Author: jbdavidcommunications

Creative Artist, that's me. How do I define that? Writer/Editor, Voiceover Artist, Audio/Video Producer (a skill I'm constantly improving), Content Strategist (purposing public affairs content, images, and audio that, for the most part, concern natural health and food). I'm a die-hard fan of the natural healer Dr. Sebi. My interests include music, movies, theater, documentaries, hikes (especially along the Pacific Ocean), cooking, and reading biographies. JBDavid Communications pays homage to the work ethic and love of life of David Jesse Brown Oliver, my father.

A Black Girl’s Guide to a Man From the Bush

Brown sun-kissed skin. Tall. He towers above her. His stance reminiscent of a Maasai’s on Kenya’s savanna. But no warrior or oxen milk drinker is he.

“Love for a Moment,” a plant he loves back, shacks up in the village feeling no shame in populating this oasis in the tropics. The man from the bush revels in sharing his beloved botanical beauty with the awestruck Black Girl, whose walk through the bush reaps scattered ripe orange mangoes—the juicy, fibrous variety, when eaten at sunset, requires a napkin or two to wipe all that dribbling sweet goodness.

The Cosmos

Nighttime—in the land of the man from the bush—bares its soul across the sky, where shooting stars dance and flash, crisscrossing the Universe. It’s a cosmic procession of life stage right, stage left, down center.

“What is the cosmic procession of life?” the Black Girl asks the man from the bush.

As cool and groovy as a laid-back, chillin’ brother can be, he said, “It’s an energy that you receive. It’s not a piece of thing or stuff you put on a blackboard. It’s an energy that gives you the privilege to act on that which is necessary to preserve your life. That is the connection. What is it? Well, I have to use some English words, right? Well, there aren’t any English words to describe that because life was here long before there was an English word. So we can’t use an English word to describe that. So how did we get the message? There again, the same way the eagle got its message to make a nest, the cosmic arrangement of things, from the vibration.”

“What more can the man from the bush tell me about the cosmos?” she wondered.

As if reading her mind he said, “What is the need for the cosmic way of life? It is needed because we are a product of this thing called life procession—the Earth. We are a product of such.”

Man from the bush, Alfredo Bowman Sr., better known as Dr. Sebi,

grandson of Mama Hay, we celebrate the 90^th anniversary of your birth.

Pray tell, what is your next phase?

Sunrise

November 26, 1933

Transition

August 6, 2016

A Black Girl’s Guide to a Desert Walk

Desert Garden at The Huntington Botanical Gardens

Not in the Mojave Desert or the Sonoran. Not in Joshua Tree National Park or the land of giant saguaros, Saguaro National Park. Her stroll, each step, winds through a man-made desert called Desert Garden, one of a dozen ecosystems created on over 130 acres of land bequeathed to Los Angeles County by railroad magnate and art collector Henry E. Huntington, a man also known as a voracious reader and book collector.

Sometimes she feels like a female version of herbologist Dr. Sebi, out and about among plants. This time at The Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. She walks down a paved path spread down the middle of Huntington’s Desert Garden. She finds tall and majestic saguaros—on the left side and right—like the giant ones in Arizona.

Succulents and golden barrels planted at the base of saguaros catch the Black girl’s eyes.

It’s a summer evening between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., her favorite time on this walk, when the sun kicks back, settles down and shines mellow orange and yellow hues over this man-made oasis. A starlight’s romance with Earth that time of day.

