Plant Based Diet For Prostate Health

What Are The Advantages Of The Ketogenic Diet

Prostate Health – Vegan Foods For Prostate Health

Faster Weight Loss -no carbs means your body is burning fat for fuel.
Better Brain Function the keto diet is high in healthy fats these are crucial for better cognitive function.
Reduced Risk of Metabolic Syndrome Low-carb diets, particularly the keto diet, highly effective at reducing risk factors of metabolic and heart diseases.
Reduced Risk of Diabetes Studies have shown that you can treat diabetes by adopting the keto diet. It helps normalize blood sugar levels and insulin production.
Helps Fight Cancer High levels of glucose in the blood increase insulin release and insulin-like growth factors. These hormones promote growth and cellular multiplication and favor cancer. The keto diet reduces the circulating levels of insulin and insulin-like growth factor, which reduces the incidence of various types of cancer.
Less Craving for Food The keto diet switches off ghrelin the hunger hormone. More healthy fats and proteins mean feeling more full, having fewer cravings.
Better Digestion Healthy fats, proteins, and veggies help nourish the digestive tract and reduce the potential for disease.

The Mediterranean Diet For Prostate Health

The Mediterranean diet for prostate health incorporates the traditional healthy living habits of people from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, such as Italy, France, Greece, and Spain.

A large fraction of Mediterranean cuisines are generally based mainly on vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, cereal grains, olive oil, and fish.

It is a diet that has been associated with good health, including a healthier heart.

A 2013 study found that people following a Mediterranean diet had a 30% lower risk of heart disease and stroke.

Large sums of fruit and vegetables.
More fish.
Less meat.
Products made from vegetable and plant oils, such as olive oil.

Many of you are aware that we strongly advocate a ketogenic diet for men with prostate cancer and metabolic disease.

However, we also know that many men struggle with the ketogenic diet or that it is not practical for some.

The Mediterranean or Paleo Diet is the best alternative option for men who cannot maintain the ketogenic diet.

Therefore, below, I explain everything you need to know about The Mediterranean Diet.

How Does A Plant

A diet predominantly composed of plant-based ingredients, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds, is known as a plant-based diet. Some plant-based diets are entirely vegan and do not include any animal-based items.

Since they comprise vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytochemicals, including carotenoids, lycopene, indoles, and flavonols, diets based on plants are beneficial in the battle against cancer.

Lycopene, the vivid red pigment in tomatoes and melons, has also been demonstrated to have protective effects against prostate cancer.

According to research, a high-fiber diet may lower hormone levels that may contribute to the progression of prostate cancer. By maintaining a regular digestive system, fiber also aids in the removal of toxins from our bodies.

Recommended Reading: Prostate Cancer Liver Metastases Treatment

For The Healthcare Team

Author of the study, Natasha Gupta, MD reported, For men at risk of developing prostate cancer, those who were vegetarian or vegan were either significantly less likely or had equivalent risk of developing prostate cancer over time compared to men who ate meat and/or fish. Notably, no study showed an increased risk of developing prostate cancer with a plant-based diet. This finding is particularly interesting as a Mediterranean diet, which is mostly made up of plant-based foods, does also include fish. In general, encouraging patients to aim for mostly whole, plant-based foods, may be beneficial to their overall health.

References:

Gupta N, Taylor J, Borin J, Jacobsohn K, Kenfield S, Eggener SLoeb S . Systematic review of the impact of a plant-based diet on prostate cancer incidence and outcomes. The Journal of Urology 207:5S, Supplement,e42.

Marabito M . Plant-based diet may lower prostate cancer risk, lead to favorable outcomes. Healio News. https://www.healio.com/news/primary-care/20220518/plantbased-diet-may-lower-prostate-cancer-risk-lead-to-favorable-outcomes

Vegan Diets Could Reduce Prostate Cancer Risk

One of our funded studies found a vegan diet could reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Scientists at Loma Linda University in California, USA looked at the eating patterns of over 26,000 men.

The results showed that men who were identified as following a vegan diet had a 35% reduced risk of prostate cancer.

