Why Does Nutrition Matter?

Why Does Nutrition Matter?

When looking at why some people develop cancer and others don't, there are three factors that play a meaningful role and that are unchangeable: age, family history, and race. Depending on the type of cancer, one or more of these can play a pivotal role in increasing or decreasing your risk of developing the disease.

The older you are, the more likely you are to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Although only 1 in 10,000 under age 40 will be diagnosed, the rate shoots up to 1 in 39 for ages 40 to 59, and 1 in 7 for ages 60 to 79. If you're African-American, you're about 1.5 times as likely as Caucasian patients to be diagnosed, and if you have at least one first-degree relative with prostate cancer—a brother, a father, or even a son—you’re more than twice as likely as the average man to be diagnosed.

But these statistics tell only part of the story. There are countless other factors that can influence your risk—factors over which we do have control; namely, diet and lifestyle.

The old adage of "you are what you eat" might not be completely true, but there is no question that our environment—and particularly our diet—influences the way our body functions. Think about how you felt the last time you ate that third burrito. How long did it take you to get over it? A few hours? A few days? Now think about all of the foods that you've eaten over the past years. How have our bodies managed to survive it all? Because for every extra bite of something not so smart, we also take in a host of nutrients that help our bodies continue running smoothly, and, in the short term, the effects are not usually noticeably harmful.

It's not much different when it comes to cancer: the body has natural defenses against allowing normal cells to become cancerous and allowing cancer cells to grow. But it is a very delicate balance, and it is easily upset by changes in our diet and our environment. For some cancers, the balance is easy to see. Nearly 90% of people in the United States who develop lung cancer are smokers. The longer you smoke, the more damage you cause to your lungs, and the greater your likelihood of developing lung cancer. Take away the cigarettes, and the risk starts to inch its way down.

With prostate cancer, there is not yet evidence of a single causative factor that is likely to dramatically alter your risk. However, research has been showing in the past few years that ingesting certain nutrients might decrease your chances of developing prostate cancer, reduce the likelihood of having a prostate cancer recurrence, or help slow down progression of the disease. Although it will likely take some time before results of these studies conclusively demonstrate the benefits of nutrition in prostate cancer, there is already good evidence that some of these dietary changes are beneficial in other chronic diseases, particularly heart disease. Adoption of these dietary changes can therefore be seen as an important step in a path toward a more healthy lifestyle overall.