Men With Prostate Cancer Had A 24% Higher Risk Of Death With More Of This
After a prostate cancer diagnosis, food can easily become an afterthought.
There are appointments to keep, treatment decisions to make, and plenty of questions about what comes next. But once treatment is underway, everyday habits still play a role in long-term health, including what ends up on your plate.
In a new analysis of nearly 5,000 men1 with prostate cancer, researchers looked at the types of fat they ate after their diagnosis and tracked their health for more than a decade.
The results point to a dietary detail that may be easy to overlook, particularly when it comes to heart health and overall survival.
About the study
The researchers analyzed data from 4,884 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, an ongoing U.S. research project that has tracked the health of male health professionals since 1986.
All of the participants had prostate cancer that had not spread beyond the prostate.
Every four years, the men reported what they ate. Researchers used those questionnaires to estimate their intake of different types of fat, including saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, trans, animal, and plant-based fats.
The team then tracked deaths for a median of nearly 13 years.
That longer follow-up was useful because men with prostate cancer that hasn't spread can also face serious health risks unrelated to the cancer itself, including cardiovascular disease.
More saturated fat was linked to a higher risk of death
Men who ate the most saturated fat were 24% more likely to die from any cause during the study than the men who ate the least, and 42% more likely to die from heart disease.
Those percentages compare the two groups against each other, so the underlying numbers are worth seeing too.
Over 10 years, an estimated 23.4% of the men eating the least saturated fat died, compared with 26.4% of those eating the most. It's a modest gap of about 3 percentage points.
Animal fat followed the same pattern, with higher intake linked to a greater risk of dying from cancers other than prostate cancer.
The numbers moved in the opposite direction when saturated and animal fats were swapped out for plant-based ones.
Trading 5% of daily calories from saturated fat for monounsaturated fat, the kind found in olive oil, nuts, and avocados, was linked to a 20% lower risk of dying from any cause. Trading 10% of daily calories from animal fat for plant-based fat was linked to a 16% lower risk.
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The biggest difference showed up outside of prostate cancer
The study found no link between any type of fat and dying from prostate cancer itself, and total fat intake wasn't linked to prostate cancer mortality either.
The differences showed up in other causes of death, mainly heart disease and other cancers.
Heart disease was the most common cause of death in this group, accounting for about a quarter of the deaths during follow-up.
That puts heart health near the center of prostate cancer survivorship. Some treatments, including hormone therapy, can affect cardiovascular health, so diet is one piece of a larger picture.
Two limits are worth keeping in mind.
Because the researchers tracked what men chose to eat rather than assigning them diets, the study can show a link but can't prove that saturated fat caused the higher risk.
And 97% of the participants were White health professionals, so the findings may not apply equally to all men.
What to put on the plate
You don't need to cut fat from your diet. The study didn't find that eating more or less total fat was associated with mortality. Instead, it points toward making some of the fats in your diet more plant-based.
- Switch up your cooking fat; use olive oil more often, and add foods such as avocados, nuts, and seeds for unsaturated fats.
- Cut back on major sources of saturated fat; common sources include cheese, butter, beef, sausage, pizza, ice cream, and baked goods.
- Trade some meat for legumes; beans, lentils, and chickpeas can replace part of a meal built around red or processed meat.
- Keep the rest of the diet well-rounded; vegetables, fruit, fish, and whole grains can all fit into a heart-conscious eating pattern.
The idea isn't to avoid one food forever. It's to pay attention to what you're using most often and make some of the swaps that are easiest to stick with.
The takeaway
For men with prostate cancer, the type of dietary fat they eat may have implications for long-term health, particularly cardiovascular health.
Replacing some saturated or animal fat with plant-based fats was associated with better overall survival in this large observational study.
