New research is strengthening evidence that followingmomsadmonition to eat your vegetables may be some of the besthealthadvice around.

¡¡¡¡A large study of 500,000 American retirees has found that justoneextra serving of fruit or vegetables a day may reduce the riskofdeveloping head and neck cancer.

¡¡¡¡Numerous studies have demonstrated that diet plays a roleincancer. Cancer experts now believe that up to two-thirds ofallcancers come from lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet andlackof exercise.

¡¡¡¡It may not sound like news that vegetables protect fromcancer,but there is actually some controversy in the literature. Itisimportant that we do these large studies, said Dr. AlanKristal,associate head of the cancer prevention program at FredHutchinsonCancer Research Center in Seattle.

¡¡¡¡Researchers at the National Cancer Institute queried men andwomenaged 50 and older about their diets, then followedparticipants forfive years to record all diagnoses of head andneck cancer, which isthe sixth-leading cause of cancer-relateddeath worldwide.

¡¡¡¡Tobacco and alcohol use increase the risk of head andneckcancers, which affect the mouth, nose, sinuses and throat.

¡¡¡¡The study found eating six servings of fruit and vegetablesperday per 1,000 calories cut the risk of head and neck cancer by29percent compared to eating one and a half servings.

¡¡¡¡The typical adult consumes around 2,000 calories a day.

¡¡¡¡Increasing consumption by just one serving of fruit orvegetablesper 1,000 calories per day was associated with a 6percent reductionin head and neck cancer risk, said Neal Freedman,cancer preventionfellow at the NCI.

¡¡¡¡A second study of food consumption in more than 183,000residentsof California and Hawaii found that a diet high inflavonols mighthelp reduce pancreatic cancer risk, especially insmokers.

¡¡¡¡Flavonols are common in plant-based foods but are found inhighestconcentrations in onions, s, berries, kale andbroccoli.

¡¡¡¡The study found that people who ate the largest amountsofflavonols had a 23 percent reduced risk of developingpancreaticcancer compared to those who ate the least.