played an important part in protecting individuals against malignant melanoma

A groundbreaking new study conducted at skin cancer hospital based in the Italian capital Rome has come up with results which shows that eating a Mediterranean diet could actually protect you from cancer of the skin.

Researchers from the Dermopathic Institute of the Immaculate said that they believed that diet played an important part in protecting individuals against malignant melanoma. They explained that the common Mediterranean diet which includes fruit, vegetables, fish and nuts could contain cancer protecting properties. 

It is commonly known that people who live in Mediterranean nations have a reduced risk of skin cancer than people in northern European nations.  The statistics show that only three per 100,000 individuals in the Mediterranean region suffer from skin cancer compared to 22 per 100,000 individuals in Scandinavia and in Australia 50 per 100,000 .

We have often talked about how the Mediterranean diet seems to protect against heart disease, strokes, diabetes, asthma and even a whole list of cancers but this study is the first to link the Mediterranean diet to lower rates of skin cancer which are primarily caused by prolonged exposure to the sun.

Not all scientists have backed the research however as Dr Jodie Moffat from the organisation Cancer Research UK pointed out that the study was very small and needed to be confirmed before they could be conclusively proved that the Mediterranean diet protected against this specific type of cancer and warned that the most effective way to keep skin cancer way was to protect yourself from the sun’s rays.

There have been many different research projects done on the Mediterranean diet and they all come up with positive health benefits. Mediterranean food tends to be high in a certain type of compound called polyphenols which are sometimes referred to as anti cancer compounds. The research which was published by the International Journal of Epidemiology also noted that people who drank a lot of tea had a reduced risk of cancer too.