Veggie Fats May Slow Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is linked with three well-established risk factors, namely: race (specifically, African American race), family history, and age – none of which can be modified. As such, a focal point of interest is to identify modifiable risk factors for prostate cancer. Stephen J. Freedland, from Duke University Medical Center (North Carolina, USA) tracked 4,577 men who were diagnosed with localized prostate cancer during a large study of health workers beginning in 1986. Those men filled out questionnaires every four years on how often they ate or drank about 130 different types of foods and beverages.  Over the next eight to nine years, 315 men developed lethal prostate cancer – cancer that spread to other parts of the body or killed them – and 1,064 died from any cause. Men who reported getting the highest proportion of their daily calories from vegetable fat – more than 21% – after their diagnosis were about one-third less likely to die during the study than those who ate the least vegetable fat. And they had a borderline lower risk of developing lethal cancer.  Conversely, men who ate a similar amount of animal fat tended to be more likely to die during follow up, from prostate cancer or other causes, than those who avoided animal meat.  The author submits that: “Diet and lifestyle invariably play a role.”