Women Who Eat Plenty Of Fiber Have Less Of This Cancer...

Extracted from Daily Health Bulletin by Kirsten Whittaker

Women Who Eat Plenty Of Fiber Have Less Of This Cancer...

More reason to up your fiber intake. Another look at the evidence finds that women who eat more fiber are less likely to get breast cancer according to a team of researchers from China.

In fact, the subjects who ate the highest amounts of plant components were less likely to be diagnosed with dangerous, disfiguring breast cancer than those women who ate the least amount were.

It's quite likely that fiber does more than aid digestion or keep you feeling fuller, longer - cancer fighter might soon be added to its list of benefits.

The researchers believe this finding is supported by the idea that those who eat high fiber diets have lower levels of the hormone estrogen, known to be a risk factor for breast tumors.

Digging deeper into the question, the team combined 10 earlier research studies that examined women's diets and followed them from 7 to 18 years to see who was diagnosed with this form of cancer.

Of the more than 710,000 subjects, 2.4% were diagnosed with breast cancer, with those in the top fifth of fiber intake being 11% less likely to have this form of cancer than those women whose intake was in the bottom fifth.

This held even after accounting for well-known risk factors like alcohol intake, weight, hormone replacement therapy and even family history.

While the findings don't prove that fiber lowers the risk of breast cancer, women who eat more fiber might be healthier in many other ways than their counterparts. Perhaps they eat other healthy foods, or engage in healthy behaviors. The findings only point out an association; they can't say what might happen if women changed the way they ate according to John Pierce, a cancer researcher at the University of California, San Diego, not involved in the Chinese study. The Chinese team agrees.

What's more, according to Dr. Eleni Linos of Stanford University, another expert not involved in the work, the potential effect of fiber on breast cancer was very small. Still, it's something that experts know is good for you in terms of bringing down cholesterol and helping you lose weight, and if it turns out to be a cancer fighter as well, so much the better.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture believes that most Americans don't get enough fiber. Women should be taking in 25 grams per day; men need to be eating 38 grams according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. Unfortunately, the average American gets far less, just under 15 grams of beneficial fiber each day.

Your best sources of this nutrient are beans, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

Statistics suggest that one in eight American women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. The biggest risk factors for the disease are being a female and getting older... neither of which you can do much about.

But you can make an impact in your risk of this disease by choosing how you maintain your body... and what you put into it. Overweight and obese women, especially after menopause, are known to have an increased risk of breast cancer, and this is something you can most assuredly do something about. And while giving your body beneficial nutrients like fiber (as well as lots of other natural, healthy choices) hasn't been proven beyond doubt to be protective, it certainly can't hurt.

The work on breast cancer and fiber appears online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.