Adopting just two aspects of the Mediterranean diet can cut the risk of developing cancer by 12 per cent, according to research published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Making any two changes to your diet, such as eating more peas, beans and lentils and less meat, could cut cancer risk by 12 per cent, the study found. Consuming more good fats, like those found in olive oil, rather than bad fats, could reduce cancer risk by nine per cent.
The study looked at the detailed dietary records of more than 26,000 Greek men and women, over a period of eight years, in the largest ever monitoring of a Mediterranean diet in relation to cancer risk.
Lead author Dr Dimitrios Trichopoulos, professor of cancer prevention and epidemiology at Harvard University, said: “Our results show just how important diet is in cancer risk.
“Of the 26,000 people we studied, those who closely followed a traditional Mediterranean diet were overall less likely to develop cancer. Although eating more of one food group alone didn’t significantly change a person's risk of cancer, adjusting one’s overall dietary habits towards the traditional Mediterranean pattern had an important effect.”
The researchers collected information from interviewer-administered questionnaires and used a nine-point scale to describe how Mediterranean a participant’s diet was.
Food groups were classified as good and protective against cancer, or bad and increasing cancer risk, based on the latest research.
The researchers found that people who more closely followed a traditional Mediterranean diet had a lower incidence of cancer.