A Black girl’s mentor once said:

“Basically, you still have the moisture, the fauna, the flora that one expects to exist in a tropical country. And I guess I enjoy that.” page 102

“I selected plants whose molecular structure is complete.” page 48

“I learn about the use of the elderberry in Yugoslavia. This man was playing the piano and he was drinking out of his glass, and he was very happy. So I asked the bartender what was that? And he looked at the bottle—elderberry. He said, ‘That man is not going to get tired because he drinks elderberry.’ And many years later, when I was assisting someone in Los Angeles, a lady in her 85th year, she was very weak. I remembered the elderberry.” page 112

—Dr. Sebi in Sojourn to Honduras Sojourn to Healing: Why An Herbalist’s View Matters More Today Than Ever Before

Maa, Co-Creator of Dr. Sebi’s Therapeutic Program The African Bio Mineral Balance

She’s still in Brooklyn, NY. She still consults with people who want and seek the healing she offers, as she has for more than 40 years. And she still cherishes peace, tranquility, goodwill. Maa Bowman guards them like a lioness guards her cubs.

A few days ago, a gentleman with health concerns emailed me. He inquired about Maa’s contact information. I replied with the following, and thinking others are also interested, I decided to post it here.

The Fig Tree Health Group

(800) 998-5909

(International callers should add US country code +1)

Email: thefigtreehg@gmail.com

Website: https://thefigtreehg.com

The gentleman’s inquiry reminded me of my interview with Maa in 2009. Needless to say I was more than grateful and somewhat overjoyed she freed up time in her busy schedule to talk.

The conversation covered more than health. We chatted about her receiving a copy of the book Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation with Dr. Sebi. She skimmed it. I suppose it was a story Maa knew all too well. She said I was a good writer and that was a nice picture of me on the back cover, then she graciously skipped on to the next topic. Dr. Sebi’s mother Violet died peacefully in Honduras, in Maa’s arms a couple of years after my 2005 visit to Usha Village. Maa affectionately called her “Mommy.”

The disease cancer, however—front and center, in a grand way—occupied most of our conversation. A photographer friend of mine, critically ill with it and undergoing chemo and radiation at the time, listened to whatever alternative advice I could give him. He even accepted some sea moss I sent him, but I felt I should contact Maa to see if she could help since she and my friend Robert were living in the same state, New York.

The following is an edited excerpt from that telephone interview on April 10, 2009.

Beverly: Ok. Because what I wanted to do today is get your comments about the book and ask you if you could give me your perspective on food and its connection to disease because just recently I got some news about a friend of mine. He’s undergoing radiation right now. They found some cysts, like polyps. I was wondering if you can tell me if I did the right thing by giving him the sea moss. All I could do at this point was give him the sea moss.

Maa: Oh yeah, because that’s going to nourish his cells. I’m doing a presentation tomorrow and it happens to be on cancer. I wish you could see it then you could understand. But you did do as far as the question, yes. Because you feed the cells the nourishment that it needs and electrifies. Now we got to get the poison cells off. Is he willing to get on the program?

Beverly: Well, you know I told him about the therapeutic package and what it will cost and he said it’s just a little bit steep for him right now. So the best I could do was give him the sea moss.

Maa: But he needs to call me.

Beverly: Well, I want him to come to your presentation. Aren’t you having one next week, next Saturday, the food demonstration too?

Maa: Uh huh. I’m doing one this Saturday, next Saturday and one every weekend in May. But they’re in different places. I’m doing one in New Jersey, one here, one in Kansas. They’re in different places. But he needs to call me because the question is, is there a value on your life? Right now you’re in the state of life or death.

Beverly: Right.

Maa: And chemo is not going to save your life. And you say that $500 is not worth it. I would rather die. That’s what you’re saying.

Beverly: Right, right. Well, he’s in New York with you.

Maa: Oh, well he needs to come. He needs to come so I can talk to him. Because there should be a value on your life. There’s either a value on your life or you don’t believe it, one or the other.

Beverly: So you’re having the lecture tomorrow and next Saturday?

Maa: I have one in New Jersey tomorrow and then next Saturday I’m doing it in Brooklyn, New York.

Beverly: The one in New Jersey is that too far away for him to travel to?

Maa: Where is he?

Beverly: He’s located in Island Park, Long Island.

Maa: Oh, I don’t know New York. It’s in Newark, New Jersey.

