A new study has found that eating a handful of walnuts on a regular basis may reduce women’s risk of developing breast cancer. Researchers from the Marshall University observed in mice that consuming 2 ounces of walnuts each day reduced the growth of breast cancer tumors.
Lead researcher Elaine Hardman, of Marshall's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, and colleagues compared the risk of breast cancer among two groups of mice, one group with a regular diet and one group with walnut component of diet. In conclusion, the mice who ate walnuts everyday developed breast cancer at half the rate of the normal diet mice. The tumor size and number of the mice with the walnut diet were smaller and fewer than the mice with the normal diet.
Walnuts are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and phytosterols, which may be involved in reducing the risk of breast cancer.
“These reductions are particularly important when you consider that the mice were genetically programmed to develop cancer at a high rate,” Hardman said. “We were able to reduce the risk for cancer even in the presence of a pre-existing genetic mutation,” she added. Using genetic analysis, the researchers found that the walnut-containing diet changed the activity of multiple genes that are relevant to breast cancer in both mice and humans.
“The results of this study indicate that increased consumption of walnut could be part of a healthy diet and reduce risk for cancer in future generations,” she said. The study appears in the journal Nutrition and Cancer.
The study was funded by grants from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the California Walnut Commission.
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