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Opinions of Tuesday, 11 August 2015

Columnist: Dr. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu

Prostate Cancer: Are you a boiled frog in a pot of boiling Water?

Sometimes, when I hear people chastising Oheneba Ntim Barima for advocating on good eating habits, I laugh at those who think he is not making sense, and therefore preventing people from eating the so call good food! But, reader, take a deep breath and examine critically, did you ever think you'd want to know what a prostate health diet looked like? Or you think conventional practitioners are in to tell you what you are supposed to do to fight disease?

Or you still think your health is in the hands of any medical practitioner, whether allopathic or alternative? Or you think if you are a woman and you marry a medical practitioner, your disease will be solved?

Please start changing your mind, because your life is in your own hands! There is actually food for good prostate and breast health: food to avoid and food to consume. Women also reading this article practically everything I write are also beneficial to prevent breast cancer because the two are parallel disease, if your breast is in a good health, the men also enjoy it, so if the man’s prostate is in good health you the woman also benefits. So prevent unleashing demons like cancers on it!

Pitiable prostate health results NOT from the fact that we live longer in the black communities as the allopathic medical profession would have you believe, but from accumulating toxins from our modern devitalized "non-foods." and the cheap, fast way of doing things in Ghana. But you take a look at this, are we really aging in Ghana? Just look at the obituaries, “what are shock, gone to soon, oh why et al and you blaming medical problems on aging? Oh My God! If it is aging, then the centenarians are in big TROUBLE!

This actually reminds me of the story of the frog in a pot of water. Heat it slowly and the frog stays until boiled to death. The food you eat has no immediate effect, you only needs time and repetition of poor food choices and eventually the health of your prostate health fall and then it will take its toll and conventional practitioners have nothing to tell you but to say it is aging and family history!

You are what you eat Men! So MAN UP! Food can be your medicine or your toxin. We have come so far away from a natural healthy food diet. Highly processed food has become the norm. Well - sadly we are way off bottom if real men’s health and a prostate health diet is our goal. Just as poor non-foods cause disease so too can healthy food be a medicine to create a vital body and mind.
I have provided here some list to see the differences in food choices. So where do you position on this scale?

Poorest:

Artificial sweeteners of all kinds such as Aspartame (NutraSweet) and Splenda (Sucralose) and their products like diet drinks

Foods with preservatives and MSG and other hidden neurotoxic ingredients

Highly-processed manufactured factory foods

Foods containing growth hormones and antibiotics, like dairy

Foods sprayed with pesticides

GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) foods foreign to the body (90% of soy and its products in the US contain GMOs...and that is just one item..and it is fed to animals that you eat)

Food with trans fats

Artificial food and food dyes

Meat from animals fed animal parts and grown in farm factories

BBQ’d food (cancer causing from burning fat)

Massa, Massa, just imagine how in the world can we be healthy as men as we feed our prostate such non-foods? This is anything but a prostate health diet.

Men and women reading this article, you see, probably you don’t see it as you are eating these junky foods. We think this is a real rich men food but not, it is toxic to our health! You may not even be aware what they contain until now.

But little by little you are destroying your prostate and general health, and after you have been told by your physician that you have prostate demon like cancer, then, they the physicians will advise you to avoid some foods or you could be soon looking for a prostate cancer diet. So why don’t you, yourself start looking for prostate health diets now. Otherwise, you will pay a price, either with a major disease or with a slowly deteriorating health for your olden years or an untimely death! People in New Guinea leave free from any medical condition and free from western medicine, so if they can do this why can’t we do that also in the black communities like Ghana?

Poor Foods lacking in energy:

commercial crops (vegetables and fruit)

Refined grains and white flours

Undetected molds in our food

unripe sprayed fruit

Excess commercial animal fat

Meat and fowl grown in cramped quarters and stuffed with antibiotics and fed low quality feed

Pasteurized dairy food and milk

White and processed sugars and its products

Desserts with unhealthy fats and sugar

Canned food

Table salt

Recooked food (no vitality)

Microwaved food

Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils and margarine

Too many acidic foods

Processed or smoked meats, hot dogs, deli meats

Commercial fast foods

Highly manufactured packaged food with many ingredients
A bit better than the prior "Poorest" list but the result will be the same. It just may take a bit longer. By the time we reach our 40s and 50s we are on our way to serious prostate problems. At best, you should only eat these foods during occasions.

