In the stressful world that we are living in, articles giving you tips on eating healthy food and living a healthy life is a common sight on the internet. Eating healthy food is indeed a weapon to destroy diseases, even the life-threatening ones such as cancer. According to a new research, breast cancer patients who adopted diet low in fats were more likely to survive for at least a decade after diagnosis, compared to patients who ate fattier fare.

This intriguing evidence was found in a new study published in JAMA Oncology. Dr Rowan Chlebowski, research professor at the City of Hope National Medical Center, along with his colleagues, analysed data from more than 48,000 women enrolled in the ongoing Women’s Health Initiative, a large national study at 40 centers across the U.S.

All of the women were cancer-free at the start of the study, and nearly 20,000 were randomly assigned to change their diet and lower their fat intake to about 20% of their daily calories (the average American eats about 30% of their daily calories from fat). They were also encouraged to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The other women weren’t given instructions to change their diet but were educated about a good nutrition and a healthy diet.

Over the 8.5 years of the diet study, 1,764 of the women developed breast cancer. Outcomes for these women were tracked for an average of 11.5 years after their diagnosis. Overall, survival for women who stuck with the low-fat regimen was 22 percent higher compared to women who continued with their usual diet, the researchers reported on May 24 in JAMA Oncology.

Looking at death from breast cancer specifically, of the 516 women who died from any cause, 68 in the low-fat diet group died of breast cancer, compared to 120 in the regular-diet group, the researchers said. Women who ate less dietary fat were also less likely to have died of other causes, especially heart disease. While 64 women who ate fattier diets died of heart disease over the study period, that number fell to just 27 for women in the low-fat diet group, the findings showed.

The take-home message, according to Chlebowski: "Following a low-fat diet—at any point in your life—can have tremendous health benefits."

The research doesn't stop here. Chlebowski is continuing studies to see if he and his colleagues can isolate the processes that tie diet to improved cancer survival, and investigate whether these can be turned into treatments that can increase people’s chances of surviving diseases like breast cancer. “It’s exciting because we are really trying to close the gap between lifestyle factors like diet and biological processes behind the disease,” he says. “Emerging data like this are helping us to do that.”

In India, we are now witnessing more and more numbers of patients being diagnosed with breast cancer to be in the younger age groups (in their thirties and forties). This research result could help people take precautions. While the survival rate in the US has increased over the years, the trend hasn't followed in India. While we wait for better technologies in India, there's no harm in learning new precautionary methods.