In a recent study at Institut national de la recherche scientifique, researchers found a strong link between diet and prostate cancer.
The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that more than 23,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020.
Among other risk factors, more and more studies point to diet as a major factor in the development of prostate cancer, as it is for heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
In the study, researchers compared three diets: a healthy diet, a salty Western diet including alcohol, and a sugar-rich Western diet with beverages.
The first profile leans heavily towards fruits, vegetables, and plant proteins like tofu and nuts. The salty Western diet with alcohol includes more meat and beverages such as beer and wine.
The third profile is rich in pasta, pizza, desserts, and sugary carbonated drinks.
The team found a link between a healthy diet and a lower risk of prostate cancer.
Conversely, a Western diet with sweets and beverages was linked to higher risk and seemed to be a factor in more aggressive forms of cancer.
The study did not show any clear link between a Western diet with salt and alcohol and the risk of developing the disease.
The team says it’s not easy to isolate the effect of a single nutrient. For example, foods rich in vitamin C, such as citrus fruits, promote iron absorption. Calcium is often found in dairy products, which also contain vitamin D.
Rather than counting on one miracle food, people should look at their overall diet.
The study was published in Nutrients.
This common supplement may slightly increase your cancer risk
Two recent studies from the University of East Anglia showed that there is no demonstrable value in people taking omega 3 oil supplements for the prevention or treatment of cancer.
Instead, the supplements may slightly increase cancer risk, particularly for prostate cancer.
Omega 3 is a type of fat. Small amounts are essential for good health and can be found in the food that we eat including nuts and seeds and fatty fish, such as salmon.
Increased consumption of omega-3 fats is widely promoted globally because of a common belief that it will protect against, or even reverse, diseases such as cancer, heart attacks, and stroke.
Currently, omega-3 fats are also readily available as over-the-counter supplements and they are widely bought and used.
In these studies, the team looked at 47 trials involving adults who didn’t have cancer, who were at increased risk of cancer, or who had a previous cancer diagnosis and 86 trials with evidence of cardiovascular events or deaths.
More than 100,000 participants were randomized to consume more long-chain omega-3 fats (fish oils), or maintain their usual intake, for at least a year for each of the reviews.
The team examined the number of people who died, received a new diagnosis of cancer, heart attack, or stroke, and/or died of any of the diseases.
They found that omega 3 supplements may slightly reduce coronary heart disease mortality and events, but slightly increase the risk of prostate cancer.
Both beneficial and harmful effects are small.
If 1,000 people took omega 3 supplements for around four years, three people would avoid dying from heart disease, six people would avoid a coronary event (such as a heart attack) and three extra people would develop prostate cancer.
The team’s previous research had shown that long-chain omega 3 supplements, including fish oils, do not protect against conditions such as anxiety, depression, stroke, diabetes, or death.
These large systematic reviews included information from many thousands of people over long periods.
This large amount of information has clarified that if people take omega 3 supplements for several years they may very slightly reduce our risk of heart disease, but balance this with very slightly increasing our risk of some cancers. The overall effects on health are minimal.
The team says evidence on omega 3 mostly comes from trials of fish oil supplements, so the health effects of oily fish, a rich source of long-chain omega 3, are unclear.
Oily fish is a very nutritious food as part of a balanced diet, rich in protein and energy as well as important micronutrients such as selenium, iodine, vitamin D, and calcium—it is much more than an omega 3 source.
If you care about prostate cancer, please read studies about new strategy to treat advanced prostate cancer, and a new way to lower the risk of prostate cancer spread.
For more information about health, please see recent studies that people with cancer do benefit from COVID-19 vaccination, and results showing what you need to know about cancer and booster shot.
The two reviews were published in the British Journal of Cancer and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
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