Washington: Girls, who eat peanut butter or nuts two times a week, are 39 percent less likely to develop benign breast disease by the time they turned 30, compared to girls who never eat them a new study has revealed.

Research from Washington University and Harvard Medical School analyzed the health histories of 9,039 U.S. girls from 1996 to 2001, when they were between the ages of 9 and 15, and later from 2005 to 2010, when they were 18 to 30 years old, Fox News reported.

Senior author Dr. Graham Colditz, associate director for cancer prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, said that the findings suggested that peanut butter could help reduce the risk of breast cancer in women.