The men were followed up for an average of around seven years to see the type of diet they followed and how many of them developed prostate cancer.

The results showed that men who were identified as following a vegan diet had a 35% reduced risk of prostate cancer.

What is particularly interesting about this study is that this is the first time a study has assessed the link between prostate cancer and various types of vegetarian diets, including pescatarian and vegan diets.

The focus on types of diets rather than individual food items is important as people eat foods in combination and not in isolation. This research has, for the first time, helped fill some vital gaps in our knowledge about vegetarian eating patterns and the prevention of prostate cancer.

Animal Products Increase Risk

On the flip side, studies have determined that animal-based foods could increase mens risk of the disease. A 2014 meta-analysis that looked at 32 related studies found that high intakes of dairy products, including whole and low-fat milk and cheese, increase the risk of prostate cancer and death from prostate cancer. One study published in the International Journal of Cancer found that men who consume three or more servings of dairy products a day had a 141 percent higher risk of death due to prostate cancer compared to those who consumed less than one serving.

In response to these findings, non-profit medical group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine recently placed advertisements in bus shelters across Washington, DC that urge residents to Ditch Dairy to Protect Your Prostate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington, DC has the highest prostate cancer mortality rate in the country.

For more on a plant-based diet and health, read:

What Do We Know About Diet And Cancer

World Cancer Research Fund was the first organization to focus on the link between diet and cancer prevention. We have been funding and reviewing research in this area for nearly three decades, but only in recent years have others really started to take notice of the associations we have found.

Now that more people are acknowledging our cancer prevention message, those working in oncology and those in nutrition are slowly beginning to work together.

Our analysis of global research in our Continuous Update Project has found that eating a plant based diet , and being more physically active, decreases the risk of various cancers.

We also found that drinking more alcohol and eating processed and red meat can increase your risk of several cancers.

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How Could A Vegan Diet Reduce Cancer Risk

Eating less/avoiding animal protein reduces levels of a growth factor called insulin-like growth factor 1, which could encourage the growth of cells that line the prostate.

There are potential explanations as to how a vegan diet could protect against prostate cancer. One of them is that eating less/avoiding animal protein reduces levels of a growth factor called insulin-like growth factor 1, which could encourage the growth of cells that line the prostate.

Vegans also consume large amounts of fruits and vegetables that are high in antioxidants and can reduce inflammation, which could subsequently play a key role in the development and progression of prostate cancer.

Typical Meals Before During And After My Transition

Skip Stein healed prostate cancer with a plant-based diet

White bagel w/ cream cheeseScrambled eggs with hash brownsStrong coffee with half and half creamer

Transition Breakfast:No egg omelet sans the egg but with the oil Coffee or green tea with soy milk

Breakfast Now:Kamut groats with a little soy milk and a little maple syrupTopped with fresh raspberries, blueberries, and two tablespoons of freshly ground flax seeds, which adds both flavor and essential fatty acids

Just this year, my wife, Mindy, and I made a huge change to breakfast. Instead of oatmeal, we now eat whole Kamut groats. Groats are simply the hulled seed of any type of grain . Steel-cut oatmeal is oat groats that have been coarsely cut. Even this minimal amount of additional processing allows our digestive enzymes to break down the food quicker, promoting a faster post-meal rise of blood sugar.

Groats, on the other hand, are intact and compact grains resulting in a slower digestive process with less sugar released. The big advantage to groats over oatmeal for me is longer satiation throughout the day. We buy whole organic groats, which we rinse and soak overnight. Then we boil the groats in water for about 20 minutes and serve just like you serve oatmeal. Kamut groats, in particular, have a crunchy outer coating with a nutty, soft fleshy center. All groats are packed with fiber, protein, and antioxidants. Additionally, many groats are also gluten-free including buckwheat, oat, and teff.

What Are The Symptoms Of Bph

Some common symptoms that men tend to experience when they develop benign prostatic hyperplasia include:

There may be an urge to urinate often. .

