Soya
products, fruit, vegetables and flax seed may ward off breast cancer, according
to research. It is a diet that may turn out to be the strongest protective
factor yet discovered against the disease. Scientists believe they have identified
an element in the regime which may reduce the risk of breast cancer up to
fourfold.
A comparison of two groups
found that those who ate a diet rich in phyto-oestrogens, a group of naturally
occurring chemicals derived from plants, were much less likely to develop
the disease. Phyto-oestrogens are similar to the hormone oestrogen and are
found mainly in soya products and the fibre present in whole grains, berries,
fruit, vegetables and flax seed. Researchers have long known that diet plays
a part in breast cancer based on evidence that women who migrate from countries
where the disease is rare, such as Japan, to those where it is common, such
as the US, increase their risk as they adopt the lifestyle of the host country.
Researchers at the Queen
Elizabeth II Medical Centre in Perth, Western Australia, interviewed 144 women
with newly diagnosed breast cancer and compared them with the same number
of controls. They tested their urine for a range of phyto-oestrogens and similar
compounds called lignans and found high levels were associated with a substantial
reduction in risk of the disease.
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