Can Caffeinated Beverages Reduce Your Breast Cancer Risk?

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Article Title:

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Can Caffeinated Beverages Reduce Your Breast Cancer Risk?

Article Description:

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Women today are more concerned than ever about preventing breast

cancer. There is much speculation about how our lifestyle and

habits affect our chances of contracting this and other cancers.

Well, there are many risk factors that can make you more prone to

breast cancer, but there are also things you can do to prevent

breast cancer.

Additional Article Information:

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1051 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: 2006-12-12 10:00:00

Written By: Jon M. Stout

Copyright: 2006

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Can Caffeinated Beverages Reduce Your Breast Cancer Risk?

Copyright © 2006 Jon M. Stout

Golden Moon Tea

http://www.GoldenMoonTea.com

Women today are more concerned than ever about preventing breast

cancer. There is much speculation about how our lifestyle and

habits affect our chances of contracting this and other cancers.

Well, there are many risk factors that can make you more prone to

breast cancer, but there are also things you can do to prevent

breast cancer.

First, it " s important to have a healthy diet. Avoiding

processed foods and eating a diet that is low in saturated fats

and high in fruits, vegetables and fish. These foods can keep

your weight in check and protect your health by providing

vitamins and fiber.

In addition to these foods being healthy and fiber rich, they

also provide significant ant-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are

extremely important to slowing down the aging process and

preventing disease.

Each day as our body converts food to energy, it creates oxygen

carrying molecules called free radicals. If free radicals are not

eliminated from the body, they damage our cells and our DNA. This

cell damage is partially responsible for a multitude of diseases,

including cancer.

Anti-oxidants are important because they rid the body of free

radicals. Since free radicals are created daily, they should be

eliminated daily, too. But, because our diets have become so

laden with processed food, many of us don " t consume enough

anti-oxidants each day.

So, protecting our health means we have to make changes in our

lifestyle. Watching what we eat and drink can put us in the best

position to combat aging as it creeps up on us.

While you " re taking stock of what " s in your pantry,

don " t forget to include looking at what you drink. You need a

good dose of anti-oxidants each day, and many of us just

don " t consume enough fruits and vegetables to get our daily

requirement.

Well, it turns out that drinking tea and coffee can be a great

way to increase your anti-oxidants and improve your health-

particularly your resistance to breast cancer. There have been

many studies that have reported the benefits of green tea, but

one recent study suggested that there may be benefits to drinking

black tea and coffee, too.

The study I " m referring to was conducted at the Gifu School

of Medicine in Japan. The study was conducted on pre-menopausal

women. This study looked at the hormone level of 50 Japanese

women during different days of their menstrual cycle. They found

that in women who consumed tea, coffee and even caffeinated cola

had a higher level of the sex hormone binding globulin on

critical days of their cycle than the women who did not consume

these beverages.

Why Is This Important?

The level of binding globulin is important because low levels of

this hormone in pre-menopausal women have been associated with a

higher risk of developing breast cancer. So, it appears that

drinking your daily intake of caffeine may help your body produce

a higher level of binding globulin and help protect you from

breast cancer.

Which of These Beverages Should I Drink?

In this particular study, researchers found no difference in the

binding globulin level between those who drank coffee, tea or

even cola. It seemed to be the consumption of caffeinated

beverages of any kind that caused the level of binding globulin

to rise.

However, many other studies have shown that in addition to having

caffeine, green tea has many other health protecting qualities,

as well. Remember how important we just said that anti-oxidants

are to our diet? Well, it just so happens that green tea has an

extraordinary level of very potent anti-oxidants. Black tea and

coffee have anti-oxidants, too; but nothing to compare to the

level and potency you " ll find in green tea. (Cola, by the

way, does not contain anti-oxidants.)

Though green and black tea both come from the camellia sinensis

plant, green tea is healthier because of the way it " s

processed. Black tea is fermented, which changes the structure of

the anti-oxidants, making them less effective and potent. Green

tea is not fermented (nor is white), so it retains anti-oxidants

in their most natural and potent state.

And, for those of you who might be sensitive to caffeine;

you " ll be happy to know that green tea has less caffeine than

coffee or black tea. But, clearly it has enough caffeine to

increase your level of binding globulin sufficiently. Remember,

the study cited above showed no difference between green tea

drinkers and other caffeinated beverage drinkers in terms of the

level of binding globulin.

Making Changes You Can Continue

So, if you " re interested in reducing your breast cancer risk,

you need to make some changes to your lifestyle to help protect

your health. Watch your diet; be sure you " re getting the

recommended amount of fresh fruits and vegetables each day.

You should also be sure to add some sort of caffeinated beverage

to your diet, if you " re not already drinking some. And, to

boost both your anti-oxidants and get your caffeine at the same

time, make that beverage green tea.

Make lifestyle changes that you can commit to- otherwise

you " ll be unlikely to keep up with them. It might not be

realistic for you to say that you " re going to immediately

increase your intake of vegetables from none each day to five

servings. But, if you can consistently eat two servings each day,

then you " ve still made an improvement. And, perhaps later you

can work up to five servings.

Small changes over time are the best way to ensure that

you " ll continue your new healthy habits. Reduce your number

of processed foods and increase your intake of fruits, vegetables

and green tea slowly over time. This way, you won " t feel

overwhelmed and be tempted to quit.

Smoking can also increase your risk for cancer. We all know that

smoking makes us likely candidates for lung cancer, but what many

people don " t know is that smoking increases your overall risk

for cancer. Smoke is toxic to your body, and can increase your

risk of any cancer, including breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the

US. This year, over 200,000 women will be diagnosed with breast

cancer, and over 40,000 will die from it.** It pays to understand

how to protect your health and reduce your risk of contracting

this disease.

**Statistics from American Cancer Society

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Jon M. Stout is the Chairman of the Golden Moon Tea Company.

Golden Moon Tea carefully selects the finest rare and orthodox

teas, which are processed slowly and handcrafted with extreme

care. At their website, you can learn more about their current

tea offerings, including their exceptional green tea

(http://www.goldenmoontea.com/greentea), white tea, black

tea, oolong tea (also known as wu-long and wu long tea -

http://www.goldenmoontea.com/wu-long) and chai. Visit

http://www.goldenmoontea.com for all details concerning

the Golden Moon Tea Company's fine line of teas.