Want to know the worst foods for prostate health?
There is no escaping it. As we get older, a healthy and nutritious diet is essential for our quality of life. Especially when it comes to the prostate.
Most of us think we know the right foods to eat when we are trying to get healthy.
But while some foods may claim to be healthy, by actually delving into their composition and packaging, we can see that they are doing us no favors.
Here is a list of 17 of the worst foods for your prostate health that you should avoid to maintain a healthy prostate and overall health.
1) Alcohol
Heavy alcohol consumption has many health consequences, and one of them includes prostate health problems.
Studies show that alcohol increases the severity of lower urinary tract symptoms. They include a weak urinary stream, incomplete bladder emptying, and difficulty to start urinating.
The diuretic properties of alcohol make this type of beverage even worse for patients with prostate problems.
Thus, it is wise to avoid heavy drinking or quit alcohol consumption.
Some studies suggest that light to moderate alcohol consumption can be beneficial for prostate health.
However, it is not because alcohol is healthy. This happens because red wine and other spirits increase HDL levels.
It is high HDL that improves cardiovascular function and prostate health, not alcohol by itself.
2) Saturated Fat
In general, it is a bad idea to consume foods with a high proportion of saturated fat.
Saturated fat has a very high inflammatory potential. It does not only favor inflammation but creates the most aggressive type of inflammatory cytokines.
We know that cancer feeds off inflammation, and that’s a fact. It uses inflammation to keep growing and feeding new prostate cancer cells. Thus, it is only natural that saturated fat increases the risk of prostate cancer.
Studies suggest that a diet rich in saturated fat increases the aggressiveness of prostate cancer.
In other words, these patients have a more dangerous disease with rapid prostate cancer progression.
The prostate grows faster and is more likely to spread. Thus, avoid foods such as bacon and cold meat cuts, biscuits, cakes, butter, and cream.
3) Caffeine
The problem with caffeine is similar to that of alcohol. They both have diuretic properties and increase urinary volume.
Moreover, caffeine is an irritant of the urinary tract and causes additional symptoms that alcohol does not trigger.
Thus, patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) should ideally avoid consuming beverages and foods with caffeine.
Such beverages include coffee, certain types of herbal tea, sports drinks, and more.
They are known to cause an increase in urinary incontinence, urinary urgency, and urinary frequency.
Preliminary studies also suggest that caffeine increases testosterone and DHT levels in the ventral and dorsolateral regions of the prostate.
If that is true, caffeine may also contribute to benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer.
4) Spicy Foods
Anyone with urinary problems should also stay away from spicy food.
While caffeine is diuretic and mildly irritant of the urinary tract, chili and spicy foods are strong irritants.
They can potentially worsen any urinary symptoms you may have, especially urgency and urinary incontinence.
Certain components of spicy foods can be beneficial for the prostate, especially capsaicin.
However, it is not recommended to eat the whole food with the rest of the irritant substances.
Instead, you can try using prostate supplements and avoiding spicy foods to reduce hypersensitivity in your bladder.
5) Red Meat
Unprocessed and processed meat has raised concerns as the incidence of cancer is increasing around the globe. High red meat consumption is considered a risk factor for prostate cancer.
Many studies talk about carcinogens in red meat that activate or are generated depending on the cooking method.
Red meat cooked at high temperatures, cooked until well-done, and by pan-frying causes the highest risk of prostate cancer.
The reason is not apparent, but it is probably due to heterocyclic amines present in red meat under these cooking methods.
Unlike this type of meat, poultry does not appear to have the same effect, and fish has a protective effect because it is rich in omega 3 fatty acids.
6) Sodium
People who prefer eating high-sodium foods for better taste are at increased risk of prostate-related symptoms.
According to a recent study, they increase voiding symptoms such as low urinary stream and incomplete voiding.
Storage symptoms may also worsen, increasing your urinary frequency and causing nocturia.
Ideally, we should avoid sodium and use spices instead. These are safer and provide extra benefits such as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant substances that sodium does not have.
7) Eggs
For many years, we thought that cholesterol in eggs was terrible for our health.
New scientific evidence showed that dietary cholesterol does not affect serum cholesterol that much. However, other components of eggs may affect the prostate in the long term.
Recent findings suggest that choline in eggs and its metabolite betaine increases the risk of lethal prostate cancer. Higher choline intake could increase prostate cancer risk by up to 70%.
Indeed, choline is not only abundant in eggs. Milk and meat are both rich sources, too. Thus, it is not a single food but a pattern of eating that we want to avoid.
In general, a diet based on fruits and vegetables would prevent this problem.
For example, the Mediterranean diet. This eating pattern positively affects prostate and heart disease, especially when cruciferous vegetables are included.
8) Processed Foods
It is a fact that processed foods increase the risk of many types of cancer. One of them is prostate cancer. You would like to avoid processed food to stay healthy.
Based on information gathered in Montreal, Canada, from 2005 to 2012, the PROTEUS study evaluated the incidence of prostate cancer and other types of cancer and the consumption of processed foods, mainly processed red meat.
In short, the more processed foods people consumed, the more likely it was to suffer from prostate cancer.
Processed foods include fast food, convenience food, canned foods, microwave-ready dinners, commercial beverages, ham, sausage rolls, cakes and biscuits, pastries, breakfast cereals, and much more.
9) Non-organic white meat
Even white meats like chicken and fish, if bought without proper care, can be just as harmful to the prostate and your overall health.
Chickens raised on battery farms and force-fed turkeys are common examples.
