Girls who ate the most fruits and vegetables rich in carotenoids were less likely to get benign breast disease, a new study suggests.
Carotenoids are a group of pigments that typically produce an orange, red or dark green color. They are believed to have antioxidant properties that may guard against disease.
Benign breast disease describes a variety of noncancerous conditions of the breast; some forms raise the risk of breast cancer.
“There have been a number of studies about carotenoids and breast cancer,” said lead researcher Caroline Boeke, a postdoctoral fellow at Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston.
While the studies have produced mixed results, she said, overall they suggest a protective effect of the carotenoids. So her team decided to analyze the intake of these vegetables by girls enrolled in an ongoing study that began in 1996.
For her study, Boeke and her colleagues looked at food reports from 1996 through 1998 and then evaluated reports in 2005, 2007 and 2010 from girls who got a diagnosis of benign breast disease from a doctor after having a biopsy.
In all, Boeke studied nearly 6,600 girls, and 122 reported a diagnosis of benign breast disease.
When she looked at carotenoid intake, she found high intakes were protective. “The odds of benign breast disease in those who consumed the most beta carotene were about half that of those who consumed the least,” she said.
Girls in the highest intake group ate two to three servings of carotenoid-rich foods weekly, she said.
The study is published in the May issue of Pediatrics.
“It’s an observational study, so we can’t say for sure the carotenoids cause the lower risk,” Boeke noted. “We can only say there’s an association.”
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SOURCE: WebMD News from HealthDay
Kathleen Doheny
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