What do Green Tea, Mushrooms and Soya Beans have in common? Read on to find out.Its always been known that eating right is one aspect of living a healthy lifestyle. But when it comes to food that contain anti cancer properties, some are truly more equal than others.
Soy Good
Take soya beans for example.
Scientists have long believed there was some link between consumption of soy bean products and cancer prevention.
A recent collaborative study between the Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine in NUS, the University of Southern California and the University of Minnesota has discovered that regularly eating soya bean products can cut the risk of breast cancer by 18 per cent.
The study looked into consumption patterns of Chinese Women with regard to soy foods including fried soya bean curd like "taukwa" and "taupok". Over a decade, after taking into consideration other dietary and lifestyle factors, the risk of breast cancer was 18 per cent higher in the group that ate less compared to the group that ate more.
The researchers also found that the more soy protein women after menopause consume, the lower the estrogen levels in their blood. This is significant because breast cancer needs estrogen to grow.
And one does not need to eat large amounts of soya to benefit from its protective effects, as just one glass of soya milk a day was enough to help reduce the risk of breast cancer, according to one of the researchers, Assoc Prof Koh Woon Puay of NUS Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine.
Some Mushrooms with that Tea?
Green Tea and Mushrooms are also potent cancer fighting foods, according to results of another study at University of Western Australia reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP), and in order to maximise the effect you have to consume both of them.
The study found that chinese women who did this significantly cut their risk of breast cancer and, in the case of those who already have cancer, lessened the severity of the disease.
According to Min Zhang, one of the researchers in the study, the risk of breast cancer significantly declined with the highest intake of dietary mushrooms, though fresh and dried mushrooms were equally effective.
As in the case of soya beans, Min Zhang found that eating as little as 10 grams, or less than one button mushroom daily, would have a beneficial effect. Min also discovered that women who consumed the most fresh mushrooms around two-thirds less likely to develop breast cancer compared with those who did not eat mushrooms.
In addition to lowering the cancer risk, green tea and mushrooms also cut the malignancy of any cancer which did form, Min reported.
On an objective note, the results from these research studies do not confirm 100 per cent protection from cancer if you consume those foods.
However, eating some mushroom and tofu and drinking green tea everyday won't hurt and there is certainkly a chance that it may help you steer away from breast cancer. So why not try it? It's a win-win proposition for sure.
Besides, if you form a diet based solely on those three items, you're guaranteed to look trim!
References:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i003gzjglHjyx9moZeDh5Ra4ijnQ
http://www.nus.edu.sg/research/rg150.php
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