Turmeric and Breast Cancer

March 22nd, 2008 by Shikha

TIME recently published a breast cancer ‘heat map’ (link) mapping countries around the world according to their respective breast cancer incidence rates.

Breast Cancer Heat Map

One of the things we observed on this map was that India and China have one of the lowest breast cancer incidence rates (19.1 and 18.7 per 100,000 people respectively). There would be several explainations to this, including regional factors, genetic makeup in the demography, etc

There is one more thing which sets apart India and China from rest of the countries in this demography which could be a possible reason for low breast cancer occurence rates compared to other similar countries - Regular usage of turmeric in daily foods. Turmeric regularly features in Indian and Chinese recipes, especially in its powdered form and its intake in India and China is higher than in any other country.

A 2005 study conducted by University of Texas on rats concluded that curcumin, an antioxdant found in turmeric, is effective in curbing the spread of cancer to other areas of the body and highlights its potential as an anti-cancer agent. Other studies have also found curmucin effective against Alzheimer’s disease.

For those wondering how to intake this otherwise bitter tasting spice, we have discovered an Indian recipe site which has a couple of turmeric recipes - Honey Turmeric and Turmeric Milk.

If you have more info/recipes to share on turmeric please comment below.

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Preventive Food Items

January 8th, 2007 by Shikha

“Prevention is better than cure”

An old adage that is exceedingly relevant considering the shaky methods of breast cancer cure available with the current set of technologies.
Cancer progresses slowly. It starts with the “Initiation” of a single cell by cancer-causing substances. Food compounds can prevent activation of cancer-causing agents. They can block the mutation of a cell’s genetic material. They can stimulate enzymes in the body, which removes cancer-causing chemicals out of the body.
There are certain foods, which can serve the purpose of chemotherapy after the development of cancer. The chemicals contained in these foods have chemotherapeutic powers to fight cancer by retarding tumour growth, spread and recurrence. They can even attack malignancy by destroying cancer cells. Foods with such chemical compound can be used as supportive therapy to modem medical cancer treatments.

Below are some natural food stuffs which help in preventing breast cancer, these foods are also highly recommended for women who have already been through chemotherepy.

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