October 18, 2005 – Women who drink alcohol may protect themselves better against breast cancer by consuming more legumes and green vegetables. These contain folic acid which is said to have a protective effect.
This is the conclusion of an epidemiological study in which 17,447 Australians aged 40 to 69 from April 1990 to December 2003 participated.1. During these years, 537 breast cancers were diagnosed in these participants who consumed a little, moderately, a lot or not at all alcohol. The vast majority of them (86%) drank less than 20 g of alcohol per day and 3% drank more than 40 g. Remember that a single drink contains 13.6 g of alcohol.
Some of the best sources of folic acid are legumes, spinach, asparagus, broccoli, romaine lettuce, flax seeds, soy beans, as well as poultry offal, liver livers. veal, lamb and pork.
A woman who drinks alcohol, let alone a lot of alcohol, increases her risk of getting breast cancer. “Even if the link between the two is modest, the fact remains that the adverse effects of alcohol on breast cancer are one of the most important discoveries in terms of dietary risks,” say the researchers. . They recall that various studies have established that folic acid from food sources would have a protective effect against colorectal and breast cancer.
The protection provided by foods rich in this nutrient would be even more pronounced in women who drink a lot. “In our study, women who drank a lot and took little folic acid showed an increased risk of breast cancer, while women who drank a lot and had moderate to high folic acid consumption were not prone to this increased risk ”, state the authors of this study.
However, the number of women who took both a lot of alcohol and folic acid was not very high, which limits the scope of the study. Also, data on alcohol and folic acid consumption were established on a voluntary basis by the participants. This could have skewed the results.
Guy Sabourin – PasseportSanté.net
1. Baglietto L, English DR, Gertig DM, et al. Does dietary folate intake modify effect of alcohol consumption on breast cancer risk? Prospective cohort study, Brisish Medical Journal, August 8, 2005.