Beverly: Oh, ok so you’re going to be in Newark tomorrow and then you’re going to be in Brooklyn next Saturday.

Maa: Um hum. But this is the one he should come to because it’s on cancer, this one.

Beverly: Oh that’s wonderful. I’ll call him today. What’s the address to tomorrow’s lecture?

Maa: Oh, I don’t have it. But I can get it. The girl is on her way.

Beverly: What time is it Maa?

Maa: 3:00.

Beverly: And next week is at 3:00 too right?

Maa: Uh huh.

Beverly: Ok. Let me ask you about using the products and having the chemotherapy and the radiation. I know some patients are kind of hesitant, kind of reluctant to start one thing like your products.

Maa: That’s because they don’t understand. The herbs are going to help them through the chemotherapy. The chemotherapy is radiation. That’s a nuclear bomb. That’s acid. That’s poisoning your body and it’s burning all the cells. Because it’s impossible, no matter what they say, to know the good from the bad. The herbs are electric cell food. It’s not chemical. There’s no additive, no preservative, no chemical. It is feeding your cells. It’s like eating greens or spinach. There is no conflict. There’s no question. There’s no doubt. There’s no conflict. So now all it’s doing is cleaning. Just like you take your soap and wash your body, it’s going to clean those poison cells out. It’s not going to interfere with the chemo, the radiation or anything that it’s doing. It’s fire. It’s electrical fire, setting your body on fire.

Beverly: They say radiation kills cancer cells. Is that true?

Maa: Um hum. But how does it know the good from the bad? That’s all I’m saying.

Beverly: So what else SOMEONE COMES IN THE DOOR

Maa: Hi, it’s always good to see you.

Beverly: I love your energy. You’re like sun yourself. (laughter)

Maa: Thank you.

Beverly: I would love to see you. I’m kind of jealous that Robert is going to get a chance to see you. I may have seen you before back in the 80s when you came with Dr. Sebi. You were on the lecture circuit with him too, right?

Maa: Most of the time my daughter traveled with him or our daughter, Wewiy. Once in a while I came but that was once in a great while.

Beverly: Did you ever come to DC, because that’s where I was based.

Maa: Oh yes.

Beverly: Ok. It’s important right now for Robert to see you first because he’s going through the radiation therapy right now. I would love for him to see you and talk with you.

Maa: Tell him to call me. He needs to call. Yeah, call me to set up an appointment so I can explain it to him because at the event there are so many people. It’s like 30 people or more and it’s so much going on. It’s nothing direct to him for the attention that he needs, and talk directly about his case and his situation.

Beverly: So each case is different.

Maa: Well, it’s just that that topic is going to be on diabetes. The topic this time is going to be on cancer. I need to talk to him direct.

Beverly: And he’s the one we’re talking about today. I gave him the sea moss and I told him the sea moss was going to break down the fat in his body and help break down that cyst. Is that right?

Maa: Um hum. Um hum. No, it’s not going to break down the cyst. It’s going to feed the cells. He needs the therapeutical nutritional package.

Beverly: So it’s not going to break it down, not even a little bit?

Maa: No.

Beverly: Is there any singular thing that I can send to him or have him buy from you that he can use right now along with the sea moss?

Maa: No, there’s not a singular thing that will break it down direct because the whole body works together and that’s why I wish so bad that he can come to this event because it doesn’t work like that. It’s not like give me something for a headache. Give me something for a toothache. Give me something for cancer. Give me something to break it down. No. It is working with the body and it’s building the body up and putting it in an alkaline state. And then the body begins to break that down. It’s releasing that poison. The herbs are releasing that poison from all aspects, from the colon, from the liver, the kidney, the gall bladder because all of those work together. So it’s not going there and attacking that tumor. That’s what’s been programmed and it always comes back. No, you got to understand, he’s got to get on the program.

Beverly: So the radiation is just burning everything and destroying his immune system too.

