Dr. Cherry Prescribes...

Dr. Cherry Prescribes...

A Healthy Diet Can Protect Against Prostate Cancer

The American Cancer Society estimates that during 2005 about 232,090 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. About one man in five will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, yet only one man in 33 will die of this disease. Given what we know today about cancer prevention and treatment, over 1.8 million men are survivors of prostate cancer. That's very promising. Still the statistics are overwhelming, and it makes every man ask what he can do to prevent prostate cancer. A big step towards prevention would be to adopt a healthy diet.

Studies have revealed differences in the risk of prostate cancer among different populations worldwide. The mortality rate for prostate cancer in the United States is more than 400 percent than that in Japan. And the incidence of the disease in North America is 50 times higher than in China.

Researchers suspect that diet - the amount of dietary fat in particular - is responsible. Saturated fat is the number one culprit for why American men are being affected by this increasingly common disease. Scientists at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health evaluated the diets of more than 50,000 health professionals over a four-year period. They found that the men who ate the most fat were nearly twice as likely to develop prostate cancer as men who ate the least amount of fat. Additionally, men who ate the most beef, bacon, pork and lamb were more than two-and-a-half times more likely to develop prostate cancer than the men who ate the least.

Research has also shown that whole milk is another enemy of the prostate gland. Just two glasses of whole milk weekly compared with one glass a week can double the risk of prostate cancer. It's not the milk itself; it's the fat in the milk. Therefore, the same goes for full-fat cheeses. A man's greatest protection from prostate cancer comes from God's plant kingdom. Specifically, some key nutrients that every man should include in his diet daily are cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage), tomatoes (mainly due to the content of lycopene), green tea, garlic, soy and the spice cumin.

In addition, I recommend eating an antioxidant-rich diet that includes foods that contain vitamins C and E, beta-carotene and selenium. You should also take the following supplements: vitamin C, 1,000 milligrams twice daily; vitamin E, 800 IU daily; beta-carotene, 20,000 IU daily; and selenium, 200 micrograms daily. Vitamin D has also been shown to offer protection from prostate cancer. Good dietary sources include fish and skimmed milk. A daily supplement of 400 IU of vitamin D will give you added insurance.