Vegan diet - some early results

I'll second Jeff's support and other prior supportive comments....Keep up the good work!

Unfortunately there is absolutely no way of telling what your outcomes so far would have been if you not made the changes to help battle PC, but it likely would have been less favorable. While some men get some reversal, the more common outcome (from lifestyle change studies) is slowing of PSADT. Keep working at it!

best wishes...

Good for you Piano man it sound like you really got that diet stuff togrther.As for me being a newbe -. .thats good stuff.As soon as i take one more bite of this hamberger ill take the meat out and just eat the lettuce and tomatoes. Been thinking bout going veggie for a long time.What ever work for you to keep the psa down then do it.

9 month update: Latest PSA is 0.7, up from 0.6 three months ago. Estimating when my PSA would have been 0.35, I get a PSADT of 11 months, a slight improvement on my previous 9.5 months.

I still feel good and have have lost a couple of pounds. BMI is 19.5 and don't really want to lose any more. My BP is mid 140s over mid 80s (I forget the exact figures), a little lower than before but still too high. Cholesterol is still good.

I think the main reason for the PSA rise slowing this time is reverting to low sugar. I don't think Essiac tea has made a difference. No magic bullet there, so will drop that when supplies run out. Likewise I will stop most supplements, as they don't seem to have made a difference either. Also I have a more varied diet than I thought I would, so it's hard to see vitamin deficiency being a problem. I will however continue with these:

Aspirin: continue long term, don't expect to change PSA but it might stop or delay mets
Pomegranate juice/pills: haven't made much difference, but there are studies supporting them, so will continue for now with just the pills (too much sugar in the juice)
Fish Oil/Vitamin D: reduce with a view to discontinuing

For the next three months, I will also cut back on the heavily processed meat substitutes and vegan cheese. Some of these are very tasty, just like real meat or cheese, especially when covered with tomato sauce! But there is a widespread perception that heavily processed food is Bad, so I will now put that to the test.

robertcool,

Deleted the orphan thread as requested.

I've also had good initial results with this type of diet. I've been doing a little research and like everything concerning prostate cancer, research brings more confusion.

For example, 4 countries with low prostate cancer rates - China, Greece, India and Saudi Arabia.

China has a rather low red meat/dairy consumption whereas Saudi is high in this regard.
China, India and SA drink a lot of tea but the Greeks don't.
The Chinese eat a lot of soy products, but the Greeks and Saudis don't.
Saudi's don't generally drink alcohol but the Greeks drink a lot of red wine.

So perhaps different dietary factor's are at work in various countries or perhaps it is a combination of dietary groups or perhaps it is even due to some unknown non-dietary factors.

I still believe diet is a factor. There are some commonalities in the diets of all these countries:

- very little processed food compared to North America
- high vegetable content and higher fiber compared to North America
- fairly high use of various types of beans in all these countries
- higher use of various spices than in North America
- relatively low sugar use

For example, the Saudis use a lot of saffron which is believed may have anti-cancer properties. All these countries commonly use turmeric which is also believed to have anti-cancer properties. Ditto for large amount of onions and garlic. And all these countries frequently consume hot peppers which contain capsaican which is again another ingredient believed to fight cancer.

All of the list below is purported to be helpful regarding prostate cancer and cancer generally. I figure if it can't hurt, why not? I realize the vegetarian thing isn't for everyone, but even meat eaters could add much of the following to their regime:

- Soy, soy milk, tofu. If you don't like tofu, perhaps you could munch on toasted soy nuts for a snack. You could even hide a little soy in ground beef dishes.
- Green tea
- Turmeric. Every morning I take about a half a teaspoon, with some honey and black pepper (apparently black pepper increases the potency). It's not as bad as it sounds and is like tasting a marinade. Turmeric is also used in curries.
- Saffron. This is expensive stuff. I put a couple of sprigs in my green tea
- Capsaicin. Hot peppers or sauces derived from hot peppers (chilli peppers, jalapenos, cayenne)
- Licorice root extract. This is the only one that may have negative effects in large quantities. The safest way would be to eat the occasional German-style licorice candy.
- Nuts and seeds - particularly almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and soy nuts
- Fruit of all kinds (especially blueberries)
- Vegetables of all kinds (especially members of the cabbage family)
- POM
- Red wine (It's not all bad.)
- Dark chocolate (Ditto.)
- Other high fiber foods (eg. oatmeal)
- Coffee (I now take it with soy milk)
- Sauerkraut
- Ginger
- Vitamin D supplement

I realize that food research is complex and very difficult to prove benefits decisively. It's not my intention to push any diet or foods but just to share some of the things that I've researched that are said to be beneficial. You can google any of the individual items + prostate cancer to find more info.

Do you think it is true what they say about fish oil?  I have started eating a lot of Salmon.