How Important Is Diet In The Prevention Of Prostate Cancer?

March 16, 2009 -- Question: How important is diet in the prevention of prostate cancer?

Answer: Well diet, I think is one of the few elements that we really have strong evidence for impacts prostate cancer. We know that diet, certain diets, put patients at increased risk for prostate cancer. For example, a lot of the heart unfriendly things like high-fat foods are certainly things that cause a higher risk for having prostate cancer. Ways that foods are cooked, work from Bill Nelson here, and other people, have really shown us that it's not just the food itself but how it's prepared that may increase our risk for the disease.

But also there's some protective things like antioxidants -- blueberries, pomegranates, other kinds of things that we know can help protect someone against prostate cancer, certainly some of the more aggressive forms of the disease.