Diet

Despite a great deal of research over the past few decades, we don’t yet know for certain if there are any specific links between a person’s diet and their risk of breast cancer.

We all eat a variety of different foods and our diets change over time. For this reason, measuring the effect of an individual food type on breast cancer risk is very difficult.

Diet is also closely related to other lifestyle factors. Someone who eats a balanced diet rich in fruit and vegetables, for example, may exercise more regularly than someone whose diet is higher in fat and sugar.

The challenge for researchers then, is to untangle the separate effects of closely related lifestyle factors so they can identify which risk factors – if any – can be attributed to diet.

What we do know, of course, is that there many reasons for eating healthily. At Breakthrough we recommend a diet high in fruit, vegetables and whole grains and low in red and processed meats, animal fat and sugary, fatty, processed food.

A healthy diet will help you control your weight, which is a risk factor in breast cancer after the menopause. It will also lower the risk of other cancers and diseases such as type II diabetes.

For more information about breast cancer risks, download the booklet, Obesity and Breast Cancer Risk: The Facts (424 kb) .