Peanut Butter and Nut Consumption Tied to Breast Health

Peanut butter consumption may improve breast health later in life, according to research from Washington University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School.

The study, which included more than 9,000 participants, showed that girls between the ages of 9 and 15 who ate peanut butter or nuts twice a week were 39 percent less likely to develop benign breast disease by the time they were 30.

Although noncancerous, benign breast disease increases a person's risk of developing 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, the associate director for cancer prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

For this reason, and in light of the ongoing obesity epidemic, Colditz recommends that girls replace high-calorie junk foods and sugary beverages with peanut butter or nuts.

Beans, lentils, soybeans and corn may also help prevent benign breast disease, the findings suggested; however, because consumption of these foods was lower among participants, the evidence was not as strong.

The study is not the first to link between peanut butter, nut and vegetable fat consumption to a lower risk for benign breast disease; however, previous publications relied on individuals recalling dietary habits from years earlier.

The new study, in contrast, is the first to record the participants' habits while they were still young, and then follow up over the years.

According to American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates, more than 230,000 cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2013. The organization further estimates that nearly 40,000 deaths from breast cancer will occur before the end of the year. In all, the chance that a woman living in the United States will develop breast cancer during her life is one in eight.