At present, breast cancer has become the most common cancer in the world, with an incidence rate exceeding that of lung cancer, and there are about 300,000 new cases of breast cancer each year, which is the most malignant tumor, especially for women.

With the popularization of health care knowledge, we are more and more aware of the truth that prevention is greater than cure, especially for some very common malignant diseases, there will always be some “don’t eat XX or prone to so-and-so disease” folklore. Our daily life, we often hear some of the eating and drinking rumors related to breast cancer, today we will talk about the most widely circulated 3 typical representatives.

01 Do you get breast cancer from eating a lot of soy products? No, it’s not.

“Eating soy products will cause breast cancer” remarks, so that many people are afraid to eat soy products. But what is the truth?

The theoretical core of this rumor is – soy isoflavones.

Soy isoflavones are one of the biologically active ingredients in soy products, but also a phytoestrogen. However, it needs to be clear that there is still some difference between soy isoflavones and the body’s own estrogen.

First of all, it can really help regulate the body’s hormonal balance, such as the body’s estrogen level is lowered, soy isoflavones can help raise estrogen; but there is also a point don’t forget, when the body’s estrogen level is elevated, it can play a role in the estrogen level down.

Therefore, overall, soy isoflavones are “low and complementary, high and anti-” players, not only will not induce and aggravate breast cancer, but also conducive to the prevention of breast cancer.

A number of studies have shown that soy and its products can reduce the risk of breast cancer and osteoporosis in women.

There has also been a study on diet and breast cancer that showed the following:

Fresh legumes have a protective effect on the female mammary glands, while all types of salted and sun-dried foods and fried foods, especially fried fish/meat, fried pasta, and fried peanuts and rice, increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.

Therefore, to prevent breast cancer, not only should you not refuse soy products, but you should also eat them every day. So, how much is recommended?

The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents suggests that adults should consume 105~175g of soybeans per week, and an average of 15~25g per day, while the current intake of soybeans by urban and rural residents in China is 10.9g, which is much lower than the recommended amount. [1]

The amount of soy products corresponding to 25g of soybeans is about 1 fist of shredded tofu, 1 fist of tofu skin, or 5 mahjong block-sized northern tofu.

02 Drinking a lot of milk makes you more likely to get breast cancer? No, it’s not.

Thirty years ago, it was reported abroad that there was a positive correlation between dairy intake and breast cancer mortality [3]; and recently a new study was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology – drinking milk may cause breast cancer. The study investigated 52,795 women, followed for 7.9 years, and 1,057 cases of breast cancer emerged, although the subjects chosen for the study were middle-aged and older women in their 50s in the United States. [4]

The differences between the American diet and our dietary structure are still significant, and the subjects chosen for the above study were basically post-menopausal women.

The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents expanded the scope of the observation population to include a total of 1184,236 women in China, the United States, and Europe, and gave a clear view on the relationship between milk and breast cancer: intake of low-fat milk and its products can reduce the risk of breast cancer; intake of full-fat milk and its products is not associated with the risk of breast cancer.

Therefore, there is no need to worry about often drink milk will lead to breast cancer, milk is an important way of calcium supplementation of our residents, to drink every day, recommended for people over the age of 2 years old to drink 300ml of milk every day.

03 Can you get breast cancer from drinking too much coffee? No, it doesn’t.

Some people say you can get breast cancer from drinking too much coffee because of the caffeine in coffee, but there’s really nothing to worry about. The latest findings from the Women’s Health Related Study (WHRS) show:

caffeine consumption is not associated with an increase in breast cancer. There was also a Meta-analysis of coffee and the risk of breast cancer, and the results also illustrate that there is no clear relationship between coffee intake and the incidence of breast cancer in women. Therefore, there is no need to worry about getting breast cancer from drinking coffee.

So how much coffee is best to drink each day?

Nutrition and Health of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Chinese Preventive Medical Association, Food Hygiene Branch and other five organizations have jointly issued the “Coffee and Health Related Scientific Consensus” suggests that the average adult daily caffeine control within 400 mg, or 1.5 cups of Americano (Starbucks large cup of 473ml Americano contains 225mg of caffeine).

In addition, we need to remind you: drink coffee try not to add sugar. A lot of instant coffee on the market in order to meet the taste of the public, generally will contain added sugar, when you buy to look at the ingredient list, pay attention to screening.

Common added sugars include: sugar, brown sugar, rock sugar, fructose syrup, glucose syrup, corn syrup, maltose syrup, honey, fructose and so on. For example, this instant coffee pictured below has glucose syrup and sugar added to it. Through the nutrition facts table can be learned that the carbohydrate content of 11.2g/15g (a bag), that is to say, drink down a bag of such instant coffee, the intake of sugar is about 11.2g.

According to the “Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents” recommendations, the amount of added sugar intake is best not more than 25g / day, if you drink a bag of such instant coffee every day, almost up to 50% of the recommended intake, a bag of down to the stomach, and then eat some other sugary foods, sugar intake is very easy to exceed the standard.

The intake of too much added sugar will increase the risk of dental caries, gout, obesity and diabetes, which is not good for our health.

To summarize:

To prevent breast cancer, it is not necessary to refuse soy products, milk, and coffee, which do not cause breast cancer.

The most crucial thing to reduce the risk of breast cancer is to have a healthy lifestyle, a good mindset, and a reasonable diet. It is also important to have regular mammograms.