There are many things you can do to help decrease your risk of breast cancer, most of them falling underneath the umbrella of living a healthy lifestyle, meaning you eat whole foods (like fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, good-for-you fats, and lean proteins) and you stay away from foods high in saturated fat, fried foods, and highly processed foods with hard to pronounce ingredients, as well as artificial sweeteners. It's also a good idea to limit alcohol intake and, of course, no smoking!

The other vital component to a healthy lifestyle to help prevent breast cancer, as well as many other types of cancer, is regular exercise. Numerous studies have shown a link between regular physical activity and a decreased risk of breast cancer. It is important to note that some of these studies have also shown that as soon as the physical activity decreases or goes away completely, so does the benefit of decreased cancer risk - and pretty quickly. There is an especially strong link for post-menopausal women when it comes to regular exercise and a decreased risk for breast cancer.

Post-menopausal women who are overweight or obese have a 30 to 60 percent higher breast cancer risk than those who are lean. So, not only does regular physical activity and a healthy lifestyle decrease your breast cancer risk, but its opposite (unhealthy weight) increases it. Weight gain during adult life has been consistently associated with breast cancer after menopause, most often from about age 18 to

This increased risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal overweight or obese women is widely attributed to increased levels of estrogen. After menopause, when the ovaries stop producing hormones, fat tissue becomes the most important source of estrogen. Because obese women have more fat tissue, their estrogen levels are higher, potentially leading to more rapid growth of estrogen-responsive breast tumors.