Food and diet: reduce your risk of breast cancer

Dr Wynnie Chan reveals how diet can dramatically reduce the risk of breast cancer

As any women whose life has been touched by breast cancer will tell you, it is a terrifying disease that turns everything upside down. Yet scientific evidence suggests that around one third of all cancers occur as a result of diet.

A few years ago the government brought together a group of experts to find out why. Their findings were published in the report, Nutritional Aspects of the Development of Cancer.

The report found that both dietary and non-dietary factors come into play. Non-dietary risk factors include:

periods starting at an early age
a late first pregnancy
few or no children
late menopause
hormone replacement therapy
being tall

Of the risk factors discussed in the government report, strong evidence was found associating obesity (especially if the fat is round the waist) with the risk of developing breast cancer. It is important to note that being overweight only increases the risk of breast cancer for women who have been through the menopause.

However, according to The Imperial Cancer Research Fund website studies have not shown any direct links between the actual consumption of fat and breast cancer.

A number of other dietary factors were also discussed in the report.

While the role fat plays in developing breast cancer remains unclear, the level of fat intake does influence levels of the hormone oestrogen - a trigger for breast cancer - and the age at which menstruation begins.

Red and fried meat may increase the risk of breast cancer. Two types of compounds called heterocyclic amines (formed when meat is browned) and N-nitroso compounds (formed in the gut after eating meat) have been shown to cause mammary tumours in animals and therefore pose a potential threat to humans too.

There is consistent evidence that alcohol - even just one drink a day - does lead to a small increase in risk although it's not known why.