Posts Tagged ‘diet’

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Macrobiotic diet cleansing

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Macrobiotic diet cleansing process

How does macrobiotic help to the body cleansing process, what can you expect from the macrobiotic diet while cleansing your body?

The macrobiotic diet is very strong in the field of the body cleansing. There are wrong type of foods that are clogging your body and these are mainly sugars, white flour, fats, dairy, meats and all the chemicals they add to the foods these days. If you eat this type of foods for a longer time (years), your body will start to flush them off your body when you start eating the macrobiotic diet. And it happens very fast. Sometimes with an unwanted effects like fever, running nose, skin problems, headaches, bone/joint aches, hair dropping, itching, cough, throat ache, sweating and many others. Important is that you should realise, these effects are not harmful to your body. They are the methods of the body, that it use for the cleaning of the old stuff (mucus, fats, chemicals). The body is regenerating all the body systems (nervous, bones, circular, digestive etc.) and all the cells (white/ red blood, plasma) are being build new from the fresh quality material that is macrobiotic providing you. It takes up to 7 years until 95% of your body gets renewed and cleaned. Something can’t be cleaned at all, some permanent changes are already done to body of each of us by our previous mistakes. But we can change a lot with the macrobiotic foods.

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Cholesterol

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CHOLESTEROL
Cholesterol, a waxy, fatlike substance produced in the liver, contributes to cell membranes, vitamin D, sex and adrenal hormones, bile production, and other metabolic processes. However, in excess, it causes atherosclerosis, or the build up of plaque in artery walls, that can cause a heart attack, stroke, or peripheral artery disease.
High serum cholesterol is associated with consumption of foods high in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, including eggs, meat, poultry, and dairy foods. Whole grains, beans, soy products, sea vegetables, and other plant quality foods can suppress or lower cholesterol in the blood. Risk of cardiovascular disease is commonly measured by total cholesterol, the ratio of total cholesterol to “good” HDL cholesterol, and various cholesterol fractions. See Beans, Complex Carbohydrates, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Oats, Sesame, Soy Foods, Tarahumara Diet, U.S. Surgeon-General’s Report, Vegetarians, Vitamin B-12, Wakame, Wheat, Whole Grains.

• Pioneer Study Links Diet, Blood Pressure, and Cholesterol - In one of the first studies to show the direct effects of animal food on raising blood pressure, a study of 21 macrobiotic persons by Harvard Medical School researchers found that the addition of 250 grams of beef per day for four weeks to their regular diet of whole grains and vegetables raised serum cholesterol levels 19 percent. Systolic blood pressure also rose significantly. After returning to a low-fat diet, cholesterol and blood pressure values returned to previous levels.
Source: F. M. Sacks et al., “Effects of Ingestion of Meat on Plasma Cholesterol of Vegetarians,” Journal of the American Medical Association 246:640-44, 1981.

• Soy Lowers Cholesterol - Soy protein in tofu, tempeh, and other soy products can significantly lower cholesterol levels in people with moderately high to high levels, according to a review of 38 trial studies. The higher the cholesterol, researchers said, the greater the ability of soy protein to bring it down. The report found that a diet including 47 grams of soy protein a day cut cholesterol levels by an average of 9.3 percent in a month. For those with cholesterols over 300, the count dropped 20 percent. Harmful triglycerides are also blocked by soy protein, the scientists observed.
“Even a 10 to 15 percent reduction in blood cholesterol levels results in a 20 to 30 percent reduction in the risk of coronary heart disease,” said Dr. James W. Anderson of the University of Kentucky and one of the authors of the report. “This has the potential of making a huge impact on American public health.”
Source: Natalie Angier, “Health Benefits from Soy Protein,” New York Times, August 3, 1995.

• Reducing Cholesterol in Children - Top American health officials joined in calling for a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet for everyone over age two to prevent heart disease in later life, not just for adults at risk for heart attacks and other cardiovascular disease. The recommendations, sponsored by a panel convened by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Cholesterol Education Program and endorsed by a coalition of forty-two major health and medical organizations, called for the cholesterol testing of all children whose parents or grandparents had heart attacks or other cardiovascular problems, including a parent with blood cholesterol over 240.
The panel called for reductions in fat consumption and for intake of more grains, vegetables, and fruit.
Groups that endorsed the report included the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Source: Warren E. Leary, “Cholesterol Tests Are Recommended for a Quarter of Children,” New York Times, April 9, 1991.

• Low-Fat Diet Reduces Cholesterol - In a study of 1,232 men aged 40 to 49 with high cholesterol who were put on a low-fat diet, researchers found a 13 percent reduction in mean total cholesterol levels in comparison to a control group. At the end of 7.5 years, the incidence of heart attack and sudden death was 47 percent lower in the experimental group. The scientists attributed the changes to reduced cigarette smoking and diet.
Source: I. Hjermann, “Effect of Diet and Smoking Intervention on the Incidence of Coronary Heart Disease: Report from the Oslo Study Group of a Randomised Trial in Healthy Men,” Lancet 2:1303-10, 1981.