Maa: The chemo?

Beverly: Yeah.

Maa: Yeah.

Beverly: And it’s also destroying his cells.

Maa: Yes, it is.

Beverly: What the Fig Tree online wants to do is to not only rebuild the cells, you want to nourish the cells as well.

Maa: Yes, exactly, and that’s what the sea moss is doing.

Beverly: That’s what the sea moss is doing?

Maa: Nourishing the cells but what about getting the poisonous cells out?

Beverly: Right, right. Let me tell you about his diet. What about food and its connection to that disease? He used to drink a lot of milk.

Maa: Well, he has to let that go. He has to let it go.

Beverly: What’s the difference between your program and Dr. Sebi’s program?

Maa: It’s the same.

Beverly: Ok, ok. It’s just the labeling is difference.

Maa: Um hum.

Beverly: Ok. Can you tell me your perspective on food and disease?

Maa: Food is what causes the disease.

Beverly: What kind of foods?

Maa: Acid food. We eat nothing but acid food, anything that walks, crawls, flies, and swims is boric acid. Anything that comes from the animal, the milk, cheese and egg, is lactic acid. Anything that’s starch is carbonic acid. We eat nothing but acid foods, acidic foods. And it is the acid food that breaks down the mucus membrane that causes the disease. End of interview

https://thefigtreehg.com/story/maa-bowman/

Robert didn’t see or contact Maa. He continued to rely on chemo and radiation treatment. He passed away in North Carolina about five years ago.

The nutrition guide Maa and Dr. Sebi created over 40 years ago is available on several websites. If you’d like a copy from The Fig Tree Health Group email them with your request and they will gladly send you one along with their product list.

thefigtreehg@gmail.com

On the seventh anniversary of Dr. Sebi’s passing (August 6), we say rest in peace Sebi. Your alkaline legacy continues and folks continue to heal.

I Too Explore the Plants, the Trees

By now, everybody knows plant life planted itself deep in Sebi’s DNA. Remember that passage in Sojourn to Honduras Sojourn to Healing?

On one of our daily rides around the town of La Ceiba, Honduras, he suddenly behaved in the most incredible way. I watched him leap from his truck, leave it idling in traffic, and dash his limber legs to an open field to inspect a plant that caught his eye. He examined his diamond-in-the-rough in what appeared to be widespread patches of weeds.

I’m not likely to do that, jump out of my car on a Los Angeles County freeway to check out the gorgeous spring wildflowers that downpours of rain left behind. But I will check them out at places like The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens. I stopped by last week and like Sebi, a tree caught my eye. And boy what a surprise.

Two hundred years ago, cotton was king in southern states in America—South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama. (My great-grandparents and ancestors picked it in South Carolina.) The soft, fluffy fiber grows on a plant shrub. But a tree? Yes. The kapok tree. It’s native to tropical regions around the world, but Henry Huntington decided to have one in his front yard, right outside his mansion, now a museum. And the cotton drops from the tree pods and onto the ground and everywhere else.

Both Men Made History

Legendary, iconic jazz saxophonist John Coltrane gave the world “A Love Supreme,” that classic, incantational piece recorded December 9, 1964, with other jazz greats McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison. Mr. Coltrane’s masterful offerings also include “Naima,” “Giant Steps,” “All Blues,” “Blue Train,” and his phenomenal and expert rendition of “My Favorite Things” (one of my all-time jazz favorites).

Johncoltrane.com tells us that in 1964, Mr. Coltrane wrote a letter to his listeners. He said,

“I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music.”

And in 1966, he stated,

“I know that there are bad forces, forces that bring suffering to others and misery to the world. I want to be the opposite. I want to be the force which is truly for good.”

Compare Mr. Coltrane’s desire to that of one of his avid fans, Alfredo Bowman, Dr. Sebi, when he said,

“The only interest I have ever had in herbology is healing. It certainly isn’t money because the money I was making as a steam engineer I could never make with the herbs because the herbs were less popular in 1980 than now. It definitely was another interest, a greater dictate that drove me to herbology.”

