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Sections Basics Women's health Breast health Women's life stages In-Depth Expert Answers Multimedia Resources News From Mayo Clinic. Products and services. Breast cancer prevention: How to reduce your risk Breast cancer prevention starts with healthy habits — such as limiting alcohol and staying physically active.

By Mayo Clinic Staff. Show references Breast cancer prevention PDQ — Professional Version. National Cancer Institute. Accessed June 29, What can I do to reduce my risk of breast cancer? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Accessed June 7, Colditz GA. Overview of cancer prevention. Diet and physical activity: What's the cancer connection?

American Cancer Society. Physical activity and cancer. Can I lower my risk of breast cancer? Chlebowski RT. Factors that modify breast cancer risk in women. Oral contraceptives and cancer risk. Menopausal hormone therapy and cancer risk. Frequently asked questions about the American Cancer Society's breast cancer screening guideline.

Accessed June 8, Torres CGP, et al. Mediterranean diet and risk of breast cancer: An umbrella review. Clinical Nutrition. Secondhand tobacco smoke environmental tobacco smoke. Accessed June 20, Products and Services A Book: Mayo Clinic Book of Home Remedies.

See also Breast implants: Saline vs. silicone Breast implants and cancer Evaluating breast lumps COVID vaccine: Should I reschedule my mammogram? Dense breast tissue Does soy really affect breast cancer risk? Natural breast enhancement Silicone breast implants: What happens if they rupture?

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About this Site. Contact Us. Health Information Policy. Media Requests. News Network. Price Transparency. Medical Professionals. Overall, the more active you can be the more you can lower your risk of cancer — especially breast cancer and bowel cancer. So even if you start by doing small amounts of activity you can build it up over time.

Scientists have some theories on how doing a lot of physical activity may prevent breast cancer and bowel cancer. Most of these benefits are also linked to being a healthy weight.

Being active and being a healthy weight can reduce the levels of oestrogen and insulin in the body. Oestrogen and insulin are hormones that can encourage breast cells to divide more often, which increases the risk of cancer. Being active and being a healthy weight can help your immune system to work at its best.

This means the body can be better at spotting, and dealing with, cells which could go on to become cancer. Being active helps move food through our bowel faster.

This means anything harmful in the food we eat and the waste we excrete poo spends less time in our bowel. This may help to prevent bowel cancer. Being active and being a healthy weight reduces inflammation. Too much inflammation can cause our cells to divide more often, increasing cancer risk.

Even people who do lots of exercise might spend too much time being inactive during the rest of the day. Try going for a walk on your lunch break, doing bits of housework, regularly going to get a drink of water, or moving on the spot when taking phone calls.

There are also seated exercises you can do to move the body. This is an area of research that is still developing, and we need more good quality research that considers the impact of inactivity, physical activity and weight on the risk of cancer.

Find out how to build more activity into your day. Kyu HH, Bachman VF, Alexander LT, et al. Physical activity and risk of breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and ischemic stroke events: systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study Matthews CE, Moore SC, Arem H, et al.

Amount and Intensity of Leisure-Time Physical Activity and Lower Cancer Risk. J Clin Oncol. doi: World Cancer Research Fund. Physical Activity and the Risk of Cancer. World Cancer Research Fund International; Hermelin R, Leitzmann MF, Markozannes G, et al.

Cancer screening helps find cancer before it spreads when it is easier to treat. Early detection may mean less treatment and less time spent recovering. The earlier a cancer is detected, the better your chance of survival.

Limitations of regular cancer screening. Sometimes test results suggest you have cancer even though you don't called a false positive. The test may not detect cancer even though it is present called a false negative.

Some cancers would not necessarily lead to death or decreased quality of life overdiagnosis. Having screening tests may lead to more tests and procedures that may be harmful. Overdiagnosis is when a test finds cancer that would not necessarily lead to death or decreased quality of life.

