No wonder why all those Greek statues look so good. Turns out, all that olive oil and Mediterranean food is really good for you.

The Mediterranean diet, long ballyhooed for health and consisting of foods like fruit, vegetables, legumes, fish, cereals and olive oil, may reduce the risk of stomach cancer.

Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, scientists found among the 485,044 men and women, ages 35 to 70, studied, those more stringently following a Mediterranean diet were less likely to develop gastric cancer.

After nine years, only 449 people got cancer. Researchers note that individuals consuming the most Mediterranean diet were 33% less likely to develop cancer than people straying from the diet.

Scientists used a scale to determined level of Mediterranean diet adherence and it showed that gastric cancer risk fell 5% for every one “point” increase in a participant’s Mediterranean diet score.

But with McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken in Greece, that’s probably all shot to hades now.

Via Reuters.

Image credit: prakhar