Eating Walnuts Changes Our Genes To Help Fight Breast Cancer, Finds New Study

Ask any nutrition expert and they’ll tell you: Walnuts are pretty badass. In fact, of all the various nuts, walnuts contain the highest amount1 of omega-3s and antioxidant polyphenols, both of which have potent anti-inflammatory properties. Research has linked walnut consumption to all sorts of benefits, from reduced risk of type 2 diabetes to weight loss to reduced cholesterol and blood pressure. And now, scientists have more reason to believe walnuts may help fight breast cancer, too.

In a new study published in Nutrition Research, researchers divided women who’d just undergone breast cancer biopsies into two groups. One group began eating two ounces of walnuts per day for two weeks, and the other group did not. When a follow-up biopsy was performed, researchers discovered significant changes in tumor gene expression in the walnut group. Consuming walnuts, researchers learned, activated gene pathways that promote apoptosis2 (or cancer cell death) and inhibited pathways that promote cancer cell growth.

This study builds upon previous research that found walnut consumption slowed breast cancer growth and reduced risk of breast cancer in mice, and “these results support the hypothesis that, in humans, walnut consumption could suppress growth and survival of breast cancers,” said study author W. Elaine Hardman, Ph.D., in a Marshall University news release.

Researchers didn’t identify a specific compound (or compounds) within walnuts that delivered this anti-cancer effect, but polyphenols may have a lot to do with it. “The primary polyphenol in walnuts is pedunculagin, an ellagitannin,” Vincent Pedre, M.D., recently told mbg. “Ellagitannins provide well-known antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits that can protect against cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases.”