March 15, 2006 – Men whose diets contain foods rich in phytoestrogens – such as soy, flax seeds and sunflower seeds – reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer, Swedish researchers say1.
Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, draw this conclusion from a comparison of 1,500 men with prostate cancer and 1,130 healthy men. They found that men who ate a large amount of foods containing phytoestrogens were 26% less likely than others to have prostate cancer.
The researchers admit that they probably did not detect, in the diet of subjects, all sources of phytoestrogens, these molecules of plant origin which act in the body a little like the natural hormones that are estrogens. . However, of all the foods studied, soy beans are the ones that appear to have conferred the most important protective effect.
“The protective effect can come from phytoestrogens alone or from their combination with other substances found in this type of food,” the researchers explained in a press release.
They caution, however, that their findings only apply to foods rich in phytoestrogens: soy products, soy beans, sunflower and flax seeds, berries, and peanuts. They advise against taking phytoestrogen dietary supplements, the quality of which is often uncertain. Due to the much higher concentrations than those found in food, they believe these supplements can cause unwanted effects.
Prostate cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in men, in Canada as in other Western countries. Its incidence is low in China and Japan, where the diet is traditionally rich in phytoestrogens.
Jean-Benoit Legault – PasseportSanté.net
According to Radio-Canada.
1. Hedelin M et al. Dietary phytoestrogen, serum enterolactone and risk of prostate cancer: the cancer prostate sweden study (sweden), Cancer Causes Control, 2006 Mar; 17 (2): 169-80.
