According to the American Cancer Society, as many as one in eight American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives. Though increased awareness about this disease and potential warning signs has helped spur early diagnoses and more effective treatment, there is still much more to learn about how this cancer develops and what can be done to stop it.
It is growing increasingly evident that our lifestyle choices, including diet and exercise routines, can have a dramatic impact on overall health and our risk of contracting various diseases. In that vein, a team of U.S. researchers have found that consuming a diet that is rich in tomatoes may reduce the risk of developing breast cancer among postmenopausal women. More specifically, eating tomatoes was linked to an improvement in hormone levels shown to affect metabolism.
“The advantages of eating plenty of tomatoes and tomato-based products, even for a short period, were clearly evident in our findings,” explained lead author Adana Llanos, Ph.D., MPH, of Rutgers University, in a press release. Llanos explained that the vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and lycopenes found in tomatoes and other fresh produce were shown to positively affect the body’s natural defenses again breast cancer and other concerns.
Though breast cancer can affect women and men throughout adulthood, individuals over the age of 50 have to be particularly vigilant in checking their chests for suspicious lumps. This is why so many physicians advise monthly mammograms at this stage in life.
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