Prostate cancer and your diet

Research suggests a heart-healthy diet may offer protection.

Diets that emphasize plant-based foods, like the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, help reduce your risk of heart disease by improving factors like cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and weight.

But can they also protect against prostate cancer? That disease is second only to skin cancer as the most common cancer among men. "There is no miracle prostate cancer diet," says Dr. Bradley McGregor, an oncologist with Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "But as we learn more about the role diet plays in disease prevention, there is growing evidence that plant-based diets may lower your risk of prostate cancer and even help slow its spread."