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Breast cancer – fruit and vegetables not up to the job
We already know that as far as breast cancer is concerned, eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day does not prevent relapses. A new American study now goes further still, concluding that even a diet that is very high in fruit and vegetables does not give protection against the disease.
Following a randomised study, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, monitored over 3,000 women who had survived breast cancer. For four years, one part of the group followed a diet that was very high in fruit and vegetables. That’s to say that their diet contained far more than the recommended five-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables.
When compared with the rest of the cohort, the women in this group did not show any additional protection against the return of the disease. “We did not observe any significant benefit, the authors conclude. In an editorial accompanying the article, however, Susan Gapstur and Seema Khan of the Freinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, relativise this conclusion. “Further parameters need to be taken into account before reaching a firm conclusion. For example, the presence of errors in the measuring of food intake and the lifestyle of the patients, they venture”. Whatever the case, the benefits for our cardiovascular system of eating fruit and vegetables are not in question. Rich in vitamins, mineral salts and trace elements, fruit and vegetables offer considerable antioxidant properties.
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