African-Americans come from a powerful, rich and diverse culture that goes back to West Africa where the majority of their descendants come from. The Africans were, and still to this day tend to be very health conscious based on knowledge of their foods and herbs. This vast knowledge of herbal/plant wisdom dates back to the beginning of time.
The African Moors of Spain (formerly Andalusia) are a great example (of the many great kingdoms such as Ghana, Mali and Songhay) of Africans knowledge of plants/foods. This superior knowledge of African herbology, food, health, science, engineering and personal hygiene is what educated and reformed Europe from sickness, disease and poverty in the middle ages. Their recovery and education from the Africans resulted in the rise of Europe, know as the European renaissance.
In examining the Africans a littler deeper, they created some of the most elaborate gardens in history. These gardens consisted of exotic plants, herbs, lemons, oranges, mango, vegetables, grains and root crops. Some of the rich culinary culture of West African Food and knowledge of health made its way over to the shores of America since the advent of slavery some 400 years ago
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This includes foods such as black eye-peas, spinach, okra, yams, cassava, millet and other protein and fiber rich foods. However, there are crucial superior nutrient dense herbs or plants that did not arrive to the shores with the Africans to pass down their African-American descendants. Perhaps the most important of these plants include the nutrient dense and magical health tree Moringa, in which we will reveal shortly.
Now going back, as far as African-American health, a troubled history suffering at the hands of racism has challenged their existence in the United States to date. This may explain why the gradual change in knowledge of health and traditional eating has gradually has taken place with African-Americans. Past literature reveals that some African-Americans in this country are not very health conscious, and quite frankly speaking, could care less!
In more detail, some African-Americans have very little knowledge of their great foods from the continent of Africa that kept them healthy. This lack of knowledge has led to many factors such diseases, places they shop, and how they view Africa. To be quite honest, some African-Americans do not have much of a problem about what they put into their mouths, as long as they are full. However, this is typical of ALL people of ALL backgrounds and races that live in America, eating the standard American diet.
This finding is reflective in the works of Traiq M. Sawandi he states in his article, The Science of African Biochemistry, “And one of the leading culprits in the way of poisonous foods eaten by Black Americans is soul food – Ham, potato salad, French fries, pork chops, chitterlings, collards, pig feet, cornbread, black-eyed peas, and hog maws. All of these foods are cooked in or laced with pork fat, lard, milk, eggs, butter, salt, spices, and lots of refined sugar” (Sawandi, pg 6).
This lack of knowledge and health consciousness could relate to African-Americans lack of understanding of their own biological make up. In other words, they may not realize that the best foods for their system could be linked to their ancestral eating habits; African-Americans essentially have the same genetic makeup as their ancestors in West Africa. This is complemented by Dr. Carol Barnes in quoting the works of the well know African-American herbalist and nutritionist Llaila O. Afrika where he states:
“Blacks have specific nutritional and dietary needs. These nutritional needs arise because we have specific bodily differences as compared to other races and cultures. Subsequently, Blacks assimilate food in the intestines differently. Also, despite centuries of living in countries outside of Africa, their intestinal florae are the same as it was in their ancestor’s stomachs 2,000 years ago in Africa. Melanin (black color pigment) is obviously most abundant in Blacks.
This melanin aids in protecting Blacks from the ultraviolet rays of the sun. It also increases the speed of nerve and brain messages which are transmitted between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and all nerve signals transmitted throughout the bodily nerve network…Black people’s blood crystallizes differently from Caucasian’s blood. These are some of the many reasons why Blacks have unique nutritional, medical, and dietary needs.” (Barnes, pg 2).
Moving forward, Sickle Cell Anemia is another common disease that developed only after Africans were captured from their lands or sold off to the United States for slavery. Now the question is, how did the disease originally develop? Well, let’s examine what Sickle Cell Anemia is first as start to unravel the problem.
In its origin, Sickle Cell Anemia is alleged to be a cow disease from bacterial milk transferred to cow herders primarily found in different parts of Africa. From here the bacteria or now formed gene developed and spread when the Africans were deprived of many of their traditional foods once in slavery and given a dominant European or Western diet at best. As a result our cells were unable to reproduce correctly.
Confirmed research states, “Over generations, the cells began to reproduce in an abnormal fashion due to lack of the foods that are compatible with our biological makeup. This is what is called “sickle cell anemia. We could have eliminated sickle cell anemia in one generation just by changing our diet alone” (The Herbal Review).
In addition, this is primarily another reason why iron deficiency is quite common with African-Americans and in particular women or post-menopausal women. A poor diet during a menstrual cycle usually points to this. In the case of men, vital zinc and iron is lost during each ejaculation that needs to be replaced with iron rich foods.
During this time, vital blood or hemogloben is lost, creating what is known as iron deficiency. Roughly 70 percent of your body’s iron is located in the red blood cells of your blood called hemoglobin. In the muscle cells it is called myoglobin. Hemoglobin is essential for transferring oxygen in your blood from the lungs to the tissues. Myoglobin, in muscle cells, accepts, stores, transports and releases oxygen.
Keep in mind that “Hemo” means iron, or blood iron and “globen” is oxygen. Therefore, when there is a lack of oxygen for the blood cells, the cell began to cycle or turn into a crescent moon shape, or half circle (better know as sickle) instead of the normal healthy full circle red cell. Here is where the nutritional power of Moringa comes in. This powerful plant contains a scientifically confirmed 4 to 25 times the iron spinach! Moringa nourishes the blood and the blood’s cells by providing oxygen to the red blood cells. Other iron rich foods include millet, spinach, parsley, dates, watercress, almonds, green leafy vegetables, lentils, lima beans and avocados.
Other aliments that are common to African-Americans such as Diabetes (Click on Diabetes to read article), Gout, High Blood Pressure, Liver & Heart diseases, Colon, and other Cancers in general are all in need of the nutritional GIANT, and POWERFUL Moringa plant. This magical plant will as an aid to their healing and recovery of disease process, just as their African ancestors did! However keep in mind, the Africans of the past and many today (especially on the Mother continent) did not suffer from a heavy load of habitual chronic diseases and aliments because of their dedication to a strict diet, void of processed foods, refined sugars and flours.
Besides the rich iron found in Moringa, this potent plant is extremely high in calcium, vitamin A, C, D, a host of B-vitamins, potassium, protein, and several other vitamins and minerals. In the end, it is suggested and proven that if African-Americans eat a diet closer to their homeland more frequently with foods including yams, okra, black eyed peas (without refined salt and ham), cassava, millet, teff, and Moringa (to name a few), it would ward off several health problems and diseases in addition to reconnecting them spiritually to their homeland.
Thanks for reading!
This article is property of KG Optimal Health