Latest / Intellectual Medicine / Best Diet for Prostate Cancer | What Actually Matters for Cancer Progression

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Best Diet for Prostate Cancer | What Actually Matters for Cancer Progression · Intellectual Medicine

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  You're fighting cancer, We all are.
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  Even if we don't have cancer, how do we really know?
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  I mean, it happens at a cellular level, you can't see it.
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  So it behooves us all to embrace an anti cancer lifestyle.
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  Now, does nutrition matter? Does how you eat make a
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  difference when you're fighting cancer?
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  Of course it does. Does nutrition matter?
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  Does how you eat make a difference when you're fighting
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  cancer? Of course it does.
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  We're going to break down the details, but think of it this
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  way, you're fighting cancer. We all are.
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  Even if we don't have cancer, how do we really know?
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  I mean it happens at a cellular level.
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  You can't see it. So it behooves us all to embrace
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  an anti cancer lifestyle. Now for you men that have
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  prostate cancer or a high risk of it, elevated PSA, abnormal
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  MRI, you got to put it all together.
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  Think of it this way. Imagine you're trying to put out
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  a fire and you've got the hose and it's pumping water out like
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  crazy, and at the back end of the fire somebody's throwing
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  balsa wood on top of it. It doesn't make sense.
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  You got to put it all together. And this is one of the points of
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  departure that I have with my oncological conventional
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  medicine colleagues quite often if you ask them, Gee, doc, I
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  have cancer, what should I eat? They'll say, hey, it doesn't
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  matter, eat whatever you like. That is just thoughtless advice,
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  gentlemen. And women, if you're listening
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  as well. But it gets a little bit
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  convoluted when it comes to nutrition and cancer.
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  It's hard to know exactly what matters.
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  No, it's impossible. After all, we all eat all the
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  time. We have to eat.
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  Therefore we don't have the control variables and it's
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  harder to know, but they're. So let's start out with things
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  that are absolute, unequivocal, universal things that will
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  affect your cancer risk. And then we're going to talk
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  about the toxic junk substances, food or the ingredients within
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  it that should be avoided. And we'll also mention a few
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  that are a lot more questionable.
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  So what's number one on the hip parade?
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  Fat. Not the fat you eat, folks, the
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  fat on your body. So percent body fat is critical
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  to control. That means that food volume is
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  critical and this drives everything else.
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  The ability to control percent body fat is challenging.
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  Fortunately, we live in an era of pharmacologic support.
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  If you need it, you're better off doing pharmacologic support
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  to control percent body fat then worrying about the agents used
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  to help support you in that endeavor.
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  So controlling what you eat, how nutritional behavioral
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  modification. We have no off button.
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  We don't eat until we're full, we eat until we run out of food.
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  And in America we never run out of food.
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  So you must create artificial firewalls.
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  When I plan my meal, I like to prepare it ahead of time.
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  I have a little food scale. Very important.
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  I weigh the substance I'm going to eat.
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  Often times, not all the time, but often enough that I become
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  self regulated, Weigh the food every morning.
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  One of the things I weigh? Cashews.
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  Why? I like them everyday.
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  They have copper in them, which is hard to get.
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  I don't like copper from supplements.
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  It's toxic in my view. So I get one ounce of cashews.
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  Why one ounce? Because I would eat 10 oz if I
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  didn't weigh it. It's so good.
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  But the one ounce gives me a daily amount of copper and it's
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  not going to make me fat. I weigh it, I eat it.
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  It's done. Portion control, premeditated
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  portion control. If it's in front of you, you're
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  going to eat it. You never get full.
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  There's a hole at the top, there's a hole at the bottom.
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  Nothing is getting full. So that's one thing.
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  The other thing is predetermined feeding times.
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  You should know at the beginning of the day when you're going to
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  eat throughout the day, by and large, plan ahead.
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  If you're not hungry, eat anyhow.
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  When it's your feeding time. That prevents a buildup of
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  hunger hormones like ghrelin that can come later and create a
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  tidal wave of hunger they take. You can't eat enough food to
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  make that go away. But if you're eating small
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  volume consistently, I believe that's your best play.
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  I like to eat it about every three hours.
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  How do I control the macro nutrients?
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  Fat, protein, carb. Focus on the simple
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  carbohydrate, the net carbohydrate.
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  The net carbohydrate is total carb, less fiber.
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  That's a good rule of thumb and most packaged foods are going to
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  have this listed on it. You can be reassured, meat, eggs
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  have no carb, cheese no carb. So this is helpful advice to
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  control percent body fat. Don't be shy about using
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  pharmacology, work with your doctor if you need to.
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  All right, what else is unequivocal?
