Macrobiotics is mainly thought of as a way to eat, but it is actually a way to live. It is formed around the ancient Chinese belief of yin and yang. That everything is more yin than yang and more yang than yin and everything needs to be balanced in the universe and in our lives including what we eat. Since eating has a lot to do with our health, macrobiotics is a healthy way to eat according to yin and yang.
Macrobiotics and Balance
Macrobiotics is not a fad diet nor is it a vegan diet since eating fish is allowed depending on your health. The word macrobiotic comes from the Greek and literally means “great or large life”. Macrobiotics is all about balancing yin and yang for a complete and healthy life.
Our bodies seek balance whether we realize it or not. Many of our everyday food choices are our bodies seeking balance. A basic example is when you eat salty foods your body gets thirsty and wants fluid. Salt being a yang quality and fluid is yin.
More examples of our bodies seeking balance might be eating animal foods, which are yang and drinking alcohol, which is yin. At a BBQ, you might drink beer before eating a large steak.
Meat and potatoes is another example, animal foods are yang and potatoes are yin, these are a few examples of the body balancing out what we eat.
Where you live influences how you live and what you eat to be in balance with nature. People who live in very cold climates eat more animal foods and are quite healthy.
Animal foods are considered yang and cold is considered yin. Eskimos, for example, eat a great deal of meat such as deer and fish and sometimes that is all they do eat, living in this extremely cold climate.
People living in a hot climate, which is yang, usually eat much lighter foods such as fruits, which are considered yin. It is all about living in balance with nature and not fighting it all the time. For the majority of us who live in a temperate climate with different seasons, we still eat according to nature without realizing it much of the time. We tend to eat more meat in the winter and lighter foods in the summer such as fruits and salads.
Throughout the 20th century, the availability of different food increased, as did a way to keep it fresh longer and transport it everywhere.
People living in a hot climate, which is yang, usually eat much lighter foods such as fruits, which are considered yin. It is all about living in balance with nature and not fighting it all the time.
Throughout the 20th century, the availability of different food increased, as did a way to keep it fresh longer and transport it everywhere.
More and more there was easy access to all kinds of foods through fast-food restaurants and grocery stores and our increase in animal foods increased along with that, any time of the season.
When our body is not in balance due to an unbalanced diet, it affects who we are and how we think and act. A diet that is too heavily yang, too much animal food, for example, can lead someone to be intolerant, impatient, to anger easily and be inflexible.
A diet that is too far towards yin such as too much ice cream and sweets or drugs and alcohol can lead to weakness, being gullible, weak-willed or weak minded.
When our body is not in balance due to an unbalanced diet, it affects who we are and how we think and act. A diet that is too heavily yang, too much animal food, for example, can lead someone to be intolerant, impatient, to anger easily and be inflexible.
A diet that is too far towards yin such as too much ice cream and sweets or drugs and alcohol can lead to weakness, being gullible, weak-willed or weak minded.
Acid or Alkaline
Another important area is the balance between acid and alkaline forming foods. Nutritionists believe that well over 50% of our diet should be alkaline-forming. With today’s fast food diet and processed foods, we are eating a heavy acid forming diet.
There is a difference between acidic foods and acid-forming foods. An example of this is a lemon, it is an acidic food, but it is alkaline forming in the body.
Macrobiotics believes that all parts of the body, all diseases and all foods are either yin or yang. Healing is accomplished through diagnoses of a certain disease, which can be a yin or yang disease and then changing the diet accordingly.
Yang is contracting and yin is expansive, and a disease can be contracting or expansive. If you were to eat a diet that is far to yin (expansive) that could cause an illness that was expansive in nature. A macrobiotic has been said to be able to cure cancer and other diseases.
One of the more notable stories of a person curing their cancer was by the actor, Dirk Benedict. You might remember him as Starbuck on the original Battlestar Galactica or Face on The A-Team.
The macrobiotic diet should include the following:
- The main food source is whole grains, 50-60% of our diet
- Vegetables, 25-30% of our diet
- Soups, beans and sea vegetables. Sea vegetables would include wakame and kombu or edible kelp. Miso soup is a very popular part of macrobiotics
- Most of your protein should be from plant sources such as beans. Fish is also fine in small portions
- Whole brown rice with most meals
- Temperate fruits
- Avoiding nightshade vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes and peppers.
- Pleasure type foods are fine in moderations such as beer, sake, pastries and condiments.
- Foods should be eaten in season.
The following chart gives some of the yin and yang foods.
Yin
|
More balanced
|
Yang
|
Drugs
Alcohol
Spices
Sugar
Sweets
Dairy
Tropical fruit
Nightshades
|
Fruit juice
Fruit
Sea vegetables
Vegetables
Beans
Grains
White meat fish
|
All other meats
Salty dairy
Cheese
Eggs
Salt
|
Excellent Books About Macrobiotics:
You can learn much more about macrobiotics by reading the following books:
- Natural Healing Through Macrobiotics by Michio Kushi
- The Book of Macrobiotics by Michio Kushi
- The Macrobiotic Way by Michio Kushi
- Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy by Dirk Benedict
- The Hip Chick's guide to Macrobiotics by Jessica Porter (Easy to understand book about macrobiotics)
- Acid and Alkaline by Herman Aihara
- Alkalize or Die: Superior Health Through Proper Alkaline-Acid Balance by Theodore A. Baroody
- The Complete Macrobiotic Diet: 7 Steps to Feel Fabulous, Look Vibrant, and Think Clearly by Denny Waxman
- Macrobiotic books by Michio Kushi and George Ohsawa
About the Author
Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Sam Montana © 08 February 2009-2018
