Breast Cancer Risk Nearly Halved by Frequent Miso Soup Intake

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Breast Cancer Risk nearly Halved by Frequent Miso Soup Intake JoAnn Guest

Jun 18, 2003 20:42 PDT

Breast cancer risk nearly halved by frequent miso soup intake

Wed Jun 18, 6:36 AM ET

 

TOKYO (AFP) - The risk of developing breast cancer (news - web sites)

was nearly halved among Japanese women who had miso soup at least three

times a day compared with those who had one or less bowl of the

traditional soya-based dish.

 

 

 

A team of Japanese researchers concluded that " frequent miso soup and

isoflavone consumption was associated with a reduced risk of breast

cancer, " in the study published Wednesday in the US-based Journal of the

National Cancer Institute (news - web sites).

 

 

Miso is pureed steamed soybeans, mixed with salt and other fermenting

agents.

 

 

The research team, headed by Shoichiro Tsugane of Japan's National

Cancer Center, tracked 21,852 Japanese women, aged 40 to 59 years old,

across Japan over 10 years from 1990 and studied their consumption of

soyabean products, such as miso soup and tofu.

 

 

On average, 0.098 percent of those who had one or less bowl of miso soup

developed breast cancer every year, while the incidence was reduced to

0.057 percent among those who had at least three bowls per day, the

study found.

 

 

" Consumption of miso soup and isoflavones ... was inversely associated

with the risk of breast cancer, " said Seiichiro Yamamoto, a researcher

at the Japanese institute and leading author of the study.

 

 

Laboratory studies have already shown that isoflavones, a group of

compounds that the soyabean contains in abundance, inhibit breast

cancer.

 

 

Until now, however, various epidemiological studies had shown

inconsistent associations between the breast cancer risk and consumption

of soyabean and isoflavones, Yamamoto said.

 

 

The study could not show statistically significant evidence that other

soyabean products are associated with reduced breast cancer risk,

Yamamoto said.

 

 

" The tendency for lowered breast cancer risk (associated with other

soyabean products) was observed but we need to do further studies to

confirm it, " he said.

 

 

Researchers also believe frequent miso soup consumption may reduce the

risk of prostate cancer (news - web sites) among men, Yamamoto said.

 

 

But Yamamoto cautioned that miso is no miracle food, as it contains a

lot of salt, which can cause stomach cancer and high blood pressure,

among other diseases.

 

 

He added, though, a balanced diet containing a lot of soyabeans " is

healthy overall " and was believed to reduce the risk of developing

cancer.

 

 

" Very generally speaking there is a perception that the traditional

Japanese diet is healthy. We will study what part of it had what kind of

effect on people. Some were good, some were bad, " Yamamoto said.

 

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & cid=1508 & ncid=751 & e=11 & u=/afp/200306\

18/hl_afp/health_cancer_miso_japan

 

 

 

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