Women who consume a Mediterranean diet may reduce their risk of developing cancer of the womb (uterus), a new study has found.

The Mediterranean diet involves a high intake of olive oil, fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fish and starchy foods such as red potatoes and pasta. Dairy products, poultry and wine are consumed in low to moderate amounts, while red meat is rarely eaten.

Italian researchers set out to examine whether this type of diet could have any impact on the risk of womb cancer. They broke down the diet into nine main components and then assessed over 5,000 women to see how closely they stuck to these.

The study found that those who stuck to the diet the most, i.e. those who regularly consumed seven to nine of the components, reduced their risk of developing womb cancer by 57%.

Those who consumed six elements reduced their risk by 46%, while those who consumed five elements reduced their risk by 34%.

Women who consumed fewer than five components of the Mediterranean diet did not reduce their risk of womb cancer significantly.

Around 300 women in Ireland are newly diagnosed with this disease every year.

"Our research shows the impact a healthy balanced diet could have on a woman's risk of developing womb cancer. This adds more weight to our understanding of how our every day choices, like what we eat and how active we are, affect our risk of cancer," commented the study's lead author, Dr Cristina Bosetti, of the IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche.

Details of these findings are published in the British Journal of Cancer.