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  No doubt about it. Absolutely toxic nitrites.
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  Nitrites are preservatives used in cold cuts.
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  Processed meat, sausage, hot dogs.
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  I don't care if your cold cuts says it's nitrite free, they're
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  lying to you. In fact, it's a government
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  sponsored lie. So for years I spent extra money
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  to get the nitrate free, you know, organic cold cuts.
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  It was like apple tree or something like that.
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  So I'm spending the extra money. I'm feeling good.
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  Until I did the research and I found out that the government
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  enables or allows these companies to label their product
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  nitrite free as long as the nitrates come from a natural
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  source. How stupid is that?
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  It's a nitrite is a nitrite is a nitrite.
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  Whether it comes from a lab or from natural substances.
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  It's still carcinogenic. Don't eat it.
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  Minimize it. OK, I just told you not to eat
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  it. But Doc, it's it's a Saturday
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  afternoon. I'm at Fenway Park.
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  I'm watching the ball game. Can I have a Fenway?
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  Yes, folks, that's called hedonism.
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  Pleasure eating. And you know what?
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  The lack of hedonism is a stressor that can actually
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  weaken our immune system and make us more prone to cancer.
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  So you have to weave it in. What do I like?
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  That's hedonistic. French fries.
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  Yeah. But once a month, maybe twice a
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  month, I allow myself to have a small portion of French fries
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  because if I thought about never eating them again in my life,
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  I'd get sad and that would probably make my immune system
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  weaker. So hedonistic food control it.
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  Portion control? Vital nitrites.
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  No. What else is bad?
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  Is meat bad? Can I eat meat?
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  Yes, but the but if it's charred, if it's crispy, if it's
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  blackened, it's bad. When you eat your steak, if you
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  cook it less, it's less inclined to make carcinogens.
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  If you marinate it, it's less inclined to make carcinogens.
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  Now you might say, but I want to be vegetarian.
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  There's no strong evidence it's going to make you any less
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  likely to have your cancer progress.
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  It's your prerogative. I don't object.
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  My wife's a vegetarian. It doesn't mean I have to be 1,
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  and it doesn't mean that it's superior regarding cancer
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  outcomes. To the extent it may help with
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  weight reduction, I suppose that's true, but the idea that
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  meat is intrinsically carcinogenic is simplistic.
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  The volume is relevant, the quality is relevant.
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  You get no fooling grass fed or organic happy cow meat.
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  You're safe. How much?
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  4 oz? No more than six really small
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  portion, properly prepared. OK, I'm at my neighbor's
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  cookout. It's an afternoon on the weekend
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  in the summertime, and they're cooking on the grill and I see
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  there's some black char on there.
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  Should I tell my neighbor that's carcinogenic?
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  Stop eating. No, for God's sakes, don't be
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  that guy. Enjoy it.
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  Part of hedonism. Do not make it a habit.
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  Our bodies can process and handle some toxin, just not a
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  lot of it. Not all the time.
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  I remember as a kid, we all did, didn't we?
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  It was a hot dog night. Was a routine.
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  We didn't think twice. Yeah, well, let's think again.
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  Nitrate's a bad player. Keep away.
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  What else is carcinogenic? How about non nutritive
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  artificial sweeteners? Do they cause cancer?
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  Well, why would you ever use them?
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  They are. They are to sweeten the food and
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  they don't have calories. Isn't that a good thing doctor?
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  No, it's a bad thing. Why?
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  In the research looking at non nutritive sweeteners, they
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  correlate with more weight gain. Why?
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  We believe it has something to do with craving instigation.
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  These artificial sweeteners are the hydrogen bomb of sweetening.
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  1 grain is equal to 200 grains of plain sugar, and that creates
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  A craving dynamic. The sweet center in the brain
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  gets all amped up and it gets it harder to control subsequent
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  eating. So the fact that they stimulate
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  eating, the fact that they don't correlate with weight loss makes
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  me question why bother? It's better to put sugar in your
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  green tea than it is to put sucralose.
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  I know it's supposed to be natural but pointless.
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  How about direct carcinogenic effects?
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  So this is where it gets funny because it was a research study
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  published in a medical journal that concluded that non
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  nutritive sweeteners do not have any evidence of increasing
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  carcinogenic increasing cancer risk.
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  OK, you always got to trace the source which I did and this
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  article was funded by a company that was funded by another
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  company, the nutritive sweetener association, The non nutritive
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  sweetener association. What?
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  And one of the lead authors follow the bread crumbs used to
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  work for Kellogg was a food manufacturing company.
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  So you can make a study, guys say almost anything with the
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  right design and the right funding.
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  So I do not trust those studies. Here's what I know.
