Preventing Prostate Cancer — Dietary factors

The role of diet in preventing prostate cancer. Cancer of the prostate mainly affects older men. There are evidence showing that there is a genetic predisposition to the emergence of prostate cancer. Men, whose relatives suffered from prostate cancer, have a greater risk of developing the disease.

Prostate cancer is the third most frequent cancer occurring in men, and the sixth in causing death from cancer. The highest incidence of prostate cancer has been reported to be in North America and Northern Europe. The disease rarely occurs in Japan, China and Central America. The risk of prostate cancer increases 3 to 7 times in people from the eastern continent, who moved to countries which are reported to have a high incidence of prostate cancer. Scientists blamed the ‘western diet’ (the use of high-calorie food such as animal fats, poor dietary fibres and fewer vegetables and fruits) as one of the causes of prostate cancer.

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Studies show that consumption of fatty food increases the risk of developing prostate cancer. Catering to low-fat food protects people against prostate cancer and the progression of the disease.

The Role of Diet in Preventing Prostate Cancer

Lycopene — a red carotenoid pigment found in tomato, watermelon and pink grapefruit is widely known in the Western countries as ‘a substance necessary for a healthy prostate’. Lycopene functions as an antioxidant, which neutralizes free radicals and thereby protecting the cell from cancer transformation, reducing the rate of tumor growth.

Polyphenols (catechin) found in green tea and soy products reduce pathological cell division and contribute to apoptosis of cancer cells.

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