Consuming mushrooms and green tea may greatly reduce the risk of breast cancer, suggests a study that included more than 2,000 Chinese women.
Women who ate at least a third of an ounce of fresh mushrooms every day were 64 percent less likely to develop breast cancer, while those who ate dried mushrooms had about a 50 percent reduced risk. Women who ate mushrooms and drank green tea were nearly 90 percent less likely to develop the disease, reported the Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom.
The study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, doesn't prove that eating mushrooms will stop cancer, and more research is needed to confirm these findings, said the researchers at the University of Western Australia in Perth.
Laboratory tests on animals have shown that fungi have anti-tumor properties and can stimulate the immune system's defenses, the Telegraph reported. There is evidence to suggest that mushrooms act in a similar way to aromatase inhibitors -- breast cancer drugs that block production of the hormone estrogen.