The power of food in normalizing chronic disease and helping you achieve optimal health is quite profound, and one of the reasons that I chose a career of natural health.

So I'm always heartened and encouraged when I see a study where the authors conclude:

“Although not conclusive, results suggest that general dietary modification has a beneficial effect on the prevention of prostate cancer.

In patients with prostate cancer, dietary therapy allows patients to be an active participant in their treatment.”

You simply cannot underestimate the power of your diet. If you put garbage in, disease will thrive. Eat a healthy, balanced diet tailored to your unique biochemistry, and your body will thank you with a longer, healthier life.

How Your Diet Impacts Your Risk of Prostate Cancer

This is not the first time researchers have found a connection between a diet high in vegetables and a reduced risk of prostate cancer.

Here the results showed that eating higher amounts of vegetables and fruit, and avoiding high energy intake, excessive meat, and excessive dairy products and calcium may be helpful for preventing prostate cancer, and in treating patients already diagnosed with it.

They found the following foods to be particularly beneficial:

• Tomatoes
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli
• Green tea
• Vitamin E

Consumption of highly processed or charcoaled meats, dairy products, and fats correlated with an increased risk for prostate cancer.

This corresponds with previous findings that show high heat grilling causes a protein reaction in red meat, poultry and fish, creating heterocyclic amines, which are linked to cancer. Additionally, other cancer-causing agents called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are created when juices from meats drip and hit the heat source. They then rise in smoke and can stick to the meat.

In fact, scientists have estimated that the average cancer risk because of heterocyclic amine exposure ranges from 1 per 10,000 for the average person, to more than 1 per 50 for those ingesting large amounts of well-done muscle meats, especially flame-grilled chicken.

Veggies for Life!

Meanwhile, numerous studies have confirmed the cancer-busting power of cruciferous vegetables; broccoli being one of the most potent of the bunch. I posted my first article on it 12 years ago, so it's this is not groundbreaking news.

Broccoli (as compared to other cruciferous vegetables) contains a particularly powerful type of sulforaphane – an agent that has been shown to mobilize natural cancer protection resources, reducing the risk of malignancy. It appears that broccoli contains the necessary ingredients to switch ON genes that prevent cancer development, and switch OFF other ones that help it spread.

Previous research discovered that men who eat broccoli show hundreds of beneficial changes in genes known to play a role in fighting cancer!

Best of all, you don't even need to consume massive amounts of vegetables to reap the benefits.

Previous studies have indicated that men who consume more than one portion of cruciferous vegetables per week are at lower risk of prostate cancer. And one serving of broccoli equates to about two spears. So we're only talking approximately 10 spears a week, folks. That's it!

What Vegetables are Best for You?

While I believe foods, especially vegetables, are a far smarter choice to treat serious health challenges like cancer than using most drugs, all foods may still not be the right choice for you. And even though vegetables are one of the healthiest food categories on the planet, not all vegetables are beneficial for everyone.

This is where a deep appreciation of nutritional typing will assist you in selecting the best vegetables for you.

One of the most serious mistakes is for a protein type to consume many dark green vegetables. This tends to over-alkaline your system and worsens rather than improves your health if you're a protein type. This is despite the many beneficial phytonutrients that are present. I am very familiar with this mistake as it's one that I made prior to understanding nutritional typing.

However, other cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower, which happen to be beneficial for protein types, can have a similar effect.

Cancer Prevention is Just Outside Your Door

We can't possibly talk about cancer prevention without discussing the vital role of vitamin D. There's a mountain of evidence showing vitamin D's effectiveness for a wide variety of cancers, and this applies to prostate cancer as well.

According to one previous study, men with higher levels of vitamin D in their blood (typically obtained through sun exposure) were half as likely to develop aggressive forms of prostate cancer as those with lower amounts!

For a quick intro to the cancer-busting power of vitamin D, watch this 5-minute presentation by Dr. William Grant, who is an internationally recognized research scientist and vitamin D expert. He recently uncovered exciting potential for the use of vitamin D in the prevention and treatment of a number of high-incidence cancers found in Western populations.

Guidelines to Help Avoid and Treat Prostate (and Breast) Cancer

The guidelines for preventing and treating breast cancer are almost identical to those for treating prostate cancer.

Below are my recommendations for how to avoid and treat both types of cancer:

1. Optimize your vitamin D levels with appropriate sun exposure, and make sure to monitor your vitamin D levels to ensure you're within the optimal (as opposed to “normal” range).

2. Control your insulin levels.

3. Get appropriate exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

4. Eat a custom designed diet for your unique biochemistry, and make certain you limit your intake of processed foods. Additionally, everyone would benefit greatly from eliminating:

• High glycemic carbohydrates, such as sugar, pasta, potatoes, bread and most grains

• All pasteurized dairy

• Conventional grain and chemical fed animals

• Most fish, due to high levels of mercury and PCB contamination

5. Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats such as krill oil or fish oil, and reduce your intake of poor quality, processed omega-6 oils. The imbalance between these two fats is a major cause of inflammation and disease.

6. IP6 (phytic acid) is a powerful tool to lower high iron levels (serum ferritin levels). Excess iron can be a major cause of many cancers.

7. Selenium - 400 mcg per day.

8. Consume freshly ground flaxseeds - two ounces every other day.

9. Vitamin E - 400 units per day. (Please note: Only natural vitamin E should be used, not synthetic. Additionally, mixed tocopherol is more preferable than alpha-tocopherol, as the gamma tocopherols are particularly useful antioxidants.)

10. Consume fresh vegetables or vegetable juice daily, including one small tomato, or some raspberries or watermelon, which are all good sources of lycopene.

    Vegetables in the cabbage family, such as broccoli and broccoli sprouts will also help control excess estrogens, the real enemy of the prostate, in addition to all the other benefits mentioned above.

11. Eliminate sugar as much as possible as it's been shown again and again that sugar feeds cancer.

12. Eat broccoli or cauliflower sprouts, depending on your nutritional type.

13. Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed.

    Two potent tools include a method called Recall Healing, and meridian tapping techniques.

14. Get enough high-quality sleep.

15. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins and sources of heavy metals.

16. Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.

Fortunately, prostate cancer can be easily controlled if caught early. And following these simple methods, along with getting your PSA screening after you turn 40, can provide excellent natural prevention against this relatively slow-growing cancer.