Olive oil is one of the main foods in the Mediterranean diet. In addition, both the Mediterranean diet and olive oil are rich in components beneficial to health and there is increasing evidence that they could improve factors related to obesity. However, to date the relationship between the Mediterranean diet, olive oil, intestinal microbiota and obesity-related cancers has not been clearly studied.

A new study published in the scientific journal ‘Seminars in Cancer Biology‘ carried out by the Nutrition and Cancer research group of IDIBELL and the Catalan Institute of Oncology, with the collaboration of the food and health team of the Basque scientific and technological center AZTI offers a relevant review and update of data that demonstrates how eating habits could play a key role in the prevention of cancer, and the relationship between obesity and the risk of having various types of cancer such as endometrial, the esophagus, the kidney, the colon and rectum, the pancreas, the liver, among others.

The Mediterranean diet and olive oil, tools to prevent cancer

This study examined the epidemiological evidence that links the Mediterranean diet and olive oil to obesity-related cancers, as well as the biological and intestinal microbiota mechanisms that could explain this connection. The results suggest that adherence to these eating habits has a positive impact on the prevention of aerodigestive, gastrointestinal, and gynecological cancers.

In fact, it has been observed that in some cancers, especially gastrointestinal cancers, an imbalance in the intestinal microbiota is present and, this fact, produces inflammation and altered production of metabolites that can contribute to an acceleration of the carcinogenesis process. By the researcher at the Catalan Institute of Oncology and the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute and author who led the study, Marta Farràs, “both in vitro and clinical studies show that the Mediterranean diet and olive oil can modify the composition of the intestinal microbiota and its mechanisms and, therefore, the modulation of this microbiota through diet could play an important role in the prevention and treatment of obesity-related cancers.”