The Side Dish That Thwarts Aggressive Cancer

The risk of a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer could be cut by over a third with this side dish: a tossed salad.
In a study, eating lots of raw salad veggies dropped HER-2-positive breast cancer risk by nearly 35 percent. HER-2 is a rare but aggressive form of the disease. Time to hit the salad bar!
Produce-Aisle Protection
The study compared a Western diet -- high in meat and potatoes -- to other diets, and the women who ate not only the most salad veggies but also the most olive oil had the best protection against HER-2 breast cancer. So ask for an olive-oil-based vinaigrette if you don't see one on the salad bar.  

Something About Folate
Researchers think the antioxidant- and folate-rich salad veggies help with HER-2 cancer because those nutrients are best at thwarting cancer-causing oxidative damage to DNA. And oleic acid, found in olive oil, may hinder the production of HER-2 cancer cells. For some reason, there was only a benefit to HER-2 breast cancer in the recent study. But earlier research suggests that salad veggies may be good at thwarting all types of breast cancer -- just to a lesser degree than with HER-2. Get the scoop on the power of fruits and veggies to protect against other kinds of breast cancer.