by Sister Anne Mu’min Muhammad

Are you aware that the foods you eat can cause feelings such as pleasure, discomfort, poverty,
sadness, sophistication and power? Therefore the saying, you are what you eat is more than
just a saying.

The science of nutrition is new to western culture. It was not until around 1940 that the
National Research Council organized a Food and Nutrition Board to develop dietary standards for the
US. Is it a coincidence that this is after our Saviour arrived and taught the Honorable Elijah
Muhammad what foods we should eat? I have just taken part in a series of nutrition seminars held by
experts in western medicine. It is interesting to see how may western scientists are finally
catching up with the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Before this western society disregarded the medicinal and therapeutic properties of food. Every
other culture used food such as beans, honey, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds and a limited
amount of dairy foods to promote good health and prevent illness and disease. Western culture
adopted the policy of eating whatever you want and then developed drugs to deal with the symptoms of
illness resulting from such a careless practice. Other cultures did not suffer from many of the
diseases that plague the west such as, obesity, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, kidney failure,
gallstones, high blood pressure and constipation. Now since we eat what we want and not what is good
for us, Black people in America have gone from being the healthiest group since the early 1900s to
now being the least healthy of all races and to make matters worse, the west is now giving you
genetically altered foods that have been stripped of all nutrients. They try to add these nutrients
back to the stripped foods by using waste products such as grinding iron particles into what they
call "food-grade" and putting these particles in some foods such as breakfast cereals.
Sure it goes into the blood stream and raises the iron count but it is not assimilated as a
nutrient. The same applies to the chemical waste fluoride in the water which over time leaches
calcium from the body.

What can we do to combat these mad scientists? Take your copy of How To Eat To Live by the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad off the shelf and study it and put the techniques of eating to live into
practice without haste.

I recently heard someone say that it is not good to take our children off of meat because they
need the protein in meat. Not true. The navy bean that we have been given to eat becomes a
"complete protein" when digested if they are eaten with vegetables such as we do with the
bean soup, or whole grains such as the whole wheat bread. In addition, this digested protein becomes
amino acids of which the body needs eight (8) from foods we eat. All eight can be gotten from eating
the bean and whole wheat this way. Additionally, by adding "yeast" to our whole wheat
bread that we bake ourselves, we are getting the amount of vitamin B-12 that the body needs daily.

Recent statistics say that more than one-fifth or nearly nine million people have iron
deficiency. Again, if we are eating our navy beans and whole wheat bread we should be getting plenty
of iron.

We must practice good nutrition as well as pray in order to have the energy and frame of mind to
do the work that is before us.

Note: We should not eat the soy bean and its by-products. This bean is not digestible. This is
stated by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in How To Eat To Live. We should also not use canola
oil as the canola plant is a genetically modified plant. Also, use real butter instead of margarine,
many of which are made from a variety of cheap oils.

To my sisters, knowing what foods we should and should not eat is a part of our post. Lets’
take charge and safeguard our families’ health and well-being. If we are practicing eating to live
and putting our MGT/GCC curriculum into practice, we should be able to afford the best of foods. It
does the body no good to be clothed in beautiful garments if we are feeding it junk. It is so
important that we get on the right track because someone has to teach the rest of our sisters. This
brings to mind a newspaper article I clipped and saved that talked about teenagers shaping the
eating habits for the future. In this article a young sister was interviewed that considered herself
old fashioned. She said that unlike most of her friends she liked a home cooked meal. Her friends
she said will just eat fast food whereas she will make a home cooked meal like frozen pizza or
prepackaged breaded chicken. Then again, maybe this is what most women today are calling home
cooking.

It has been discovered that our ancestors in ancient Egypt had vast stone ovens which were used
for bread-baking so the art of cooking is inherent to us. What we must do is become true believers
in the teachings we have been given and put them into practice.

In servitude slavery, our food culture was taken from us and we were given a diet that surely
leads to poor health and death. Master Fard Muhammad left with his student, the Honorable Elijah
Muhammad a food culture for this lost-found nation that will restore us spiritually, physically and
mentally if practiced. I recently heard the author of a book on the history of food say that the one
thing all cultures hold on to in order to safeguard their identity is their way of eating. Also,
promoting their food is the number one way these cultures acquire economic stability.

(Sister Anne Mu’min Muhammad is the wife of Dr. Ridgely Muhammad at Muhammad Farms in Georgia)