• Heart Deaths Decline - America’s declining cholesterol levels and change to a diet lower in fat have coincided with a 54 percent decline in heart disease deaths between 1978 and 1990. During this period, the average cholesterol level in adults dropped from 213 milligrams per deciliter of blood to 205, a 4 percent decline, according to figures compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Studies have shown that for every 1 percent drop in cholesterol level, there is almost a 2 to 4 percent drop in coronary heart disease. The proportion of adults with high cholesterol (over 240) fell from 26 percent to 20 percent during this period.
Source: “Study Shows Drop in Cholesterol Levels in U.S.,” Boston Globe, June 16, 1993.

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China health study

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CHINA HEALTH STUDY
The China Health Study, touted as the grand prix of epidemiology studies, challenged modern dietary assumptions in the early 1990s. Sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the Chinese Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, the study correlated average food and nutrient intakes with disease mortality rates in 65 rural Chinese counties. The typical Chinese diet included a high proportion of cereals and vegetables and a low amount of meat, poultry, eggs, and milk. Less than 1 percent of deaths were caused by coronary heart disease, and breast cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, and other malignancies common in the West were comparatively rare. Among the researchers’ chief findings:
• Fat consumption should ideally be reduced to 10 to 15 percent of calories to prevent degenerative disease, not 30 percent as usually recommended.
• The lowest risk for cancer is generated by the consumption of a variety of fresh plant products.
• Eating animal protein is linked with chronic disease. Compared to the Chinese who derive 11 percent of their protein from animal sources, Americans obtain 70 percent from animal food.
• A rich diet that promotes early menstruation may increase a woman’s risk of cancer of the breast and reproductive organs.
• Dairy food is not needed to prevent osteoporosis, the degenerative thinning of the bones that is common among older women.
• Meat consumption is not needed to prevent iron-deficiency anemia. The average Chinese consumes twice the iron Americans do, primarily from plant sources, and shows no signs of anemia.
Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a Cornell biochemist and principal American director of the project, noted, “Usually, the first thing a country does in the course of economic development is to introduce a lot of livestock. Our data are showing that this is not a very smart move, and the Chinese are listening. They’re realizing that animal-based agriculture is not the way to go.”
Source: Chen Junshi, T. Colin Campbell, Li Junyao, and Richard Peto, Diet, Life-Style, and Mortality in China (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990). and Jane Brody, “Huge Study of Diet Indicts Fat and Meat,” New York Times, May 8, 1990.

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Children’s lunch programs

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CHILDREN’S LUNCH PROGRAMS
Several school systems around the United States have introduced brown rice, tofu, and more healthful foods, but as a rule school lunches are still high in fat and cholesterol, dairy, sugar, and highly processed foods.

• Soy Approved for School Lunch Programs - In 1983 the U.S.D.A. approved the use of soy products and other vegetable protein products as partial substitutes for meats in school lunch and some other feeding programs, noting:
• Soy products were comparable with milk in protein quality for preschool and older children.
• Except for premature infants, soy protein can serve as a sole protein source in the human diet.
• Soy foods are high in protease inhibitors that inhibit the action of various enzymes that have been associated with causing cancer.
• Soy formulas are lactose free and may benefit infants and small children who are sensitive to cow-milk protein which can cause diarrhea, emesis, vomiting, and weight loss.
• Soy products can reduce cholesterol and triglycerides in subjects with high lipid levels and protect against heart disease.
• Soy foods are useful in decreasing blood glucose responses compared with other high-fiber foods and may prevent diabetes.
“One desirable way to alter typical American diet patterns to meet the above [National Academy of Science, WHO, USDA] dietary recommendations involves partial replacement of foods of animal origin with cereals and legumes… “Although at the present time soy protein makes up only a small component of the American diet, it is expected that the many positive aspects of soy will result in increasingly greater human use of this legume. A whole variety of low-cost, highly functional soy-protein products are available for use.”
Source: John W. Erdman, Jr. and Elizabeth J. Fordyce, “Soy Products and the Human Diet,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 49:725-37, 1989.

• Natural Foods in School Cafeterias - The Food Studies Institute in Trumansburg, N.Y., initiates programs in school cafeterias to teach children natural foods cooking and the value of wholesome nutritious foods from around the world. Organizer Antonia Demas reports that children who have a “hands-on sensory experience” of cooking brown rice, lentils, and other healthful foods together “eat things their parents swear they’d never touch.” Her curriculum has been adopted by several schools across the country. For Martin Luther King Day, children made a Soul Stew with black-eyed peas, corn, and kale, after sampling eight different greens. “The rest of the year, I kept hearing from parents that their kids were begging them to buy dandelion greens,” Dr. Demas said.
Source: Karen Baar, “School Lunches: When They Love Even the Greens, New York Times, Sept. 3, 1997 and The Food Studies Institute, 60 Cayuga St., Trumansburg NY 14886; (607) 387-6884.

• The Healthy School Lunch Program - The Healthy School Lunch Program is a network of volunteers around the country which meets with students, teachers, and food service personnel, providing them with information on healthful foods, offering recipes, and assisting in meal preparation. Part of John Robbin’s EarthSave Foundation, the project publishes Healthy School Lunch Action Guide by Susan Campbell and Todd Winant , offering a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to changing school lunch programs in local communities.
Source: The Healthy School Lunch Program, EarthSave, 706 Frederick St., Santa Cruz CA 95062; (408) 423-4069.

