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Natural sourdough bread baking

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Baking recipe method for 2 loaves of Sourdough Bread

Recipe quantities:
1300 g freshly milled Wheat flour
400 g sourdough (starter)
20-22 g white sea salt
500-600 ml spring water

1. Mix sourdough with half of the water.
2. Add this mixture to the dry flour, together with remaining water until no dry particles are left.
3. Now add the salt and fold the flour over a couple of times, do not knead, don’t try to form a dough yet!
4. Allow this mix to rest 20-30 min., then with moist hands knead the flour for a few minutes until a dough forms.
5. Now let the dough rest about 60 minutes.
6. Knead again for a few minutes (add no more dry flour), use wet hands and a moist working surface. Then cur the dough in half, roll in flour, and place in oiled baking tins.
7. Leave the loaves to rise at no less than 22 *C room temperature. They should be ready to bake in no more than 6-7 hours, otherwise you will have sour tasting bread.
8. When the dough has about doubled in size or risen to the level of the baking tins they are ready to bake.
Place in a fully heated oven (250 *C) for 10 min.
Then lower the temperature to around 200 *C for another 50 minutes.
9. Now take the bread out of the oven, remove the tins and bake the bread a further 10 min. at a 140 *C.
10. Let the bread cool down on a wire rack, it’s best to wait 12 hours before eating the bread. Store the bread in paper bags.

Common problems

Bread takes too long to rise or not at all
It is important to have a very healthy sourdough starter - always use fresh flour to feed the sourdough and good clean water. Store sourdough in a clean glass jar in the refridgerator. Feed sourdough more often.

Baked loaves have burst or broken open
Probably placed in the oven too soon.
Uneven fermentation, salt added or absorbed too early.

After a few days sourdough bread drys out and lends itself very well to steaming. Cut the bread in slices, soak briefly in water and steam in a pot.

A Short Primer on Natural Leaven Baking

Baking by Principle

The aim of bread baking is to allow the various nutrients obtained from fresh-milled whole grain flour to increase, be better absorbed and thus become nutritionally more beneficial. To do this effectively, life’s laws must be respected through all of the transformations of grain into flour into the fermented dough and through the oven heat (dextrinization, caramelization) that perfects the loaf. It is important for the baking to duplicate the changes that the grain goes through: Germination, growth and maturity.

Yeast versus Natural Leaven

In books on baking and even in nutritional/medical writings, the two techniques: Natural Leaven (sourdough) and baker’s yeast are often mingled and confounded. We will clear up this confusion first then give you the simple detailed instructions that will enable you to bake with this almost forgotten method.
Baking with natural leaven is in harmony with nature and maintains the integrity and nutrition of the cereal grain used, rye, wheat or other .i.e. The process helps to increase and reinforce our body’s absorption of the cereal’s nutrients. Unlike yeasted bread that diminishes, even destroys much of the grain’s nutritional value, naturally leavened bread does not stale and, as it ages, maintains its original moisture much longer. A lot of that information was known pragmatically for centuries and thus, when yeast was first introduced (in France, at the court of Louis XIV in March 1668); because at that time the scientists already knew that the use of yeast would imperil the people’s health, it was strongly rejected. Today, yeast is used almost universally, without any testing, and the recent scientific evidence and clinical findings are confirming the ancient taboos with biochemical and bio-electronic valid proofs that wholly support that age-old common sense decision. For these reasons and for the health of everyone concerned, it is advisable not to bake nor to consume yeasted products.

Starter Leaven

Definition
A starter is a leavening agent that has been obtained by attracting into a raw barm (a mixture of flour and water) a broad spectrum of beneficial wild biological ferments, micro-alginic molds and digestive enzymes. These micro-organisms come from nature’s ferments that abound in the air. This multi-macro flora is made up of a multitude of micro-organisms in symbiosis - a mutually beneficial association - all contributing by their micro-algae structure to the health of the human digestive system and to its beneficial flora.

Primary Function
The starter serves to change the raw elements of wheat and other cereal grains into readily assimilated nutrients, more easily absorbed by the body.

Auxiliary Role
The combined action of the wild ferments and enzymes maintained within the starter added to the active enzymes existing in the fresh ground whole flour are creating carbon dioxide, alcohol and energy that will aerate and leaven the bread harmoniously.

Bonus Benefits
Among the multitude of elements present within the leaven starter bread, some serve to insure the bread’s keeping qualities while others serve to improve its taste during the baking and also during maturing (just like wine and beer improve with ageing).

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Macrobiotic - Yin and Yang

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Macrobiotic - mysterious power of Yin and Yang

Yin Yang
Every meal you eat contains some energy in itself. Watch over your energy balance and your body will reward. Macrobiotic defenders assert, that this way you’ll achieve long, happy and healthy life.

