MONDAY FEB 11, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Sufficient intake of lycopene, zinc and vitamin D and using a vegetable rich diet may help protect against benign prostate hyperplasia   or BPH, which affects more than half of men in their sixties and as many as 90 percent in their seventies and eighties in the U.S., according to a study.

The study of 5,000 men published in the American Journal of Epidemiology essentially found vegetable rich diet is good and a high fat diet is bad for prostate health with the former reducing the risk of BPH and the latter increasing the risk.

Alan Kristal at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and colleagues wrote in their report "There was weak evidence for associations of lycopene, zinc, and supplemental vitamin D with reduced risk."

One early study found men who ate four to five tomato-based dishes per week were 25 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer than men who ate tomatoes rarely.

Another study reported in the Jan 2008 issue of Journal of Nutrition showed men using lycopene supplements experienced an reduction in the level of prostate-specific antigen or PSA, a accepted marker of prostate health.

The current study involved 4,770 men who were free of BPH when entering the study. Over the 7-year follow-up, 876 incident cases of BPH were recorded. Participants were surveyed for their dietary habits using a food frequency questionnaire.

Consumption of four daily servings of vegetables was found associated with a 32 percent reduction in BPH risk compared to less than one serving per day whereas a high fat diet was linked to a 31 percent increase in the risk of BPH, the study showed.

Increased protein intake was associated with a 15 percent reduction in BPH risk.   Vitamin D, zinc and lycopene were correlated with reduced risk of BPH, according to the report.

For more information on prostate health, read http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/prostateenlargement/