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Mediterranean diet cuts cancer risk

Health benefits of a Mediterranean diet. Photo: Getty.
Health benefits of a Mediterranean diet. Photo: Getty.

Researchers from Italy and Switzerland studied the relationship between diet and health of 5,000 Italian women.

Their diet was split into nine different components which included eating lots of vegetables, fruit, pulses, cereals, fish and healthy fats and limiting their intake of red meat, dairy and alcohol.

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The findings, published in the British Journal of Cancer, revealed that women who stuck closely to the Mediterranean diet by eating between seven and nine of the beneficial food groups lowered their risk of womb cancer by 57 per cent.

Women who stuck to six of the diet’s components reduced their risk by 46 per cent, while those who stuck to five reduced their risk by 34 per cent.

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“Our research shows the impact a healthy balanced diet could have on a woman’s risk of developing womb cancer,” said lead researcher Dr. Cristina Bosetti.

“This adds more weight to our understanding of how our everyday choices, like what we eat and how active we are, affect our risk of cancer.”