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Lower Breast Cancer Risk

Five Tips to Lower Your Risk of Breast Cancer

Article by Allen Lawrence, M.D.

1. Leafy greens
If you are a salad person, you are already on your way to being protected. If all you eat is lettuce and tomatoes, then add a few other greens to your salad to increase its value to you. Use more spinach, kale, broccoli, arugula, field greens and escarole. As little as 2 cups of these greens a week can lower your risk of breast cancer. You can eat them raw in your salad or cook them and use them for a side dish, mix them with beans, put them in a soup or stew. Eat them any way you like, just eat them regularly and you will benefit by lowering your risk of breast and other cancers. These greens are also especially valuable for women who currently have breast cancer, or who have been treated for breast cancer in the past, as it also can reduce the risk of reoccurrence.

2. Tomatoes
Tomatoes are chock full of lycopenes, and they not only prevent breast cancer and other cancers in women, but prostate cancer in men. As little as two 6 oz. servings a week as fresh tomatoes (once again organically grown is best) or canned as sauce, stewed, paste or simply tomato juice.

Beans, Peas and Lentils

3. Beans
A Harvard University study that tracked 90,000 for 8 years demonstrated that two servings of any beans each week can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 34 percent when compared with women with one or less servings of beans each month. The suggestion is 3 cups a week, and this can be in soups, salads, bean salads, as a side dish in a chili or stew. Any beans will due including pinto, red beans, lentils and black beans. Rinsed and drained canned beans are okay.

Berries

4. Berries
Another food group that can help you to reduce your risk of breast cancer is berries. All berries will do, but especially strawberries, blue berries and black raspberries. Berries are very high in antioxidants and they fight the development of cancer while preventing it at the same time. Fresh berries are best, but if fresh berries are not available, out of season or not grown in your area, then frozen berries will do nicely. When you think berries, if you can buy organically grown berries, that is berries grown where no chemical fertilizers or insecticides are used on them. Two to three servings a week as a main course, berries with yogurt or cottage cheese, or as a desert, a fresh berry salad, or just as a snack, anytime you are hungry. Berries are low in calories and rich in nutrients.

Iced Green Tea

5. Green Tea
One study demonstrated that women who drank as little as 3 cups of green tea a day were 37 percent less likely to develop breast cancer. Don’t worry about the caffeine in green tea, the tea itself seems to be healthy enough to reduce any risk or problems associated with caffeine. If you do have a heart problem and you are not supposed to have caffeine, talk with your doctor or start very slowly with only a half a cup a day, increase slowly until your system gets accustomed to the caffeine. If you do have a reaction and going slowly does not help, then look to the other foods discussed here; don’t create problems for yourself. If you have no problems with caffeine or go slowly and do well, you can drink green tea hot or iced.

All of these are low-calorie, low-fat, nutrient-rich foods, and beside their ability to protect you from breast and other cancers, they are also tasty and fun to eat. Mixing is perfectly okay, so creating a black bean or a three= to five=bean chili with stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce or paste, with or without a lean meat (chicken, turkey or even fish) cn be a terrific lunch or dinner. Now start the meal with a mixed salad using not only lettuce, and lots of tomatoes, but the spinach, kale, broccoli, arugula and field greens with a mild low fat low calorie dressing. For desert, a bowel of blueberries, black or red raspberries and strawberries topped with a dollop of plain yogurt and wash it all down with a hardy serving of iced green tea. Vary the dishes, do this weekly and within a short time, you will have reduced your risk of breast cancer more than 50 percent. Encourage your husband and children to eat this way and the whole family will be protected.

Allen Lawrence is the head of the Holistic Gynecology Program at Preventive Medicine Clinics of the Desert in Palm Springs. For more information go to www.HolisticGynPS.Com or www.PalmSpringsGuides.Com and check Dr. Lawrence’s regular column in the PalmSpringsGuides.Com Health and Wellness Magazine section.