Washington, Oct 10 : According to a clinical trial conducted by Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a low fat diet can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in healthy postmenopausal women.

The study found that women who consumed less amount of dietary fat as compared to women who followed normal dietary patterns were 40 percent less likely to develop ovarian cancer

The (WHI) Dietary Modification Trial examined 48,835 healthy, postmenopausal women for an average of 8.1 years to examine whether or not a low-fat diet could help reduce the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

In the intervention group, nearly 20,000 women were counselled to decrease their fat intake to 20 percent of calories and to replace calories from fat with calories from vegetables, fruits, and grains.

Nearly 30,000 women in the control group received diet-related education materials.

In both the groups women started with a consumption of more than 35 percent of calories from fat, when they joined the study.

The low-fat diet group reduced average fat intakes to 24 percent of calories from fat, about 11 percent less than the women in the usual diet group, by the end of the first year.

By the end of the study, women in the low-fat diet group averaged 29 percent calories from fat, as compared to 37 percent calories from fat in the usual diet group.

Also, the low-fat diet group increased their consumption of vegetables, fruits, and grains.

During the study it was found that women who started with the highest fat intake and who reduced their fat intake the most lowered their risk of ovarian cancer the most.

The study is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. (ANI)