Franco Berrino and foods that protect: «What to eat to prevent major diseases»

Everything changes, but in the last century we have witnessed unprecedented changes in material and social life: electricity, motor vehicles, TV and, at the end of the century, the web, sedentary life, chemical agriculture, mills of steel that produce very fine flours, ultra-processed foods with artificial flavor enhancers, air and water pollution; meat consumption has increased recklessly, as well as the consumption of sugar, industrial drinks, alcoholic beverages. All of these changes have to do with the dramatic increase in breast cancer, which is more than three times more common today than it was a hundred years ago.

The incidence of tumors

Putting men and women together, they are the most frequent cancers in the world: about 2,300,000 new cases a year, and about 700,000 deaths. Today, for a woman in Western countries, the probability of getting sick in her lifetime is about 10 percent. The reduction in the number of children and the increase in the age at first pregnancy recorded in the last century are among the main causes of this impressive increase. A famous English statistic from the 1920s showed that the incidence of breast cancer decreases linearly with the number of children: those who had had ten children or more showed a probability of getting sick almost ten times lower than nulliparous women. Today, one or a few pregnancies after the age of thirty protect very little. Breastfeeding protects a little, about 3-4 percent less for each year of breastfeeding. It’s not much, but it’s what girls who are waiting to graduate and find a job before having a child can do today. Early pregnancies probably induce a maturation of the mammary gland which protects it from external causes of DNA damage and from the proliferative stimulus of sex hormones.

DNA alterations

What are the known causes that can cause DNA alterations in the breast? Certainly the ionizing radiations at a young age (we avoid unnecessary radiological examinations in girls), then there is the tobacco (especially before the first pregnancy), air pollution, pesticides and certain jobs in the chemical industry. Once accumulated, DNA damage is capable of triggering uncontrolled proliferation; for cancer to develop, however, it is necessary that the damaged cells encounter within us a hormonal and metabolic environment favorable to proliferation, in particular a high concentration, in the blood, of glucose, sex hormones, insulin and other growth factors.

What can be changed

It is the environment that is favored by the Western way of life, that we can change. It has been my research topic for 40 years. With other colleagues we have established that women with the high blood sugar (although within the normal range), with elevated insulinwith overweight (after menopause only), with elevated plasma levels of sex hormones (male and female), and women who do not exercise have about double the risk of developing breast cancer. Also drinking alcoholic beverages increases the riskabout 5-10 percent. To summarize a very complex theme in a simplified mechanistic scheme, consider that the modern western diet (excessively high in sugar, refined flours, saturated fats, fast food and animal food) promotes high blood sugar. As a result, the pancreas produces more insulin. While on the one hand it regulates blood sugar, on the other it is a growth factor and stimulates the synthesis of testosterone in the ovaries, which is then transformed into estradiol and other female hormones which stimulate tumor growth. The glycemic load of the diet, a sedentary life, the hydrogenated fats of industrial foods, are all factors that favor the increase in insulin. Alcoholic beverages directly stimulate the synthesis of testosterone in the ovaries. After menopause, the ovaries no longer produce female hormones, but the adipose tissue is able to synthesize them, which is why fat women get sick more. Night life, for example shift work of nurses, also reduces melatonin, increases blood estrogen levels. Hormonal therapies to contain menopausal symptoms directly supply sex hormones that stimulate the growth of any cancer cells that may have formed in the breast.

The predisposition

Naturally there are family and genetic predispositions, but even more so it is advisable to adopt a lifestyle that reduces its penetrance. Today we cannot change the way we reproduce (although it is good to remind young couples not to wait maybe 40 before thinking about having a child), but all the other factors that contribute to causing breast cancer can be modified. Let’s keep lean, avoid junk food, too much sugar and sugary juices, eat organic food (today it is clear that it makes a difference), whole grains, legumes, vegetables and dried fruit to reduce the glycemic indexwe exercise; let’s not underestimate that even just an aperitif, if taken on a daily basis, is imprudent. These are the recommendations to prevent cancer and chronic diseases that we try to spread with the La Grande Via association.