You see our poor food choices in Ghana rob us of energy and set the phase for a diseased body. We only need time as we age for the effects to manifest...Hope you now remember the poor frog who felt nothing until it was too late! Don’t become like that!

Foods that is acceptable but still not the best:

Fresh food

Home cooked meals using fresh ingredients

Free range fowl and meat

Frozen seafood

Non fast-food quality restaurant food

Good:

Organic produce

Fresh seasonal local food

Fresh raw food

Fresh seafood low on the scale of toxic metals

Free range fowl and meat organically fed

Natural whole foods: grains, beans, seeds, nuts and produce

Sea salt

Most favorable food:

Home grown fresh organic fruits and vegetables

Organic and wild berries

Super foods as part of the diet

Fresh organic raw food

Balanced food for your particular body

Non-pasteurized organic dairy from grass fed animals

Organic pasture grazed meat and fowl (not grain fed)

Fresh caught seafood and shellfish lowest in toxic metal content

Organic whole foods: grains, beans, seeds, nuts soaked to reduce phytic

Acid anti nutrients

Fresh wild foods and herbs

Ancient sea salt from salt deposits buried in the earth
This is my version of prostate health diet!

This research on food for prostate health is based on our daily food choices and how far most of us men are from a prostate health diet. Sometimes, people say that I eat only small daily but just imagine the cumulative effects of our choices...Is it life enhancing or disease promoting. Now you understand one of the main causes of prostate disease.

“It is what happens over time that causes our health problems. It can be a challenge to move up the scale, but if you have a prostate disease then having a prostate health diet is such a key area to make improvements”, Ronald M Bazar said this. In the long run, eating optimally will be the most important decision you can make for your health.

The changes can be gradual process as you don’t have to make a drastic change now right away unless probably you are in a rigorous medical condition with prostate cancer. Just start to create your prostate health diet. As you start to feel better, you want to add better and better choices.
Food kills or food heals: your choice.

My comments:

Try doing away with your bad food choices now and restore with more "Good" or "Optimum" ones. Better food choices will start you on the way to creating your prostate health diet and help reverse prostate diseases.

As I told you before, remember that one of the key functions of the prostate gland is to remove toxins from the sperm to protect it. So, toxins like pesticides, food preservatives and hormone disruptors cause mayhem to our prostates. And because the gland is adjacent to the rectum, toxins easily travel through the thin rectal wall.

Sorry black men. We do pay a huge price for our bad habits. They catch up with us and one day - prostate problems! And they will tell you family history or genetic!

Now you know what causes prostate problems in men. My late aunty said “when she used to operate a café she realized that computers and the Internet now speed information around the world so quickly that the experience of change is like being caught up in a tornado. For her advice, to effectively manage change you must anticipate what is coming next, so you can prepare for it. If caught by surprise, you may be in danger of being overwhelmed”.

The parable of the boiled frog helps us to understand the key challenge in coping with rapid change.

Suppose you want to boil a frog. How do you do it? You could place the frog into a pot of hot water, but as soon as it feels the heat, it will jump out. So, what can you do? Put a pot of cool water on the stove and then add the frog. Not sensing danger the frog will stay.

Next, turn the burner on low to slowly heat the water. As the water warms, the frog relaxes. The warmth feels good. As the water gets hotter it acts like a steam bath draining away energy and deepening the frog's relaxation. The frog becomes sleepy and has less and less energy while the water is getting hotter and hotter. By the time the frog realizes its danger, the water is beginning to boil, and it is too late to take action.

There is neither time nor energy left to do anything. The frog perishes in the boiling water.

What is the moral of the story? Be vigilant. Don't let unexpected change creep up on you. Don't become a "boiled frog." Pay close attention to what is going on around you, so that you can notice when the "water" is getting hot.

Are we at risk of becoming boiled frogs in the black communities? Are we aware of what is happening to us, within us in the black communities? Are we able to pause, take care of ourselves and jump out of the pot before we are cooked in the black communities? Let your food be your medicine and your medicine your food! Don’t become a boiled frog, live long and your prostate health matters!
Watch out for my TV program call Men’s Health on ATV this month

Dr. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu is a registered alternative medical practitioner who specializes in prostate cancer. He studied the Masters program in prostate cancer-Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

He is a PhD student, Indian Board of Alternative Medicines Academy, Kolkata, India and the founder of Men’s Health Foundation Ghana and De Men’s clinic and Prostate Research Lab in Dodowa, Akoto House. Tel: 0541090045, 0500106570. E.mail:oburalph30@yahoo.co.uk.