Eating Soy as Children Reduces Risk of Breast Cancer as Adults

Boston (HealthKnowItAll) - Female children who take in a lot of soy in their diets, maybe putting themselves at a reduced risk of breast cancer as adults.

This news comes from a study carried out by researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

For their study, researchers focused on Asian American women, comparing their diets with the prevalence of breast cancer diagnosis.

Those women who ate the most soy as children, were up to 60% less likely to develop breast cancer.

When adult women were factored into the mix, those who ate soy regularly were 25% less likely to be diagnosed with the disease.

According to the lead author of the study, this is just the tip of the iceburg and more studies need to be performed to further investigate this link.

“This is the first study to evaluate childhood soy intake and subsequent breast cancer risk, and this one result is not enough for a public health recommendation,” said senior researcher Dr. Regina G. Ziegler.

The study is published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.