Walnuts are produced and eaten all around the world and add more thanflavor and crunch to the menu. They have beneficial effects when itcomes to heart disease, and a new study indicates that three chemicalsin the walnut seem to amplify those favorable effects on breast cancer.
"Theomega-3 fatty acid, the phytosterols and antioxidants individually havebeen shown to prevent or delay cancers," says withthe Marshall University School of Medicine in West Virginia. "So if youadd them all together, it looks like it may be really good."
Hardmancites a separate study she did involving lab animals that were given adiet containing the exact same amount of omega-3 fatty acid the nutsprovide, but without the other components of the walnut.
"Itdid reduce cancer incidents," she reports, "but not as dramatically asthe walnut-containing diet did. So it's something else other than theomega-3 in the walnut that's contributing to the suppression ofcancers."
The daily amount of walnuts given to the lab animals is the human equivalent of about 56 grams - or a big handful of nuts.
Hardman'stesting on mice that were specially bred to develop breast cancerrevealed a three-week delay in tumor development. She says that is asignificant improvement, when compared to their typical six-monthlifespan. And in humans, she adds, "Since most cancers develop whenyou're older, if you could increase the time until the cancer developseven 15 percent, then that's a considerable delay, and you might diefrom something else before the cancer ever showed up!"
Hardman'sstudy was presented to the annual meeting of the , held earlier this month in Denver.