Battling bad cells with good eating

For grains, it’s mostly brown rice, bulgur wheat, barley and whole-grain pastas. From legumes, I make vegetarian chili, lentil soup, or I just eat plain black beans wrapped in whole-wheat tortillas.

I eat a lot of blueberries, which are very high in antioxidants, bananas and melon. My fish intake is almost exclusively wild salmon and the Pacific Northwest is a good place for that. For poultry, I stick to skinless white meat. I use only olive oil.

It’s hard for me to tell if my new diet is giving me more energy, because I always had plenty, but I feel great. Shopping at the organic grocery store near my home has become a new hobby of sorts. I’ve always enjoyed cooking, so I’m also having a lot of fun making up my own recipes for tabbouleh, stuffed cabbage and so forth. When in doubt, dump marinara sauce on everything — organic, of course.

Two other new additions to my diet are pomegranate juice and green tea. Recent, albeit still preliminary, studies have shown that pomegranate juice may significantly slow the rate of prostate cancer’s growth.

Even though I am hopeful that my surgeon and his robot got all the cancer out of my body, I am still following the regimen used by patients in those studies: an 8-ounce glass of 100 percent pomegranate juice each day. While studies about the possible benefits of green tea seem to contradict each other, it's very high in antioxidants so I am subbing it for most of the coffee I used to drink.

Since I stopped eating all the other stuff, I’ve only once had a true moment of longing for something that wasn’t on my list. At a recent barbecue, my boss served up the most tantalizing grilled brats that I have ever seen. But I quickly grabbed a big bowl of delicious, healthier shrimp etouffee instead.

Now, not next year
I think that experience shows how much motivation the C-word has pumped into me. Before I had cancer, I never would have passed on those brats.

Test yourself What's your risk for prostate cancer?

For much of my adult life, I have wanted to eat healthier and trim my weight, but there has always been tomorrow, next week, next year. Now it seems like eating better is perhaps a much more important step toward getting to next year instead of something to do once I’m there.

On top of making me feel like I have taken personal charge of my own cancer fight, my dietary shift has had another positive benefit. Without any attempt to eat less, I lost 18 pounds between the time I was diagnosed and had surgery. I’m looking forward to roping up at my new weight as soon as the doc gives me clearance to climb another mountain.

MSNBC.com writer Mike Stuckey was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April. He is chronicling his battle in "Low Blow," a series appearing every other Wednesday.

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