Prostate cancer and nutrition

MEN, YOU MAY WANT to spice up your meals. A diet rich in scallions, shallots, onions, and garlic (all members of a plant group called alliums) cuts men's risk of prostate cancer in half, according to a large study in China funded by the U.S. government's National Cancer Institute (NCI). Scallions provided the most protection; men who ate the most of these green onions slashed their risk of getting cancer by a whop ping 70 percent.

The sulfur compounds and plant pigments in alliums, which studies have shown can reduce tumor size, most likely provide the protection, says Ann Hsing, M.P.H., Ph.D., an NCI epidemiologist and the lead author of the study. She says more research needs to be done, but the study suggests that adding just a handful of scallions, shallots, or onions or a few cloves of garlic to your food every day provides the benefit. Hsing advises eating raw alliums when possible; cooking them at high temperatures reduces their cancer-fighting properties, she says.