Onions, garlic, eggs, olive oil and beans protect against melanoma

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05.10.2019

Onions, garlic, eggs, olive oil and beans protect against melanoma
A diet with lots of sweets and candy bars increases the chance of a melanoma. The chance of the dreaded variant of skin cancer, however, decreases again if there are relatively many eggs, onions or garlic, olive oil and beans in your diet. Italian epidemiologists, affiliated with University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, report that in Nutrients.

Study
In their region, the researchers recruited 380 study participants who had been recently diagnosed with melanoma. Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer that oncologists, if they discover the disease at a late stage, can hardly control.

The researchers also recruited 719 study participants without cancer, who resembled the study participants in the melanoma group in terms of age and gender.

The researchers then determined the diet of the two groups, and subsequently looked at differences between the groups.

Results
And yes, they found differences. The study participants in the melanoma group consumed more sweets and candy bars to begin with.

Onions, garlic, eggs, olive oil and beans protect against melanoma

In addition, the healthy study participants consumed relatively more olive oil, eggs, onions and garlic, and beans than the participants in the melanoma group.

These are foods that are prominent in the traditional Mediterranean diet, the diet that most food scientists believe is much healthier than the diet that most residents of rich countries have adopted.

Onions, garlic, eggs, olive oil and beans protect against melanoma

Conclusion

"Our results suggest potentially adverse effects on melanoma risk of foods characterized by high contents of [...] sugars, while suggesting a protective role for eggs and two key components of the Mediterranean diet, legumes and olive oil", the Italians write.

"In light of the rising melanoma incidence worldwide, these associations warrant further investigation and, if confirmed, they might have important public health implications for the reduction of melanoma incidence through dietary modification."

Scientists almost always argue for further investigation, but in this case, the remark makes more sense than usual. This type of epidemiological research has often found interesting associations in the past, which in larger follow-up studies proved to be modest or non-existent.

Source:
Nutrients. 2019 Sep 12;11(9).

More:
B-vitamin supplementation halves chance of aggressive skin cancer 20.07.2017

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