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Claim: A Facebook user, Onyi Celestine, posted on Facebook that consuming only beans and soursop for two weeks is a remedy for prostate, cervical, and breast cancer.
Verdict: False! The listed items are food, and there is no proof that there is danger in consuming them. However, they should not be mistaken as a remedy for curing several cancers in two weeks.
Full Text
Cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other body parts. Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, consisting of trillions of cells. Normally, human cells grow and multiply (through cell division) to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place. This orderly process breaks down, and abnormal or damaged cells grow and multiply when they shouldn’t. These cells may form tumours, which are lumps of tissue. Tumours can be cancerous (malignant) or not cancerous (benign).
Cancerous tumours spread into or invade nearby tissues and can travel to distant places in the body to form new tumours (a process called metastasis).
Prostate cancer is a growing tumour in men located just below the bladder and in front of the rectum. It is a small walnut-shaped gland that produces seminal fluid that nourishes and transports sperm. There are usually three well-established factors for prostate cancer diagnoses: black race, family history of prostate cancer and advancement in age.
Cervical cancer develops in a woman’s cervix (the entrance to the uterus from the vagina). Almost all cervical cancer cases (99%) are linked to infection with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV), an extremely common virus transmitted through sexual contact. Cervical cancer is said to be the fourth most common cancer in women. In 2018, an estimated 570,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer worldwide, and about 311,000 women died from the disease. Although most infections with HPV resolve spontaneously and cause no symptoms, persistent infection can cause cervical cancer in women.
A Facebook user Onyi Celestine, posted on Facebook that consuming only beans, either as porridge, moimoi or anyhow they liked, for two (2) weeks and snacking on soursop for the same duration is a remedy for prostate, cervical, breast cancer, and tumours went viral on Feb 8, 2024. She continued by saying in the post that two whole tomatoes should be blended with half a bulb of onion as a smoothie last thing every night for two (2) weeks.
She claimed to have posted the same kind of remedy some time ago, which had gained a lot of testimony and 150 dollars from a follower healed from the remedy. The post received 1900 thousand comments, 14,600 likes, and was shared 7,700 times. The user also sent special virtual hugs to her followers Zakari Salisu from Kogi state and Malima Tapela from Botswana for always watching.
Cancer is a grave ailment which must not be treated with levity, so DUBAWA sought to fact-check it.
Verification
Is there truth in consuming beans, soursop, onions and tomatoes as a cure for cancer?
What research say:
In an article by Rachael Ajmera in Healthline, Rachel lists beans as one of the foods that lower your cancer risks. According to the article, One study followed 1,905 people with a history of colorectal tumours and found that those who consumed more cooked, dried beans tended to have a decreased risk of tumour recurrence.
The article also states that an animal study also found that feeding rats black beans or navy beans and then inducing colon cancer blocked the development of cancer cells by up to 75%. According to these results, eating a few servings of beans each week may increase fibre intake and help lower the risk of developing cancer.
However, the article concludes by pointing out that the current research is limited to animal studies and studies that show association but not causation. More studies will be needed to examine this, specifically in humans. The article has no actual scientific work to support its claim. It, therefore, remains in the realm of conjecture.
An article found on Soursop with the botanical name graviola in Cancer Research UK states that soursop is promoted as an alternative cancer treatment and that there is not enough reliable evidence that soursop works as a treatment for cancer. According to the article, there still needs to be more robust and systematic clinical trials to test and confirm its value in cancer treatment and to see if it is safe. Only then can it be used as a treatment for cancer.
A 2018 review found that soursop can be used as a chemopreventive agent. This means it stops cancer from happening. It has also been found to be effective against many cancers. However, these were laboratory studies and not human trials. There have to be further studies and evidence to prove it has the same effects on humans. Yet another review in 2018 agrees that there are no valid human clinical trials for soursop (graviola).
An article explains that chemotherapy usually lasts between 3 to 6 months, although it can be more or less than that. How often you have each cycle and how long your treatment course lasts depends on many factors, which include type of cancer, stage of the cancer, types of drugs that you’re having, side effects the drugs might cause, and time you’ll need to recover from side effects. You have chemotherapy treatment in cycles. A cycle is the time between one round of treatment and the start of the next. During a course of chemotherapy, you usually have around 4 to 8 cycles of treatment.
After each round of treatment, you have a break. This allows your body to recover. For example, if your cycle lasts four weeks, you may have treatment on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd days. You then have nothing from the 4th to the 28th day. Then the cycle starts again.
Or you may have a 3-week cycle where you have treatment on the 1st and 8th days. You then have nothing on days 2 to 7 and 9 to 21.
Your treatment cycles might be weekly or take 2, 3, or 4 weeks or more, depending on the drugs and your treatment plan. Some treatment cycles are quite complicated.
Another article states that, when cure is the treatment goal for cancer, Adjuvant chemotherapy (commonly used in cancers of the breast and colon), i.e. after surgery has removed all visible cancer, treatment may last 4-6 months. In cancers of the testis, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, and Leukemias, the length of chemotherapy treatment may be up to a year.
Undoubtedly, the claim that consuming beans and soursop for two (2) weeks is a cure for cancer is a conjecture of fact.
Expert’s opinion
When asked about the claim in the post, Dr Johnson Udodi, a senior registrar at the National Hospital in Abuja, rebuffs the claim, saying, “The clip and claim are false, dubious, and dangerous, and there are various forms of cancer, all of which involve different pathological features. The claimant did not specify what form of cancer she believes she could treat with the remedy.”
Dr Udodi rounded off by saying, “The claim is also dangerous in the sense that a person suffering from a debilitating cancer condition could be left malnourished and less able to cope by feeding on nothing but beans and soursop fruit for two weeks.”
According to Dr Udodi, no evidence suggests that eating beans and soursop can cure anything, let alone cancer.
Another medical expert, Dr Agbawan, the chief resident doctor in the Department of Anaesthesia of National Hospital Abuja, supports his colleague’s statement by attesting that:
“It is true that some herbal remedies and some foods can treat some medical conditions. There is no evidence to give any merit to the claim that eating soursop and beans alone for two weeks and drinking blended tomatoes and onions can cure cancer.”
Conclusion
The assertion that consuming beans, soursop, onions and tomatoes for two weeks as a remedy for cancer is false. Anyone suffering or suspecting they have cancer should seek early care from appropriate health facilities.
*The researcher produced this fact-check per the DUBAWA 2024 Kwame Karikari Fellowship, in partnership with Premium Times / UNILAG, to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.
