Did you know? Research seems to indicate that women who eat an average of 1 mushroom (10gm) per day seem to halve their risk of breast cancer.*
Ongoing breast cancer research studies, conducted around the globe stretching from Western Australia to California seem to indicate that mushrooms have breast cancer-fighting properties that could establish them as important partners in the battle to win this fight. (Source: A study published in the International Journal of Cancer).
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Research Studies On Mushrooms And Cancer
1. Researchers at the University of Western Australia discovered in their study that women who ate at least 10 grams of white button mushrooms per day were 64 percent less likely to develop breast cancer.
2. Dr. Shiuan Chen and team of the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope in Duarte, California, supported the Australian finding when their separate study also found that common white button mushrooms (Agaricus Bisporus) may have anticancer effects if taken daily. “Results from this (study) and (from) other laboratories support the hypothesis that white button mushrooms may be an important dietary constituent for reducing the incidence of hormone-dependent breast cancer in women,” confirmed Dr. Shiuan Chen, director of the Division of Tumor Cell Biology at the Beckman Research Institute. “Prevention strategies involving mushrooms are readily available, affordable, and acceptable to the general public. You don’t need a strong effect to cause cancer prevention. Eating 100 grams or even less of mushrooms per day could have an effect on preventing new breast cancers.” In the research done, mushroom extracts turned out to be effective aromatase inhibitors. Aromatase is an enzyme that helps the body make estrogen, a hormone that feeds the growth of breast tumors. Of seven vegetables tested, mushrooms had the greatest effect.
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3. Mushrooms may also help prevent cancer by providing natural antioxidant compounds. Antioxidants work to neutralise free radicals (naturally occurring chemicals that can damage cells’ DNA and initiate the cancer process) and help to repair damage that has already occurred. In some laboratory studies, mushrooms displayed even more antioxidant power than tomatoes and carrots.
“Eating mushrooms would be an easy intervention. It could provide a cost-effective wholefood option for cancer risk reduction,” says Dr Shiuan Chen.
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*This seems to be one of the key findings to date from the Beckman Institute at the City of Hope Cancer Centre in California and the University of Australia in Sydney in collaboration with Zhejiang University in China whilst researching the cancer fighting potential of mushrooms.
