I've noticed that while there's tons of great discussions on this site about medical treatment there's not much said about diet. Have you changed your diet dramatically like I have since being diagnosed? No more candy, booze and fried food. Much less sugar and red meat. Lots more veggies and fruit. Soy milk instead of cow's milk. Not sure it helps my treatment but everything I've read says it's a good idea. My oncologist says diet doesn't matter. Not sure I agree.
Diet: I've noticed that while there's... - Advanced Prostate...
Diet
Written by
ewhite999
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43 Replies
•
In my opinion, it does matter. I have my diet that I follow and it is helping (along with supplements and exercise), but opinions about which one is best are all over the place. They can be strong opinions, I've gotten my head bit off before so I an reluctant to discuss mine. After years of reading and trying, I am starting to believe there is not a one size fits all for diet and supplements and exercise. I am constantly tweaking my routines.
Do your research and find one that works for you.
By the way, there are a lot of postings here about staying away from soy.
Wish that I could have been more direct and helpful,
--Dave
• in reply toCaptain_Dave
Words of wisdom. I believe soy to be fine as a supplemental source of protein. A cup full of edamame twice a day is said to help with hot flashes. I read one guy that said he drank so much carrot juice that he turned orange and cured his cancer..There is something to the mind believing strongly enough in something to bring it to fruition. I ate bitter melon and many other not to tasty remedies during RT.. off those bad tasting things but I’m eating to live..and enjoying the healthy choices instead of dreading them .
When I was first diagnosed with advanced cancer my wife went over the top. Vegan everything, no dairy or processed foods, no alcohol, etc. We got the blender, juicer, you name it. As time went on we slowly went back to our “bad habits”. On the weekends we have a glass of wine as we listen to an old LP with a fire in the fireplace, eat almost everything we used to (with the exception of processed meats). I took a liking to almond milk so we have that instead of dairy.
A glass of wine by the fire with an old LP can't be a bad thing!
• in reply toDr_WHO
We also went completely natural but at times I slip. But I get back on the horse. I completely quit alcohol which was my drug of choice beforehand. I don’t miss the day after or a hangover. On New Years however I will most likely drink some fine scotch with a friend , then none until next year..music and laughter ... That’s the ticket!
I have changed my diet to not eating a lot of meat, no white sugar, 2 or 3 slices a week of whole grain bread, cut my potato consumption to less then half, mainly eat red potatoes. it is the hardest thing to take away everything so eating less of the bad stuff has worked for me because I am a type 2 diabetic , after I was diagnosed with prostate cancer gleason 8, biopsy 1core , high risk, early cancer stage. I basically reversed my diabetes by trying to keep my cancer from spreading. I'm not saying changing your diet will help with cancer from spreading but I have noticed my way of thinking to do everything I can do to get rid of it has a positive feeling which I believe any kind of negative feelings can make cancer harder to die. I also pray and thank God for another day.
God Bless us all here
Robert
What is your A1c without diabetic drugs?
Rich
my A1c is 6 but I haven't stop taking metphormin only cut down to 500 mg a day instead of 1000 which is what I use to take, I don't want to stop taking metphormin too because I read it can slow the spread of cancer,
Robert
• in reply toRobertleeb
Wow ! Robertleeb, very heartfelt. I believe in your philosophy.. May god bless you!....and all of us.....
Good Sunday Morning ewhite999,
While under the care of Dr. Charles "Snuffy" Myers for 5 years until his recent retirement, I changed my diet radically to the Mediterranean Diet that he recommended.
Basics are: no beef, no pork, nothing fried, no corn, limit dairy. Eat fish, chicken, turkey, vegetables, fruits, almonds, cashews, macadamias, and all the olive oil you stand. He once said that chicken fried in olive oil could be considered a "health food".
I celebrate each year on the date of my diagnosis (8/6/2012) with pork BBQ, brunswick stew, and fried okra! Now that I am in chemo for liver mets, I have a steak the night before each infusion.
Still upright after 5 1/2 years from DX of PSA=29, Gleason=10, and numerous lymph node mets. With aggressive PCa, diet can matter.
Best wishes. Never Give In.
