Is eating nuts good for breast cancer patients?

Women with breast cancer in addition to complying with treatment, the implementation of a reasonable and healthy diet will also help improve and maintain the effectiveness after treatment. Some people believe that eating nuts will be good for patients with breast cancer. So is eating nuts really good for breast cancer treatment?

Nutrition plays an important role in the recovery process as well as ensuring the health of the patient before and after breast cancer treatment. Therefore, the patient needs to follow the nutritional guidelines recommended by the treating doctor or nutritionist.
In the nutritional principles of breast cancer treatment, patients need to ensure enough quantity and quality of nutrients provided in a day with:
Daily energy ranges from 25 to 30 kcal/kg body weight /day; Protein content accounts for about 12 to 20% of total energy, of which animal-derived protein accounts for about 30 to 50%; Lipid content ranges from 18 to 25% of total dietary energy and patients should choose lipids containing healthy fatty acids such as omega 3,...; The glucose content accounts for about 60 to 70% of the total dietary energy. In addition, patients need to be provided with enough vitamins and minerals such as calcium, vitamin D3, fiber,...

Among foods, unprocessed whole grains belong to the group that provides many complex starches, fiber, phytochemicals.... The fiber content in these nuts has a positive effect. to the process of altering the action of hormones that cause breast cancer and other cancers.
Legumes including soybeans should be consumed at least two servings a day with breast cancer patients. Because the composition of beans is quite safe for patients when loaded in a moderate amount into the body. In addition, beans also contain isoflavones, which have anti-inflammatory effects and reduce the risk of disease recurrence.
3. Research on nuts used for breast cancer patients In a 10-year study of women diagnosed with breast cancer, the results showed that women who had ever eaten nuts Nuts had a better survival time than those who did not use nuts in their daily diet.
Similar to other research also looking at the effects of nuts on breast cancer patients and this finding comes from a study of over 3,000 patients conducted in China, published online on 20th. October in the International Journal of Cancer. The patients were asked about nut consumption only on one occasion, five years after they were diagnosed with breast cancer. The investigators reported a dose-response pattern between nut intake and overall risk of breast cancer recurrence and death, with those consuming the largest amounts having the lowest risk. The results show that nuts are an important component of a healthy diet.
But like all observational studies, this report points to an association, not a cause. "Based on this study alone, the evidence is weak," said Wendy Chen, a breast oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who was asked to comment on the new study. People who consume nuts in general have higher levels of education, higher incomes, lower body mass indexes, earlier cancers, and more active lives. All of these related factors also have an impact on better breast cancer survival. Although the study's authors tried to control for these factors, it's hard to know if nut consumption is "really" a factor making a difference. Additionally, study subjects were also "somewhat unusual" as people had to survive 5 years after diagnosis to be included in the analysis, and these are not representative of breast cancer survivors.
Erin Van Blarigan, PhD, an epidemiologist at the University of California San Francisco, described the overall evidence, including this study, for a beneficial relationship between nut intake and breast cancer as "limit". Previously, she led a study that looked at the benefits of eating nuts for colon cancer patients. Van Blarigan also says that nut intake in the study was "very low" - with an average intake of less than one serving per week. However, she also offers some general advice about eating nuts. And according to her, nuts are an energy-dense food, so portions should be kept small.
The study authors reported that nut consumption was low (mean = 17.32 grams/week) compared with the 42.5 grams/week recommended by the American Heart Association. Moreover, nuts, especially tree nuts, are very expensive in China. Traditionally, Chinese nut consumption, especially in older generations, has been low
Therefore, the study authors performed an adjusted analysis. The new study involved 3,449 participants in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study. Consumption of nuts (including peanuts and tree nuts such as walnuts) was assessed by a food questionnaire 5 years after diagnosis. An analysis was performed 10 years after diagnosis and 5 years after the dietary questionnaire. At this 10-year mark, there were 252 deaths from breast cancer. Of the 3,274 survivors with no prior recurrence at the dietary assessment, 209 went on to develop breast cancer-specific events – recurrence, metastasis, or breast cancer death. . People who consumed nuts had higher overall and disease-free survival rates than those who didn't. But the two groups had many differences, with consumers having a younger age at diagnosis, a lower BMI, total energy intake, and a higher dietary quality score and soy food intake. In addition, nut consumers were more likely to have higher education, personal income and physical activity levels as well as to have received immunotherapy.
Analyzes by grain intake show dose-response relationships for both overall survival and disease-free survival. The authors say that "there is no solid evidence to support individual food items in favor of breast cancer survival", since these results still require further studies to provide evidence suggests nuts are one such food, and calls for studies to confirm their findings.

Reference source: webmd.com