Save Yourself from Breast Cancer

Kradjian, a breast surgeon, presents a sobering view of cancer: according to statistics he cites, overall mortality rates have not improved since 1930. In this well-researched volume, he emphasizes that not even early detection, advanced treatment and continuing research have solved the breast cancer epidemic in the U.S. What's needed, he believes, is more emphasis on prevention programs, especially those stressing diet. Although the notable Harvard Nurses' Health Study begun in 1976 did not finger a high-fat diet as a possible factor in the development of breast cancer, Kradjian points out what he considers the biases and the unscientific, tainted nature of the study. He places much of the blame for cancer on diet, because breast cancer rates are considerably lower in populations that do not consume as much fat-saturated and unsaturated-as do Americans. He says a reduction of fats and oils to between 10% and 20% of our diets, accompanied by an increase in dietary fiber and other health-supporting food, practiced over a lifetime, will substantially reduce the risk of breast cancer. That means avoiding meat, saturated fats, milk, eggs, cheese and eggs. Though many readers may not want to make the drastic dietary changes Kradjian recommends, they are well worth considering, especially by anyone at high risk. (Nov.)