Mediterranean Diet Lowers Risk of Stomach Cancer

BARCELONA, SpainEating foods such as avocado, fish and whole grains may pay off when trying to lower your risk for cancer. According to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, greater adherence to an relative Mediterranean diet (rMED) is associated with a significant reduction in the risk of incident gastric adenocarcinoma (GC)stomach cancer (2010;91(2):381-90). The study included 485,044 subjects aged 35 to 70 years from 10 European countries. At recruitment, dietary and lifestyle information was collected. An 18-unit rMED score, incorporating nine key components of the Mediterranean diet, was used to estimate rMED adherence. A calibration study in a subsample was used to control for dietary measurement error.

After a mean follow-up of 8.9 years, 449 validated incident GC cases were identified and used in the analysis. After stratification by center and age and adjustment for recognized cancer risk factors, high compared with low rMED adherence was associated with a significant reduction in GC risk. A 1-unit increase in the rMED score was associated with a decreased risk of GC of 5 percent. There was no evidence of heterogeneity between different anatomic locations or histologic types. The calibrated results showed similar trends.