Black History Month memories of two prolific history makers: John Coltrane and Dr. Sebi.

Thanks to Millennials a Bright Future Lies Ahead for Natural Medicine Says Holistic Practitioner Adio Akil

What I admire about Adio Akil, the woman who convinced natural healer Dr. Sebi to open a practice in the United States, is the way she shares her knowledge about food, herbs, natural healing and young entrepreneurs who picked up the baton Dr. Sebi left behind. She’s mature and articulate and speaks in a no-nonsense manner when she gives generous doses of health and nutrition tips. On the other hand, when she speaks about sea moss there’s a childlike joy and awe in her demeanor and tone. More about sea moss later.

Without fail, in all our conversations since the first time I met her in 2017, Adio asks if I’m familiar with other herbalists and holistic entrepreneurs making strides in natural health care and food products, namely Tassili Ma’at in Atlanta or Bongo Hu I of St. James, Jamaica. When I pause to recall who they are, Adio jumps in and offers to send me information about them. No doubt there’s a library at her own business Quintessence Health & Wellness Center in Washington, D.C.

Adio opened the doors to Quintessence events much like those she organized at The Community Warehouse decades ago. In February 2020, with a celebration and demonstration of “Food as Medicine” at Quintessence, Adio gave away food samples, coached her audience on how to prepare natural foods, and recounted the work of Dr. Sebi.

I interviewed Adio about Food as Medicine but the Barnard College graduate offered so much more that matters just as much today as back then, like how young people and seniors feel about making changes in health and diet. She mentioned the “now moment,” where “some older people feel that they have lived, have made it up to now, why bother to change.” People of color, Adio observes on her holistic journey, are more likely to feel that way and less likely to make changes in their health than Caucasians. She said that if you tell Caucasians they need to make changes in their health and diet, and tell them what changes are necessary, they will change in that moment, in the now.

The following is the edited interview with Adio. Pay close attention to what she says about that little known but powerful gem in the sea—sea moss.

Health care insurance issues

We talked about health care providers and the fact that health insurance does not cover natural healing therapies and products, one of the reasons people of color are less likely to change diet and lifestyle.

Adio: Right now, there are so many different types of healing programs that are going on around D.C. But at the same time, if you don’t have the money to pay for it, aside from your insurance, then you can’t take advantage of it even though there’s a lot out there. There’s a lot, from different types of massages. There’s reiki. We’ve reached a milestone in health care and nutrition, and that’s due to COVID. COVID made people of color realize that they have to eat better. They have to exercise. They have to take walks. They have to drink more water. And that’s because it became popular all over mainstream America and in the media, in the major TV shows telling people what they should eat, and talking about good nutrition and things that they could do to help them have a better diet, a better outcome from the choices they made over the years.

Dr. Sebi back in the early 70s and 80s and how natural healing was viewed as weird back then.

Adio: It’s great to be alive and healthy and to have experienced Dr. Sebi and his works and his formulations. So that’s a great thing. So, to be alive and tribute Dr. Sebi and Maa and natural healing and to see it come full circle, to see it come from people who thought you were weird or people just thought you were so different because I prioritized food and health and herbs. And back in the 80s, late 70s, it was not prioritized. It was prioritized in the early 80s by The Community Warehouse, where I was able to get Dr. Sebi to come to. But overall, it was still thought of as something weird, wanting to care about what you put in your mouth rather than eating meat or other substances that wouldn’t be good for you. So, coming full circle and seeing where now, here we are, I’m so thankful to be alive. People are embracing natural health and healing. There are more juice bars all over. And young people have embraced it and are taking it to another level, where I know more of our people, people of color, and people in general on the planet will be healthier because the young people have embraced the fact that food is a medicine, and that herbs are a medicine.