White meat that reaches our dishes is often tainted with highly questionable methods of farming and preparation.
In many cases, these animals are administered hormones and steroids in their feed to make larger cuts.
In other cases, animals are fed foods that they have not evolved to ingest. This causes their bodies to react by producing chemicals to fight off perceived toxins.
Avoid these additives and unknown chemicals by always buying naturally produced meat.
One explanation is that poultry with skin has high levels of heterocyclic amines, mutagens found in much greater concentrations in well-done poultry than in other meats.
Heterocyclic amines have been shown to induce prostate cancer in rats and attach to and damage DNA in cultured human prostate tissue.
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10) Dairy
A 2001 Harvard University study found that men who consumed above-average amounts of calcium in their diets had a 32% higher chance of developing prostate cancer.
The American Cancer Society has since backed these findings. They document a link between high dairy intake and prostate cancer development in men over the age of 40.
Many dairy foods from cows contain biochemicals that encourage cancer. The high level of animal fat invites high levels of estrogen to be found in men as they age.
Oestrogen is typically considered a female hormone and is very harmful since it encourages testosterone to be converted to dihydrotestosterone. This is very irritating for the prostate and is at the root of all prostate disease.
Dairy products should, therefore, be avoided altogether. Replace dairy cow products with goat products.
Goats milk, cream, yogurt, and cheese (especially hard cheese) have a much higher proportion of protein. And they do not contain the same harmful biochemicals.
11) Canned foods
They may be convenient, but canned foods are decidedly not good for your prostate.
This is because many of them contain a synthetic estrogen called Bisphenol A (BPA). It’s used in the construction of polycarbonate containers like tin cans and even water bottles.
Investigations into the connections between BPA and a wide variety of diseases are ongoing. But the European Union and Canada have already banned it in the making of baby bottles.
Foods like tomatoes are particularly susceptible to BPA. Tomatoes can soak BPA into their soft tissues while in storage.
12) Non-organic vegetables
Low-carbohydrate vegetables are great as part of a planned ketogenic diet. But for good prostate health, you should ensure everything you consume is organic and untreated. The wisdom of this approach is apparent.
Look at the amount of contact that non-organic vegetables have with chemicals before they reach our plates.
For instance, the soil that vegetables are grown in is invariably treated with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. After absorbing all of these toxins, vegetables are processed and resprayed on shipment.
This protects them from predators and stops them from sprouting naturally. The thought of all those sprays alone is bad enough. And this is without imagining the effect they could have on our internal system.
Going organic is the only real choice, and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can be of great benefit.
Studies show a plant-based diet may have therapeutic potential in the management of prostate cancer progression in prostate cancer patients.
13) Sugar and artificial sweeteners
Sugar has not been proven to be a direct cause of cancer of the prostate or otherwise. But there are very solid arguments for leaving it out of your diet.
The link between excessive consumption of sugar and the onset of obesity and Type 2 diabetes has long been established, and the health problems that these conditions cause can be ruinous for the individual involved.
Additionally, in 2009, the Huntsman Cancer Institute (University of Utah) released findings that illustrated how cancerous tumor cells use sugar in much greater quantities than normal cells.
The findings seemed to confirm that extra sugar and sweeteners (which make use of numerous artificial and chemical ingredients) were best left alone for the maintenance of robust health.
14) Farmed fish
Like non-organic meats, farmed fish are also subject to a string of treatments designed to preserve the product for longer, to make it look better, and above all, to keep suppliers’ costs down.
Unfortunately, all of this means that the consumer is losing out when it comes to eating a healthy foodstuff.
The fishmeal that many of these farmed fish are fed is high in contaminants, and the crowded environment of their pens means that any contagion is not long in spreading.
At the same time, the companies running these “farms” think nothing of dosing the fish with antibiotics to ward off the diseases caused by their own avaricious methods.
Coupled with the fact that farmed fish are lower in the vital vitamin D and Omega 3 that we buy them for, organic wild fish like tuna and salmon are once again infinitely preferable for our health.
Instead, opt for fresh wild-caught fish, such as salmon, which is rich in fatty acids to help fight inflammation.
15) Heated oils
Vegetable oils such as canola and corn are good for your heart when uncooked. But when you heat them to high temperatures, these oils become some of the worst things for your heart.
High heat damages the oil. It can convert good HDL cholesterol into bad LDL cholesterol and cause cancer and heart disease.
16) Soy
It may sound healthy, but did you know that 90 to 95% of U.S.-grown soy is genetically engineered to make soy protein isolate so that it can withstand high amounts of herbicide?
Soy isoflavones are in many products, such as protein bars, fruit drinks, soups, sauces, cereals, supplements, and meal replacement shakes.
This unfermented soy can hide under names such as bouillon, textured protein, and natural flavor.
Instead, opt for fermented soy products, which are the only soy products with health benefits. Fermented soy products include soy sauce, fermented bean paste, miso, and tempeh.
17) Salad Dressings
In many cases, salad dressings are anything but healthy. Most of them fall into the category of processed foods because they are packed and filled with chemicals.
Additionally, they are often salty and rich in saturated fats. There’s nothing healthy in commercial salad dressings, then.
Instead, we could use spices and olive oil. They provide anti-inflammatory and antioxidant substances that will be beneficial for our prostate and overall health.
Conclusion
These 17 worst foods for male prostate health link with thyroid problems, mental decline, reproductive problems, cancer, and heart disease.
We hope that you have found this list of harmful foods helpful and enlightening.
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