Breast Health

Diet

If you want to eat to reduce your risk of breast cancer, you need to shove those Twinkies down the garbage disposal, give up that early morning sausage biscuit and stop drowning your green salad in creamy, thick salad dressings.   Seriously.  As previously described, a diet rich in high-fat meats (such as spare ribs, pork sausage and bologna), French fries, commercial salad dressings, butter, lard or margarine, simple carbohydrates (white flour, white rice, sugar) have been found to upset hormone balance and increase levels of circulating estrogens. 

In From Belly Fat to Belly Flat  we outline a nutritional program specifically designed to help you decrease your extra estrogen load.  Here are the highlights:

Cruciferous Vegetables and Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C)
The consumption of cruciferous vegetables is a critical pivot of my plan’s success.  In Chapter One you learned that there are good and bad estrogens.  How estrogen is metabolized in the body is determined by an individual’s biochemical make-up with some persons producing more 2-hydroxy derivatives (the “good” estrogens) and others producing more 16-hydroxyesterone (the “bad” estrogen).  Consuming large amounts of cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, spinach, brussel sprouts, celery, beet root, kale, cabbage, parsley root, radish, turnip, collard and mustard greens has been shown to improve the production of “good” estrogen and foster an optimum 2/16 estrogen ratio. 

Bio-chemically, here’s what happens.  Cruciferous vegetables contain a phytonutrient called Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C).  I3C has been shown to act as a catalyst to pull estradiol down a benign pathway to 2-hydroxy estrone thus decreasing levels of the carcinogenic 16-alpha hydroxyestrone. In layman’s terms, this means that cruciferous vegetables can help decrease the body’s load of unhealthy estrogens and reduce an overall unhealthy condition of estrogen dominance. 

A very noticeable benefit of eating more cruciferous vegetables will be decreased abdominal circumference of the waist (or you might say that your gut will get smaller).  Another less obvious but very real bonus may be a reduced risk of developing breast, uterine or prostate cancer. 

Citrus Fruits:  D-Limomene
D-Limomene, found in the oils of citrus fruits, has been shown to promote detoxification of estrogen.  Common citrus fruits include oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, lemons, limes and tangelos.  Research also found that, when administered an extract of D-Limomene, both male and female lab mice evidenced lower body weight.

Insoluble Fiber
There are two types of fiber:  soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and is degraded by bacteria in your colon. Soluble fiber forms a gel in your intestines which regulates the flow of waste material through your digestive tract. This type of fiber is found in oatmeal, oat bran, dried peas, beans, lentils, apples, pears, strawberries and blueberries. Soluble fiber is good for you but, no matter how much of it you eat, it won’t influence your hormonal equilibrium.

Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, can directly impact your hormone balance by helping decrease estrogen overload.  Insoluble fiber binds to extra estrogen in the digestive tract. This extra estrogen is later eliminated in the body through the feces.  According to the Harvard School of Public Health, sources of insoluble fiber include: whole grains, whole wheat breads, barley, couscous, brown rice, whole-grain breakfast cereals, wheat bran, seeds, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, celery and tomatoes.

Lignans
Ground or milled flaxseed, sesame seeds and flaxseed oil are part of a food group called lignans. The friendly bacteria in our intestines convert plant lignans into the "human" lignans, primarily enterolactone, that have a weak estrogen like activity. When there are low estrogen levels in the body these weak lignan 'estrogens' make up some of the insufficiency. When the body is estrogen dominant, however, the lignan 'estrogens’ bind to the human body’s estrogen receptors thereby reducing human estrogen activity at a cellular level.