Nighttime urination causes sleep disturbances.
The urine stream tends to become weak due to the obstruction in the urethra.
The urine stream may also be frequently interrupted during urination.
Urine may leak after the man has urinated.
Initiating a urine stream can feel difficult and uncomfortable.

When these symptoms persist, and the patient fails to obtain the right treatment for the condition, benign prostatic hyperplasia may lead to some of the following complications and more serious symptoms:

Urine control may be completely lost.
There may be damage to the bladder.
The kidneys may become damaged due to infection, caused by an obstruction in urine flow.
Frequently affected by urinary tract infections.
Some patients may find that there is blood in their urine.

Treating Advanced Prostate Cancer With Diet

Image Credit:Pixabay. This image has been modified.

Dr. Dean Ornish showed that a plant-based diet and lifestyle program could apparently reverse the progression of prostate cancer for early stage, localized, watch-and-wait cancer. What about for more advanced stage life-threatening disease?

Dr. Dean Ornish showed that a plant-based diet and lifestyle program could apparently reverse the progression of prostate cancer by making mens bloodstreams nearly eight times better at suppressing cancer cell growth. But this was for early-stage, localized, watch-and-wait prostate cancer.

What about for more advanced-stage, life-threatening disease? There have been sporadic case reports in the literature suggesting benefit. For example, a man with extensive metastatic disease who had been given about three years to live went on a strict plant-based diet. Four years later, it appeared the cancer had disappeared. After six years, he got a little too comfortable, backslid a bit on the diet and began eating turkey, tuna fish, and chicken, then the cancer came raging back and he died. But that could have been a total coincidence. Thats the problem with case reports, which are kind of glorified anecdotes. You have no idea how representative the outcome is unless its studied formally. But, throughout the 20th century, all we had were these kinds of case reports for more advanced prostate cancer until 2001.

Cruciferous And Allium Vegetables

It is no secret that eating a diet rich and varied in vegetables is the staple for all good things as it relates to health and wellness.

There are helpful chemical compounds in cruciferous and allium vegetables that may be of unique benefit to the prevention of prostate cancer and other chronic diseases.

Lycopene Is Great For Your Prostate

That bright red pigment found in tomatoes, watermelon, red bell peppers, and pink grapefruit may be especially beneficial to protect against prostate cancer. Lycopene is the carotenoid antioxidant that imparts the red color to tomatoes and other fruit. Men who consume two or more servings of tomato sauce per week have a 23 percent less risk of prostate cancer, compared to those having tomato sauce less than once per month.

What Is The Best Prostate Diet

As discussed, good nutrition plays an integral role in maintaining and managing prostate health. A good diet for enlarged prostate is rich in fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. This is thought to protect the prostate, by reducing the risk of developingprostate disease.

Two diets in particular that have been considered to improve prostate health are the Ketogenic diet and the Mediterranean diet. We will discuss both below.

The Ketogenic Diet For Prostate Health

The keto diet is a low carb, high-fat diet, designed to drastically reduce the intake of carbs and replace it with fat.

Such reduction puts your body into a state called ketosis, whereby the body burns fat for energy.

The most important thing for reaching ketosis is to avoid eating too many carbs. You will probably need to keep carb intake under 50 grams per day of net carbs, ideally below 20 grams.

You might be thinking, Isnt fat bad? For decades the mainstream media have been advertising that fat is bad for our health, resulting in a craze of low fat fad diets and products.

However, consuming the right type of fat will provide energy, satiate the appetite, and reduce the need for over-consuming refined carbohydrates.

Also, the process turns fat into ketones in the liver, which can provide energy for the brain.

As a result, keto diets can significantly reduce blood sugar and insulin levels.

Ketosis is an excellent way to lose weight as it induces the metabolism of starvation.

The body stops trying to burn sugars for energy and starts burning fat stores instead. It also affects your nervous system, elevates your mood, and suppresses appetite.

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How Dairy Affects Prostate Risk

The American Institute for Cancer Research says that there is limited and suggestive evidence that diets high in dairy products or calcium may increase prostate cancer risk. This information is based on older studies, which found that men who drink two or more cups of whole milk daily had a greater risk of developing advanced prostate cancer.

