Prostate cancer is a disease that affects Black men at a disproportionate rate. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who is a survivor of the disease, has a foundation dedicated to raising awareness of the disease, and encouraging men to get tested while also engaging in preventative measures. Author and Final Call columnist Audrey Muhammad, spoke with researcher and author Kevin Muhammad, regarding this deadly disease.
Audrey Muhammad (AM:) I have read that tomatoes and tomato sauce have lycopene, a natural chemical that is considered the reason tomatoes are considered a prostate healthy food along with watermelons, pink grapefruit and papaya. What nutritional advice do you have in regards to providing our body with the best nutrition? In the mainstream field of nutrition, we are always told eat this and eat that and then eat it five more times…
Kevin Muhammad (KM:) Exactly. In the “mainstream” field of nutrition, emphasis is always placed on the foods that a person should eat to meet their nutritional needs. However, we must embrace the opposite –removing certain foods from our diets; and these foods are not relegated to fatty and starchy foods. Such foods include those that we assume or have been taught are nutritious and essential for health. Foods such as nuts, certain beans and forage–in both raw and cooked states–must be eliminated from our diets.
›AM: Why?
KM: Generally, these foods contain many poisons, some of which rob the body of essential minerals and vitamins. Minerals such as iron, calcium and zinc are critical to many biological processes that sustain the life of the cell. When these minerals are absent, the cells become chaotic, to say the least; and the eventual outcome is cancer.
Now, let us look at this in terms of prostate cancer. Zinc is an important trace element in human nutrition. It is an essential mineral found in most tissues of the body. The kidney, liver, pancreas, and prostate have the highest concentrations of zinc.
This means that zinc is essential to prostate health. It protects the organ from damage that could lead to cancer.
AM: How does zinc do this?
KM: For one, zinc is an antioxidant (enables the cell to eliminate poison) and is involved in many critical biochemical reactions. As such, this mineral protects DNA from damage, as well as assist in its repair.
Those who suffer prostate problems, including cancer, usually are deficient in zinc. Does this mean that men should eat foods rich in zinc? Maybe, but we should approach this with caution, because some foods that are promoted to be high in zinc also rob the body of zinc. Nuts are among such foods.
AM: I am just now understanding that some foods are good to eat, but in that, we have to be careful of combining certain foods. I know many people who love nuts, but don’t understand how nuts can be counterproductive to our heath and nutritional needs.
KM: In the book, “Nuts Are Not Good for Humans,” I describe the poison, phytate acid, that is contained in most nuts. This poison latches to and removes essential minerals from the body– including zinc. This simply means that nuts are cancer-causing, which is among the reasons why a meal of nuts takes five years from our life spans, as taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Although many good vegetables contain phytate acid, this chemical functions differently when contained in nuts. For example, although cauliflower contains phytate acid, it has other minerals that work with phytate acid to provide greater nutrition than that given by nuts. This is why we cannot focus on minerals and vitamins alone. We must look at “whole” foods and how they affect our health. At the base of our health prevention is How to Eat to Live.
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Note: In “How to Eat to Live, Book Two” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad writes: “We have to safeguard our health against the enemies of our health by eating one meal a day. This gives an enemy (germ) that may be in our food time to die–to be completely dead at the end of twenty-four hours. If we keep adding more food, it gives the germ strength and working power to destroy the very delicate and perfect machinery of our bodies. By nature, we are made of the best. And, we have to continue to give our bodies the best and in a moderate way.” (Pg. 45)
(Audrey Muhammad, a certified fitness instructor, is the author of “Get Fit To Live: Be Your Best You!” The book is available at www.getfit2live.org. Please consult a physician before beginning any new workout or dietary plan. Send questions and/or comments to [email protected] or call 510-815-4591. Visit www.kamuhammad.net for more information regarding his books on health.)
