What is a good prostate cancer diet? In reality, there is no overwhelming, big sample size studies that we can point to that provides actual scientific, statistically significant evidence of being the “best.” However, many small studies point to the better diet (better than the typical western diet full of red meat and processed sugars).

The “better” diet is most easily described as a Mediterranean style diet. What is a Mediterranean diet? The “Mediterranean” diet as defined by Mayo Clinic replaces our western normal consumption of red meat with chicken and fish, eating red meat no more than once per week but eating fish at least 3 times per week. The diet is structured to be very heavy on fruits and vegetables. Vegetables are best coming from the cruciferous family, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc. Carrots and celery are also good and can serve as an alternate snack instead of pretzels, candy and cookies. Fruits, they are all excellent and important, but try and stay away from the very sugar intense fruits like water melon.

It is also good to include pomegranate juice (better yet pomegranate extract to avoid the heavy levels of sugar in the juice) and tomato juice (or other cooked tomato products for the lycopene).

Additionally, most doctors today are recommending adding a daily dose of Vitamin D3 – about 2000 mg. Increasingly we are also seeing discussions recommending adding a reservatol supplement to the diet. .

Many nutritionists also recommend avoiding gluten and dairy products. This means eliminating many forms of bread, milk and cheese, this will also help those of us who are over weight to shed some of those dangerous pounds. For those who still wish to include bread in their diets, increasingly there are gluten free bread products and cookies available in the supermarket. Milk can be substituted with soy, or even better almond milk. If you still need your milk fix, use whole milk, do not use skim milk.

Joel T Nowak MA, MSW