Breast cancer is a health concern that affects the wellbeing of men and women alike, albeit occurring more often in females. According to wellness experts, maintaining a healthy body weight and following a healthy diet is essential for keeping breast cancer at bay, especially when that diet contains high amounts of fatty fish, fruits and vegetables.
According to Zone Diet founder Dr Barry Sears, a leading authority on the effects of diet on hormonal response, ‘A recent study found that women who gained 55 pounds or more after age 18 had almost 1.5 times the risk of breast cancer compared to those who maintained their weight, and a gain of 22 pounds or more is an increased risk of 18%.’ And the primary reason for this development, as well as multiple chronic diseases? Inflammation. ‘Increased inflammation causes the production of a wide variety of inflammatory mediators (hormones and proteins) to be released at the cellular level that lead to a depression of the immune system,’ says Dr Sears. ‘Excess weight gain is also driven by inflammation. The more obese a person is, the greater the levels of inflammation in the body that can depress the immune system.’
However, even if you’re one of the lucky ones who can eat whatever they want and stay stick-thin, you may not be so lucky after all. Even for people of a healthy weight, a diet high in unhealthy fat, sugar, calories and processed foods can lead to breast cancer. Dr Sears explains, ‘A poor diet can be defined as one that increases inflammation and it is inflammation that is the driving force behind breast cancer as well as most other chronic diseases.’ So not only is a healthy diet – high in fresh fruits and vegetables and fatty fish – helpful for weight loss, it will also aid in mediating inflammation throughout your body.
So that’s why you need to fight inflammation through your diet, but how do you go about it? Like Dr Sears’ Zone Diet, anti-inflammatory diets reduce your glycaemic load by making fruits and vegetables your primary source of carbohydrates. These diets also include adequate amounts of low-fat protein sources such as chicken and fish, and primary use of olive oil. All these factors have been clinically demonstrated to have an anti-inflammatory effect in the body, and, at the other end of the scale, vegetable oils rich in omega-6-fats can, when consumed in excess, have been shown to increase inflammation. This is why Dr Sears strongly recommends the exclusion of omega-6-fats from your diet, wherever possible.
Unlike omega-6s, omega-3s are vastly beneficial to your wellness, being long extolled as a source of heart-healthy fat, as well as inflammation reduction. According to one of many studies, published June 2009 in the medical journal BMC Cancer, both pre- and post-menopausal women can greatly reduce their risks of breast cancer by eating a high amount of omega-3 fatty fish. Moreover, omega-3s can even improve your breast cancer treatment efficacy. This is the finding of an April 2009 study, reported in the peer-reviewed online journal Cell Division, which showed that an omega-3 fatty acid reduced systemic inflammation, oxidative stress and leukocytosis, and also augmented the effects of chemotherapy drug cisplatin.
So why are omega-3s so beneficial for fighting breast cancer? Whether they are found in oily fish or fish oils, omega-3s dilute the omega-6 fatty acid arachidonic acid, which is the primary mediator of inflammation in the cell membrane. Dr Sears comments, ‘Increased levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the cellular membrane make it more difficult to produce inflammatory hormones derived from toxic omega-6 fat. Omega-3 fatty acids can also suppress overactive cellular inflammatory responses that are also important in the development of breast cancer.’
