The Best Protein You Can Eat For A Healthy Prostate
With so many diets supporting cardiovascular health or reducing blood sugar, your prostate would like to have a word. A man might not even consider his prostate health until a problem emerges. The prostate is an important part of a man's reproductive system because it's one of the glands that produces the fluids in semen. As men get older, the prostate continues to grow larger. When a man reaches 80, it is more than likely that he will be diagnosed with an enlarged prostate.
An enlarged prostate isn't cause for too much alarm because it doesn't increase your risk of prostate cancer. You might not even know you have an enlarged prostate because less than half of men see the symptoms such as incontinence, difficulty urinating, or a sudden urge to urinate. That's because the enlarged prostate begins to press against the urethra, which carries urine from the bladder to the penis. You can take care of the health of your prostate at any age by reducing the amount of red meat and processed meat in your diet. So, where should you get your protein? Fatty fish like salmon.
Omega-3s help your prostate
The Prostate Cancer Foundation suggests salmon for its omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce inflammation in the body. Men with an enlarged prostate will typically take drugs like tamsulosin and finasteride to improve their symptoms. A 2017 study in Inflammopharmacology found that taking 300 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids three times a day combined with prostate medication had better improvement of urine flow, prostate volume, and other symptoms compared to medication alone. The researchers concluded that adding omega-3 can help reduce inflammation of the prostate tissue.
Regularly consuming fish might also improve your survival of prostate cancer, says a 2008 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study followed more than 20,000 men over several years, where 10% of them were diagnosed with prostate cancer and 1% of them died of prostate cancer. Among the men diagnosed with prostate cancer, those who ate fish more than five times a week had a 48% lower risk of dying of prostate cancer than those who ate fish less than once a week. In particular, those who ate more fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids reduced their risk by 36%. However, eating fish wasn't found to prevent prostate cancer.
Other foods for prostate health
Eliminating some foods and adding others might boost the health of your prostate, according to a 2021 review in Nutrients. Eating red meat every day can increase your risk of an enlarged prostate by 38%, but eating four servings of vegetables a day can lower your risk by 32%. Lycopene, a nutrient found in tomatoes, can also help protect your prostate health. You'll also want to look for foods rich in lutein, vitamin C, and beta-carotene, such as spinach, kale, and carrots. Cutting back on butter, margarine, and other foods high in saturated fats could also reduce your risk of an enlarged prostate.
Harvard Medical School suggests eating whole-grain bread and pasta and limiting canned, processed, and frozen foods that are high in sodium. Processed, packaged, and fast foods should also be eliminated because they have trans fats. You'll also help your prostate by cutting back on sweetened foods and keeping an eye on the serving sizes of your foods.