The Breast Cancer Prevention Diet: The Powerful Foods, Supplements, and Drugs That Can Save Your Life

Nutrition Forum, July, 1999 by Jane Reinhardt-Martin

The Breast Cancer Prevention Diet: The Powerful Foods, Supplements, and Drugs That Can Save Your Life by Bob Arnot, MD (New York: Little, Brown & Company, 1998), 258 pp., $24 hardback, ISBN 0-316-05114-4.

Bob Arnot is well known as NBC's chief health correspondent. His breast cancer prevention diet book caught the attention of American women last fall when it was introduced on the TV shows Oprah and Today. A hefty debate ensued. Critics of the book emerged, and national organizations, such as the American Council on Science and Health, labeled the book "unscientific and deceptive--a disservice to American women."

Part one of the book discusses what makes breast cancer grow and suggests foods that could prevent the disease. Part two explains Arnot's 12-step program for preventing breast cancer, offering advice on everything from exercise to how to drop a glucose overload. Part three details "road maps" to assist women in their own breast cancer prevention plan. A small section at the end of the book is devoted to healthy cuisine and meal plans.

The problem is, he has intertwined facts and fiction so well that the unwary may believe that Arnot has the cure for breast cancer--when in fact he has no such thing. The book opens with a section citing numerous recognized medical experts, scientists, and research institutions. Yet when the American Council on Science and Health contacted many of the scientists cited, most were unaware of the book, and not one endorsed it. Arnot implies that the studies he cites were human studies, when most of them were done on animals. For example, he refers to the work of Dr. Lilian Thompson on flaxseed, and he says, "... what she has found is that breast cancer size actually decreased with a daily course of flaxseed." True, at least two of Dr. Thompson's studies have found that flaxseed supplementation reduces the size of mammary tumors--in rats, but not in women.

Throughout the book, Arnot often gives specific statistics without providing a supporting reference. Such omissions encourage readers to blindly accept some incredible claims.

Finally, Arnot's diet plan requires drastic lifestyle changes. Even if the book were more scientifically sound, it does not explain how women are supposed to achieve such dramatic alterations in lifestyle.

The sad fact is, there is no scientific evidence that a "breast cancer prevention diet" exists.