Fall, 2001

. . . Traditional Food - Best Medicine
Dealing with Sickle Cell Anemia

Staple Whole Foods

Dr. Agbai had worked with the Nigerian health services as a nurse. In that capacity he had observed the relative mildness of the symptoms of sickle cell anemia as compared with what he was later to see in the United States. His findings are that diets rich in nutritional thiocynate protected against sickle cell anemia. This explained its mildness and rarity in many parts of Africa, Jamaica and elsewhere in the world where staple foods such as yams, cassava and lima pea are naturally rich in thiocynate.

Dr. Agbai says the frequency and severity of sickle cell anemia in America are expressions of the nutritional poverty of American staple food, especially regarding thiocynate. Once people with sickle cell anemia adopted a diet rich in thiocynate-- African yams, lima beans, steamed carrots, cabbage and other such whole non-chemically processed food-- they experience a normally healthy life, free from the pains of that anemia's complication and at the same time being spared the debilitating treatment used in the Western medical system to "combat" this condition.

The Right Grains

I bought a waffle iron and we make waffles with buckwheat, quinoa and spelt flour. Carrots are rich in thiocynate so Osita drinks carrot and beet juice daily. He enjoys curried lentils and rice, so I make that for dinner about three times a week. I am gradually trying to introduce Osita to as many foods as he will try that are rich in thiocynate. Some he loves, some he won't eat. I restrict the amount of the non-traditional foods, especially junk foods, soft drinks and whatever has no nutritional value.

Usually when I take Osita out I bring food with us because I find that he either won't eat or he wants foods that he should not have. I bake treats from time to time, but again I focus on thiocynate-rich ingredients. He will eat a banana cake or bead but not a buckwheat cake. He will eat combined buckwheat and oatmeal porridge but not buckwheat porridge alone.

Because Osita dos not eat the daily required level of thiocynate between 500-1000 mg, I have purchased a supplement from Dr. Agbai, which he takes daily. I explained to him why he has to eat the way he does and drink the herb teas. Although he is only two years old, he understands. As he grows older I will teach him how to cook his meals and I will give him the books with all the necessary information about his health for him to read.

Since Osita started his treatment, he has increased noticeably in weight and height, contrary to the prognosis of Western medical science that his growth and weight rate will be stunted because of his blood type. Though we realize there may not be a way to change human blood genotypes, we are very confident that Osita will have a bountiful and healthy life.

The times he has gone for routine check ups, the hospital staff including the doctors, have been impressed with Osita's growth rate and energy level, which is above the average two-year-old's. Many of the hospital staff who have observed children with sickle cell anemia brought to the hospital over the years have confessed to me privately that Osita is unlike other "sickle cell patients" they have known. Indeed, many such children are admitted for health complications at least once every two to three months. Osita has never been admitted in the hospital.

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