FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Researchers at Colorado State University found a vegetable, fruit and soy diet has an early-acting protective effect on breast carcinogenesis (Am J Clin Nutr. 2010;91(4):1013-19). Using principal components analysis, researchers previously identified a "meat–dim sum" pattern characterized by meat, starch and dim sum items and a "vegetable-fruit-soy" pattern characterized by cruciferous vegetables, fruit, and tofu items in a population-based cohort of Singapore Chinese initiated between 1993 and 1998.
As of Dec. 31, 2005, 629 incident breast cancer cases had been diagnosed among the 34,028 women. With greater intake of the vegetable-fruit-soy dietary pattern, a dose-dependent trend (P<0.01) for decreasing breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women was observed. A stronger association for the vegetable-fruit-soy pattern was observed among postmenopausal women with five years of follow-up. No trend was observed for a greater intake of the meat–dim sum dietary pattern and increased breast cancer risk.