Research Revealing Food that Fights Breast Cancer Part 1

In my study of medical journal articles I have started collecting the ones that reveal how certain food prevents various diseases so I can share that information with you.

In one way it’s amazing and encouraging to me that main stream medicine is performing research to identify how food affects health and various disease processes.

On the other hand, it’s a bit amusing too since main stream medicine is so far behind what most of us (you and me) have known for at least decades, that is:

Healthy eating produces healthy bodies.

Dr. Price knew that in the 1930’s.

It was common knowledge before the “modern diet” came onto the scene, starting in the late 1800’s.

For beginners let’s take a look at some recent articles on how food affects breast cancer.

Enterolactones reduce the risk of breast cancer:

Dr. Jenny Chang-Claude at the German Cancer Research Center studied a natural plant compound that may help reduce the risk of breast cancer by 40 percent. She measured the level of this compound called enterolactone in the blood stream of 1,100 women who had postmenopausal breast cancer from 2002 to 2005.

For the subsequent six years she followed their progress.  The women with the highest enterolactone levels had a 40% lesser chance of dying and developed fewer new tumors.

Other researchers were uncovering evidence that enterolactone starves the cancer cells by interfering with their blood supply thus dealing a mortal blow to them.

Another expert Dr. Louisa Velentzis who led cancer research for the Imperial College of London and currently oversees the research for the UK Cancer Council NSW reviewed 23 more studies on the effects of enterolactone on breast cancer. Over and over again the studies confirmed that eating higher amounts of enterolactone reduced breast cancer risk.

A French researcher Dr. Marina Touillaud led a study for the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. She followed 58,000 post-menopausal women for 7 years. Once again the ones who ate the most food containing enterolactones had a 17 percent lower risk for breast cancer.

So where does this exotic sounding compound come from? Foods that should be common in our diets. Pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, flaxseed and sunflower seeds contain rich sources of lignans. The process of digestion releases these enterolactones into the bowel where they are absorbed into the blood stream.

Vegetables like broccoli, kale, cabbage and Brussels sprouts contain the next best source of lignans followed by the fruit sources in strawberries and apricots.

 Bitter melon – preliminary research

The effects of lignans on the reduction of breast cancer has been well documented. However, research is just beginning on the effects of bitter melon.

Dr. Ratna Ray, a professor of pathology at St. Louis University specializes in studying the regulation of cell growth.

The results of her study, published in the journal Cancer Research, are promising, but need further testing.

She found that a two percent bitter melon extract killed 80 percent of breast cancer cells in the laboratory grown cell cultures as reported in the journal Cancer Research.

In her next research project she will study the effects of bitter melon on animal cancers.

Although this discovery has not been thoroughly tested bitter melon in a fruit that many people eat as part of their regular diets, especially in Asian countries. Since it also helps to lower blood sugar anyone with blood sugar problems should monitor their blood sugar levels carefully if they choose to eat bitter melon.

So as we have routinely recommended, include healthy seeds in your diet, not only for the good oils in them but also for the lignans that help combat breast cancer. Start your day with a Power Drink, one easy and healthy way to eat more seeds.

https://www.drjomd.com/2012/02/power-drinks/

And remember to eat a great variety of colorful vegetables including the ones from the cabbage family that contain great sources of lignans too. If you’re familiar with Dr. Jo’s Natural Healing Cookbook you know how fun it is to eat a lot of veggies.

Stay tuned (for the next article),,, More food to fight breast cancer.

Blessings,

Dr. Jo