Eating fruit and walking can halve chance of dying from breast cancer

Women with breast cancer can halve their risk of dying from the disease if they eat fruit and take up walking, research released yesterday has shown.

Even those who are overweight or obese gain the same benefit from the strategy - provided they follow both parts of it. Eating fruit and vegetables without walking or walking without eating fruit has no effect, the researchers said.

The study of 1,500 women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer between 1991 and 2000 is the first to examine the combination of exercise and diet and its effect on survival. Previous studies have looked at one or the other and come up with mixed results.

Researchers at the Moore's Cancer Centre, University of California, who conducted the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, say getting diet and exercise right is key for breast cancer patients.

"We demonstrate in this study of breast cancer survivors that even if a woman is overweight, if she eats at least five servings of vegetables and fruits a day and walks brisky for 30 minutes, six days a week, her risk of death goes down by 50 per cent. The key is that you must do both," said John Pierce, director of the cancer control programme at the Moore's centre.

The researchers found that one in six women who were obese were physically active and had a healthy diet, compared with almost one in three of the rest of the women in the study. The death rate during the five to 11 years for which the women were followed up was 7 per cent among those who led a healthy lifestyle, half that of those who did not.

The researchers plan a further study in which they will attempt to change the diet and level of physical activity of breast cancer survivors to see if the findings from this first "observational" study are borne out.

Private Medical Cover from £30 per month with Independent Compare