What's is a Macrobiotic Diet, Really?Have you heard of a macrobiotic diet, but don't know what it is? There's loads of literature out there to read on it, and you could study it for years, and still only scratch the surface, because it's linked to an ancient mode of healing, and a way of seeing the world. There's no way I can go into full detail here in one page, but I'll give you the summary. Most people believe this diet to be Asian in origin. But the word macrobiotic is actually greek, meaning great life, or more appropriately, in this case, long life. In ancient Greece, the word was sometimes used to refer to those who subscribed to a life of balance, simplicity, and therefore tended toward longevity. A Japanese doctor, in the 19th century (Ishizuka) had success treating people with a seasonal, healthy diet, which focused on balance. Not long after, another Japanese man, George Ohsawa, cured himself of tuberculosis using the principles laid out by Ishizuka. Ohsawa, then so grateful and intrigued, dedicated his life to the study & development of this lifestyle. While many of the worlds' long-lived cultures follow macrobiotic principles by default, the Asian influence comes mainly from Ohsawa's research into Japanese and Chinese ancient wisdom. The main idea of this methodology is one of balance. Based on the principles of yin (expansion) and yang (contraction), all foods and activities are comparatively more of one or the other, and therefore lead to conditions in the body to that effect. So imagine you have a pendulum, with dead center being perfect balance. If you lead a more yin lifestyle, the pendulum will swing one way, and a more yang one, it will go the other. The idea that we can strive to bring it to center, creating peace, harmony and balance in life, is a core of eastern macrobiotic views. The most balanced foods are: -Whole grains Some of the more yin, or overstimulating foods are: -coffee And some of the more yang or stagnating in large amounts: -Meat This is by no means an exhaustive list. It also doesn't address some key factors in macrobiotic living, which are seasonality, and eating locally. It is said that if most of your food is produced elsewhere and consumed in the wrong season (ie eating summer veggies in the winter), then it makes it very difficult to be in harmony with your surrounding environment. I want to stress that it's important to remember that this is a way of life and it's not only about food. Lifestyle behaviors also have an effect on the state of balance in the body. So if you eat perfectly balanced, according to the chart, then smoke, or get too much exercise, or oversleep, etc, these will leading to imbalance. This is a holistic system. If you are interested and want to know more this lifestyle,
here is a good resource.
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