5 Scientifically Proven Nutrition Tips For Fighting Prostate Cancer

This series of articles is informational only and not intended to be a substitution for your doctor’s advice, so make sure that you seek a professional opinion if you feel that you may have prostate issues.

In the previous article, we looked at

• risk factors,
• treatment modalities, and
• research on testosterone and testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).

We even touched briefly on lifestyle factors, such as diet & nutrition, and sedentary behavior.

In this article, we will look at diet and nutrition and how making healthy food choices can reduce your risk for prostate cancer.

And if you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, you will find this information helpful.

Fighting prostate cancer with nutrition

Before we go any further, let me remind you that I am not providing you with a cure for cancer. What I am providing you with is a means for building and maintaining a healthy body and immune system.

So how do we go about using nutrition to achieve this?

Here are five tips for doing that:

Tip #1: Reduce dairy

While a systematic review and meta-analysis by Spanish researchers found data linking high dairy consumption with increased prostate cancer risk (albeit inconsistent), it might help to know that dairy can cause inflammation.

Inflammation is a leading contributor to the development of cancers, including prostate cancer.

As an aside, do you know that we are the only creatures that consume the milk of another animal?

Reduce dairy to the point where you can cut it out altogether.

Or else, consume in moderation.

Tip # 2: Eat tomatoes

Lyocopene contained in tomatoes is another factor showing up in numerous studies as an effective preventative element of a prostate cancer fighting diet. Eating one moderately sized tomato a day also provides approximately 4 mg of lycopene. Works better when cooked.

Tip # 3: Fruits and vegetables

Other fruits and vegetables are also recommended, such as avocadoes, pumpkins, beans and carrots and green leafy vegetables like spinach, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli.

Plant-based diets have been found to reduce the risk for aggressive forms of prostate cancer, particularly for men under 65.

While you don’t have to become vegetarian or vegan, you might want to try this out for a week or two.

Tip # 4: Don’t forget good old garlic

A staple for thousands of years, garlic seems to pop up in every healthy diet plan. It shows up in numerous studies as being highly beneficial for health.

A key reason in this case is what it contains: allicin, which decreases the proliferation of cancer cells.

Tip # 5: Drink green tea

Finally, apart from being scientifically proven to lower the risk for prostate cancer, green tea might be a better alternative as an appetite suppressant to taking a pharmaceutical drug if you are on hormone therapy treatments.

While research has indicated that up to seven cups can help reduce your risk, drinking three cups of green tea per day might not be practical for you, so a supplement could be helpful.

Also, eating healthy fats will give you that full feeling for longer and you won’t crave sugary processed foods.

And, if you are a meat eater, get your meat from organic sources: free-range chicken and eggs, grass-fed beef, etc.

As always, talk with your doctor.

It doesn’t have to be a death sentence

All in all, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about controlling your risk of developing prostate cancer. And if you have been diagnosed with it, prostate cancer does not have to be a death sentence.

If you work with your medical team, a healthy diet, as outlined above, can help you lead a normal healthy long life.

In the next article we will look at supplementation. Do you ever need supplements?

Would you like to have more information on how you can use food to build and maintain a healthy body and immune system, then check out this 7-part series of articles.

Sources:

López-Plaza B, Bermejo LM, Santurino C, Cavero-Redondo I, Álvarez-Bueno C, Gómez-Candela C. Milk and Dairy Product Consumption and Prostate Cancer Risk and Mortality: An Overview of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses. Adv Nutr. 2019 May 1;10(suppl_2):S212-S223. doi: 10.1093/advances/nmz014. PMID: 31089741; PMCID: PMC6518142.

Mirahmadi M, Azimi-Hashemi S, Saburi E, Kamali H, Pishbin M, Hadizadeh F. Potential inhibitory effect of lycopene on prostate cancer. Biomed Pharmacother. 2020 Sep;129:110459. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2020.110459. Epub 2020 Jun 30. PMID: 32768949.

Chen P, Zhang W, Wang X, Zhao K, Negi DS, Zhuo L, Qi M, Wang X, Zhang X. Lycopene and Risk of Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Medicine (Baltimore). 2015 Aug;94(33):e1260. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000001260. PMID: 26287411; PMCID: PMC4616444.

Loeb S, Fu BC, Bauer SR, Pernar CH, Chan JM, Van Blarigan EL, Giovannucci EL, Kenfield SA, Mucci LA. Association of plant-based diet index with prostate cancer risk. Am J Clin Nutr. 2022 Mar 4;115(3):662-670. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqab365. PMID: 34791008; PMCID: PMC8895206.

Zhou XF, Ding ZS, Liu NB. Allium vegetables and risk of prostate cancer: evidence from 132,192 subjects. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2013;14(7):4131-4. doi: 10.7314/apjcp.2013.14.7.4131. PMID: 23991965.

10 Natural Appetite Suppressants That Help You Lose Weight. Located at healthline (online),
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-natural-appetite-suppressants#6.-Green-tea-extract [Accessed September 20, 2022]