October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and there have been several articles out about diagnosis and treatment and changing lifestyles regarding nutrition. One interesting study found that what young women — even preadolescent girls — ate could affect the possibility of their developing breast cancer later in life.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sponsored a supplemental issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health that deals with ways to prevent cancer, with a focus on youth. The authors are experts from many different professions. The article discussed how youth go through many physical and social changes as they grow into adults. These changes present opportunities for cancer prevention. Certain exposures and behaviors among young people can reduce their chances of getting cancer in the future, including completing the human papilloma virus vaccine series, getting enough physical activity and eating healthful food.
Better nutrition is mentioned as a factor to help prevent cancer by the National Foundation for Cancer Research. It suggests including more fruits and vegetables in diets, avoiding tobacco products, increasing fiber intake, limiting alcohol, wearing sunscreen and maintaining physical activity and healthy weight.
A May article in Forbes magazine noted that a new study from the British Medical Journal suggests that what women eat as teens can affect their breast cancer risk later in life. Other research has pointed to this connection, but the new findings are encouraging. Are we what we eat, as many scientific studies have suggested? Our diets do affect us for other diseases and beginning healthy eating in adolescence, or even before that, is likely to have an even greater effect on how healthy we are over the years.
Researchers looked at the data from 90,000 nurses who were part of the Nurses’ Health Study II, an ongoing study tracking the lifestyle habits and health outcomes of nurses all over the country. Questions that the nurses answered included those about their diets in adolescence or early adulthood. The team looked for any connections between those diets, particularly fruit and vegetable content and the women’s breast cancer risk over a 20-year period.
Results showed striking connections. Fruit consumption during one’s teenage years was linked to a 25 percent reduced risk of breast cancer diagnosis in middle age. Eating fruits and vegetables high in alpha-carotene such as carrots, squash, pumpkin and sweet potato were also linked to a reduced risk.
Breaking it down further by specific food and age, the researchers found that eating more apples, bananas and grapes during adolescence was linked to reduced risk. Eating more oranges and kale during early adulthood also indicated the reduced risk.
Monaca Montag, a certified nutritionist at BeWell Associates in State College, said, “The newer literature states that the cause of disease is 90 percent environmental and 10 percent genetic.” She explained that many environmental factors and also the state of the food we eat has an influence on our overall health.
Montag and her partner at BeWell, Angie Wallace, create personalized nutrition programs using evidence-based protocols that consider a client’s lifestyle, eating habits and environmental exposures. According to Montag, some of the environmental factors that can wreck havoc within a body include eating foods high in sugar and fat, eating dairy products that often contain hormones that were given to the cows and eating red meat that we do not know the history of. Some other considerations for your health: The clear plastic wrap that many people cover food their food with can leach plastic into your food when heated and plastic foam containers from fast food places and restaurants contain chemicals that can be released when the container is heated.
“Even the coating on cash register tapes has an estrogenic effect,’ said Montag. Males get breast cancer, also, and estrogenic substances have been questioned in regard to those cancers.
“Fortunately, there are simple tests that can look at how your body excretes estrogens and whether they are being released along a safe pathway in the liver. If not, there are dietary and supplement changes to prevent future problems,” said Montag.
When asked about the diet of young girls affecting their future chances of acquiring breast cancer, Montag said, “The diet of most young women is sadly lacking in protein. They should have three to four ounces of protein twice daily. In meat, that would be equal to the size of a deck of cards, two times a day.
‘Young women should be eating fresh vegetables and fruits — the dark leafy ones and the brightly colored ones. Those are full of polyphenols, plant-based antioxidants that help to reduce and repair cellular damage.
‘As I said, the chemicals and other substances in our environment can be estrogenic. Good nutrition helps to combat those effects, as does exercise and proper rest.”
At BeWell, tests are available that can help pinpoint nutritional deficiencies, food allergies, estrogen levels, organic acids, amino acids adrenal stress profiles and more. Montag can help by interpreting test results and advising on supplements or diet changes to address many different conditions, such as fatigue, digestive problems, skin conditions and headaches.
Simple dietary changes can produce surprising results. Beans are a good source of protein and contain up to 19 grams of fiber per cup. Eating three cups of beans weekly could cut your cancer risk 33 percent, according to a study by the researchers at the University of Buffalo. Dr. Christine Horner, author of “Radiant Health Ageless Beauty” reports that “fiber binds to breast-irritating estrogens in the intestines, forcing them to be excreted instead of absorbed.”
Being aware and knowledgeable about what we eat can influence our overall health — even many years in the future.
