Dietary Carbohydrate Quality and Quantity and Risk of Breast Cancer among Iranian Women

Abstract

Objective This study investigated the association between quality and quantity of carbohydrate by assessing low carbohydrates diet score (LCDS), carbohydrate quality score (CQI), glycemic index (GI), dietary glycemic load (GL), and dietary carbohydrate intake, and risk of breast cancer (BrCa) among Iranian women. Methods This hospital-based case-control study was carried out in the Cancer Research Center of Imam Khomeini hospital, Iran. We included One hundred and fifty newly diagnosed BrCa cases and one hundred and fifty healthy controls in this study. Socio-demographic and dietary data and anthropometric measures were recorded. Results We found that a higher CQI than a lower score was associated with a decrease in odds of BrCa (P = 0.04). After adjusting for potential confounders, we observed that CQI was not associated with BrCa development (P = 0.05). An increase in odds of BrCa among women in the highest tertiles of GL (P = 0.12), GI (P = 0.48), and dietary carbohydrate intake (P = 0.06) was seen, which was not statistically significant. There was also a non-significant lower chance of having BrCa with adherence to the LCDS (P = 0.09). Conclusion Our findings suggest that CQI was not related to BrCa risk among Iranian women. This relation deserves to be investigated in prospective studies.