Adio’s daughter and business partner Makini

Adio: Makini actually helped me. We started Quintessence Health & Wellness together. And that has meant so much to both of us. I have lived it up to now and she grew up seeing me live it—meeting Dr. Sebi and being around him plenty of times over the years. She didn’t all the way understand or get the message but was just following. But now, for her to come out as a leader, as a young person who realizes that yes, if I take different herbs and supplements, I can get rid of ailments that I might have, from simple ailments like a cold to something more extreme like the flu.

What is the mission of Quintessence?

Adio: The mission is to empower people of color so that they will know that in our ancestry we have the tools to heal ourselves.

What are those tools?

Adio: When you talk about Quintessence Health & Wellness, one of the tools is access to our library, which has over 300 books from Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and the U.S. of Black healers and doctors, health practitioners, raw foodists. So, the library is there and it’s an in-house library. You actually have to use the books there. But you can go through all these books and find any information you need. We have books by the leading practitioners of color from the U.S. and the Caribbean.

Consultations

Adio: I’m beginning to get into it. Because I had six children, that’s why I didn’t try to practice. I’m in my 60s now, but I didn’t try to practice sooner because I wanted to make sure my children were in the place they needed to be. Now that they’re grown I can, which is why there’s Quintessence Health & Wellness. I’m doing it anyway because when you’re helping people as far as people who come in and want to use the library, people have all kinds of questions. That is what the work is. It’s about helping people. I’m letting people decide if they want to take the steps to do it.

Sea moss gel is popular with young people

Adio: The only thing we [Quintessence] supply is gel and dry sea moss to different businesses. Sea moss gel is big and it’s really big with young people because they’re using it in their smoothies. They’re using it in their soups. They’re making dishes from it, food dishes. As a matter of fact, we do make a sea moss pie, a key lime pie, which is made with sea moss.

Restaurants are onboard with sea moss

Adio: I actually have been going to Tassili’s Raw Reality Café. That’s one of the biggest, largest raw food places in Atlanta, Georgia. And I’ve given talks there about sea moss. The owner is someone who used to work with me and spun off from there. And she’s doing like a million dollars in business at the restaurant now. Sea moss has 92 of the trace minerals found in the body. I know for a fact that sea moss can cure someone of rickets, as long as you drink the sea moss, at least 32 ounces, every day for a year. Sea moss will clear up your skin. If you could see my skin right now, my skin is pretty. And one of the reasons is that I’ve been drinking that sea moss every day, and I’m also taking it in a powder form daily. It promotes the growth of your hair, even if you have a bald spot somewhere. If you start using it regularly, you’ve got to drink it every day. You gotta drink at least 32 ounces. Your hair will come in. It helps your nails grow. Sea moss is also a cell proliferant, which means that it helps cells grow. Sea moss is just wonderful. You can use it externally if you have a wound or if you cut yourself. And you can also use it internally. You can use it on your hair, your skin, you can bathe in it. It’s also good for radiation. If you’re doing radiation, drink sea moss. Sea moss is definitely good for that.

Why is sea moss good for that? How does it help?

Adio: It helps based on the nutrients that it’s putting in your body. It’s putting magnesium, selenium, vitamin A, vitamin C. It has iron. It has protein. It has amino acids. We’re actually promoting the purple sea moss, which comes from Tanzania, actually the city Zanzibar in Tanzania. And the thing about the purple that comes from there is that it’s coming from the Red Sea. And the Red Sea, if you check into it, is mineral rich. There are so many different types of sea life there, in the Red Sea. And it’s filled with all types of minerals and nutrients. Even the color, the color lets you know that it’s good for the heart. It’s good for women as far as female organs and their menses. And it’s all based on the nutrition that’s in the ocean in that particular area. Sea life is overflowing. It’s corpus chrondus, which grows in the Caribbean as well.

