Scientists from Tehran University of Medical Sciences report that long-term adherence to the DASH diet is associated with about a 30% lower risk of breast cancer.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States. It occurs when cells in the breast grow uncontrollably. There are several types of breast cancer, depending on which cells in the breast become cancerous.
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan is widely recommended as a healthy diet.
It emphasizes fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, whole grains, fish, poultry, and nuts, while limiting saturated fat, red meat, sweets, and sugary beverages.
However, evidence on the relationship between the DASH diet and breast cancer risk has been limited.
In the current study, researchers investigated whether adherence to the DASH diet is associated with breast cancer risk.
The study included 477 people with confirmed breast cancer and 507 healthy participants. Researchers assessed participants’ diets using a validated 168-item Food Frequency Questionnaire.
Overall, participants with breast cancer were slightly older, had higher body mass index (BMI), and were less physically active than those without the disease.
The researchers found that strong adherence to the DASH diet was associated with a substantially lower risk of breast cancer in the overall population. Even after adjusting for additional risk factors, the highest adherence to the DASH diet was linked to a 34% reduction in breast cancer risk.
Among younger women, adherence to the DASH dietary pattern was associated with a 32% reduction in risk, while in older women the reduction reached 38%.
Based on these findings, the researchers suggest that following the DASH diet may be associated with roughly a 30% lower risk of breast cancer. However, they emphasize that further studies — particularly long-term prospective studies — are needed to confirm the relationship.
The study was conducted by Fatemeh Toorang and colleagues and published in the journal Clinical Breast Cancer.
