Fact or fiction: Ackee and the prostate
STORIES abound that eating ackee is bad for prostate health and will increase the risk of developing prostate cancer.
However, consultant urologist Dr Robert Wan has dismissed this notion.
“There is no link, as far as we know,” he said in a recent interview.
Ackee trees can be found across Jamaica and once the fruit turns red and splits open, this is traditionally when they are harvested and the edible portion removed for cooking.
But how did stories about a link between ackee and prostate health come about?
“I think they got the idea because ackee has a lot of fats in it, and we had said that fat intake is one of the risk factors in prostate cancers,” Dr Wan shared.
He insisted though that there has never been any scientific data which shows that eating ackee correlates with a risk of prostate cancer.
“So that is not a fact,” Dr Wan insisted. “As far as I am concerned, ackee is not a risk factor.”
– AIR