“If you want your bones strong, you have to go to the sea moss, and it will strengthen your calcium cells.” — Dr. Sebi in Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation with Dr. Sebi

Food as medicine

Adio: There is a way out. There’s a way out from bad food and wrong choices. You only need to realize that food is your medicine. Food is a medicine because it’s all about what’s on your plate, and it’s your own hand that picks up the banana or the apple or the soursop or the kale or the avocado and puts it on your plate. So, that’s all you have to remember.

2022 Year End Review: A Good Time to Talk About the Food-Mucus-Cancer Connection

Talking about the effects of mucus instead of skimming and delaying action on the topic that’s published in articles and newsletters is half the battle won in breast cancer prevention and the cure. A good springboard for discussion is “Mucus Plays Key Role in Cancer,” published in The Harvard Gazette, April 29, 2004. About mucus it says, “Investigators at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center in Boston became intrigued with the thick, slimy stuff when they learned that breast, lung, colon, and other tumor cells make more than 50 times more of a certain type of it than normal cells.”

The content of the article, simply put, says mucus is wreaking havoc in the body, something the late herbal medicine specialist Dr. Sebi stated for decades.

For instance, he has said, “Asthma says that the body has reached a level of mucus accumulation that is insupportable. When you describe an asthmatic person’s condition, you describe all others because all diseases stem from the accumulation of mucus. What causes prostate cancer? Inflammation. What is inflammation? The accumulation of mucus.”

What or who, pray tell, is the source, a much loved and long-standing source that builds a haven for excessive mucus to exist and destroy? In an interview in 2004, Dr. Sebi said, “There has never been an educator in America that has done research in neuropathology associating the disease with the food that goes in the person’s mouth. That research has never been done.”

Until now.

Dr. Neal Barnard, president of Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine practices holistic medicine that addresses symptoms, causes and solutions to diseases like breast cancer. “As a doctor,” he says, “I want people to know that they already wield some of the most powerful tools to help take control over the risk of cancer: the fork and knife.”

Acid-Based, Mucus-Causing Foods

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine occupies a rare space in western medicine, where it educates the public that some foods, including dairy, cause breast cancer. It found that, “research has linked the high fat content and hormones in milk, cheese, and other dairy products to breast cancer.” Other breast cancer-food connection studies referenced by the Committee include the following:

A 2017 study funded by the National Cancer Institute that compared the diets of women diagnosed with breast cancer to those without breast cancer found that those who consumed the most American, cheddar, and cream cheeses had a 53% higher risk for breast cancer.

The Life After Cancer Epidemiology study found that, among women previously diagnosed with breast cancer, those consuming one or more servings of high-fat dairy products (e.g., cheese, ice cream, whole milk) daily had a 49% higher breast cancer mortality, compared with those consuming less than one-half serving daily.

Research funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the World Cancer Research Fund found that women who consumed 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cow’s milk per day had a 30% increased chance for breast cancer. One cup per day increased the risk by 50%, and 2-3 cups were associated with an 80% increased chance of breast cancer.

Health & fitness company and blogger Verv Experts (verv.com) teaches that the reason dairy is at the top of the list of mucus-producing foods is “milk and its derivatives like cheese, cream, butter and yogurt contain casein molecules which stimulate phlegm production. In addition, dairy contains a sugar called lactose which further increases mucus secretion.”

Plant-Based Calcium

Oranges and mushrooms are good. And add sea moss (also known as sea weed or algae) to talks of ridding the body of inflammation and strengthening bones. Sea moss gets little mention as an effective health benefit, yet it contains body-supporting calcium, magnesium, potassium, fiber, and vitamins, A, C, E, and B.

Sea moss grows under water. Brought to the surface, it becomes food and health products that when consumed regularly, help prevent diseases like breast cancer. Other foods that contain an ample supply of calcium are leafy green vegetables like Brussels sprout, kale, collards, turnip greens, green beans (also known as string beans, snap beans); asparagus and chickpeas are also rich in calcium as well as nut milks like cashew milk, walnut milk and almond milk.

