The Greek traditional diet has been characterized as the most balanced, contributing to the protection of our health from a number of chronic and acute diseases, including cancer – and olive oil is key to this, greekcitytimes.com reports.

A new Greek study published in PLOS One highlights the value of a top ingredient in the Greek diet in cancer prevention.

The research team comprised of the Therapeutic Clinic of the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA) at the “Alexandra” Hospital, headed by Theodoros Sergentanis and Theodora Psaltopoulou and with the participation of Christos Markellos, Ouaglias, Mariavos, and Maria-Le.

They carried out a review of already published studies to confirm whether olive oil can play a role in reducing the risk of cancer.

Greece ranks third in the globe – after Spain and Italy – in the production of olive oil, but quality controls have highlighted the superiority of the Greek product in terms of taste and nutrients.

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Greek researchers, therefore, looked at the scientific bases of PubMed, EMBASE, and Google Scholar and identified 45 clinical trials suitable for inclusion in their meta-analysis.

The 37 included a control group and involved a total of 17,369 patients and 28,294 people for comparison and the other eight were observational studies, in which a total of 929,771 people took part, and of which 12,461 had developed cancer.

Increased consumption of olive oil was associated with a 31% lower risk of developing any malignancy in general, and in particular of the breast, digestive system, upper gastrointestinal tract, and urinary tract.

In fact, this was true for both participants in the studies who were of the Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean descent.

Source: Tornos