Cut womb cancer risk with Mediterranean diet

Washington: Adding to the goodness of Mediterranean diet, a new study has claimed that foods like vegetables, fish, fruits and nuts, reduces risk of womb cancer by a massive 57 per cent.

The Italian researchers looked at the diets of over 5,000 Italian women to see how closely they stuck to a Mediterranean diet and whether they went on to develop womb cancer.

The diet includes eating lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, pulses, cereals and potatoes, fish, monounsaturated fats but little meat, milk and other dairy products and moderate alcohol intake.

Researchers found that women who adhered to the Mediterranean diet most closely by eating between seven and nine of the beneficial food groups lowered their risk of womb cancer by more than half.

Those who stuck to six elements of the diet's components reduced their risk of womb cancer by 46 per cent and those who stuck to five reduced their risk by a third (34 per cent).

But those women whose diet included fewer than five of the components did not lower their risk of womb cancer significantly.

Lead author Dr Cristina Bosetti, from the IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche, said their research adds more weight to the understanding of how our every day choices, like what we eat and how active we are, affect risk of cancer.

Dr Julie Sharp, Cancer Research UK's head of health information, added that cancer risk was affected by our age and our genes but a healthy lifestyle could also play a part in reducing the risk of some cancers.

The research is published in the British Journal of Cancer.