Prostate Cancer Diet

When a man is being treated for prostate cancer, the medical therapies can do a lot to eradicate or to slow the cancer’s growth, but there is more than this that can be done; a man’s lifestyle, diet and nutrition are also very important. Studies have shown that overweight men tend to be diagnosed with prostate cancer more often than their healthier counterparts, and tend to live less long. Regular exercise, limiting food intake, and focusing on good nutrition are beneficial to the fight against cancer and can help a man live a longer life.

Doctors recommend daily exercise, but it does not have to be as strenuous as lifting weights or taking aerobics classes. A simple brisk walk for thirty minutes everyday, or every other day, can do a lot to keep muscles in shape – and remember, the heart is a muscle. Also, sunshine actually has some good benefits; sunshine stimulates the production of serotonin, melatonin and vitamin D. Serotonin lessens the effects of depression and stress; melatonin helps prevent sleep disorders and insomnia; and vitamin D is necessary for a healthy body because it lowers cholesterol, aids in the absorption of calcium, and helps regulate and strengthen the immune system. Of course, too much of anything is bad, and sun exposure should be limited so as not to cause sunburn.

Prostate cancer damages healthy cells, and most cancer treatments can also cause harm to healthy cells in their effort to kill the cancer cells. When a patient is being treated for cancer, his body is working overtime to try to repair cells that have been damaged by the cancer and the cancer treatments. The body needs the best nutrition it can get in order to perform this function.

General health guidelines about eating include limiting calorie intake. Excess eating is not only bad for the heart and other organs, but being overweight has been linked to other cancers besides prostate cancer. Over-eating encourages the body to produce more hormones, and hormones stimulate cancer growth. Being over weight also affects the health of the heart, and heart disease is the number one leading cause of death for men and women all over the world.

Some cancer treatments, like chemotherapy, have side effects which include loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting. This makes it more difficult to eat a balanced and nutritious diet, and although food supplements are helpful, they cannot be used in place of the necessary vitamins and minerals that are gained by eating healthy food.

Here are some important things to remember in order to have a healthy diet. Try to avoid eating a lot of animal fat which is found in red meat and high-fat dairy products. Reduce the consumption of trans-fats which are found in margarines, fast food, and fried food. Studies show that animal fat and trans-fats promote cancer growth, and also, can lead to heart disease.

There are certain foods which doctors and nutrition experts believe can help slow down the growth of cancer. While most fat intake should be limited, there is one type of fat that is very healthy: omega-3 fatty acids. This fat can be found in cold-water fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel, but the fish should be baked or grilled, not fried. Nuts also, have a healthy kind of fat in them.

Foods like spinach, asparagus, and certain beans are high in vitamin-B, while broccoli, kale and cabbage have diindolylmethane (an anticarcinogen compound) in them, and lycopene (an antioxidant) can be found in tomatoes. Eating whole grain foods such as brown rice, oatmeal, and whole-wheat bread, while limiting the intake of sugar and salt, will help lower the risk of sickness and disease.

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