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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]

Reference: 1. Mitrou PN et al.  Mediterranean dietary pattern and prediction of all-cause mortality in a US population. Archives of Internal Medicine 2007:167(22);2461-2468 

2. Giacosa et al. Cancer prevention in Europe: the Mediterranean diet as a protective choice. European Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013;22:9095