• Nutritional Curriculum for Junior High Students - The Rite Bite is a nutritional curriculum designed for junior high students to examine their own lifestyles and learn about vegetarian and natural foods. The 141-page notebook includes teacher lesson guides, background information, and posters, as well as handouts, activities, and fix-at-school recipes for six fun, informative sessions.
Source: The Rite Bite, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 5100 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Suite 404, Washington, DC 20016; (202) 686-2210.

• Preschoolers Like Tofu - In tests of the acceptability of tofu in the lunch menus of preschoolers, analysis showed that the nutritional quality of the nine tofu recipes adhered more closely to dietary guidelines than the beef, chicken, eggs, and cheese originally served. The children accepted the tofu well, preferring it to dairy and meat in several dishes including macaroni and cheese, lasagna, tuna casserole, and quiche.
Source: H. L. Ashraf et al., , “Use of Tofu in Preschool Meals,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 90:114-16, 1990.

• College Students Respond to Tofu - When tofu replaced meat, eggs, and dairy food as the main protein source in twelve recipes in a college cafeteria, researchers found that it increased nutrition and was well accepted by the students. The only two recipes found lacking were those for tofu nuggets, which had a poor texture, and tofu chocolate mint pie. In the latter recipe, students disliked not the tofu but the mint flavoring.
Source: H. L. Ashraf and D. Luczycki, “Acceptability of Tofu-Containing Foods among College Students,” Journal of Nutrition Education 22:137-40, 1990.

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Children’s health

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CHILDREN’S HEALTH
An increasing number of parents, teachers, and community organizations are concerned with the effects of the modern way of eating on children. Medical studies have begun to link hyperactivity, learning disabilities, and other syndromes with improper food. See Attention-Deficit Disorder Breast-feeding, Chocolate, Cholesterol, Dai-ry, Food Guide Pyramid, Heart Disease, Japanese Diet, Macrobiotics, Obesity, Pesticides, Prenatal Nutrition, Rice, Sea Vegetables.

• Processed Foods - In testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs over 20 years ago, Dr. Carolyn Brown, director of a school for learning disabled children in Berkeley, Calif., pointed to the social effects of changes in diet and lifestyle since World War II:
“Let us look for a moment at a few interesting health and social statistics. The members of this committee know well the evidence of the increase in synthetic foods, and other nutritional changes. . . . What do we know about what has happened to the children that grew up during these twenty-five years? We know that there was a sixfold increase in arrests of children under 15 suspected of murder, non-negligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, and rape. The factor increase was three for 15- to 17-year-olds, two for 18- to 25-year-olds. We know that ‘accidents’ resulting in death rose dramatically among the young, that divorce rates have continued to increase, that suicides have been rising among young people in comparison to the rest of the population. And we know that there has been an unprecedented 14-year decline in the scores of our most gifted children on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests. . . During the eight years from 1958 to 1966, children under seventeen with chronic health problems increased from 18.8 to 24.6 percent. Those from 17 to 24 showed an increase from 39 to 44.4 percent. . . .
“I would like to ask you senators, when we know what has happened during the past 25 years in terms of the increase in non-nutritous foods, radiation exposure, television exposure, and exposure to environmental toxins—and when we know that children born during that period show a dramatic increase in juvenile delinquency, arrest for serious crimes, chronic health problems, and low scores on Scholastic Aptitude Tests—is it not at least a fair question whether we are exposing our children on the whole to an increasingly powerful set of environmental stressors that is producing a broad range of forms of biosocial decline?”
Source: Testimony of Carolyn Brown, Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, 1977.

• Learning Disabilities - In a study of learning disabilities in children, researchers reported that diets high in refined carbohydrates raised cadmium levels, which have been associated with reduced cognitive functioning. Intellectual ability was also negatively correlated with refined food independent of cadmium, age, race, sex, and socioeconomic status.
Source: M.L. Lester et al., “Refined Carbohydrate Intake, Hair Cadmium Levels and Cognitive Functioning in Children,” Journal of Nutrition & Behavior 1:3-13, 1982.

• Macrobiotic vs. Conventional Diet - A British nutritionist found that a macrobiotic day-care center in London not only “supported normal growth” in nursery school children but also could be used as a model to implement national dietary guidelines. Comparing the nutritional adequacy of macrobiotic meals provided preschool children by the Community Health Foundation with ordinary meals at a nursery in Notting Hill, the investigator found that the macrobiotic food consisting of brown rice and other whole grains, miso soup, vegetables, beans, sea vegetables, and other supplemental foods met current U.K.-R.D.I. dietary, energy, and nutrient standards and that the children’s anthropometric measurements including weight, height, and skinfold thicknesses were normal.
In contrast, the ordinary nursery school diet was high in dairy food, lard, and other saturated fats that have been associated with the development of atherosclerosis beginning in childhood. “The diet composition of children in Group I [standard nursery] could be made more desirable by a reduction in the amount of full-cream milk and meat and an increase in the amount of cereal foods . . .,” the researcher concluded. “The total diet of Group II [macrobiotic nursery] met the U.S. Dietary Goals for fat, sugar, and carbohydrate content, although the home diets of the children were similar to that of the general population. This illustrates the power and potential of nursery meals to contribute to the adoption of a nutritionally sound and beneficial national diet.”
Source: Valerie Ventura, “A Comparative Study of the Meals Provided for Pre-School Children by Two Day Nurseries,” Department of Nutrition, Queen Elizabeth College, 1980.

