The quality of the diet can be defined by the foods it contains. Generally those diets containing refined carbohydrates, processed meats, preservatives and additives, as well as large quantities of modified fats, whilst absent of essential nutrients, fibre and antioxidants, can be defined as poor quality diets. In contrast, high quality diets tend to be based on traditional eating patterns and include nutrient dense, calories sparse foods, high in plant nutrients and fibre, with only whole grain sources of cereals, and are absent of refined and processed macronutrients, particularly sugars and trans fats. The poor quality diet is typified by the Western diet. The typical Western diet is a low quality diet that is not associated with an increased risk of most of the Western lifestyle diseases including cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes as well as cancer. Consuming low quality diets have been shown to increase the risk of a number of different types of cancer, including the risk of breast cancer in women.
It stands to reason that if low quality diets increase the risk of certain types of cancer, that consuming a high quality diet may be expected to be protective of cancer. In fact, this is what the nutritional literature suggests. A number of studies have investigated the association between cancer risk and diet and generally found that high quality diets, or foods associated with high quality diets, tend to be protective of cancer. For example, in one study1 researchers assessed the effects of a high quality diet oi the risk of breast cancer in women. The results of the study showed that consumption of the healthy food pattern they identified, which was considered healthy because it contain high amounts of plant based food, whilst being low in red meat, was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of breast cancer. The reduction in risk was particularly apparent for postmenopausal women. This supports a growing body of evidence that suggests that the Western diet is an unhealthy diet that increases disease risk considerably.
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