The Good News about Walnuts and Your Prostate

You just can't make this stuff up: walnuts shrink tumors. I know, right? Sounds incredible but it's true. Apparently, at least according to research at UC Davis on tumor-toting mice, their walnut-eating consumption actually reduced their tumor size significantly.

What makes it interesting for this site is how it falls into the category of how our environment affects our health. What we put into our bodies is part of that environment. Like climate change, it's a problem we can have some control over. 

See the excerpt below from Environmental News Network that was originally reported in the British Journal of Nutrition.

The Amazing Tumor-Fighting Walnut
David A Gabel, ENN 
Published January 25, 2012 09:38 AM

Recently, scientists from the University of California (UC) in Davis found out that, at least in mice, eating walnuts can actually slow down the growth of tumors. In fact, after 18 weeks of being on a walnut-rich diet, the mice had tumors half the size as mice on a similar diet. Further research will be upcoming to explore more beneficial effects of walnuts. Some believe that walnuts can be even used to prevent tumors from ever forming.

The unlucky subject mice in the experiment were genetically programmed to develop prostate cancer. UC Davis researchers assessed the size of their tumors at 9,18 and 24 weeks. Some mice were on the walnut diet, consuming the human equivalent of 2.4 ounces of walnut per day. The other subject group ate a soybean oil diet which was formulated to match the walnut diet in terms of nutrients, fat levels, and fatty acid profiles.

Amazingly, at 18 weeks, the tumors were half the size in the walnut group than the other group. Overall, the rate of tumor growth was 28 percent less for the walnut group.

To read more, click here.

Image courtesy of Phys.org.