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  Sugar may make you fat, but it's not a carcinogen unto itself.
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  But doctor, I thought cancer loves sugar.
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  Yes, that's true. But you can make sugar out of
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  most anything. Carbohydrates, even if they're
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  organic quinoa, can turn into sugar.
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  And your cancer cells are not that stupid.
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  If there's not enough sugar going around, they'll feed off
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  something else. So can you eat sugar?
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  Can you have an occasional doughnut?
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  Hedonistic, controlled, Sporadic.
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  Yes. Routine like the oncologist.
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  Eat whatever you want, have doughnuts, have I was just at a
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  medical, a medical conference and they had snacks.
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  By the way, in our world, there's no such thing as a
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  healthy snack. That's an oxymoron.
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  There are feeding times, there's food, everything you eat, think
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  of it as a meal. So they're having a break
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  between lectures and I go out and on the table, you know what
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  they have potato chips and popcorn.
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  I'm So what what is with you guys?
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  These are, it's my organization. Anyhow, I got to get on that
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  committee. So healthy snack oxymoron.
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  Artificial sweeteners. Why bother?
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  There's additives. We get to this topic.
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  Sodium benzoate. Sodium benzoate, You need your
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  magnifying glass when you go shop with folks you want to read
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  labels. Sodium benzoate converts into
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  benzene, a known carcinogen. Now, the sodium benzoate is an
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  additive that is commonly used, a preservative that's often used
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  in diet soda. Problem.
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  The diet soda converts more of this into benzene.
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  It turns out, ironically, that if you're going to drink soda
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  with sugar in it, the sugar interferes with the conversion
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  of benzene. Go figure.
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  I told you the artificial sweetener has no purpose.
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  You just have soda with sugar. If you're going to have
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  anything, clock. Chalk it up as a hedonism.
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  Don't make it your daily routine.
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  BHA is another preservative. BHA bad player.
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  So sodium benzoate, nitrites, BHA, all carcinogenic breatha
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  labels. How about things that are OK?
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  You got to have some food preservatives.
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  You know what's interesting? They advocate the Mediterranean
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  diet because of parts of the Mediterranean.
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  They eat this diet and they are healthier.
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  You know what may not be the diet.
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  It may be how they buy food and store it.
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  It may be that the most carcinogenic thing that we have
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  in our kitchen is our freezer and our refrigerator.
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  They don't have that stuff in Europe.
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  They don't have these gargantuan refrigerators.
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  You can store food indefinitely and on the shelves of
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  supermarkets, right? It's got to have preservatives
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  in it. It's not like you're walking
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  down to the meat market every day at around, you know, 3:00
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  figure out what you that'd be awesome.
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  And that may be why the Mediterranean diet seems so
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  good, but it may be why it may not translate to America.
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  So am I telling you to shop often and buy small amounts?
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  Yes, I am. Am I telling you that that huge
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  refrigerator with a week's worth of food in it, it's not the best
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  play? I'm telling you that, too.
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  Moving away from some of the patterns may be healthier for
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  you. All right, so don't redesign
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  your kitchen tomorrow. Be a little bit pricey.
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  In the meantime, there are some food preservatives that are
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  safer. Potassium sorbate, not known to
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  be a carcinogen. Sulfites, not known to be a
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  carcinogen. Calcium propionate appears safe.
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  Methyl paraben appears safe. So those food preservatives, if
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  you see them, don't panic. All right?
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  How about additives? MSG, right?
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  MSG is a food enhancer not known to be carcinogenic.
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  Some people get allergic reactions to it, but not known
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  to be carcinogenic. It's a food enhancer.
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  Umami is a flavor. It's actually a taste that we
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  have this sweet, sour salt. And umami is the taste of meat,
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  makes our mouth water. So that's what the MSG enhances.
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  High fructose corn syrup. To the extent that it is
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  fattening, it's bad in a vacuum, it's just sugar.
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  Is sugar carcinogenic? Well, to the extent it
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  stimulates fat growth, it can be.
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  And here's the nuance folks. High sugar consistently of
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  salting our body may well be a cancer amplifier and it may well
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  be that the value of avoiding sugar aggressively is dependent
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  upon the host. So if you're somebody that's
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  insulin resistant, your triglycerides are high, the
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  blood pressure is up, you have mid abdominal fat, your
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  hemoglobin A1C, that's a blood test, Hemoglobin A1C, if it's
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  above 5.4, you should endeavor to get it lower.
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  The sweet spot for hemoglobin A1C is between 5 and 5.4.
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  The hemoglobin A1C is a reflection of three month
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  average blood sugar and therefore you do it not often,
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  about every three months. What do you do if it's high?
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  That's where percent body fat helps.
