|
 You
are here:  Home
>  Today's
Article
Asian
Diets Cut Cancer Risk
Chinese women who ate mushrooms
and drank green tea significantly cut their risk of
breast cancer and the severity of the cancer in those
who did develop it, an Australian researcher said Wednesday.
Min Zhang, from the University of Western Australia,
studied the diets of 2,018 women from the southeastern
Chinese city of Hangzhou -- half of whom had breast
cancer -- between July 2004 and September 2005.
While breast cancer was the most common type of cancer
for women worldwide, Min said the rate in China was
four to five times lower than that typically found in
developed countries.
"We concluded that higher dietary intake of mushrooms
decreased breast cancer risk in pre- and post-menopausal
Chinese women, and an additional decreased risk of breast
cancer from the joint effect of mushrooms and green
tea was observed," Min told AFP.
"The risk of breast cancer significantly declined
with the highest intake of dietary mushrooms,"
she said, adding that fresh and dried mushrooms were
equally effective.
Eating as little as 10 grams, or less than one button
mushroom daily, would have a beneficial effect, Min
found, with the women who consumed the most fresh mushrooms
around two-thirds less likely to develop breast cancer
compared with those who did not eat mushrooms.
In addition to lowering the cancer risk, green tea
and mushrooms also cut the malignancy of any cancer
which did form, Min found.
The fact that the combination of green tea and mushrooms
was more effective than just mushrooms alone could partially
explain the lower incidence of breast cancer amongst
Chinese women, she said.
"To our knowledge, this is the first human study
to evaluate the joint effect of mushrooms and green
tea on breast cancer," she said.
"Our findings, if confirmed consistently in other
research, have potential implications for protection
against breast cancer development using an inexpensive
dietary intervention."
The study was published in the most recent issue of
the International Journal of Cancer, and is one in a
series of Asian studies by Min and her team on the anti-carcinogenic
effects of phytochemicals.
Source: Yahoo
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090318/thl-green-tea-mushrooms-cut-breast-cance-aa1aa08.html
|