Some cancers are slow growing or may never cause problems or need treatment. Finding these types of cancer can lead to unnecessary treatments that have side effects. It's your decision. Our enewsletter. But this does not mean that the benefits of vegetables and fruits are from their antioxidant content, rather than from other food components.

Most clinical trials of antioxidant supplements have not found they reduce cancer risk. In fact, some studies have found an increased risk of cancer among those taking supplements. When it comes to reducing cancer risk, the best advice is to get your antioxidants through whole food sources rather than supplements.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer IARC , the US National Toxicology Program NTP , and others have classified arsenic as carcinogenic to humans. Arsenic is a naturally occurring element that can be found in rocks and soil, water, air, plants, and animals, as well as in industrial and agricultural compounds.

Studies have found that exposure to arsenic in drinking water may cause lung, bladder, and skin cancers. Because arsenic has been linked to cancer and other unwanted health effects, several US government agencies regulate arsenic levels and exposures.

Those whose drinking water comes from a public source can obtain publicly-available information about the levels of certain substances in drinking water, including arsenic. People who get their water from a private source such as a well can have arsenic levels tested by a reputable laboratory.

Those who live in areas with high levels of arsenic in the water may consider using alternate sources of drinking water, such as bottled water. Common household water filters do not effectively remove arsenic. Avoiding excess consumption of foods known to contain high levels of arsenic, including seafood, rice and rice products, and fruit juice can also help lower exposure, and maintaining adequate folate levels is important for the elimination of arsenic in the body.

Whether coffee lowers or raises the risk of different types of cancer has been an active area of research. Studies have suggested that drinking coffee likely lowers the risk of liver and endometrial cancers, although the link to endometrial cancer may be confounded by smoking.

There is some evidence that coffee lowers the risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, and voice box, as well as basal cell skin cancer in both men and women, and possibly melanoma in women.

Therefore, it may make sense to avoid drinking coffee and other beverages at very high temperatures. The potential ways in which coffee may lower the risk of cancer are not completely understood. Roasted coffee contains hundreds of biologically active compounds, including caffeine, flavonoids, lignans, and other polyphenols.

Coffee also influences the amount of time food is in the intestines, as well as liver metabolism of carcinogens, which may also contribute to a lower risk for some digestive cancers.

Growing public concern about the potential harmful effects of genetically modified foods, in part, led to federal legislation in requiring uniform labeling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. In theory, these added genes might create substances that could cause reactions in sensitized or allergic people, or result in high levels of compounds that could cause other health effects.

However, at this time there is no evidence that foods now on the market that contain genetically engineered ingredients or the substances found in them are harmful to human health, or that they would either increase or decrease cancer risk.

The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have all taken the stance that current evidence suggests that foods containing genetically engineered ingredients are safe.

For people with celiac disease , gluten triggers an immune response that damages the lining of the small intestine and could increase the risk of cancer.

Some people experience gluten sensitivity without overt celiac disease. In these people, gluten may contribute to inflammation in the intestines, which might in turn increase the risk of gastrointestinal cancers. However, this possible link is not well-proven.

There is very little evidence linking gluten intake to risk of gastrointestinal cancers in the general population. The bottom line: For people without celiac disease, there is no evidence that consuming a gluten-free diet is linked with a lower cancer risk, and many studies suggest that consuming whole grains, including those containing gluten, probably reduces the risk of colon cancer.

Glycemic index is a measure of the increase in the blood level of glucose a type of sugar after eating a specific carbohydrate-rich food, compared with eating a standard amount of glucose.

Foods with a high glycemic index release glucose quickly and lead to a rapid rise in blood glucose. Foods with a low glycemic index release glucose into the blood more slowly, with a lower overall peak in blood glucose over time. In general, high glycemic index foods are highly refined, processed grain products with added sugars and low fiber content, as well as some starchy vegetables.

The glycemic index can be considered a measure of carbohydrate-rich food quality. Beyond glycemic index, glycemic load captures both the quality and quantity of carbohydrates consumed. The glycemic load gives a truer picture of how blood glucose is elevated in relation to intake of a specific food item.