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  Some supplements like berberine can be a helpful player.
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  Metformin can be a helpful player.
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  Another thing that I've done for a few patients that I really
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  like, it's the continuous glucose monitor device.
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  It's the gizmo that you put on your arm and you read it on your
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  phone. It tells you what your sugar is.
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  You can buy these without a prescription, a couple of 100
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  bucks, but you don't need it all the time, just for a couple of
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  weeks. See what your body does to
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  certain foods. I've seen that have a huge
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  effect on behavior. So MSG we talked about, how
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  about how about artificial coloring, like food dyes?
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  They're all made out of petroleum.
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  Why would you ingest that? Who even needs to care whether
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  or not it's carcinogenic? It's just dumb to eat petroleum
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  laced color. Red diet #40 Yellow dye 5.
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  Yellow dye 6. These represent 90% of the
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  coloring. Can you eat a Skittles that one?
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  Then what are you 12? No that if.
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  If that's your hedonism I feel bad for you.
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  But if it is just like my French fries, you proportionate but
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  don't have them hanging around, you can't resist them.
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  There's some other things to be thoughtful about but are not
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  carcinogenic. These are food thickening
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  agents. Carrageenan is a food thickening
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  agent that is not dangerous to use.
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  Xanthan gums, you'll see thickened stuff.
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  Not really carcinogenic, but how about the other stuff?
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  What if I just eat plants? Well, organic plants.
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  Better Roundup, which is of course a a a weed killer.
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  Glyphosate is the chemical name. The battles go on.
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  Is it carcinogenic or not? I don't like it.
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  I don't want it in my body. I believe it to be carcinogenic.
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  Furthermore, I'd rather have the organic if I can afford it.
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  Now, not everything that you eat needs to be organic, so be
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  thoughtful, be selective. Wash the food.
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  Try to get some of that off. Washing it underwater is your
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  best play. Yes, you can soak it in baking
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  soda, but what a pain in the neck.
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  Most people aren't going to bother.
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  If you're inclined to do it is I've no objection, but
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  practically speaking, a good wash over water will reduce the
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  volume of the toxic pesticides that are sometimes laced in your
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  food. One more thing about dangerous
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  substances. It's water.
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  Water. How can I implicate water?
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  Because we don't know what's in it.
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  If it's coming out of your spigot, it could have lead, it
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  could have arsenic, it could have who knows what.
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  It varies. I don't think it's worth wasting
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  your money getting your water tested because one day it can
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  have it, the next day it may not.
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  That water is coming usually from a distant source.
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  And if it's coming from the well, from your backyard, the
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  variable amounts of toxins constantly percolating through
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  the dirt. So what do I recommend?
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  Filtering at the source where you're going to drink it.
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  So I have a filter in my kitchen.
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  That's where I get my drinking water.
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  I don't trust bottled water. Right.
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  Micro plastics, they're released into that water.
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  Yeah. I don't believe that's a step
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  up. Better off having it filtered at
• 20:31
  the source. Invest in it in your home.
• 20:34
  I don't do the whole house filter.
• 20:36
  That's super cool. I just don't feel like spending
• 20:38
  that kind of money. I've heard that the hair quality
• 20:41
  is great when you shower under it.
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  Yikes. Not a high priority for me, but
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  if you can do that, there's no downside other than the cost.
• 20:49
  Cost is always relevant, so I suppose that is a important
• 20:53
  thing to consider. Hey, everyday we got to get up,
• 20:56
  we got to wash our hands, drink water, we got to eat.
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  The goal here, folks, is not to perseverate, not to stress.
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  Stress is a carcinogenic. It's to simplify, eliminate the
• 21:09
  big stuff, plan your day, and then just enjoy your occasional
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  hedonism. One last word, alcohol.
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  It's a toxin, but it's a hedonism.
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  But I like it. But it's so volume, frequency,
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  those are the keys. Going alcohol free is not a huge
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  asset unless you're prone to excessive drinking that can't
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  otherwise be controlled. Limiting the alcohol, What does
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  that mean? One drink, 2 drinks, no more
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  than that. How often?
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  My advocacy, twice a week. So my rule of thumb, 2 drinks
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  twice a week is a reasonable compromise between hedonism and
• 21:56
  risk. On the other hand, I've had
• 21:58
  people in my practice who enjoy having a glass of wine every
• 22:01
  night. Volume is key.
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  Enjoy your life. You're here to have pleasure.
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  You're not here to worry about every single bite you eat.
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  Make a plan, eliminate the big stuff like we talked about, and
• 22:15
  then go out there and have some fun.
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  All right guys, we'll talk to you next time.
• 22:19
  Thanks for spending time with me.