OBJECTIVE: To compare the diet and lifestyle in breast cancer survivors and healthy women. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study in the population-based Norwegian Women and Cancer cohort study, using a postal questionnaire on diet, lifestyle and health. SETTING: Nation-wide, population-based study. SUBJECTS: Women aged 41-70 years. Prevalent breast cancer cases (314 short-term with 1-5 years since diagnosis, 352 long-term with >5 years since diagnosis) were identified by linkage to the Norwegian Cancer Registry. The comparison group consisted of 54,314 women. INTERVENTIONS: Analyses of variance, with post hoc Bonferroni tests when significant differences were found. RESULTS: Overall there were few differences in the diet of the three groups. Short-term survivors ate more fruits and vegetables than healthy women (P