A third suggestion relates cancer in general to the proliferation of toxic chemicals that has marked the rise of industrialism and modern society. In particular, chemicals in pesticides, plastics, and possibly even personal care products such as cosmetics are known to have estrogen-like qualities, and it has been theorized that these chemicals can cause breast cancer by mimicking the role of estrogen in feeding cancer cells that are estrogen-receptor positive. However, once again it must be noted that Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and rapidly industrializing China do not have breast cancer rates matching those found in the West, and yet they are making use of largely the same kind of chemicals in their processes and products as we are. Nevertheless, this is an area that needs to be researched much more comprehensively before any definitive answers are likely to be forthcoming.
The fourth difference between nations that may be playing a role in breast cancer rate disparities relates to diet. While the typical American diet, for example, may get 40-45% of its calories from fats, particularly animal fats, Asian diets generally include much lower amounts. In some less-developed parts of the worlds, diets tend to rely heavily on proteins and carbohydrates from plants sources, while animal proteins and their accompanying fats are generally lacking. In the Mediterranean countries like Italy, Spain, and Greece, while their economies are western their diets mostly eschew the saturated fats found in most animal products in favor of unsaturated fats found in fish, nuts, and olive oil – the so-called “good” fats that lower cholesterol and improve heart health. In this case, their choice of unsaturated fats over saturated may explain why they have lower rates of breast cancer despite their advanced economies.
Summarizing the evidence
Of all the suggestions to explain geographical variance in breast cancer rates, the idea that diet makes the difference is most persuasive because it fits the overall data quite neatly. Generally (and geographically) speaking, the higher the consumption of saturated fats, the higher the breast cancer rate and vice versa. The approach in western medicine has been to acknowledge this idea may have some validity, but that much more research on dietary connections to breast cancer must be done to establish a definitive link.
If dietary choices really are a subtle, but significant factor in the development of breast cancer, then it would behoove North American or Western European women who know they are in other high risk categories to change to healthier, low-saturated fat diets as a way to perhaps shift the odds more in their favor. Even if it is ultimately proven that the amount of saturated fat in the diet is not the primary reason for the discrepancy in breast cancer rates between nations, it has been proven that such a diet has many other health benefits, such as weight loss and improved heart functioning. So no matter how you look at it, women who have grown up living the western lifestyle really have nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain by changing their diet to protect themselves against disease and ill health – and perhaps against breast cancer as well.
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