HOW FOODS CAN PREVENT BREAST CANCER: SLOW DOWN ESTROGEN PRODUCTION
How useful is the idea of decreasing the effect of estrogens? R. L. Prentice, in Cancer Causes and Control, estimates that a 17 percent reduction in the key estrogen, estradiol, might produce a four- to fivefold reduction in breast cancer. In other words, small changes in estrogen levels can effect large changes in the risk of cancer. Let's look at the most effective steps.
Low-Fat Diet
A low-fat diet is eaten in those countries, such as China, Japan, and Singapore, with the lowest incidence of breast cancer. Countries with higher-fat diets these include England, Scotland and Wales, and Finland have more breast cancer. For instance, Finnish women on higher-fat diets had higher estradiol levels than Asian women and far higher breast cancer rates. In fact, if there is one common denominator found in Asian women with low risk of breast cancer, it is a low level of estradiol. Remember that estradiol is the most important and powerful of the natural estrogens. A high-fat diet increases estradiol production by 30 percent. In dozens of animal experiments, a high-fat diet spurs the growth of cancers. But the connection between low fat and low estrogen levels isn't just an observation, it is something that works in real life. The British Journal of Cancer showed that a 15 percent low-fat diet, followed rigorously for two years, lowered estradiol levels by 20 percent.
High-Fiber Diet
Hand in hand with a low-fat diet is a high-fiber diet. Americans pay great lip service to fiber but eat vanishingly little of it by world standards. However, when the American Health Foundation made a real effort to increase fiber intake substantially, even they were surprised by the results: The more wheat bran patients ate, the lower their blood levels of estrogen were. After just two months of a 20-grams-per-day wheat bran supplement, estradiol decreased significantly. But the addition of high fiber to low fat is especially potent medicine. African-American women have far higher levels of estrogen than Caucasian women. Their high-fat, low-fiber diet is held accountable. Doctors at Tufts University fed African-American women a 40grams-per-day high-fiber diet combined with a 20 percent low-fat diet. Estradiol fell 8.5 percent and estrogen sulfate, the most prevalent estrogen, fell by 22 percent. This same high-fiber, low-fat diet works wonders for millions of women trying to control excess body fat.
Lower Body Fat
Excess body fat works as an enormous estrogen factory. The more fat cells and the bigger they are, the more estrogen they produce. As many women gain weight, those who gain it "up top," that is, in their breasts and upper abdomen, add the greatest risk. Obesity is associated with poorer survival in women who contract cancer. The less body fat you have, the less estrogen you will produce. When studying Japanese women, scientists hypothesized that a big part of the reduced risk of cancer they see in a low-fat diet simply comes from having less fat and therefore less estrogen. Keeping body fat low is especially important as an adult. Weight gain from early adulthood may account for as much as a third of new cases of postmenopausal breast cancer.
Lower Insulin Levels
Only recently has a connection been made between insulin and breast cancer. Insulin is a strong promoter of the estrogen effect. Insulin is like half-strength estrogen, stimulating cells to divide just like estrogen. That may sound unimpressive, but estrogen and insulin work synergistically, stimulating DNA to copy its messages for cell growth and division. It is yet another example of how one and one adds up to far more than two. A high insulin syndrome often depends on where you store fat. If you have an "apple" shape, where excess body fat is carried above the hips, you are at risk for a high insulin level. That's contrasted to the "pear" shape, where excess fat is carried below the hips in the thighs and buttocks. A diet rich in starches and sugars increases insulin levels. This is referred to as a high-glucose-load diet. Because your system cannot handle the tremendous "load" of sugar that this diet pours into your system, your body will pour out equally large amounts of the hormone insulin to defend itself. Women who gain body fat around the upper abdomen usually eat a high-glucose-load diet and suffer from an excess production of insulin. Since high insulin level is such a potent promoter of the estrogen effect, it's important to cut those insulin levels both to protect yourself against cancer and to control your weight. The chapter "Step 4: Lower Insulin" tells you how.
Limit Alcohol
Whether you produce a moderate or high amount of estrogen, alcohol is one last factor that can drive any amount of estrogen to an even higher level. Alcohol is fast emerging as a major risk. The risk of breast cancer is increased 11 percent per drink per day. Four drinks a day and your risk increases 44 percent.
Aromatase Inhibitors
These drugs can cut the production of estrogen from fat stores in the breast to nearly zero. They are soon to be used in clinical trials to prevent breast cancer.
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Womens health