Researchers discover a simple way to keep this common cancer at bay

I recently told you how the humble walnut can help protect your brain against Alzheimer’s.

Researchers found that mice who were fed a “walnut-enriched diet” showed big improvements in how they learned new skills — and how they were able to remember them.

Now there’s some more good news about walnuts — and prostate cancer.

This study also involved mice, but the researchers said that their findings apply to people, too.

They found that eating a modest amount of walnuts daily could keep prostate cancer at bay. And what the mice were given wasn’t some giant serving either, but translates to just 2.6 ounces for us.

And don’t think if some “walnut drug” suddenly appears on the market that it will do the same thing. Because it’s the whole nut — not its extracts — that provided the benefits.

In fact, the researchers tried several combinations, including one they called a “walnut-like” fat that contained omega-3 fatty acids. But it was only the real thing in its whole form — the walnut — along with some walnut oil that slowed the growth of prostate cancer.

A co-author of the study, Dr. Paul Davis of the University of California, said this shows it’s not just the omega-3 that helps, but “a combination of the omega-3s with whatever else is in the walnut oil.”

Dr. Davis also said that while walnuts “are high in fat, their fat does not drive prostate cancer growth. In fact, walnuts do just the opposite when fed to mice.”

And that’s another reason why the government’s “crusade against fat” has “been to our detriment,” he said.

Sources:
“Walnuts found to slow prostate cancer” Nick Tate, November 14, 2014, Newsmax Health, newsmaxhealth.com