A recent study has suggested that a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil appreciably reduces the risk of breast cancer. Live Science reported that researchers from the University of Navarra have discovered that women, following a Mediterranean diet were 68% less likely to develop breast cancer.

Mediterranean diet is known for its abundance of plant foods, fish and particularly olive oil. In a statement, researcher Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez said, “All this despite the fact that the control group, or comparison group, followed an already healthy diet, which suggests that results could have been even more significant had it been compared to dietary pattern as followed in non-Mediterranean Western countries”.

UPI reported that to carry out the study, the data was collected from over 4,000 post-menopausal women between the ages of 60 and 80 years old who were at a high risk of developing cardiovascular cancer. Researchers analyzed the data. They randomly separated the women into three groups, each of which was told to follow one of the diets including, a Mediterranean diet rich in extra virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet with the addition of nuts, and a diet low in fat to function as a control group.

The results from the participants in the first two groups confirmed that they had one third of the incidence of the disease in comparison to the control group. On the basis of these results, researchers concluded that the high consumption of virgin olive oil in the Mediterranean diet has explained in large part the protection against breast cancer. Olive oil contains at least 15% of total consumed calories in the Mediterranean diet.