Beating Breast Cancer - Vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower and cabbage can prevent breast cancer

Beating Breast Cancer

Diet plays a major role in curbing breast cancer. Foods like Brussels sprouts, wheat bran, cauliflower, cabbage, beans and fish help a lot, but items high in fat should be avoided as far as possible.

Many factors play a role in breast cancer. Food is one of them – it can determine whether you can get it or not, which parts of the body it spreads to, its growth rate and even its final outcome. New research reveals that diet is an important element governing cellular activity, especially that involving oestrogen, the hormone responsible for the expansion of breast cancer. Typical symptoms of breast cancer are:

• ·         A lump or thickening in or near the breast or in the underarm area.

• ·         A change in the size or shape of the breast

• ·         A discharge from the nipple

• ·         A change in the colour of feel of the skin of the breast, areola, or nipple (dimple, puckered, or scaly).

Women who are more susceptible to breast cancer are pre-menopausal of post-menopausal. Pre-menopausal women have more oestrogen, but even after menopause, when ovaries stop producing oestrogen, fat cells produce some oestrogen, so it is available in the body, and could be enough to cause breast cancer.

An excess of oestrogen spurs the growth of breast cancer. Thus, the food that affects the absorption and metabolism of oestrogen is thought to help in preventing breast cancer.

An excess of oestrogen spurs the growth of breast cancer. Thus, the food that affects the absorption and metabolism of oestrogen is thought to help in preventing breast cancer.

Foods that help in curbing the growth of breast cancer are:

• ·         Cruciferous vegetables: The indoles present in cruciferous vegetables quicken the removal of oestrogen in the body by speeding up its metabolism. This leaves less oestrogen for the cancer to feed on. The cruciferous vegetables are cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, mustard green and turnips. Eating these foods raw or lightly cooked greatly improves the healing effect.

• ·         Wheat bran: Research conducted by Dr David P Rose of the American Health Foundation proves that wheat bran curtails the oestrogen level, and is far more effective in this respect than oat or corn bran. This, he says, is because the wheat bran fibre is highly insoluble giving bacteria in the colon much to chew on. Wheat fibre can suppress blood-oestrogen better than a low-fat diet.

• ·         Beans: Eat beans to reduce the risk of getting cancer. Beans contain phytoestrogen, which helps in blocking the activity of cancer-promoting oestrogen, and anti-cancer compounds.

• ·         Soya bean: Besides having a compound which blocks the growth of breast cancer, soya bean also directly inhibits the growth of oestrogen cells. Dr. Stephen Barnes, a professor in the University of Alabama, says that soya bean contains a natural analogue of the drug tamoxifen, which is oddly an oestrogen with anti-oestrogen activity.

• ·         Seafood: Eating fish checks cancer growth, and boosts the immunity.

• ·         Vitamin D and C: Deficiency in Vitamin D can lead to breast cancer. Rich sources of Vitamin D are salmon, sardines, herring and tuna. Vitamin C can also help

Foods that are high in fat should be avoided.

Note: Readers are requested to consult their health consultant before going in for any kind of food changes referred to in this column. Also, if a person is suffering from multiple ailments, a food that heals or betters one condition may not be suitable for another.

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