For girls and young women, getting a lot of fiber could pay off decades later with lowered risk of developing breast cancer, according to a large U.S study.
Researches analyzed data on more than 44,000 women participating in a long-term study and found there’s reason to believe that dietary fiber could affect developing breasts in ways that impact long-term cancer risk.
Researches used data from Nurses’ Health Study II, and asked 44,263 premenopausal women about their diets when they were in high school. The study team divided women into five groups, from highest to lowest intake of dietary fiber when they were teens and also when they were young women.
Those who ate the most dietary fiber when they were young were 16% to 20% less likely to develop breast cancer.
In early adulthood and as teenagers, the women who got the least dietary fiber consumed an average of 12 grams per day, compared to 26 grams per day for those who got the most fiber.
The findings show that each additional 10 grams per day increase in fiber intake during adolescence reduces risk of breast cancer by 14%, and getting the recommending 25 to 30 grams per day would decrease breast cancer risk by 30%.
“Twenty-six grams of fiber a day is not that much,” and that amount was tied to a significant decrease in breast cancer risk, said Dr. Kimberly L. Blackwell of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, who coauthored a commentary on the new results.
Fiber intake influences circulating hormone levels, and hormone levels during the adolescent period of breast development may impact later breast cancer risk, she said.
Women who go more fiber as young adults also tend to carry healthy eating habits into later life, she noted.
“Ideally this fiber come from fruits and vegetables, but it can also come from cereals or fortified foods,” Blackwell said.
It is recommended that parents of young daughters provide plenty of high-fiber foods at home and make sure their children eat enough fruits and vegetables, whole-grain pasta, dark bread or brown rice, legumes and nuts in their diet.
Seven Healthy Ways to Add More Fiber to Your Diet:
- Plan ahead. Stock your shelves with high-fiber foods.
- Begin with breakfast. Healthy eating starts with a healthy breakfast. Read the labels and pick whole-grain options with five or more grams of fiber per serving.
- Eat fruit and avoid fruit juices. One medium-size apple contains four grams of fiber. The juicing process strips out the fiber.
- Choose healthy, high-fiber snacks like air-popped popcorn.
- Cook with whole-grain and whole foods. Wild rice and whole-wheat spaghetti.
- Eat more legumes. Cooked lentils and beans are among the best foods you can eat when it comes to finding fiber. One serving of lentils or a cup of cooked split peas contains more than 15 grams of fiber.
- Include a fiber supplement in your daily routine. Many fiber supplements contain three grams of dietary fiber per serving. Add some to you peach-and-yogurt smoothie.