Diet and prostate cancer

You should try to have a healthy diet when you have prostate cancer. This is important for your general health as well as helping you recover from cancer. It can also help you stay at a healthy weight and lower your risk of developing other conditions.

There isn’t any strong evidence that you should eat or avoid particular foods. Instead, you can make some changes to improve your overall health.

Treatment for prostate cancer can cause problems with your diet, such as diarrhoea after radiotherapy. And some men might find it difficult to maintain a healthy weight. You might be over or underweight. Your doctor might refer you to a dietitian if you have problems.

What is a healthy diet?

A healthy diet is about balancing the different foods and choosing foods that are tasty as well as nutritious.

Eating a well balanced healthy diet can help you:

recover from treatment
make you feel better
help you feel more in control
keep to a healthy weight

A healthy diet is:

High in fruit, vegetables, wholegrains and pulses

Aim for at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day. They can be fresh, tinned, frozen or dried.
Try to have a range of different colours of fruit and vegetables. This gives you a variety of vitamins and minerals.
Aim to eat starchy foods every day. For example, potatoes, bread, rice and pasta.
Choose wholegrain versions of cereals, bread and pasta where possible.
Don’t forget pulses such as beans, lentils and peas. They are a low fat alternative to meat and a good source of protein.

Low in red and processed meat, saturated fat and salt

Avoid or reduce processed meats in your diet. For example, avoid ham, bacon, sausages, salami and pepperoni.
Limit the amount of red and processed meat to between 700 to 750 grams raw meat per week. This is the same as 500 grams of cooked meat per week or about 70 grams of cooked meat per day.
For example, 2 sausages are about 60 grams of cooked meat.
Choose chicken or fish instead.
Choose lean meat.
Limit saturated fats found in foods such as fatty meat, biscuits, crisps, cheese, cream and butter.
Use healthier unsaturated fats like vegetable, olive and sunflower oil. Use small amounts.

Low in foods that contain a lot of sugar

Limit the amounts of high calorie foods you eat.
These include chocolate, cake and fizzy drinks containing sugar.

Drink enough fluids

Drink 6 to 8 glasses of fluid a day.
You can drink water, lower fat milk, tea and coffee and sugar-free drinks.
Limit fruit juice or smoothies to 150 mls per day because of the amount of sugar they contain.

If you have problems with passing urine, it is better to avoid caffeine. You can drink decaffeinated tea and coffee instead.

The diagram below represents what your overall diet should look like. Each slice shows how much of that food group should be part of your diet to follow a healthy balanced diet. This guidance is from Public Health England (PHE).

Remember, for most of us, eating is an enjoyable part of our daily lives. So don’t worry about having the occasional treat.

There are adapted versions of the Eatwell Guide for various ethnic and cultural groups in the UK.

How prostate cancer causes diet problems

Some cancer treatments can lead to long term changes to your diet, affecting how you eat and what you can eat.

Advice about what you should eat is different if you are underweight. For example, you should eat full fat products to add calories to your diet.

Always speak to your doctor, specialist nurse or dietitian if you have problems with diet or weight loss. They can give you advice about how to adapt your diet.

Bowel problems after radiotherapy

Radiotherapy to the prostate can change the way your bowel works. Bowel motions may be more frequent and loose. Changing what you eat might help with this. You can speak to your radiotherapy team or dietitian for advice.

Radiotherapy can also affect tissue and other organs in the pelvic area. Speak to your doctor if you:

need to rush to the loo to have a bowel movement, or you don’t make it in time
have bleeding from your back passage (rectum)
have other bowel symptoms that interfere with you living an active full life

You may not be able to follow a healthy balanced diet completely if you have these problems.

Alcohol and smoking

Stopping smoking and reducing alcohol intake can help you to maintain a healthy weight and is better for your overall health.

The government guidelines state that there is no level of drinking that can be considered completely safe. If you choose to drink, they recommend:

to drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week - that's around 6 medium glasses of wine, or 6 pints of 4% beer
if you drink this amount, to spread this evenly over at least 3 days
to have some alcohol free days in the week to help cut down on the amount you drink

Stopping smoking is the best thing you can do for your health. There are lots of tools and services to help you succeed.

Food controversies and supplements

Stories about particular foods reducing the risk of prostate cancer coming back are often in the media. It isn’t always clear which ideas are supported by evidence.

We have information about what the evidence says about different foods reducing the risk of prostate cancer coming back.