Olive oil 'reduces cancer risk'

Using olive oil in cooking may prevent the development of bowel cancer, research shows.

Writing in the medical journal Gut, a team from Barcelona say their findings suggest that olive oil may have some protective qualities. Their findings may explain why a Mediterranean diet appears to be so healthy. The researcher was carried out on rats who were fed a diet rich in olive, fish, or safflower oil. Each group was then divided into two and half of the animals were given a cancer-causing agent. Four months later the researchers found those rats on the olive oil diet had less pre-cancerous tissue and fewer tumours than those fed the other oils.

Source BBC News