The word macrobiotic is deduced from Greek “macro” and “bios”. It could be explained as natural way of living. If you’ll adhere to macrobiotic, you should be assured about longevity, inner harmony and health ofcourse.

Macrobiotic works with idea of yin and yang

Yin and Yang are basic antipole energies, that are as two magnets constantly attracted, repeled and harmonize.
Macrobiotics assert that every particle, thing and living creature are result of these energies.
The same is for every food you eat, it has own energy - either balanced or extreme.
Psyche shows after this meal either harmonized or extreme contition. If you’ll for a long time consume foods balanced from the point of yin and yang, you’ll establish harmony to your organism and so health. On the contrary if you’ll consume extreme foods for a long time, your body won’t able to regulate constant disharmony and succumb to disease.

Yang energy

It’s centripetal energy, contracting.
Extremely yang - belongs there meat, poultry, eggs, salty cheese, fish (red meat), refined salt
Moderate yang - belongs there fish (white meat), mollusc, sea salt, soya, fermented vegetables

Yin energy

It’s centrifugal energy, releasing.
Extremely yin - sugar, honey, sweetness, cofe, alcohol, milk, yogurt, cream, tropical fruits and vegetable, spice and herbs
Moderate yin - salads, local fruits, nuts, vegetal oils, non-stimulating drinks

Macrobiotic - impact on alimentation

For the last several years was manner of eating changed so much, that the main component of nourishment are all complex foods. Even the products alone, the ones you cook from, are results of industrial modifications.
The main mistake is, that disappeared whole grains from the cooking menus, that in the shape of white baked goods lose their most valuable components. Furthermore the consumption of fats was increased, simple sugars, animal proteins and chemicals, used in the processing foods.

Macrobiotic for balanced body

What to eat then, to get your body in harmony? The base are whole grains (unhusked brown rice, barley, millet, husked oat, wheat and rye grains, corn, buckwheat), soups (from any vegetables), seaweeds, legumes. Up to third of every meal should make vegetable cooked in steam, boiled in water, stewed on the minimum of oil or infused.
The food could be filled with fishes and sea products baked on grate or boiled. From drinks is ideal tea from 3 year tea twigs or tea from roasted rice or barley grains. And ofcourse drink to too cold spring water.
From condiments use with light degree sea salt, soy sauce or salty plumps umeboshi. Sour taste to foods give rice or cereal vinegar, piquant will be grated ginger, shallot or horseradish. For a sweet taste you can use rice or barley malt.

Eat macrobioticaly is not easy at all and it won’t do without restrain. But the one who have tried macrobiotic, will surely confirm, that balance of foods will penetrate to whole body and will solve all ailments.

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Macrobiotic millet

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

The best tips for macrobiotic millet cooking

How to cook millet, how to prepare good macrobiotic millet whole grains?

The millet cooking is a little problem for some macrobiotics. Because millet gets bitter sometimes, sometimes not. I have realised it does depend on the type of millet you are using. There are more millet types like: Pearl millet, Foxtail millet, Proso millet (also known as common millet, broom corn millet, hog millet or white millet), Finger millet and many others. The most common millet in the kitchen is Pearl millet. To get rid off the bitter taste it’s recommended to wash scald the grains with hot water. You pour the boiling hot water onto the millet grains and then you pour this water out. By this, the millet will release the bitter factors into the hot water. But some people say, that by this, you are giving away also all kinds of vitamins and minerals. And I personally think it’s true. I was personally trying many millet manufacturers and cooking all kind of millets, until I found the one that is very tasty and not bitter. But I am also ok with the bitter taste anyway, I like it too, so it’s all relative. But if you are the person that don’t like millet because of the bitter taste, try the hot water tip, even if it would lead to some degree loss of vitamins and minerals (you can still compensate them in other meals) and enjoy the millet taste with your dishes. Or try to find the right millet type, that is not bitter after cooking.

The cooking of millet in general is done like this. You rinse the millet grains in the water, at least 3 times. And cook with 2 - 3 times of water (preferably spring nature water) and pinch of salt, or if not using the salt, you can add seaweeds like Kombu or my preferable seaweed with millet are Arame or Hiziki. I am cooking millet in pressure cooker with 2x of water for 30 minutes if cooked millet alone. But very often I mix millet + whole brown rice in the various ratios, most usually 70% rice + 30% millet and cook them together for 45 minutes. Many people say, that millet is cooked in 15 minutes. But according to macrobiotic rules, all grains are cooked longer time and it has own special reasons like the proper energy (yin/yang) flow for example.
If you are not cooking in the pressure cooker, I would suggest to use 3x of water and cook for 40 minutes.
But the practice will teach you the most. You will learn how many water to use and how long to cook, to get the best taste for you and your family members. We are all different, and we need also a little bit different styles of cooking times and water proportions.

