Reported July 11, 2007

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Asian women who tank up on meats and sweets are more likely to develop breast cancer than those who eat a traditional Eastern diet full of vegetables and soy products.

But the link may have as much to do with obesity caused by such a diet as the foods themselves. Researchers found the link mainly in overweight women who ate the Westernized diet.

The study is the first to take a scientific look at something doctors have speculated about for years. Do Asian women have lower breast cancer rates because they eat diets rich in vegetables and fresh fish?

Researchers compared women living in Shanghai, China, who were diagnosed with breast cancer to women without the disease. Overweight women who reported a diet high in meats, candy, dessert, bread and milk -- the "meat-sweet" group -- were more than twice as likely to develop breast cancer as those who reported eating a diet rich in vegetables, soy-based products and freshwater fish -- the "vegetable-soy" group.

"Our study suggests the possibility that the meat-sweet pattern increased breast cancer risk by increasing obesity," study author Marilyn Tseng, Ph.D., from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, was quoted as saying. "Low consumption of a Western dietary pattern plus successful weight control may protect against breast cancer in a traditionally low-risk Asian population that is poised to more broadly adopt foods characteristic of Western societies."

SOURCE: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, published online July 10, 2007