Mark, Atlanta
Thanks! Great response. I'm not quite there with my diet but close. Plan to make a few changes.
• in reply tovandy69
You have a great spirit. I love fried okra. Enjoy!
Great slides given by Charles. I’ve been advised to eat a heart healthy diet, and combine it with exercise. Takes a very focused effort to do both. A plant based diet has made me feel better physically and helps my overall outlook. It’s one thing you can control and do for yourself (and exercise too). Controlling the things you can is empowering.
I've also been following a Mediterranean diet recommended by Dr. Myers since my diagnosis in 2014 with stage 4, Gleason 9 metastatic PCa. Together with daily exercise I've lost about 30 lbs. and have an optimal BMI. Every now and then I treat myself to grass fed beef, or a pasture raised pork chop, just to get a break from chicken and fish. I eat a ton of fruit and veggies, all natural peanut butter is my go to snack. We go through olive oil by the quart in my house, we get California olive oil, a lot of the Italian olive oils have been adulterated and your not getting olive oil at all.
I've been on triple ADT for almost 4 years now which can be tough on the heart, a Mediterranean diet is very heart healthy. My new doc, Dr. Sartor simply says stick with low fat meats and lots of fruits and veggies.
Ed
Thanks for great feedback. I go through tons of olive oil too but not sure if it's from California. It will be from now on.
Want pure oil olive? Get it from Greece (Hellenic).
j-o-h-n Sunday 12/03/2017 2:47 PM EST
I’ve changed my diet in order to lose weight gained while on ADT3 not particularly due to having PCa . It’s been shown that cancer treatments can cause or exacerbate comorbidities like diabetes and heart disease so changing diet to less carbs particularly bad carbs and more fats and proteins reduces the chance of dying from comorbidities but not necessarily cancer.
Bob
Great slides! Thanks. Looks like I'm eating way too many eggs. Bummer, I love them and it gets me to eat a bunch of vegetables.
I read that the egg yoke is the culprit it has Choline which is bad for prostate cancer but a good nutrient if you don't have cancer , so my wife says the yoke is good for the dogs coat so I separate them while am cooking them, Eggs are the one thing I can take over meat. so I will try the egg whites from the real egg not some thing in a box.
If, as they say, we mostly die with prostate cancer & not of it, what then do we die of?
Men with PCa have an elevated risk of death from heart disease.
Dr. Myers once wondered if there might be a connection. I'm convinced that PCa is just as much a metabolic disease as it is a hormonal disease. It is therefore logical for me, in the absence of a PCa diet study, to support the only diet that has been shown to be heart-healthy.
Myers used to promote a low-fat diet, but that didn't work out well. Ultimately, it was the PrediMed study that provided the level of proof that convinced him.
In the Nov 30, 2017 Prostatepedia blog entry, PrediMed is revisited:
"Well-designed randomized controlled clinical trials are the best tool we have for determining these optimal treatment for diseases. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have trials like for the impact of diet and exercise on prostate cancer, but we do have them for exercise and diet’s impact on general health and cardiovascular disease.
"In the famous PREDIMED trial, 7,447 subjects who were at high risk for cardiovascular disease but who did not have it were randomized into three groups. One group went on a low fat diet. The other two groups went on a Mediterranean diet: one with olive oil and one with nuts. The trial was supposed to run for 6 years, but stopped at 4.8 years because the two Mediterranean diet groups already showed such a significant reduction in myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiovascular death.
"The Mediterranean diet also reduced the risk of peripheral artery disease, atrial fibrillation, and invasive breast cancer. There was no information about prostate cancer incidence in any of the three groups."
{There are a lot of papers that came out of that study & maybe I should summarize the findings, although PCa wasn't studied.}
-Patrick
There are umpteen sites about diet, this is not one of them. It seems most people try to stick to the subject at hand: medical treatment for prostate cancer. I agree a healthy diet is good for everyone. Thanks, Ray
sdnb• in reply to
Diet is very important, regardless of which website is discussing it. Diet can be as much of a medical treatment component to discuss as chemo, etc. Who's to say, "Diet is not to be discussed on this particular website." Why can't Diet be the "subject at hand" , Ray? Sorry, friend, but you have ruffled this widow's feathers! Had my late husband been presented with more "diet" based discussions, I perhaps would have no reason to even be familiar with this website. I feel his overweight status already put him at risk, but truly he did little to correct his eating preference until it was too late. BTW, the irony is his name was. . . . "Ray".