• Whole Grain Diet Improves Children with Learning Disabilities - When put on a diet centered on whole grains, complex carbohydrates, and unprocessed foods, 16 children with learning and behavioral problems showed significant improvements in behavior, learning, and intelligence compared to 16 controls over a 22-week trial period. Further, cadmium and iron levels, which have been linked to learning disabilities, fell 28 and 49 percent respectively.
Source: M. and L. Colgan, “Do Nutrient Supplements and Dietary Changes Affect Learning and Emotional Reactions of Children with Learning Difficulties? A Controlled Series of 16 Cases,” Nutrition and Health 3:69-77, 1984.

• Macrobiotic Approach In Raising Health Kids - Michio and Aveline Kushi offer a macrobiotic approach to bringing up children, incorporating insights from traditional Far Eastern medicine and philosophy. Topics covered include family health and happiness; how children develop; diet and daily care; and keeping children happy. Much of the book is devoted to using diet to treat common conditions including simple fever, headaches, stom-ach ache, colds and flu, earaches, sore throats and tonsillitis, measles, roseola, mumps, chicken pox, rickets, bed-wetting and sleeping difficulties, whooping cough, pinworms, skin disorders, hyperactivity and behavioral problems, accidents, emergencies, and first aid. The book also includes recipes, a home care guide, and palm healing for children.
Source: Michio and Aveline Kushi, Raising Healthy Kids (Garden City Park, N.Y.: Avery, 1994).

• Normal Development Among Macrobiotic and Vegetarian Children - In a study of vegetarian preschool children, researchers at New England Medical Center Hospital in Boston found that the growth of macrobiotic youngsters did not significantly differ from those of non-macro-biotics before age two. After age two, macrobiotic children tended to put on weight more quickly than the children brought up on yoga diets, Seventh-Day Adventist diets, or other vegetarian regimes. Nearly all the children had been breast-fed, and it was found that macrobiotic children who had been weaned did not differ in caloric intake from nonmacrobiotics.
Source: M.W. Shull et al., “Velocities of Growth in Vegetarian Preschool Children,” Pediatrics 60:410-17, 1977.

• Low-Fat Diet Benefits Babies - Babies 7 to 13 months benefit from a diet low in saturated fat. In a case control study in Finland, researchers found that healthy infants who ate more polyunsaturated fat and less saturated fat than controls had 6 to 8 percent lower cholesterol in their blood. Both groups developed at a similar rate. The Finnish researchers noted that in earlier studies, the arteries of babies showed signs of early atherosclerosis in modern society and that exposure to a healthful diet “at the earliest possible age” would more likely adhere in future years.
Source: H. Lapinleimu, “Prospective Randomised Trial in 1062 Infants of Diet Low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol,” Lancet 345(8948):471-76, 1995.

• Heart Disease in Teens and Young Adults - By their teens, most Americans have fatty deposits in their blood vessels, according to the largest autopsy study conducted on adolescents and young adults. The results show that most youths are at risk for heart disease, said Dr. William H. Dietz, director of clinical nutrition at New England Medical Center. The study of 1532 autopsies of young people who died from trauma found that half had coronary arteries showing evidence of early heart disease by age 19, while all 100 percent had fatty patches in the aorta, the main artery leading from the heart. “Aortic fatty streaks are universal by age 15 and increase rapidly in extent during the following decade,” the researchers concluded. The scientists further reported that the fatty streaks had progressed to tough, fibrous deposits that narrowed coronary arteries in the vast majority of both men and women by their early thirties. Interestingly, young females aged 15 to 19 had slightly higher fat deposits in the right coronary artery than young males. However, by the mid-twenties and early thirties males surpassed females.
Source: Richard A. Knox, “Fatty Deposits Found in All Young Americans in Study,” Boston Globe, September 10, 1993.

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Chickpeas

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CHICKPEAS
Chickpeas are small, hard beans that have a sweet taste and soothing energy. They are a staple in the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, and parts of South America. Like other beans, they have cholesterol-lowering effects and are strengthening for the kidneys and bladder.

• Chickpeas Improve Circulatory Functions - In a laboratory study of the effect of diet on blood values, researchers in Spain found that eating chickpeas caused cholesterol to drop 54 percent, triacylgycerols to decrease by 70 percent, and other positive changes compared to animals fed a diet high in saturated fat, cholesterol, and casein (dairy protein).
Source: M. A. Zulet and J. A. Martinez, “Corrective Role of Chickpea Intake on a Dietary-Induced Model of Hypercholesterolemia,” Plant Foods and Human Nutrition 48(3):269-77, 1995.

