Table of Contents

Chapter 4: Why Nutrition Matters

i. Fruits and Vegetables

A number of studies have looked at the benefit of fruits and vegetables as part of an overall healthy diet. In addition to being chock full of vitamins and minerals, they’re a good source of fiber, which has been shown to reduce the risk of developing heart disease, and are low in calories and fat, which can help ward off the risk of developing diabetes.

Let’s look at the tomato, a fruit that has been widely touted as being "prostate healthy." A medium red tomato has fiber, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, beta-carotene, and lycopene—a nutrient that has been widely studied as a possible contributor in reducing the risk of developing both prostate cancer and heart disease.

But there’s another reason to increase your fruits and vegetables. The Dietary Guidelines for America, published jointly by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture, recommends that you eat 5 to 9 servings a day of fruits and vegetables. A realistic goal? Maybe, maybe not. But most people set an upper limit on the quantity of food that they consume on an average day, so even if they can’t hit that number each day, they are most likely reaching the minimum recommended number. Remember: for every extra bite of vegetable that’s eaten, there’s a bite of unhealthy, fat- and calorie-laden food that’s going uneaten. In this case, more is definitely better.