Eating one to two portions of oily fish per week could reduce your risk of breast cancer by 14 percent.
Salmon, tuna, and sardines have the highest concentrations of marine n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which aid in protection against breast cancer.
Research conducted in China gathered data from 21 separate studies and found a correlation between n-3 PUFAs and a lower breast cancer rate, according to Medscape.
They found the acids "inhibit or curtail carcinogenesis and reduce risk."
In order to reduce breast cancer risk by 14 percent, one must consume at least one or two portions of fish that contain these acids a week.
Eating the right kind of fish as also extremely important in terms of preventing breast cancer. The study found no correlation with overall fish consumption and lower cancer risk.
The n-3 PUFAs must be acquired through diet, since the body itself cannot produce them. The acids play an important role in blood flow regulation and chemical messaging in the brain, according to Medical News Today.
In the study, the team analyzed data from 80,000 patients. The researchers looked at breast cancer occurrences in the highest and lowest brackets of n-3 PUFA intake, and made the correlation.
For every 0.1 grams of the acids consumed per day, the risk of breast cancer was reduced by five percent.
The plant-based n-3 PUFA, called "ALA," did not display any cancer-fighting properties.
The authors of the study found n-3 PUFAs "supports a protective role of marine n-3 PUFA on the incidence of breast cancer."
"Our present study provides solid and robust evidence that marine n-3 PUFA are inversely associated with risk of breast cancer. The protective effect of fish or individual n-3 PUFA warrants further investigation of prospective studies," they concluded, according to Medscape.
The researchers noticed the findings were much more prevalent in Asian nations.
"This could be because typical fish intake is much higher in Asian populations than in Western populations. Therefore fish intake in these Western populations might be too low to detect an expected protective effect," they wrote in the study.
There are more pesticides in Western fish which could cause more instances of cancer, cancelling out the positive results.