No doubt that osteoporosis comes to mind when talks of reducing or eliminating dairy surface. Your vitamin D and bone builder, where will it come from? What are the best life-saving, cancer prevention alternatives? Dr. Barnard and Dr. Sebi recommend include a willingness to accept diet adjustments, non-surgical removal of the solid mass of mucus (tumor) with plenty of water, herbal detoxification, and cell repair.

Your Living Shall Not Be in Vain

If I can help somebody, as I travel along

If I can help somebody, with a word or song

If I can help somebody from doing wrong

No, my living shall not be in vain

—lyrics by Alma B. Androzzo

If you place Ms. Androzzo’s lyrics in a natural healing context, then you could surely apply them to Dr. Sebi, a man driven to educate people, particularly Black people, about the nature of food and health. He committed over 30 years of his life traveling down that road, a road his protégé Adio Akil believed he would journey on for many years to come. But his death in August 2016 upended that notion, leaving Adio compelled to continue in the same vein as her mentor.

Adio Akil

Adio is the owner and operator of the holistic health company Quintessence Health & Wellness in northwest Washington, D.C. She met and trained under Dr. Sebi at the Garden Holistic Institute in St. Croix, Virgin Islands.

Dr. Sebi is the creator of the African Bio Mineral Balance, a therapeutic system with a twofold approach: 1) remove toxins (mucus, plaque, cysts) from the body and 2) rebuild and restore iron and energy to the body’s immune system and cells.

Alfredo Bowman (Dr. Sebi) November 26, 1933 – August 6, 2016

We appreciate your work Dr. Sebi. Your living has not been in vain.

A Key Ingredient for Healing

From Bob Marley to Thich Nhat Hanh and Letta Mbulu to Sonia Choquette, the consensus is clear—love heals. So it’s not so surprising that our bodies are endowed with the ability to produce a “love” hormone called oxytocin, one of four feel-good hormones according to Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Health Publishing. Harvard says, “Oxytocin can help us bond with loved ones and can be released through touch, music, and exercise.” No doubt that hugging is therapeutic.

About love, Dr. Sebi once said, “My ancestors afforded me the one thing that the world needs most today, love and compassion.”

This month, Dr. Sebi’s birth month, in the second of four remembrance videos, Adio Akil remembers Dr. Sebi as a healer who loved, and loved deeply.

Adio Akil

Dr. Sebi speaks of love, including romantic love, in the following publications:

Sojourn to Honduras Sojourn to Healing

https://www.sojourntohonduras.com/about

Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation with Dr. Sebi

https://www.sevendaysinushavillage.org

Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali

https://www.sojourntohonduras.com/dembali

Breast Cancer Awareness Month Is a Good Time to Talk About the Food-Mucus-Cancer Connection

The content of the article, simply put, says mucus is wreaking havoc in the body, something the late herbal medicine specialist Dr. Sebi stated for decades.

Until now.

Acid-Based, Mucus-Causing Foods

Research funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the World Cancer Research Fund, found that women who consumed 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cow’s milk per day had a 30% increased chance for breast cancer. One cup per day increased the risk by 50%, and 2-3 cups were associated with an 80% increased chance of breast cancer.

Plant-Based Calcium

Kellie Bowman is a nurse who encourages eating more plant-based meals. She knows firsthand the benefits of doing so. Kellie is the daughter of nutritionist and herbal medicine specialist Dr. Sebi, and like her father, a vocal and focused advocate of alkaline (natural) food.

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Detected in early stages, breast cancer is not a death sentence or a cue to cut the body, especially if next-step conversations and actions happen soon after the diagnosis. Immediate strategies practitioners like Dr. Barnard and Dr. Sebi recommend include a willingness to accept diet change, non-surgical removal of the solid mass of mucus (tumor) with plenty of water, herbal detoxification, and cell repair.