A lot of research has looked at the potential impact of the glycemic load of a diet and cancer risk. Most recent reports have found that eating a dietary pattern high in glycemic load is linked with a higher risk of endometrial cancer.

More research is needed to determine the impact on other types of cancer. However, the role of inflammation in causing cancer has been recognized more recently, and the relationships between diet, inflammation, and the risk of cancer as well as heart disease and dying at an earlier age are still an evolving area of research.

A combination of lab and human studies has identified certain foods and chemicals in them that promote inflammation in certain body tissues. This is the basis of anti-inflammatory dietary patterns, which share some traits with the recommendations in this guideline, such as being high in vegetables and fruits and low in red and processed meats.

Food irradiation applying ionizing radiation to food is a technology that improves the safety and extends the shelf life of foods by reducing or eliminating germs and insects.

Like pasteurizing milk and canning fruits and vegetables, irradiation can make food safer. Irradiation does not make foods radioactive, affect nutritional quality, or noticeably change the taste, texture, or appearance of food.

In fact, changes made by irradiation are so minimal that it is not easy to tell if a food has been irradiated. The US Food and Drug Administration FDA has evaluated the safety of irradiated food for more than 30 years and has found the process to be safe.

The World Health Organization WHO , the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC , and the US Department of Agriculture USDA have also endorsed the safety of irradiated food. There is currently no evidence that irradiation of foods causes cancer or has harmful human health effects.

Can periods of limiting food intake to juices remove toxins and help protect against cancer? Fruit and vegetable juices can be a convenient way to get some healthy food components from vegetables and fruits. In moderation, they can be a worthwhile part of healthful dietary patterns. However, juices contain less fiber, lower levels of some other healthy nutrients, and more naturally occurring sugar than the whole fruits and vegetables they are made from, so they are not the best way to get nutrients from plant-based foods.

There is no scientific evidence to support claims that consuming only juices for one or more days, known as juice cleansing or juice detoxification , reduces cancer risk or provides other health benefits.

Toxins that enter our body through foods and beverages are constantly removed by the kidneys and liver, regardless of whether a person is consuming liquid or solid foods. Although vegetable juicing may be one way to increase nutrient intake, a diet limited to juice may also be lacking in some important nutrients, and in select cases it may contain dangerous levels of some substances that can cause kidney damage and other health problems.

Microwaves are a form of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, and their use in cooking does not increase cancer risk. On the other hand, grilling, smoking, or pan-frying meats including red meats as well as poultry and fish at high temperatures can cause chemical reactions that form cancer-causing heterocyclic amines.

Goals of food preservation, processing, and preparation that are relevant to individual and public health include:. On the other hand, certain methods of preserving red meats introduce nitrates into them, which can be converted in the stomach into cancer-causing N-nitroso compounds.

Contamination of foods by substances from storage containers or cookware is another concern of some consumers. Plastic containers can release substances such as phthalates some of which are classified as possible carcinogens or phenolic compounds such as bisphenol A a probable carcinogen during storage of food or during cooking in a microwave oven.

Use of Teflon-coated cookware may release perfluorooctanoic acid PFOA, a possible carcinogen into foods. These substances have been found to have negative biological effects in some lab studies, and they may influence onset of puberty, a possible factor in the long-term risk of some cancers such as breast cancer.

However, evidence of the impact of long-term exposure to these chemicals on cancer risk in human studies is lacking. Nonetheless, people who are concerned about possible harm from these exposures can choose glass or metal storage containers and cookware.

Non-nutritive sweeteners are substances used instead of sugars like sucrose, corn syrup, honey, agave nectar to sweeten foods, beverages and other products. Several non-nutritive sweeteners are now approved by the FDA, including aspartame , acesulfame potassium, saccharin, sucralose, and stevia.

These sweeteners contain few or no calories, or nutrients. They may be derived from herbs and other plants, or sugar itself, and typically are many times sweeter than sugar, allowing smaller amounts to be used. Other sugar substitutes include sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, xylitol and mannitol.