• Chickpeas High in Fiber - Analyzing the fiber content of common foods, Indian scientists reported that chickpeas had the most dietary fiber (28.3 percent) of all grains, beans, and pulses tested. (The highest grain was wheat with 12.5 percent.) Cooking of dhals, the traditional curried pulse dish of South Asia, significantly increased the fiber content.
Source: P. Ramulu and P. U. Rao, “Effect of Processing on Dietary Fiber Content of Cereals and Pulses,” Plant Foods and Numan Nutrition 50(3):249-57, 1997.

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Macrobiotic cookbooks

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Macrobiotic cooking provides a deeply spiritual approach to food, stressing harmonious balancing of yin and yang as well as mindful attention to ingredients and their preparation. Vivian Eggers, who lives on Maui, began her studies at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, and continued them at the Kushi Institute in Boston. She often cooks for religious retreats.

Macrobiotic Cookbooks

Macrobiotic cooking

Kimberley: What’s the theory behind macrobiotic cooking?
Vivian Eggers: Basically, it’s the understanding of the principles of yin and yang and its application to food and the condition of the body. Yin is basically expansive energy and yang is contractive energy, and there are many different words to describe the qualities of expansion and contraction: lightness and darkness, male and female. One of the most basic points for understanding this is through the seasons and the transformation of the seasons. Summer is hot, everything is lush and green, the birds are out singing every day. It’s an expansive time. Then this changes and shifts and goes all the way around to its opposite in the winter when the leaves are gone, it’s barren and cold, the land is frozen. We stay inside trying to keep warm and retain heat. Yin and yang are very real, very manifest in daily life. So when you start thinking in terms of yin and yang it’s like being given new tools for seeing.
Within that energy system, there are many correlations with the body, each organ corresponds to each of the five elements–fire, earth, water, air, and metal. And each element has a particular energy. That’s what one studies in acupuncture or shiatsu as well as macrobiotic cooking so that you understand the sensitivity of the organs to a particular time of year, to a particular time of day, to a particular color, to a particular emotion, to a particular food. In macrobiotic cooking, you study the whole body, not just how to cut up carrots.
K: You just spoke of metal energy. What is it?
V: We’re sitting here now in a country setting where there’s a lot of earth energy, but in the background, we hear a truck on the highway. That’s metal energy. It moves very quickly, it cuts through air energy, through earth energy. Look at these scissors, they’re made of energy, strong, solid, cutting. They’re good example of metal energy.
K: What food has metal energy?
V: Brown rice, for instance. It’s strong, and supports metal energy in the human body.
K: Let’s take one day in the life of a macrobiotic cook. How would you approach cooking for a family?
V: First, an assessment of my own condition, by checking in with myself in the morning to see how I feel. What color is my skin? What’s going on with my eyes? How’s my tongue? Are my fingers or toes cold? All those little things. If there’s a complaint–a headache, menstrual cramps–your body will let you know immediately. So this influences what I’m going to ingest throughout the day. If I’m cooking for children, then I go and be with them: Hello, how are you? How did you sleep last night? What’s going on with your body?
K: You have to be conscious of not only what’s being prepared and how it’s presented, but also who is going to eat it and how it effects them on an internal level?
V: Absolutely. Initially, it sounds like a lot of work, but it’s not. It’s as easy as riding a bicycle. When you first teach a child how to ride a bicycle, you tell her that she needs to sit on the seat, to balance, to pedal, to hold onto the handle bars and steer, go at a certain speed, so on and so forth. But doing it is really easy. And of course, the more you do it, the more you learn. This is a study I’ve been involved with for maybe fourteen years now and every time I cook for a group of people or go through a process with my own health, I’m still learning. It’s an expansion process, like being handed a flower that gradually unfolds over a period of years.
K: What all is involved?
V: In addition to nutrition, macrobiotics deals with the energetics of food, the energy of the cook and how important that is. Being aware that you’re not putting anger in the food, and so forth. Plus the style of cutting and how that influences not only the taste of the dish, but it’s energy.
If you’re cutting carrots, for instance, the way you cut creates a particular energetic quality. If I take the carrot and make big diagonal cuts by turning the carrot every inch, I end up with large triangular pieces, suitable for a stew. If I take the carrot and make quick short cuts on the diagonal, say an eighth of an inch, then turn these pieces over and cut them very finely, I end up with long fine match-stick shaped carrots. Now if I put them both into a large stew pot and cook them for an hour, the large pieces will be tender, the skin of the carrot will have lightly separated from it. However, the match-stick carrots will be completely exhausted. On the other hand, if I saute both of them in a skillet, the match-sticks will be done in a matter of minutes, where the others will be somewhat warmed and seared on the outside, but completely raw on the inside. So one of the fundamentals of macrobiotic cooking is knowing how to use a knife to chop vegetables so there is a uniform cut and consistency to them. Also, when you cut, you put your own ki [energy] into them as opposed to using a Cuisinart where you get a consistent cut, but no ki energy. If you want to give someone your ki, then the stronger food is the one you’ve cut by hand and put your energy into.
Food preparation becomes a form of meditation because of your focus and awareness and intention to sustain those you feed, not just to get the meal out of the way. When I’m cooking for retreats, it becomes part of my practice. I try to go into the kitchen and remain centered and aware, creating the most peaceful food that I can, even if it’s for a hundred and fifty or more people.
