Intake of vegetables seems to tremendously help African American women. Experts from the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) assert that African American women consuming more vegetables face less chances of developing estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer than women with low vegetable intake. It is known that African American women are more likely to be diagnosed with estrogen receptor-negative tumors as compared to whites.
The investigation was based on data acquired from the Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS), which is a large follow-up study of 59,000 African American women from all over U.S. Scientists followed 51,928 participants in the BWHS for 12 years. In this time period, 1,268 cases of breast cancer were reported. While evaluating hormone receptor status, 35 percent were probably estrogen receptor-negative/progesterone receptor-negative (ER-/PR-) breast cancers. Occurrence of ER-/PR- breast cancer appeared to be 43 percent lower in women including at least two vegetables in their daily diet than women eating less than four vegetables a week.
It is believed that certain vegetables help decrease breast cancer risk considerably. High intake of cruciferous vegetables may be correlated with declined overall risk of breast cancer. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, mustard and collard greens, and cabbage, are sources of glucosinolates and help prevent the development of breast cancer. These vegetables seem to create an impact on estrogen metabolism as well as detoxification enzymes. Also eating carrots supposedly reduces chances of breast cancer. It is known that carrots are rich sources of carotenoids and lower cancer risk because of their antioxidant properties.
The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.