Author: Ivan Red Jr.
Time for reading: ~1
minutes
Last Updated:
August 08, 2022
A Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil and plant foods can drastically reduce the chances of developing the disease.
Excessive and regular consumption of cheese may increase the risk of bladder cancer, according to a study published in the European Journal of Cancer .
The chances of developing cancer increase by more than 50% for people who consume dairy products more than 53 g per day. However, there is no evidence that the use of less than the quoted amount is harmful to the body.
Daily consumption of olive oil, on the other hand, can halve the risk of developing the disease.
Every year, around 10,000 people in the UK fall victim to the disease. According to experts, smokers are 4 times more at risk of the disease than non-smokers.
Other risk factors include exposure to harmful chemicals in the workplace and recurrent bouts of bladder infections.
Research to date has contradictory evidence as to whether different types of fat protect against the disease or rather increase the risk of its occurrence.
In the current study, a team of Dutch and Belgian scientists investigated the relationship between the intake of saturated fats, such as those in meat and dairy products, and the development of cancer, as well as whether healthy fats, such as olive oil, protect the body.
The experts studied the eating habits of 200 victims of bladder cancer and compared them with 386 volunteers who were not affected by the disease. They find a potential protective effect of high olive oil intake and an increased risk of high cheese consumption.
For example, a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil and plant foods can drastically reduce the chances of developing the disease.
The researchers stressed that the number of people included in the study was too small to conclude that cheese was a major health threat, and stressed that the results needed to be confirmed by other studies.
The effect of other foods, such as fish, chicken, eggs and margarine, is negligible, explains the research team.
Cheese consumption in the UK has risen by almost 13% in the last decade. In 1997, most people consumed about 103 g of the product per week, but by 2009, the amount had risen to 116 g.