K: So instead of planning the menu a week in advance, you have to be constantly mindful what you need, of what your body needs, what other people need.
V: Absolutely. You develop that, and it’s quite easy. It just comes. I couldn’t go back to the other way of cooking. Now I always consider who am I cooking for and what is the intention. It has become second nature. When I cook I’m always in a place of joy and pleasure internally.
K: How do you know if food is yin or yang? Does it change depending on how it is prepared?
V: Yin and yang are relative to each other. In the Taoist symbol, one area is predominately black, with a little dot of white, and vice versa. This perfectly depicts yin and yang in that they’re connected to each other and even though a particular thing may have a predominantly yang quality, it still has a little bit of yin. Certain substances are very yang–salt and beef, for instance. But when you want to get into a fine comparison, you have to look at one food in relation to another.
The recommendation in macrobiotics is a grain-based diet. The main food you eat are grains, for they are our most gentle, peaceful, nurturing food, the ones with the most to give to sustain and develop human life. Within grains, brown rice is the focal point, the centering food. The rest branches out and develops around it.
K: Was all this developed before the theories about eating low on the food chain?
V: Long before, but it meshes beautifully with it. A cow is a large animal with its own digestive system, with a heart of its own, a circulatory system, a nervous system and so on. Before you can ingest it, you have to take its life in one way or another, then take the meat from its body in a good clean way and prepare it in a certain way, otherwise it becomes poisonous. Look at the activity that’s involved in all of that. Of course in this modern day and age, we just go to the supermarket and run the cart down the meat aisle and choose a shrink wrapped package. It’s not like it was several generations ago when people were involved in a personal way in taking the lives of the animal they would then eat. The modern meat industry has separated us from that process altogether. It’s yet another way in which we are divorced from our bodies.
K: And perhaps from the sacred. Many native traditions honor the deer for giving its life so that the two-leggeds might eat. And from the way you talk about macrobiotic cooking, even vegetables seem filled with an almost animistic energy.
V: Absolutely, the mundane world becomes very precious. Macrobiotic cooking requires constant mindfulness. The meals that I would feed a troupe of exotic dancers from Armenia wouldn’t be the same food that I would feed to group of nuns on retreat. There would be adjustments of the food, of the preparation, and the cooking technique.
Take grain, for instance. Most people take their grain in the form of bread. Even in whole grained-bread, the grain is crushed, ground into flour. Then it usually sits around a very long time until it is baked. By the time you get it, the grain has gone through quite a process. Where’s the chi energy in it? As opposed to going to the store and buying brown rice, cooking it in your pressure cooker, then eating it by crushing the grain in your own mouth.
Digestion begins in the mouth, so macrobiotics recommends that each mouthful be chewed 25 to 50 times to bring out the sweetness of the grain. Also to really taste the grain. Many people completely miss the experience of truly tasting food. There is a textural change that occurs as well in long chewing so that digestion is much easier since the food liquifies. If you take time to just sit and eat slowly, you’ll find that the food you are eating can be better utilized and that you’ll eat less. You can eat smaller portions of food and be satisfied.
Macrobiotics is about having a rich, full, deep, healthy, independent life. Part of the reason for eating this way is to remove yourself from the dependency of drugstores and doctors or even holistic practitioners. In studying macrobiotics, you are removing yourself from all of this for you are studying your body and its relationship to this earth, to the elements. In choosing your foods with such awareness, many deep and profound changes occur within the body.
K: I think that most people’s idea of macrobiotic food is that it is a very boring diet of brown rice.
V: Yes. Everywhere I travel people will say, “Oh, I did that macrobiotic diet.” When I ask them what they ate, they say they cooked brown rice and miso soup. That’s all I hear. Maybe they add aduki beans. That is pretty boring. But that isn’t what macrobiotics is about and it’s a great misunderstanding. Initially, Michio Kushi, who helped to popularize macrobiotics, promoted a basic macrobiotic diet consisting of a certain proportion of brown rice to beans to a sea vegetable to a root vegetable to a pickle accompanied by miso soup. That’s what I call the training wheel diet. So this is a guideline. The foundation is brown rice and miso soup, but true macrobiotic cooking spins out from there very, very quickly. To prepare a macrobiotic meal is a real spontaneous dance.
K: How would someone learn to cook macrobiotically?
V: They could start by seeking out a macrobiotic cook or center. There are people all over the United States. Also books are an excellent starting place. They provide information, bring up questions. The basic recipe book, Introducing Macrobiotic Cooking by Wendy Esko, is a primer that is very easy to understand; it teaches all the dishes in a straightforward way.
K: When I worked as a chef, I’d find myself having long, non-verbal conversations with food. Do you talk to food? Does it talk to you?
V: Absolutely.
Macrobiotic advocates teach that eating in harmony with your environment creates a balance and peace in your life that can be extended to your family, community, and eventually the world. Keep this in mind the next time you sit down at a table for a meal.
Anyone who has ever been on a strict diet is familiar with the following eating meditation:
Take a small handful of raisins or nuts. Eat them one at a time, paying strict attention to taste, smell, texture. Don’t let your mind wander, but concentrate on each little morsel of food as it enters your mouth, as you chew and swallow, savoring the taste. Let the taste sensation completely disappear before you place another bite in your mouth. Compare this with the way you normally eat a handful of raisins or nuts. Try to eat an entire meal with this type of careful attention to what you are eating, chewing, swallowing.

