Spread the word: peanut butter linked to breast health

Researchers are spreading the news: girls who eat more peanut butter could reduce their risk of benign breast disease.

A study from Washington University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School has found that girls aged 9 to 15 who regularly ate peanut butter or nuts were 39% less likely to develop benign breast disease by the age of 30. Although noncancerous, benign breast disease can increase the risk of breast cancer later in life.

“These findings suggest that peanut butter could help reduce the risk of breast cancer in women,” said senior author Dr Graham Colditz, associate director for cancer prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

The findings are based on the health histories of 9039 girls enrolled in the Growing Up Today Study from 1996 to 2001. Later, from 2005 to 2010, when the participants were 18 to 30 years old, they reported whether they had been diagnosed with benign breast disease that had been confirmed by breast biopsy.

The researchers found that participants who ate peanut butter or nuts two times each week were 39% less likely to have developed benign breast disease than those who never ate them. The study’s findings suggest that beans, lentils, soybeans and corn also may help prevent benign breast disease, but consumption of these foods was much lower in these girls and thus the evidence was weaker.

Past studies have linked peanut butter, nut and vegetable fat consumption to a lower risk for benign breast disease. However, participants in those studies were asked to recall their high school dietary intakes years later. This new study is the first to use reports made during adolescence, with continued follow-up as cases of benign breast disease are diagnosed in young women.

Dr Colditz led the study with Dr Catherine Berkey, a biostatistician at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The results of the study were published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.