[Mediterranean diet in cancer patients and cancer free adult Arabs in Israel--a case-control study].

Background: Although several studies have investigated the association of the Mediterranean diet (MD) with overall risk of specific cancers, data on overall cancer risk are sparse, especially in Arab populations.

Objectives: To compare between the score of MD in cancer patients and cancer-free adult Israeli Arabs in order to identify risk factors amenable to intervention.

Methods: A case control study was conducted in northern Israel, involving 200 Arab subscribers of a regional Health Maintenance Organization (HMO).

[Diabetes mellitus and cancer: the different expression of these diseases in Israeli Arabs and Jews].

Background: The Arab population of Israel is a separate ethnic group from the Jewish population, embracing a different lifestyle and different nutritional habits and environmental exposures. These variations may lead to dissimilar expressions of certain diseases in the Arab Israeli as compared with the Jewish population. In recent years, the Arab population in Israel has experienced rapid and marked changes toward westernization in lifestyle, and significant increases in the incidence rate of both diabetes mellitus (DM) and cancer This is combined with an increase in known risk factors common to both illnesses.