A diet rich in olive oil could help breast cancer survivors lose more weight, according to Rhode Island medical researchers. Doctors with the Miriam Hospital in Providence said in a statement that the findings could be important to women with the disease because excess weight at diagnosis, and even moderate weight gain during treatment, is linked with an increased risk of recurrence.

The link is stronger in postmenopausal women. The researchers studied 1,500 women who were prescribed both a conventional low-fat diet recommended by the National Cancer Institute or a plant-based, olive oil diet similar to the so-called “Mediterranean diet.”

After eight weeks, the women chose either the NCI diet or the olive oil-based dietto follow for another six months. Eighty percent of the women who started with the olive oil diet lost more than 5 percent of their baseline weight, compared with 31 percent of those who began with the NCI diet.

The researchers also said most of the participants preferred the higher fat, olive oil diet because the food tasted better, and it was more accessible and affordable. The study is published in the June issue of the Journal of Women’s Health.