Covered Breasts Women from America’s interiors may not be eating a correct or perhaps sufficient diet that may in the long run help them avert cancer, notes a new study.

According to the research that has been conducted by johns Hopkins University, the study analyzed the dietary patterns of 156 black women living in 11 public housing communities in Washington, D.C.

The experts discovered that as much as 61 percent of the total women studied, failed to meet more than one of the five dietary goals recommended to decrease the risk of developing cancer: sufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables; low percentage of fat intake; moderate caloric intake; no alcohol consumption; and observance to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Eating Index, a measure of overall quality of diet.

Less than 1 percent met all five dietary goals, and only 15 percent reported eating at least five servings of fruits or vegetables a day.

Ann C. Klassen, an associate professor in the department of health, behavior and society at Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health stated, “Many women drank soda, and ate convenience and prepared foods, even when they sat down with their families for a meal. Younger adults, especially, seem to lack the skills to build a well-balanced diet — skills that our survey shows that older generations of women still possess.”

According to Klassen, African-American women are more prone to cancer and the mortality rate is thereby higher, as compared to most other ethnic groups. Amongst these, African-American women are at an even greater disadvantage. One of the keys to this issue is improving the diet to help women lower their risk for developing cancer

Further on, according to Reuters, the study also found a correlation between depression, smoking and poor diet, and ascertained that women born in the U.S. capital were more probable to have an unhealthy diet than women who had moved to the city from another place.

The new studies and other research documenting racial disparities in breast cancer were slated to be presented this week at the American Association for Cancer Research conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, in Atlanta.