Prostate Cancer: Why Eating Well Is The Best Defense?

No other human organ is as susceptible to cancer as the prostate. Each year, an estimated 209,900 American men are diagnosed with the disease, making it the most prevalent form of cancer in the United States. Although lung cancer claims more than twice as many men?s lives each year, prostate cancer is the second most lethal male cancer, killing 41,800 men annually.

In fact, the malady is so widespread that by age 65, nearly two out of three males may develop minute tumors producing in their ?prostates,? the walnut-size gland that is wrapped around the urethra, the tube that drains the bladder. And some doctors believe that if men lived long enough, every man would develop the disease.

Curiously, the vast majority of men who have the disease will never know it. That is because prostate cancer normally manifests a gradual growth of tumor, often taking 20 to 30 years to become large enough to be detected by any currently available tests or to bring about serious health problems.

By then, many older men who had these small tumors will have long since died of other origins such as heart disease and stroke.

According to some urologic oncology experts, many more men die with prostate cancer than from it. They contend that if they could just slow the growth of the tumor so that it takes 40 to 60 years to progress instead of 20 to 30, which would amount to a cure for many men.

Doctors suspect that dietary changes may help men stall the progress of disease and prevent it from becoming life threatening. Here are a few prostate protectors.

1. Go lean fat

Lowering your fat intake to 20% of your total calories, that is about 44 grams of fat if you eat 2,000 calories a day, is one of the best things that you can do to slash your risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer.

2. Turn away from red meat

Beef and other red meats are loaded with saturated fat, a type of fat linked to development of several cancers including prostate cancer.

In one study of 51, 000 American men, those who ate the most red meat were 2.6 times more likely to cultivate complex prostate cancer than men who avoided meat consumption.

3. Catch some fish

One reason why advanced prostate cancer is rare in china may be the quantity of fish in the diet. One study compared cancer rates of American men to men living in Shanghai, China, where people consume three times as much fish in their daily diet. The rate of prostate cancer for the American men was a dramatic 25.9 times higher than for the Chinese.

4. Discover the joy of soy

Health experts suggest that instead of meat, try substituting tofu, miso, and other soy foods in salads, casseroles, and soups.

Men in Japan eat many soy-based foods, benefiting from significantly high levels of genistein and genistin, two substances found in soy that may help clamp down on the disease.

5. Learn to like lycopene

A study at the Harvard School of Public Health tracked the eating habits of almost 50,000 health-care professionals for more than six years. The researchers concluded that lycopene, an antioxidant compound that gives tomatoes their distinctive red color, helps fight cancer.

So now you know the preventive measures in order to avoid developing prostate cancer, it is best that you start employing these tips in order to have a healthier, cancer-free life.

As the old adage goes, you are what you eat. So eat healthy in order to be healthy.

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides prostate cancer resources on www.all-prostate-cancer-resources.info.