To learn more about the macrobiotic community contact The International Macrobiotic Directory, 1050 40th Street, Oakland, CA 94608.

Michio and Avaline Kushi, who run the Kushi Institute in Boston, have a number of cookbooks out, including Michio Kushi’s Standard Macrobiotic Diet, 1992, and The Macrobiotic Way, 1985.

Other Macrobiotic Cookbooks:

Kushis Macrobi Ck
by Aveline Kushi (Author) (Paperback )

The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health : A Complete Guide to Preventing and Relieving More Than 200 Chronic Conditionsand Disorders Naturally
by Alex Jack (Author), Michio Kushi (Author) (Hardcover )

Cooking the Whole Foods Way: Your Complete, Everyday Guide to Healthy, Delicious Eating With 500 Recipes, Menus, Techniques, Meal Planning, Buying Tips, Wit & Wisdom
by Christina Pirello (Illustrator), Bill Tara (Paperback - March 1997)

Changing Seasons Macrobiotic Cookbook: Cooking in Harmony With Nature
by Aveline Kushi, Wendy Esko (Paperback - July 2003)

Macrobiotic Diet
by Michio Kushi, et al (Paperback - August 1993)

The Quick and Natural Macrobiotic Cookbook
by Aveline Kushi, et al (Paperback )
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See also Aveline Kushi’s Complete Guide To Macrobiotic Cooking and Lessons of Night and Day. She and Wendy Esko co-authored The Changing Seasons Cookbook and The Macrobiotic Cancer Prevention Cookbook. Cornelia Aihara, who–with her husband Herman–run the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation and Vega Study Center in Oroville, CA, is the author of The Do of Cooking, Macrobiotic Kitchen, The Calendar Cookbook, and Macrobiotic Childcare. Andrea Bliss Lerman’s The Macrobiotic Community Cookbook features recipes and short sketches of the chefs involved.

For a book from a completely different perspective about the kinds of energy that can be put in food, read Like Water for Chocolate by Lauro Esquirel. Also be sure to see the wonderful film Babette’s Feast which is based on an Isak Dinesen short story.

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Is Fidel Castro eating macrobiotic diet?

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Is Fidel Castro eating macrobiotic diet? Or is it a joke? Or just bad use of macrobiotic term by the reporter?

According to the article - One hundred hours with Fidel - was/is Fidel eating macrobiotic diet :-)
Isn’t that great? Yeah, it is, if it’s true.
I hope, he is not eating too much on the yang side and is being balanced, preferably with the help of a good macrobiotic chef.
Chew very very well Fidel, so you can start promoting Peace all over the world.
You get better with every chew, with every grain of the brown rice.

Snippet from the article:

Like Fidel’s office, his lifestyle is austere, almost Spartan, says Ramonet who describes him as having the habits and the discipline of a “monk-soldier”. He enjoys no luxury; eats healthy, frugal, macrobiotic meals; works seven days a week and sleeps an average of four hours a night.

“Fidel has a tremendous amount of energy,” says Fernàndez. “I remember a work session with him, where we started at 11pm and finished in the early morning hours. He remained as fresh as a rose, while everybody else was falling over from fatigue.” This kind of energy feeds into his quest for knowledge. “Like no other person I know, Fidel believes in learning, from the cradle to the grave — for him it’s an ongoing process.”

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Crohn’s disease

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CROHN’S DISEASE
Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation of the intestinal wall, occurs in both sexes, especially among younger people aged 14 to 24. Medically, Crohn’s disease is considered an irreversible, often fatal disorder that can be treated only by recurrent surgery to remove sections of the small intestine. See Chocolate.

• Case History - Virginia Harper completely recovered from Crohn’s disease and Takayasu Arteritis after adopting a macrobiotic way of eating. She now teaches and cooks in Tennessee.
Source: Gale Jack and Wendy Esko, Editors, Women’s Health Guide (Becket, MA: One Peaceful World Press, 1997).

• High-Fat, High-Sugar Diet Associated with Crohn’s Disease - People with Crohn’s disease eat more sugar and sweets than normal and increased amounts of dietary fat. In a review of nutritional factors associated with this disease, a researcher found that a diet that limits dairy products, yeast, and refined cereals contributed to prolonged remission in some studies.
Source: J. O. Hunter, “Nutritional Factors in Inflammatory Bowel Disease,” European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 10(3):235-37, 1998.