This weekend I did a lot reading online about Diets for prostate cancer, I feel I have been doing great to not eat a lot of meat and dairy products and changed a lot foods too, I read meat and diary products are the worst for prostate cancer which I knew but thought maybe cutting it down a couple of levels would be good, maybe for my diabetes but not for prostate cancer. I read if we are really serious about getting rid of this deadly disease we have to use every possible way that has been proven to work , like a good diet without animal protein and dairy products . I feel I have reached a point where I can try to be a vegan and what I did read was it takes a couple of weeks to start to notice any kind of positive change. if there are any Vegans here on HU, I am interested in letting me know did you see any change in your health in any way positive. The reason I am interested is because I have some friends who have prostate cancer said they practice good health habits and exercise, before they were diagnosed positive. it makes me wonder what good health habits in their terms is. so it would be great to hear from someone who did change their diet to a Vegan diet and even noticed a positive change in any way.
Thank you
robert
Eat what you want and enjoy life to the max...cut the processed crap out and eat and drink good clean food. Life is to be lived and God has blessed us with so much variety. Whatever makes you feel good within reason...Life is short....all the best brother.
Neal-Snyder• in reply to
Processed food is bad, & so are carbs.
I received the same responses from my urologist and my onco. These specialist spend little time on diet in school ..your diet sounds good , similar to mine.. seems like you have it down. There are many crazy cancer diets out there but there is only one you. We should tailor our diets to our individual needs. There are some who say that diet doesn’t matter ..99 % of the rest of us see it as crucial. Follow your own path ..anything once in a while is OK ,after all we’re all human. I try to eat little or no processed food or sugar. If you are eating things in thought that you are doing good for your body ,you are. Diet and exersize are two things that we can be in control of. It really only matters what you believe in ,not what others say. Everyone has an opinion..Do what’s right for you. We need to take charge in healing ourself and keeping our heads above water. I have a naturalpathic Onocologist that I Follow in diet and nutrients. I do recommend fresh ;turmeric,ginger,garlic onions.. even scares the vampires away. Check out Ezekiel bread. We “CAN” eat this bread. At first seems cardboards ,but many varieties including raisin bread. All better toasted and eaten warm ..I feel better when I eat strictly healthy.
No sauerkraut ? On that pastrami? Congrats on passing that stamp. Keep on !
I always wondered if eating something that taste great but is bad for health, so take down some supplements or a batch of broccoli after, takes away the bad or balances out, lol , I saw the video where "Chris Beats Cancer" talks about marinating meat before cooking takes away a lot of the carcinogens,
I eat my broccoli with Asian sauces. or at least turmeric rub. This transforms even cauliflower & okra into good stuff, at least if you like spicy food. Of course you can order or prepare it less spicy or not spicy. If you like spicy & a restaurant here or in Asia doesn't make it spicy enough because you're not Asian, you can ask for chili flakes or chili sauce if it's not on your table already. For travel, Thailand & most of Southeast Asia are great from late November through February--escape winter into their best season. Best for those who like hot weather & little rain. Always check the weather on the internet (highs. lows, humidity, precipitation) by month for any city or region you want to visit. China is good in much of spring & fall. Probably the same for Taiwan & maybe Japan. I like spicy food, but I've known people who successfully ordered the spicy dishes less or not spicy.
All sounds good!
About the lunch you DIDN'T eat, Nal--as I expect you know, soy used to be recommended for us & now it's the opposite. And corn is not recommended.
I’ve had to reduce carbs because ADT has caused me to gain weight. The side effects of cancer treatments can cause comorbidities which can kill you if not addressed through diet. I don’t believe it’s been proven that cancer itself benefits materially if at all from diet change.
Why don’t Doctors recommend foods or advise against foods that aggravate Prostate problems?
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