How To Adjust To The Dietary Needs Of The Person With Prostate Cancer
While these general recommendations ensure a healthy diet, you can play with which foods you choose and how you prepare them so that your meals are appealing and flavorful while also meeting your dietary needs.
Curb weight loss. If youre losing your appetite and losing weight, think again about what youre cooking and how youre preparing food. Experiment with seasoning foods differently so they taste better, or adding sauces and herbs to mask certain flavors. And cook with higher-calorie ingredients that dont require eating large portions to meet caloric needs.
Manage fiber intake for diarrhea relief. Loose stools, bleeding from the rectum, and loss of control over bowel movements happen to some men after getting external beam radiation treatments for prostate cancer. Several foods can help if this happens to you. Choose fiber-rich foods such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. The Prostate Cancer Foundation says its a bit of a balancing act when it comes to fiber, but recommends avoiding foods that might irritate your stomach while trying to keep up your consumption of fiber-rich foods to avoid getting constipated.
Do Certain Foods Increase The Risk Of Prostate Cancer
Its not entirely clear which foods increase the risk of prostate cancer. Meat , fatty foods, carbohydrates, eggs, poultry, and milk are all prime suspects, however reports connecting these foods to prostate cancer are inconsistent . Several studies do raise a concern for dairy milk, specifically dairy calcium and protein. Recently, an extensive population study from the UK estimated that a 35g per day increase in dairy protein raises the risk of prostate cancer by 32% . This is the equivalent of drinking 4-5 cups of whole milk daily. If you are really concerned about your risk for prostate cancer, you may consider decreasing your meat and dairy intake.
Prostate Cancer: Six Things Men Should Know About Tomatoes Fish Oil Vitamin Supplements Testosterone Psa Tests
SEATTLE â Aug. 22, 2012 â When it comes to prostate cancer, thereâs a lot of confusion about how to prevent it, find it early and the best way â or even whether â to treat it. Below are six common prostate cancer myths along with research-based information from scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to help men separate fact from fiction.
Myth 1 â Eating tomato-based products such as ketchup and red pasta sauce prevents prostate cancer. âThe vast majority of studies show no association,â said Alan Kristal, Dr.P.H., associate director of the Hutchinson Centerâs Cancer Prevention Program and a national expert in prostate cancer prevention. Kristal and colleagues last year published results of the largest study to date that aimed to determine whether foods that contain lycopene â the nutrient that puts the red in tomatoes â actually protect against prostate cancer.
After examining blood levels of lycopene in nearly 3,500 men nationwide they found no association. âScientists and the public should understand that early studies supporting an association of dietary lycopene with reduced prostate cancer risk have not been replicated in studies using serum biomarkers of lycopene intake,â the authors reported in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. âRecommendations of professional societies to the public should be modified to reflect the likelihood that increasing lycopene intake will not affect prostate cancer risk.â
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Tomato Sauce Vs Prostate Cancer
Occasionally, positive things happen in the field of cancer prevention science to popular, good-tasting foods. Yes, broccoli family vegetables are wonderful, but may be a hard food for the public to swallow. By contrast, who doesnt like tomatoes?
But, studies using high-dose supplements of lycopene, the antioxidant red pigment in tomatoes thought to be the active anticancer ingredient, failed over and over again to prevent or treat cancer, and may even end up promoting itsince at the high levels one can get with supplements, lycopene may actually act as a pro-oxidant. But, lycopene in supplement form doesnt appear to be effective at lower doses, either. There is a strong correlation between the intake of fruit and vegetables and the incidence of certain cancers. But when we supplement with only a single compound isolated in pill form, we may upset the healthy natural balance of antioxidants.
But, its not about finding the one magic bullet: The anti-cancer effects of carotenoids and other phytonutrients may reside in combined activity. For example, at the low concentrations of the tomato compounds phytoene, phytofluene, and lycopene found in most people who eat normal amounts of tomatoes, theres very little effect on cancer cell growth in vitro, used separately. But combine them all together, and a non-effective dose plus a non-effective dose becomes effective somehow, significantly suppressing prostate cancer cell growth.
How To Add More Fish To Your Diet
Adding more omega-3s to your diet can be as easy as cracking open a can of sardines or tuna. Not everyone is so enthusiastic about fish, though. Plus, it can also be expensive.
If you havent enjoyed fish in the past, try a different type. Each one has a unique flavor. The flavor is also milder if the fish is fresh, so you may enjoy fish more if you buy it from a fish counter and make it that day.
Cod, flounder, and trout have milder flavors. Try topping your fish with a lemon sauce or adding it to another prostate-friendly food. For example, you could try baked cod in a tomato sauce.
To stretch your dollar, you can also add fish to dishes like pasta, soup, salad, or sandwiches. That way you wont need as much fish to make a complete meal.
You can also ask your healthcare provider about taking omega-3 supplements.
Summary
Fatty fish, such as salmon and mackerel, contain healthful omega-3 fatty acids. These compounds may help keep the prostate healthy, though more studies are needed.