Studies in more recent years have found this not to be the case. To date, the research on dairy, calcium, and prostate cancer is mixed.

A systematic review on dairy and prostate health from 2020 indicates that there are no formal clinical recommendations regarding the consumption of dairy products for people at risk for prostate cancer or who have a history of prostate cancer. More research is needed to determine the connection.

Diet Matters For Risk And Recurrence

Cancer Fighting Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet — CTCA Medical Minute

Overall, the cancer community is in agreement that the best treatment for prostate cancer, like most cancers, is prevention. Although there are scores of new medical treatments developed every year, a healthy plant-based diet is still the gold standard when it comes to dealing with prostate cancer.

Studies have revealed that dairy, egg, and chicken consumption is correlated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, as well as greater odds of recurrence after diagnosis. The reasons are not totally clear, but many nutritional researchers attribute the higher risk at least partially to increased levels of circulating insulin-like growth factor-1 in the blood. Studies suggest that vegans have lower IGF-1 levels than meat-eaters or lacto-ovo vegetarians, potentially putting them at a lower risk for cancers like prostate cancer. IGF-1 is very important for growth and sexual development in children and adolescents, but should naturally decrease with age.

Obesity also increases the risk of prostate cancer as well as the risk of recurrence and aggressiveness after treatment. And whats one of the healthiest ways to avoid or reverse obesity? A growing body of research indicates that a whole foods, plant-based diet demonstrates the ability to improve body weight, fat mass, and insulin resistance markers.

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What Foods Should I Avoid

Sugary foods: Soda, fruit juices, smoothies, cake, ice cream.
Grains or starches: Wheat-based products, rice, pasta, cereal.
Fruit: All fruit, except small portions of berries like strawberries.
Beans or legumes: Peas, kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc.
Root vegetables: Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc.
Low-fat or diet products: These are highly processed and often high in carbs.
Some condiments or sauces: often contain sugar and unhealthy fat.
Unhealthy fats: Limit your intake of processed vegetable oils, mayonnaise, etc.
Alcohol: Due to their carb content, many alcoholic beverages can throw you out of ketosis.

Treatment Options For Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer can be treated through a number of mainstream approaches. The type of treatment your doctor recommends will ultimately depend on your health and disease progression.

Prostate cancer that hasnt spread outside of the prostate gland can be removed by surgery. This is a common choice if your doctor determines you have a more serious form of the disease.

Radiation therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, hormone therapy, cryotherapy, and immunotherapy can also be used to slow, extinguish, or treat prostate cancer .

For prostate cancer that has spread to the bones or more serious forms of the disease, the main goal then becomes controlling pain and complications. Drugs that relieve bone pain, such as bisphosphonates or corticosteroids, may be considered.

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Prostate Cancer Diet Research On Plant

After surgery or radiation, many prostate cancer patients take hormonal therapy to hopefully stave off cancer recurrence, but for many men hormone therapy is no easy ride. It often produces side effects like hot flashes, a decrease in sex drive, and weakened bones.

Searching for alternatives, scientists at the University of California, San Diego instructed 14 men with recurrent prostate cancer to adopt a diet full of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes, and beans.*

Dangers of Western diet

Epidemiological studies have associated the Western diet with not only prostate cancer incidence but also with a greater risk of disease progression after treatment, wrote lead author Gordon Saxe, MD, PhD, of Moores UCSD Cancer Center and colleagues.

Conversely, many elements of plant-based diets have been associated with reduced risk of progression.

Because starting new dietary habits can be stressful, the men were also instructed in stress relaxation techniques meditation, yoga, and tai chi.

PSA levels

The best predictor of survival and cancer spread is the rate at which PSA levels rise. Generally, the faster PSA rises, the greater the risk of cancer progression. Decreasing levels indicate that the cancer has stopped growing, and may even be shrinking.

So for two periods of time, the pre-study period and the study period , the scientists monitored PSA levels.

Prostate cancer diet

Integrative Cancer Therapies, 2006 5: 206