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Crime and diet

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CRIME AND DIET
In Erewhon, Samuel Butler’s satirical 19th century novel, criminals are sent to the hospital and treated with proper diet, while the sick are put in jail because they have violated the laws of nature and health.
The wisdom of treating crime and anti-social behavior as an illness has been increasingly demonstrated in macrobiotic and natural foods prison projects around the world and in nutritional studies and research.

• Sugar and Theft - In a double-blind study, Doris J. Rapp, M.D. reported that four young persons with a history of stealing stopped altogether after being place on a restricted diet. However, when the therapy was discontinued and the former diet high in sugar and other refined carbohydrates was resumed, stealing resumed.
Source: Doris J. Rapp, M.D., “Food Allergy Treatment for Hyperkinesis,” Journal of Learning Disabilities 12(9):42-50, 1979.

• Sugar Linked to Violent Behavior - Frank Kern, assistant director at Tidewater Detention Center in Chesapeake, Virginia, a state facility for juvenile offenders, decided to initiate some dietary reforms in a macrobiotic direction. In 1979 he arranged an experiment in which sugar was taken out of the meals and snacks of 24 inmates. The boys, aged 12 to 18, were jailed for offenses that ranged from disorderly conduct, larceny, and burglary to alcohol and narcotics violations. Coke machines were removed from the premises and fruit juice substituted in vending machines for soft drinks, while honey and other milder sweeteners were substituted for refined sugar. The three-month trial was designed as a double-blind case-control study so that neither the detention center personnel nor the inmates knew that they were being tested. At the end of the trial period, the regular staff records on inmates’ behavior were checked against a control group of 34 youngsters who had been institutionalized previously. Researchers found that the youngsters on the modified diet exhibited a 45 percent lower incidence of formal disciplinary actions and antisocial behavior than the control group. Follow-up studies over the next year showed that after limiting sugar there was an 82 percent reduction in assaults, 77 percent reduction in thefts, 65 percent reduction in horseplay, and 55 percent reduction in refusal to obey orders. The researchers also found that “the people most likely to show improvement were those who had committed violent acts on the outside.”
Source: S. Schoenthaler, Ph.D., “The Effect of Sugar on the Treatment and Control of Antisocial Behavior,” International Journal of Biosocial Research 3(1):1-9, 1982.

• Macrobiotics in a Portuguese Maximum-Security Prison - In 1979 several inmates at the Central Prison in Linho outside of Lisbon, Portugal, began eating macrobiotically and attending lectures on Oriental philosophy and medicine. Soon 30 prisoners had become macrobiotic, and prison officials allowed them to use a large kitchen where they cooked and ate together several times a week. Linho, a maximum security institution, housed Portugal’s most dangerous criminals, including José Joaquim (known as “Al Capone”), a celebrated safecracker, and Antonio (To Zé) José Aréal, mastermind of a gang of armed robbers and kidnappers that had been the object of a nation-wide manhunt. As a result of attitude and behavioral changes, To Zé and most of the other prisoners attending classes received commutations and were released early. “[T]here is a great difference in them, especially in those who have left the prison,” Senhor Alfonso, a prison administrator, noted, commenting on the macrobiotic group. “It is not easy to describe—for one thing I can say that now they take more initiative. Actually, there is no problem here with anyone who is macrobiotic; this way of life enjoys a very good reputation. I believe the food and the outside stimulus both helped. The food can change people.” To Zé went on to study at the Kushi Institute in Boston and taught macrobiotics in New Bedford, site of a large Portuguese-speaking population, before returning to teach and help other prisoners in Portugal.
Source: Meg Seaker, “Fighting Crime with Diet: Report from a Portuguese Prison,” East West Journal, July, 1982, pp. 26-34.

• Diet Reduces Recidivism - A Cleveland probation official reported a low rate of recidivism among youthful offenders given nutritionally balanced meals. Barbara Reed of the Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Probation Department reported that of 318 offenders, 252 required attention to their diet, and “we have not had one single person back in court for trouble who has maintained and stayed on the nutritional diet.”
Later, Reed reported that more than a thousand ex-offenders had completed her dietary program, and of those who remained on the diet, 89 percent had not been rearrested over the past five years.
Sources: Barbara Reed, statement before the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs of the U.S. Senate, June 22, 1977 and in Michio Kushi et al., Crime and Diet (Tokyo and New York: Japan Publications, 1987), p. 149.

• Milk Consumption Linked to Juvenile Delinquency - High milk consumption was connected with juvenile delinquency in a study by criminologists. Researchers at the University of Washington monitored the die-tary intake of 30 chronic youthful offenders and compared them to a group of behaviorally disordered children from the local school district in Tacoma, Wash. They found that the male offenders consumed an average of 64 ounces of milk a day, while the control group rank an average of 30 ounces. For girls, the figures were 35 and 17 ounces respectively. “In some situations,” they concluded, “eliminating milk from the diet can result in dramatic improvements in behavior, especially in hyperactive children.” They cited other studies showing that up to 90 percent of offenders had a history of milk intolerance or allergy.
Source: Alexander Schauss, Diet, Crime, and Delinquency (Berkeley, Calif.: Parker House, 1981), pp. 13-14.

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