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Relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and interference control in breast cancer survivors

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Abstract

Purpose

Nutrition plays an important role in brain structure and function, and the effects of diet may even be greater in those at greater risk of cognitive decline, such as individuals with cancer-related cognitive impairment. However, the relation of dietary components to cognitive function in cancer survivors is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine whether breast cancer survivors (BCS) evidenced impairments in interference control, a component of cognitive control, compared to age-matched women with no prior history of cancer, and to examine the moderating role of diet on cognitive function.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, a modified flanker task was used to assess interference control in BCS (n = 31) and age-matched women with no prior history of cancer (n = 30). Diet was assessed with 3-day food records. Differences between BCS and age-matched controls were assessed using linear mixed models, and multilevel regression analyses were conducted to assess the moderating role of diet on cognitive performance.

Results

Cognitive performance was not different between groups. Fruit intake and vegetable intake were significantly associated with better performance on the incompatible condition of the flanker task (i.e., shorter reaction time and increased accuracy), independent of disease status. The association between dietary components and cognition was stronger for the incompatible incongruent condition, suggesting that fruit and vegetables may be important for the up-regulation of cognitive control when faced with higher cognitive demands.

Conclusions

There was no difference in performance on an interference control task between BCS and age-matched controls. The data suggest that greater fruit intake and vegetable intake were positively associated with interference control in both BCS and age-matched controls.

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Acknowledgments

The authors extend appreciation to Ruth Franklin Sosnoff, Ph.D for project coordination, and to Kendrith M. Rowland Jr., MD and his clinical research staff.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Nutrition and Foods Program, Texas State University, 601 University Drive., San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA

    Krystle E. Zuniga

  2. Department of Behavioral Health and Nutrition, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Michael J. Mackenzie

  3. Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA

    Sarah A. Roberts, Lauren B. Raine, Charles H. Hillman & Edward McAuley

  4. Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA

    Arthur F. Kramer

Authors
  1. Krystle E. Zuniga
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  2. Michael J. Mackenzie
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  4. Lauren B. Raine
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  5. Charles H. Hillman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Krystle E. Zuniga.

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Financial support

Lauren B. Raine was supported by the National Institute for Agriculture under the Illinois Transdisciplinary Obesity Prevention Program grant (2011-67001-30101) to the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Illinois Institutional Review Board and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Zuniga, K.E., Mackenzie, M.J., Roberts, S.A. et al. Relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and interference control in breast cancer survivors. Eur J Nutr 55, 1555–1562 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-015-0973-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-015-0973-3

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