The Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, cereals and olive oil, helps reduce the risk of stomach cancer.
The Mediterranean diet helps reduce the risk of stomach cancer.
The traditional diets of Greece, Italy and other Mediterranean countries have many health benefits, including protection against cancer. But there is less information on how this diet influences risk of specific cancer types. To investigate whether diet might be protective against the gastric cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer death worldwide, researchers analyzed data on 485,044 men and women, aged between 35 and 70 years old from 10 European countries.
The participants had been given a score on an 18-point scale based on how closely their diet adhered to the Mediterranean ideal of being rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, cereals and olive oil, with a relatively low intake of red meat and dairy products. During nine years of follow-up, 449 of the study participants developed gastric cancer.
It was found that people with the highest relative Mediterranean diet scores were almost 35 percent less likely to develop stomach cancer than people whose eating patterns were furthest from the Mediterranean ideal. Gastric cancer risk fell 5 percent for every one-point increase in a person's Mediterranean diet score.
The results add to the evidence for the role of the Mediterranean diet in reducing cancer risk.
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