A diet rich in folate may reduce the chances of getting breast cancer for some women, a new study finds. Women who had not yet reached menopause and who had the highest average intake of folate had a 40 percent reduced risk of developing breast cancer. Folate is a water-soluble B vitamin that occurs naturally in foods such as leafy green vegetables, fruits and dried beans and peas. “In our study, it appears that folate is most protective of hormone negative, or what we call double negative, breast cancer,” says Martha Shrubsole, assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University and lead author of the study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology
