Eating Wheat Eliminates Breast Cancer - Study

07/11/06 A recent study found that mother rats who were fed a diet including whole wheat during their pregnancies had daughters less susceptible to developing breast cancer. The findings suggest that incorporating whole wheat into the diet of a pregnant woman could be beneficial.

To identify dietary factors that might reduce an offspring's cancer risk, researchers fed pregnant rats diets containing 6% fiber originating either from cellulose (control), or oat, whole wheat, or defatted flax flour. They found that the offspring of mother rats who consumed whole wheat during pregnancy had reduced risk for cancer, while the offspring of mother rats who ate defatted flax flour had increased incidence of cancer. The wheat seemed to work by improving DNA damage repair mechanisms.