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Are Tomatoes Good For Reducing Prostate Cancer Risk
Researchers across the world have done several observational studies to evaluate the association between consumption of tomato, tomato products or lycopene and prostate cancer risk. Examples of some of these studies and their inference on whether tomatoes are good for reducing prostate cancer risk are mentioned below.
Prostate Facts: What Is Your Prostate And What Has It Done For You Lately
- The prostate is a small gland that surrounds part of the urethra, the little tube that urine travels through before it exits the body. It secretes 30% of the fluid that makes up semen. The liquid the from the prostate helps sperm survive the vaginas acidic environment, but I would never call the prostate basic .
- Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men the US. Only skin cancer is more common for men. Im not going to dwell on the ins and outs of prostate cancertheres plenty of sites that exist for this purpose. The CDC offers an easy to follow article for prostate cancer awareness.
- Recommendations for prostate cancer screening seem like a hot mess nowadays. I know hot mess isnt a medical term, but Im just keeping it real. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends individualized decision making about screening for prostate cancer after discussion with a clinician, so that each man has an opportunity to understand the potential benefits and harms of screening and to incorporate his values and preferences into his decision.
Wait, what? Thats doctor speak for you should just talk to your doctor because screening may be helpful, but it may be harmful too. Ill probably end up getting my PSA check when Im the appropriate age, but Im going to keep some prostate cancer-preventing foods on my plate until we come up with something better.
The prostate with examples of prostate cancer
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Two Key Points Surrounding Tomatoes And Cancer
Two important points emerge from these studies. The first is that processed tomatoessauce and pasteare more effective than raw tomatoes at reducing cancer risk. In the raw tomato, the lycopene is bound into the cell walls and fiber. Processing breaks down these cell walls and frees the lycopene to be absorbed by the body. Ounce for ounce, processed tomato products and cooked tomatoes contain two to eight times the available lycopene of raw tomatoes. While processing does diminish the levels of vitamin C in the tomatoes, it elevates the total antioxidant activity, thus ultimately providing an enhanced benefit.
The second important point, which Dr. Giovannucci mentions in his article, once again highlights the importance of whole foods. While he notes the association between tomato consumption and reduced cancer risk, particularly lung, stomach. and prostate cancers, he makes it clear that a direct benefit of lycopene has not been proven and other compounds in tomatoes alone or interacting with lycopene may be important. Given the rich array of nutrients in tomatoes it wouldnt be surprising if, once again, the synergy of those nutrients were the reason for the positive effects.
Prostate cancer isnt the only type of cancer that tomatoes seem to help protect against. A growing body of evidence suggests that lycopene provides some degree of protection against cancers of the breast, digestive tract, cervix, bladder, and lung.
The Best Drinks For An Enlarged Prostate
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The risk of prostate problems increases as men age, as the size of their prostate naturally increases. An enlarged prostate can lead to urinary issues, including the need to get up during the night . Its a frustrating situation all around, but thankfully your diet can help. Were not just talking about food either. You should also focus on the best drinks for an enlarged prostate.
After all, the drinks you choose will influence your bathroom habits, so it makes sense that theyre also relevant for your prostate.
Dont stress though. An increase in prostate size is a natural part of aging. While the symptoms are frustrating and perhaps embarrassing, theyre not inherently dangerous. And, if the symptoms do become too much, there are medical approaches that can help.
While were talking about male health, you could also look at testosterone rich foods. These wont necessarily help with your prostate, but theyre still offer many benefits.
- Alcohol
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How To Add More Legumes And Soybeans To Your Diet
To add more legumes and soybeans to your diet, consider swapping meat for plant protein in at least some meals. This could mean trying Meatless Mondays or moving toward a plant-based diet.
Try making a black bean burger with lots of veggies. Alternatively, homemade hummus made with blended chickpeas makes a delicious dip for vegetables or whole grain bread.
Finally, tofu is an excellent source of soy. Try flavoring tofu with sauces and baking it or browning it on the stove, or adding it to stir-fries.
Summary
New Evidence That A Heart
Replace refined carbs with vegetable fats to slow early stage cancer from progressing to a more lethal form.
Over the years, evidence has accumulated that men who eat a heart-healthy diet and exercise regularly have a lower risk of developing prostate cancer. But recent findings from the Harvard-based Health Professionals Follow-up Study suggest even after a man is diagnosed with prostate cancer, healthy eating can help stack the odds in his favor.
“It’s one of the first studies to look at dietary interventions after men have been diagnosed with prostate cancer,” says Dr. Marc B. Garnick, a prostate cancer specialist at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “It supports the idea that you can potentially modify the behavior of prostate cancer that is still confined to the prostate gland.”
The findings suggest that a key dietary step to fight prostate cancer is replacing animal fats and refined carbohydrates with healthier vegetable fats from foods such as avocados, walnuts, and soybean, canola, and olive oils. Men who do this may be less likely to develop aggressive and more dangerous prostate cancer, as opposed to the slow-growing, low-risk type that many men die with but not from.
