If you find these foods too spicy for your taste, they can be taken in capsule form or as a liquid tincture. Women taking these herbs for cardiovascular disease prevention may want to eat several raw cloves of garlic a day or as many as 6 capsules of the herb used as a supplement. I also recommend as many as 4 capsules of ginger per day, if you do not use it as a food favoring. These are maximum dosages; you may find that 1 to 2 capsules per day suit your needs better.

Vitamins and Minerals for Breast Cancer Prevention
Vitamin A. Beta carotene, the provitamin A found in fruits and vegetables, has been cited in a number of studies as an important nutrient in breast cancer prevention. In the Nurses' Health study mentioned earlier, beta carotene proved protective against breast cancer for more than 87,000 women. A study published in 1992 by the State University of New York compared 310 women having breast cancer to 316 women without the disease. The study found that the cancer-free group ate many more beta carotene-containing fruits and vegetables than he women with breast cancer. In addition, the National Cancer Institute studied 83 women with breast cancer and found that they had lower blood levels of beta carotene. Beta carotene both in supplemental form and in foods like fresh fruits and vegetables should be included in your diet if you are interested in breast cancer prevention.

Vitamin C. In a 1991 review of 46 studies of the protective effect of vitamin C on cancer, in 33 studies vitamin C helped safeguard against the development of many cancers. This included nonhormone-dependent breast cancer. Vitamin C did not appear to confer any protection against hormone-dependent (including estrogen-dependent) breast cancers.

Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of both beta carotene and vitamin C. Supplemental vitamin C is helpful for women who want to lower their cancer risk for all types of cancer (including certain breast cancers).

Herbs for Breast Cancer Prevention
Anticancer Herbs. Many herbs show promise in the prevention and treatment of many human cancers, although their specific role in treating breast cancer is not clear. Herbs with possible anticancer activity include garlic, burdock root, alfalfa, and a host of others. One herb, in particular, may hold some promise for breast cancer prevention. This is red clover, an herb traditionally used by several different cultures to treat cancer. Research done at the National Cancer Institute has found anticarcinogenic compounds in red clover, including several bioflavonoids, genistein and daidzein, which are both weakly estrogenic and antiestrogenic (as described earlier in this book). Women who have preexisting breast cancer may want to check with their own physicians to see if red clover can be used safely as a nutritional adjunct to their regular medical program.

Two compounds that have been linked to a lower risk of breast cancer are bioflavonoids and lignans. Both are natural plant sources of very weak estrogens. Rich sources of biofavonoids include soy, buckwheat, alfalfa sprouts, the inner peel of citrus fruits, and many berries. Lignans are particularly abundant in raw ground flax seed and are also found in whole grains and legumes. Diets that are rich in these foods seem to be a factor in preventing the development of breast cancer in women. There is also evidence to suggest that such a diet may help decrease the mortality rate of men from prostate cancer. In Asia, most notably in Japan, the rates of hormone-dependent cancers are significantly lower than those in Western Countries.