Frying Vegetables in Extra Virgin Olive Oil Recommended for Men With Prostate Cancer

A new pilot study rec­om­mends adding extra vir­gin olive oil to the diets of men with prostate can­cer.

The study found that adding extra vir­gin olive oil to the plant-based diet rec­om­mended by the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), pro­duced sim­i­lar weight loss results as well as helped to increase the absorp­tion of com­pounds with anti­cancer prop­er­ties.

For men who have low-risk prostate can­cer, the PCF rec­om­mends weight loss as a way of reduc­ing the risk of can­cer recur­rence and metas­ta­sis.

“Being over­weight is the great­est lifestyle risk fac­tor for a poor prog­no­sis,” said Mary Flynn, the lead researcher on the study.
See Also:Olive Oil Health Benefits

The PCF also rec­om­mends fruits and veg­eta­bles that are high in carotenoid con­tent and glu­cosi­no­late, nat­ural com­pounds with strong can­cer pro­tec­tion traits. However, the foun­da­tion’s dietary rec­om­men­da­tions say noth­ing about adding extra vir­gin olive oil to sup­ple­ment fruit and veg­etable intake.

Carotenoids require fat in order to be prop­erly absorbed, while water-based prepa­ra­tions lose some of the glu­cosi­no­lates in veg­eta­bles such as broc­coli and kale. Researchers con­duct­ing the study sug­gested cook­ing these veg­eta­bles in extra vir­gin olive oil as a healthy alter­na­tive.

“Effective dietary advice for decreas­ing prostate can­cer risk and pro­gres­sion should include healthy fat to pre­pare the can­cer pro­tec­tive veg­eta­bles to max­i­mize absorp­tion of carotenoids and pos­si­bly the glu­cosi­no­lates,” Flynn wrote in the study.

The study also noted that men in Greece and Spain, many of whom tra­di­tion­ally con­sume an olive oil enriched Mediterranean diet, have low rates of prostate can­cer.

“Studies show that the health ben­e­fits (from extra vir­gin olive oil con­sump­tion) start at two table­spoons per day,” Flynn said. ​“I selected three table­spoons as I thought it was a rea­son­able amount to ask the par­tic­i­pants to con­sume each day and would be likely to show ben­e­fit.”

The study, which was con­ducted by the Miriam Hospital Department of Medicine in Providence, Rhode Island, asked some par­tic­i­pants to fol­low a plant-based olive oil diet and oth­ers to fol­low the PCF diet for eight weeks. At the end of the eight weeks, the par­tic­i­pants switched diets for another eight weeks.

After con­sum­ing both diets, par­tic­i­pants were asked to select one of the diets and con­tinue to con­sume it for an addi­tional six months.

The results of the study found that weight loss for both diets was about the same. However, the diet that included extra vir­gin olive oil resulted in lower lev­els of insulin and fast­ing glu­cose than the foun­da­tion’s diet.

“There is a pos­i­tive rela­tion­ship between fast­ing insulin to prostate can­cer devel­op­ment and both blood glu­cose and insulin resis­tance are pos­i­tively related to can­cer mor­tal­ity,” Flynn wrote in the study. ​“Daily con­sump­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil may help improve sur­vivor­ship for can­cer.”

For the pur­poses of the study, Flynn did not ask how par­tic­i­pants con­sumed the extra vir­gin olive oil. However, she said other stud­ies had shown evi­dence that cook­ing veg­eta­bles into extra vir­gin olive oil may make them health­ier.

“This study… did show that cook­ing the food into the olive oil was more ben­e­fi­cial than just pour­ing olive oil on the food,” she said. ​“Also, cook­ing veg­eta­bles in olive oil has been shown to increase the phe­nol con­tent of the veg­eta­bles com­pared to cook­ing them in water, so that would mean cook­ing veg­eta­bles into olive oil would make them health­ier.”

Seventeen par­tic­i­pants com­pleted the study and Flynn said she believes the log­i­cal next steps would be to repeat the study with a larger group of par­tic­i­pants.

“There were some trends that may become more sig­nif­i­cant, should more men be stud­ied,” she said. ​“I think that there also should be more research inves­ti­gat­ing the role of extra vir­gin olive oil in can­cer pre­ven­tion and treat­ment as I think there is great poten­tial for ben­e­fit.”

• Dr Mary Flynn


• NBC Providence