Higher Fruits and Vegetables Consumption Is not Associated with Risk of Breast Cancer in Iranian Women

Abstract

We aimed to investigate the association of fruits and vegetables (FVs) and their all subgroups intakes with breast cancer (BC) risk in Iranian women. The present case-control study conducted on 150 age-matched women with newly diagnosed BC and apparently healthy controls. Anthropometric measures were collected and eventually, the mean intakes of total FVs and each subgroup were obtained from a validated 147-item food frequency questionnaire. Multivariate regression analysis was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Our findings revealed that the intake of only dark yellow vegetable was significantly higher in BC patients (P = 0.03) after controlling for covariates. OR of BC across tertiles of FVs intake, showed that there was not any statistical association of total FVs (OR: 1.83, CI: 0.54–6.24, P-trend = 0.3) and their subgroups intakes with BC risk. Except for berry fruits intake which was adversely associated with BC risk (OR: 0.36, CI: 0.09–1.37, P-trend = 0.02). Our findings did not support the hypothesis that higher total FVs and their subgroups intakes reduce BC risk and suggested that only higher berry fruits intake may have an association with lower BC risk.