There is no clear evidence that these sweeteners, at the levels typically consumed in human diets, cause cancer. Questions about artificial sweeteners and cancer risk arose when early studies showed that saccharin caused bladder cancer in lab animals, but studies in humans have shown no increased cancer risk.

With this exception, all these sweeteners appear to be safe when used in moderation, although larger amounts of sugar alcohols may cause bloating and abdominal discomfort in some people.

Under USDA regulations, animal-derived foods that are labeled as organic come from animals raised without the addition of hormones or antibiotics to the feed they eat.

Plant foods that are organic come from agricultural methods that do not use most conventional pesticides or herbicides, chemical fertilizers, or sewage sludge as fertilizer.

Organic foods also exclude the use of industrial solvents or food irradiation in processing, and genetically modified foods are also excluded. A main benefit of consuming organic foods is to support environmentally sustainable agricultural practices.

Many consumers also believe that organic foods may provide health benefits, but there is little evidence that organic produce has higher nutrient levels than conventionally grown produce.

Little research has been done on the link between organic food consumption and cancer risk, although a recent study found eating more organic produce was linked with a lower risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

While this finding needs to be confirmed by other studies, it is in line with the strong and consistent link between workplace pesticide exposure and this type of cancer. Washing conventionally grown produce can remove some of the pesticide residue.

Insecticides and herbicides can be toxic when used improperly in industrial, agricultural, or other workplace settings. In addition, malathion is linked with a higher risk of prostate cancer, and diazinon is linked with a higher risk of lung cancer.

Washing conventionally grown produce can remove some of the pesticide residues, and is also important to minimize the risk of microbial contamination. Increasing evidence suggests important interactions among sleep, diet, physical inactivity, and cancer risk:.

As with other beans or legumes, soy and foods derived from soy are excellent sources of protein, so they provide a healthier alternative to meat. Soy contains several bioactive food components, including isoflavones, which have a similar structure to estrogens and can bind to estrogen receptors on cells.

The effects of this binding can vary, depending on conditions, the specific body tissue, and the amount consumed. There is some evidence from human and lab studies that consuming traditional soy foods such as tofu may lower the risk of breast and prostate cancer, but overall the evidence is too limited to draw firm conclusions.

Many of the studies that have found such links looked at Asian populations with high lifelong consumption of soy foods, and their relevance to soy consumption at lower levels and for shorter durations in Western populations remains uncertain. There are no data to support the use of supplements containing soy phytochemicals or soy protein powders used in some food products for reducing cancer risk.

In fact, a recent study found increased risk for estrogen receptor ER -negative breast cancer an aggressive type among users of soy supplements. Therefore, while soy from food sources appears to be safe and may even have beneficial health effects, soy supplements should be used with caution, if at all.

Several types of sugars are found in foods and beverages. These sugars vary in their chemical structures, but once they are consumed, they all have similar metabolic effects in the body.

All sugars in foods and beverages add to calorie intake, which can lead to obesity, so eating a lot of sugar can indirectly increase cancer risk. There is also evidence that a dietary pattern high in added sugars affects levels of insulin and related hormones in ways that may increase the risk of certain cancers.

Brown unrefined sugar contains the same chemical form of sugar sucrose as white refined sugar. Fructose , the natural sugar in fruit and in many sugar-sweetened beverages in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, is similar to sucrose in its effects on weight and insulin levels, as is honey, which contains a mixture of fructose and glucose another form of sugar.

Lab studies have shown that metabolism of glucose the main sugar used as an energy source in the body is faster in cancer cells than in normal cells. It can also lower insulin secretion in people with metabolic conditions such as pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.

Thus, vegetarian diets may be helpful for cancer risk reduction. Many studies of vegetarians indicate a lower risk of cancer overall, compared to people who also eat meat. But whether vegetarian diets confer any special health benefits over diets that include smaller amounts of animal products than are typically consumed in Western diets is less clear.

Indeed, in a large British study, people who ate fish but not other meats appeared to have the same overall cancer risk as vegetarians.