Dry beans are recommended for breast cancer
There are a number of varieties of dry beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) consumed in the United States and their chemopreventative potential varies greatly. For the purposes of this website, dry beans are defined as black beans, kidney beans, navy beans, pinto beans, pink beans, red beans and white beans. The following beans are specifically excluded from the dry bean category: adzuki beans, black-eyed peas, chickpeas, fava beans, lentils, lima beans, and mung beans.
Breast cancer-related effects of eating dry beans
Dry beans have been shown to contain potent antioxidant and antiproliferative components and to reduce mammary cancer incidence and number of tumors in rats. A study of the diets of 90,630 women in the Nurses Health Study II found a significant inverse relationship between breast cancer and the intake of beans. Another study found that beans may improve survival in women already diagnosed with breast cancer.
Additional comments
A number of studies have shown that dry beans are antiproliferative and proapoptic versus colon cancer cells and that this effect appears to be due to both soluble and insoluble components of the beans.