How to eat healthy foods for prostate

If you want to rely on diet to maintain prostate health, the key is never to focus on a certain "Internet celebrity gland-protecting food", but to first adjust the overall diet structure, and then appropriately supplement with beneficial ingredients supported by research. There is no need to buy hundreds of special supplements to protect the prostate.

I met a young man who works as an Internet operator a while ago. His 38-year-old physical examination showed that his PSA (prostate specific antigen) was slightly elevated, accompanied by mild prostatic hyperplasia. I searched online and found that tomatoes are useful. I ate raw tomatoes every day. After eating for more than a month, I had acid reflux and went for a gastroscopy. The PSA did not drop at all. Later, I asked him to stop the late-night barbecue and iced Coke three or four times a week, and replace the braised pork belly that he usually eats with steamed seabass twice a week and beef with sauce once a week. The raw tomatoes were replaced with cooked dishes such as tomato stewed beef brisket and tomato scrambled eggs. I also asked him to add two meals of stir-fried broccoli every week. He also grabbed a handful of pumpkin seeds (about a dozen pieces) every day when he was free. After more than three months, the indicators were all back to the normal range, and the problem of getting up twice at night was gone.

It is also interesting to say that the controversy over the claim that tomatoes protect the prostate has actually been ongoing. Earlier studies said that the fat-soluble lycopene in tomatoes can reduce the inflammatory response of the prostate and reduce the risk of hyperplasia and cancer. However, a new cohort study published last year covering more than 20,000 men showed that taking high-dose lycopene supplements alone has no significant effect on reducing the risk of prostate cancer. To put it bluntly, you just need to eat cooked tomatoes as normal. There is no need to buy extra supplements, and there is no need to suffer the consequences of chewing raw tomatoes like the young man before. The absorption rate of lycopene in raw tomatoes is less than one-tenth of that of cooked tomatoes, so it is a waste of effort.

There is also the pumpkin seeds that everyone often hears about. There was a man in his 60s. After he was diagnosed with prostate hyperplasia, he heard that pumpkin seeds could cure diseases. He ate half a kilogram a day. After two months of eating, his prostate symptoms were not relieved, and his blood lipids rose first. In fact, current research only supports that eating 10-15 grams (about a handful) of pumpkin seeds every day can help alleviate the symptoms of frequent urination and urgency caused by some hyperplasia. It cannot reverse the hyperplasia, and it cannot replace drugs. If you really have difficulty urinating, you should see a doctor. Don't delay things by eating melon seeds.

When cooking, switch to more cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, purple cabbage, and cauliflower. You don’t need to boil them in plain water until they can’t be swallowed. Add some minced garlic and stir-fry them, or mince them and mix them in salads or steam them in custard. The isothiocyanates in them have clear anti-inflammatory effects and are good for the prostate and the whole body. Instead, you should pay more attention to those foods that are easy to damage the prostate, such as processed meat products, high-alcohol, high-sugar drinks, and red meat. These will definitely increase the risk of prostate inflammation. This does not mean that you should not eat them at all, but don’t eat them as daily meals. It’s okay to satisfy your cravings occasionally.

In fact, if you really think about it, eating to protect the prostate is not troublesome at all, and you don’t need to deliberately focus on certain things to eat. Just add more fresh fruits and vegetables, white meat, and less processed food when cooking. It is more effective than any high-priced supplement. To put it bluntly, it is to create a comfortable "living environment" for the prostate, and it will naturally not cause problems.