{"id":7717,"date":"2026-04-12T00:14:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/?p=7717"},"modified":"2026-04-13T03:29:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:29:59","slug":"killed-by-convenience-eating-ready-meals-may-raise-mens-risk-of-prostate-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/?p=7717","title":{"rendered":"Killed by convenience? Eating ready meals may raise men’s risk of prostate disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By ROGER DOBSON<\/p>\n

Published:<\/span>

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Eating ready meals may increase men’s risk of getting prostate disease, a study has found.<\/p>\n

The research links ultra-processed food to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or enlarged prostate, which affects three million men in the UK.<\/p>\n

Ultra-processed foods are often high in sugar, fat and salt and include ready meals, soft drinks and packaged breads and buns.<\/p>\n

They have previously been linked to a higher risk of heart disease and cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Mail on Sunday is campaigning to end needless prostate cancer deaths and for a national screening programme to be introduced.<\/p>\n

Researchers compared the diets of 77,951 British men, aged over 45, during a 10-year period. Some 7,387 of them were diagnosed with BPH.<\/p>\n

Results showed that each 10 per cent increase in the amount of ultra-processed foods they ate was associated with a four per cent higher risk of being diagnosed with BPH.<\/p>\n

Conversely, each 10 per cent increase in non-processed plant food was associated with a nine per cent reduced risk.<\/p>\n

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\"Eating<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Eating ready meals may increase men’s risk of getting prostate disease, a study has found<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Researchers, from Peking University Shenzhen Hospital in China and other centres, said: ‘This is the first study to identify ultra-processed foods as a risk factor for BPH. The overall evidence suggests that they may exert adverse effects on prostate health.<\/p>\n

‘A higher percentage of total food weight from all ultra-processed foods was associated with an increased risk of BPH, whereas a higher percentage from plant-sourced foods was linked to a reduced risk.’<\/p>\n

The researchers say that there are a number of possibilities as to why ultra-processed foods increase the risk of BPH.<\/p>\n

One theory is that they trigger chronic inflammation and insulin resistance, which may lead to an enlarged prostate.<\/p>\n

Another theory is that metabolic dysregulation \u2013 a disruption in the way the body manages energy intake \u2013 may be implicated.<\/p>\n

The researchers, who published their findings in Nutrition Journal, said: ‘The foods are high in fat, sugar and sodium, but are deficient in fibre, vitamins and bioactive compounds, thereby promoting metabolic disorders.’<\/p>\n

Professor Raj Persad, a consultant urological surgeon and andrologist at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, said: ‘This is very good research which shows an association between ultra-processed foods and a higher chance of developing BPH.’<\/p>\n

He added: ‘BPH is far more common than prostate cancer in men and can cause severe problems requiring pharmaceuticals or surgery, which can be expensive and which can have side effects.<\/p>\n

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Ready meals have previously been linked to a higher risk of heart disease and cancer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘These findings suggest that avoiding ultra-processed foods could be very useful and inexpensive strategy for patients and for the NHS.<\/a><\/p>\n

‘This research establishes a new, important association but is not proof of cause. For that, more research is now needed.<\/p>\n

‘But given the widespread agreement among scientists that ultra-processed food can be harmful to health, it would be wise for men to subscribe to a healthy diet.’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\nKilled by convenience? Eating ready meals may raise men’s risk of prostate disease<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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  By ROGER DOBSON Published: 20:06 EDT, 11 April 2026 | Updated: 20:06 EDT, 11 April 2026 Eating ready meals may increase men’s risk of getting prostate disease, a study has found. The research links ultra-processed food to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or enlarged prostate, which affects three million men in the UK. Ultra-processed foods<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[987],"tags":[1976,971,1981,1978,1341,1982,1980,1977,1979,1975],"class_list":{"0":"post-7717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthy-living","8":"tag-bph-symptoms","9":"tag-inflammation","10":"tag-insulin-resistance","11":"tag-mens-nutrition","12":"tag-metabolic-health","13":"tag-nutrition-journal-study","14":"tag-plant-based-diet","15":"tag-prostate-health","16":"tag-ready-meals","17":"tag-ultra-processed-foods"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7749,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7717\/revisions\/7749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}