Eat for Health
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THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET AND CANCER
Everyone is familiar with the association between cancer and environmental toxins and smoking. But cancer and diet? A study by Mitrou et al followed over 560,000 US retirees for 5 years. A Mediterranean dietary pattern was associated with a 20% reduction in deaths from all causes and a 12% decrease in deaths from cancer.[1] This is the first US study to demonstrate a benefit of diet in the prevention of cancer, although data from other countries imply the same effect. A recent review article on the topic of cancer summarized a conference from Italy in 2011 which concluded that if the Mediterranean diet was introduced in countries with a typical western diet, the overall risk of cancer could be reduced by 10% and the risk of colorectal and other digestive tract cancers could be reduced by up to 25%.[2]
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Eat for Health
arnoldsl