mothers apparently have a much higher breast cancer rate than their mother's generation.  Asian women also tend to have children earlier than women have been doing in the US.  There are certain areas of the USA that have significantly higher breast cancer rates compared to other areas of the US.  Why? Pollution?  Living near nuclear power plants?

It's also true that Asian women tend to eat a lot more cruciferous vegetables than American women do (and evidently consume a lot less sugary foods). Maybe we would be doing ourselves a big favor if we ate a lot more broccoli, cabbage, etc.  An Asian-American doctor acted really disgusted when I told her that I ate cheeses as a substitute for meat for protein and also appeared to think my liking for sweets was a bad thing and kind of absurd.  Maybe she never craves sweets?

Doctor Weiss (of this site) mentioned these diet issues in her book.

Some studies indicate that while Asian women who have always eaten soy foods can consume them safely, American and European women who weren't introduced to soy foods early may get too much estrogen from eating soy foods.  Soy is apparently a plant estrogen. There's a debate about whether women who were not raised in Asia who have bc or are at higher risk of bc should eat soy foods--but soy is added to so many foods before they are sold.  The other day I was looking at food labels in the supermarket and noted that lots of different foods have soy added to them. 

Another concern is that cattle growers "beef up" the cattle by giving them hormones and that gets into the food.   Growing up near cattle ranches, I learned that they do jack up the beef cattle with hormones and antibiotics and that has to have an impact on people who have breast cancer.  There are also pesticides in the fruits and vegetables.  I don't know how pesticides could be removed if they are in the nucleus of the foods.

The types of stress that people live under may be different, too, in Asia and in the US.  I think American women tend to have fairly stress-filled lives, and though other women from other countries no doubt do too, I think maybe the type of stresses we experience may be different, and stress can lower our immunity.