According to a new Australian study, women who eat plenty of mushrooms and drink green tea may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer. The study involved more than 2,000 Chinese women.

The researchers first noted that the risk of breast cancer among Chinese women was five times lower than those in Western nations and they wanted to find out the reasons behind this phenomenon.

Dr. Min Zhang of the University of Western Australia in Perth, the study’s lead researcher said the reason might be the fact that women from this part of the world eat traditional diets, particularly those including plenty of mushrooms and green tea.
The participants were give questionnaires about their eating habits.

The study found that women who consumed the most fresh mushrooms, 10 grams or more daily, were roughly two thirds less likely to develop breast cancer than those who consumed no mushrooms. At the same time, those who ate 4 grams or more of dried mushrooms daily halved their cancer risk compared with women who ate no mushrooms.

As for those who ate mushrooms and also consumed green tea everyday, they had only 11-18 percent the risk of breast cancer of women who consumed neither.

Antioxidant compounds found in green tea have been shown to fight breast tumors in animals and this might be a possible explanation.
The preliminary findings were published in the International Journal of Cancer.