Try Veggies to Protect Prostate

I think about prostate cancer a lot these days. My father was diagnosed with the disease last year. His brother, my Uncle Tommy, died of it in 1997, long before his time. Short of having a geneticist peek at our DNA, I’d say that my brothers and I have a better-than-average risk of receiving the dreaded diagnosis at some point in our own lives, as well.

Such a grim thought inevitably leaves me wondering: What’s for dinner? Scientists don’t know for sure what causes prostate cancer, but there’s growing evidence that eating the right foods may protect your prostate. Many experts agree that it’s probably a good idea to cut back on everyone’s favorite dietary villain: fat. But many studies hint that adding certain foods to your diet may lower your odds of developing the disease too.

You probably already know the tomato story. Ketchup, pasta sauce and V-8 juice suddenly became hip health food in 1995, when a large Harvard study found that eating foods made with cooked tomatoes appeared to reduce a man’s odds of developing prostate cancer, which kills about 34,000 Americans each year. Researchers found that men who ate 10 or more servings of tomato-based foods a week cut their risk of the disease by 35%. The secret to the tomato’s tumor-busting tenacity? Most likely an antioxidant called lycopene; tomatoes have lots of it, and cooking them makes it easier for the body to absorb the stuff. Antioxidants soak up renegade compounds in the body called free radicals, which can damage cells in a way that may lead to cancer.

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But while this study worked wonders for ketchup sales, some scientists think it’s narrow-minded to focus on the prostate benefits of tomatoes, while ignoring the rest of the garden. A study published in January suggests that simply eating lots of vegetables, period, may be an even better idea. A team of scientists from Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center looked at the diets of 1,200 men under age 65, half of whom had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The researchers made a striking discovery: Men who ate three or more servings of vegetables every day cut their risk of prostate cancer by 48%.

“Three isn’t a magic number,” says epidemiologist Alan R. Kristal, who led the study. Eat even more servings of veggies and you’ll likely reduce your risk further, he says. Choose tomatoes if you like, says Kristal, but the category of produce in his study that appeared to provide the most protection were cruciferous vegetables.

Cru-who? Cruciferous vegetables make up the cabbage family, which also includes broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, turnips--indeed, a complete menu of vegetables you probably hated as a child. If you’ve carried a loathing for these foods into adulthood, here’s a little advice: Grow up. Or get a little creative; other cruciferous vegetables include such gourmet favorites as arugula, bok choy, kale and kohlrabi. Eat them as often as possible, and not just for your prostate; they’re also good sources of calcium, iron, folic acid, fiber and other important nutrients.

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Speaking of foods that give many Americans the willies, take a look at tofu and other soy products. In the fall the Food and Drug Administration gave its blessing for manufacturers to claim that soy-based foods lower cholesterol. But there’s increasing evidence that soy may also prevent or slow the growth of some cancers, including prostate tumors. “The data are very encouraging,” says soy expert Mark Messina, an adjunct professor of nutrition at Loma Linda University.

Several studies show that animals fed soy develop fewer prostate tumors, says Messina. What’s more, a 1998 study of more than 12,000 Seventh-Day Adventists in California found that men who consumed two servings of soy every day had a 70% lower risk for prostate cancer than guys who never touched the stuff. Tofu-phobes, take heart: There are plenty of alternatives to soybean curd. Pour soy milk on soy breakfast cereal. Snack on soy nuts. And try soy burgers, which don’t taste half bad, especially with a little--what else?--ketchup.

Vitamin E and the mineral selenium show promise in fighting prostate cancer, too, but a normal diet doesn’t provide enough of either nutrient; talk to your doc about using dietary supplements. Likewise, your local vitamin store will gladly sell you capsules packed with isoflavones, which are believed to be the active ingredient in soy. Lycopene supplements are available too. But Alan Kristal believes that the pill approach may be too simplistic. “The protective factors in fruit and vegetables are complex and may interact with one another,” he says.

Besides, why pay for pricey pills when a pound of broccoli costs about a buck? When you steam it and sprinkle on a little salt and lemon juice, protection for your prostate doesn’t have to be too tough to swallow.

Timothy Gower is the author of “Staying at the Top of Your Game” (Avon Books, 1999). He can be reached at tgower@capecod.net. The Healthy Man runs the second Monday of the month.