Onion and garlic could significantly reduce breast cancer risk: Study

A team of researchers claim a popular Puerto Rican dish called sofrito may help reduce the risk of breast cancer because of its key ingredients - onion and garlic.University at Buffalo and the University of Puerto Rico made the discovery when conducting the first population-based study to investigate the association between breast cancer and consumption of these two food items.

Previous studies have suggested onion and garlic contain powerful properties that may help to tackle cancer."Onions and garlic are rich in flavonols and organosulfar compounds," study's lead author Gauri Desai, an epidemiology PhD student in UB's School of Public Health and Health Professions, told a news portal.

Garlic is packed with compounds like S-allylcysteine, diallyl sulfide and diallyl disulfide, while onions contain alk(en)yl cysteine sulphoxides. "These compounds show anticarcinogenic properties in humans, as well as in experimental animal studies," study's senior author Lina Mu, an associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health at UB, told a news portal.

The team wanted to conduct their investigation in Puerto Rico as women there reportedly consume more onions and garlic than in other places in the US and Europe."There is very little research on breast cancer in Puerto Rico. This study was a collaboration between my colleagues here at UB and at the University of Puerto Rico to help us understand why rates there are lower than in the rest of the U.S., and why rates there are continuing to increase while they are decreasing in the rest of the United States," study co-author Jo Freudenheim, PhD, chair of epidemiology and environmental health at UB, told a news portal.

Onions and garlic are also popularly consumed in stews, as well as bean, and rice-based dishes in this part of the world. "Studying Puerto Rican women who consume a lot of onions and garlic as sofrito was unique," Desai told a news portal. Adding, "Puerto Rico has lower breast cancer rates compared to the mainland U.S., which makes it an important population to study."

The study included 314 women with breast cancer and 346 control subjects. According to the findings, breast cancer risk reduced by 67 per cent in women who consumed sofrito more than once in a day compared to those who have never eaten the dish.

"We found that among Puerto Rican women, the combined intake of onion and garlic, as well as sofrito, was associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer," Desai told a news portal.

The study's findings were originally published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer.

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