A low-fat diet reduces the risk of death after breast cancer, the progression of diabetes and the onset of coronary heart disease, as shown by a team led by researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (United States) in a study published in the journal Journal of Nutrition.
The study included almost 49,000 postmenopausal women and, after almost 20 years of follow-up, the researchers found that a healthy diet reduced deaths from all causes after breast cancer by 15 to 35 percent; between 13 and 25 percent insulin dependent diabetes; and between 15 and 30 percent the appearance of coronary heart disease.
Unlike other studies examining the link between diet, cancer and other diseases, the researchers designed the new work as a long-term randomized controlled clinical trial to limit bias and establish causal conclusions.