Prostate Cancer Diet

All, I appreciate all the support from everyone here so far. It's like gaining a whole bunch of new friends. My dad was just diagnosed with prostate cancer. PSA 10, Gleason 8. Bone and CT scans are next week. He is 73 years old.
All doctors we have seen so far have stressed how much a good diet and exercise helps cope with PC. However, no one has really been able to articulate what that diet should be. Can someone please point me to a site or provide some information on what my father should and shouldn't eat. Some people say avoid red meat, others say limit it. same for rice, bread, potato's, etc. I want to make sure we do all we can to help fight this illness and if that means changing our diet, so be it!!!

One idea is that what is good for your heart may be good for the prostate. Low cholesterol. No obesity. Limited fats or good fats only.
Blood sugar in a healthy range. C-reactive protein ( inflammation marker ) with a good number.
Dr. Ornish espouses a mostly vegan diet. Dr. Charles Meyers advocates a Mediterranean diet of veggies and fish.
People on this board often don't agree on diet. The remarks above reflect my own opinion.

Good advice from others. The big no-no is red meat and milk (milk products). There is science behind it, but basically these foods have substances in them that facilitate the growth of cancer. Others, such as whether to eat chicken or not is not so clear-cut. I would think chicken and fish in moderation is OK. Veggies and fruits and breads and nuts are ok. This is basically Mediterranean diet that robertC above is talking about. There are also some supplements that some doctors recommend (others not). You need to do some research on your own to find out the specifics, and the members of this forum will gladly help along...

Hello needadvice,

I found the following book published in 2012 to be quite informative and useful (has specific menus and lots of recipes, pantry items..)
The doc also has an interesting blog of his family's sabbatical abroad. The book is rather pricey but you might be able to get it from a library (as i did).
The Mediterranean Diet
A Clinician’s Guide for Patient Care
Dr. Eric Zacharias
I have the recipes as a word doc and would be happy to share if you email me. (click on the envelope icon under our screen name)
Best to you and your dad,
Marie (aka mswampuscat)

Hi needadvice1911,

You have already received very good advice from others. I do not have much to add. Except perhaps to share a few thoughts.

My wife is European, and I have followed a Mediterranean-type diet for the last 20 years, which unfortunately did not prevent PCa. However, if it were not for PCa, the only thing that I remember having in these past 20 years was a couple of colds. So definitely a lean diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables is important for the overall health, but I think that it is important also to avoid further exposure to chemicals. There are plenty of household products that can be harmful for our healths. After my PCa diagnosis, we got rid of nearly all cleaning products that contained suspicious chemicals, and replaced them by more natural substances. As I do not want my children to be exposed to potentially harmful products. Given that there is no history of PCa in my family (father, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, nephews), I can only attribute it to some environmental/chemical cause. So I would suggest to take a look around the house and check around for continuous exposure to common household chemicals that can be harmful.

I am myself quite curious about diets suggested by doctors to PCa patients, so I will check with others that posted here to see if the diets that are recommended by PCa doctors overlaps
with the family diet that I have been following.

There are a lot of very knowledgeable people at HW, and they are all willing to share their experiences.

All the best to you and you dad.

Joe.

There's always room to improve I think. But you may also be interested to know my hubby has not changed anything in the last 6 years. I put him on supplements for a while. They made little difference (but kept the wife [me] happy!). He doesn't drink much alcohol but he's still heavily overweight! Eats red meat and other things. Whatever he feels like actually. We are an example of what not to do for overall health, but if I/we had the motivation I would do exactly what others here have said. Excellent advise. You should find ideas on-line and also there are several threads in the archives of old posts on HW, easily identified through their titles about different diets and healthy living. Have a browse through the old posts as well for info. Hope the scans are clear this coming week. Good luck and if nothing else, heart health will improve with a revision of your dad's diet. He needs to be motivated to do it however. The problem is you will always find the do's and don'ts change frequently as others have mentioned.

Take a look to this site. It seems to be a serious look to prostate cancer diet.

http://cancer.ucsf.edu/_docs/crc/nutrition_prostate.pdf