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Tomatoes And Prostate Cancer
But back in 2003 researchers at Ohio State University had already compared the cancer preventative properties of tomato products with those of lycopene. In prostate cancer prone rats, they found that those fed a diet containing tomato powder took significantly longer to develop the disease, and were 26% less likely to die from prostate cancer compared with those on a “control” diet containing no tomato or lycopene foods. When the rats were fed a diet of lycopene alone, the death rates from prostate cancer were similar to those fed a control diet. Obviously, there is more to the health benefits of tomatoes than just lycopene. Dozens of compounds in tomatoes have physiological activity but lycopene became the glamour boy because it is relatively easily measured and it is an antioxidant. And we have been deluged by the overly simplistic notion that oxidation is at the heart of cancer. In the current study, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center took blood samples from over 28,000 men and eight years later compared blood lycopene levels in those who had developed prostate cancer to those who had not. Like in the previous rat study. they found no protection from lycopene. Unlike the rat study, however, they did not investigate tomato consumption!
Study By Zhongnan Hospital Of Wuhan University & Shanghai Tenth Peoples Hospital Of Tongji University In China Impact Of Lycopene On Prostate Cancer Risk
In a study published in 2015, the researchers from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, China evaluated the association between lycopene consumption and the risk of Prostate Cancer. Data for the study was obtained through literature search in Pubmed, Sciencedirect Online, Wiley online library databases and manual search till April 10, 2014. A total of 26 studies were included with 17,517 prostate cancer cases from 563,299 participants. ., 2015)
The study found that higher lycopene intake may be associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer. The dose-response meta-analysis also found that higher lycopene consumption was linearly associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer with a threshold between 9 and 21 mg/day.
Another study done by the researchers from the Shanghai Tenth Peoples Hospital, Tongji University in China also found that those who took -carotene and lycopene had 13% and 14% reduced risk of Prostate cancer respectively as compared to those who didnt consume these supplements. The dose response study also found that the risk of Prostate Cancer was reduced by 3% per 1mg/day increment of dietary lycopene intake.
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What To Do For Now
While science puzzles over the details, men can rest assured that eating more beneficial vegetable oils, eating fewer carbohydrate-rich foods, and eating less red and processed meat are all part of a healthy diet. These steps also fight heart disease, which remains the leading killer of American men. In fact, the study also showed that men who ate the most vegetable fat were 34% less likely to die from any causenot just prostate cancer.
In the end, what’s good for the heart seems to be good for the prostate, too. As with so many health questions, the final answer is still uncertain, but you can do a lot to bias the odds in your favor.
Should You Take Dietary Supplements For Prostate Cancer Maybe Not
One of the other developments in the last 5 to 10 years, says Dr. Chan, has been broader recognition that single supplements seem unlikely to offer a reduction in the risk of prostate cancer development.
She cites the large national Selenium and Vitamin ECancer Prevention Trial in 2008 and 2011, which provided no evidence that selenium or vitamin E supplements offer protection against the development of prostate cancer. And furthermore, in December 2014, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published results of a study from the UCSF describing a greater risk of death from prostate cancer in men who started taking selenium dietary supplements after being diagnosed with the disease.
The bottom line: Healthy, balanced, and heart-healthy meals consisting of whole foods are the way to go when cooking for a man with prostate cancer.
Additional reporting by Andrea Peirce
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Overall Benefits Of Lycopene
It has long been proven that eating five serves of fresh fruit and vegetables each day can improve your health on various levels.
Some believe by increasing your lycopene levels, you can reduce the risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.
As an antioxidant, lycopene is widely recognized as reducing blood LDL cholesterol in human however, due to lack of substantial evidence the Food & Drug Administration rejected a request in 2005 by the pharmaceutical industry to allow qualified labeling for lycopene and the reduction of various cancer risks.
Impact Of Consumption Of Tomatoes On Psa Levels In Prostate Cancer Patients
In a study published in 2017, the researchers from the University of Oslo, Norway, evaluated whether lycopene-rich tomatoes could reduce the levels of prostate specific antigen in prostate cancer patients. The study used data from 79 patients with prostate cancer. The study found that three week nutritional intervention with tomato-products alone or in combination with selenium and n-3 fatty acids may reduce PSA levels in patients with non-metastatic prostate cancer.
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Lycopene And Our Bodies
Humans cannot produce it naturally, but must eat fruits, absorb it, and process it for use in the body.
However, ideal consumption occurs from cooked tomato paste and was shown to be at levels 3.8 times than from fresh tomatoes. The chemical is altered by the temperature changes involved in processing, to make it more easily absorbed by the body.
In a 1995 landmark Harvard study, a group of epidemiologist, monitored the dietary habits of 48,000 men over a period of six years.
Research found that of the 46 fruits and vegetables evaluated it was only the tomato-based foods that were beneficial in lowering the risk of prostate cancer, and lycopene was implicated as the active ingredient. Those men who ate ten or more servings of tomato-based products per week had a 34 percent lower risk of contracting prostate cancer.
The doctors concluded these results because of two factors in lycopene:
Research has been inconclusive in determining if lycopene can help lower the risk of breast cancer in women however, data suggest the intake of dietary lycopene can play a role in the prevention of ovarian and cervical cancers, especially in postmenopausal women.