The millet is considered as the yang kind of whole grain and also alkaline. Many other grains are acid forming. Also buckwheat is alkaline and very yang. For this reason, millet is ideal for using with sweet (yin) sort of foods. It’s great for preparing of desserts or sweet dishes like sweet gruel. You can simply mix the cooked millet with a little of malt in the mixer, you will get very delicious cocktail. Or you can bake in the cooked millet with grated apples (or any other fruits). You can blend the cooked millet with amasake for your breakfast dish and sprinkle with roasted sesame seeds. Or you can use millet for more complicated desserts. It’s just very appropriate because its alkaline, yang quality.

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Macrobiotic menu foods

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Macrobiotic menu foods

What are the main macrobiotic food ingredients, main food categories, what kind of foods to eat daily in your menu plan?

When you are starting macrobiotic, concentrate on the simple menu plans before you get experienced and your macrobiotic recipe repertoire goes up and also your cooking style ability. Try to visit as many classes as possible at the beginning to widen your macrobiotic cooking, so you can supplement your menus with new food types. Basic macrobiotic menu does consist of few main macrobiotic food categories:

Whole Grain is the main food on your every plate, it does form 30-50% of the whole food plate. They can be cooked together with the beans, you can use them together with soups or mix with the vegetable and make a grain-vegetable salad. Sometimes you need to eat more vegetables and reduce the grain amount, your macrobiotic counsellor will tell you more details.

There are many condiments made from the whole grains. You sprinkle them on top of your dishes lightly before eating them. These condiments are gomasio (made from roasted sesame and salt, melted together in the suribachi), powder from the shiso, goma-wakame and many other condiments that are very high in the minerals. You can buy these condiments at shops, but for gomasio it’s always best if you prepare it fresh at home.

You will use many types of organic vegetables to compliment your whole grains. They are the second most important food (in the quantity meaning) after the whole grains. It’s recommended by Aveline Kushi to use at least 7 different types of organic vegetables every day. But don’t stress it too much. This is just the ideal, that’s good to think about, but don’t get obsessed. You can eat fresh uncooked vegetable salads many times through your week. Always consult exact amounts of each ingredient in your macrobiotic menu with macrobiotic expert counsellor. Sometimes raw vegetables are not suggested at all. The counsellor will tell you if you can use pickled veggies and how strong (with salt and pressing time) should they be.

Miso soup made from vegetables and miso is served every day. The amount used is 1-2 cups per person. It’s usually made from onion, carrot, shitake mushrooms. All these ingredients are boiled together for 15 minutes and miso is added for the last 30 seconds of simmering. Try to make miso soup always different, by changing the vegetable types, cutting styles, cooking time, adding all kinds of seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, flax), using different types of cold pressed oils (sesame, sunflower).

Sea vegetables (seaweeds) are used daily in your macrobiotic menu, but in a very small amount in comparison to grains and vegetables. Recommended amount is 1 tablespoon of cooked seaweeds everyday. They are very rich in minerals and proteins. The types that are used: wakame, kombu, nori, aramame, hiziki.

Condiments as said above are used to give your food better taste. But don’t overuse them because they are quite salty. It’s good to use no more than 1/2 teaspoon per meal.

Pickles are used everyday to help your digestion and they have also alkaline effect on your body. Use them with 1-2 meals in your usual day. But be careful with the amount, because they are often quite salty. Use 1-2 slices of pickled vegetables. The most famous macrobiotic pickle is called takuan or pickle made from daikon (daikon radish pickle). Also organic sauerkraut is usually used for daily macrobiotic menu.

If you are thirsty, the number one macrobiotic drink is kukicha tea. You can drink it every day, after your meals or between them. Buy good quality kukicha teas made from roasted twigs. Drink the tea warm, not hot, not cold.

The other macrobiotic menu foods are: all kind of beans (adzuki, lentils, chickpeas), tofu, tempeh, seitan, natto - these are very rich in proteins and can form 10-15% of your plate. You can also use noodles, seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, flax), oats, natural sweeteners (rice syrup, rice malt, barley malt, maple syrup, fruits). Other foods can be incorporated into the menu if you know what you are doing or macrobiotic counsellor guides you. The informations provided in this article are only informative and are very basic and you should investigate more detailed descriptions of macrobiotic menu plans in the books of Kushi and many others.

macrobiotic menu

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Macrobiotic diet

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Diet 1 - Macrobiotic

The word - macrobiotic - does come from Ancient Greek: macros - means big, bios - stand for world (universe, cosmos). This philosophy comes out from the assumption that man is part of the nature and universe and his health is conditioned by the way, how he accepts the world and his relationships with his neighbourhood. Everybody should be at least as healthy to be fully happy from the life.

Macrobiotic, macrobiotic diet

Macrobiotic and menu according to macrobiotic principles may be appropriate supplement or even the base of the diet for food allergy. In accordance to diets, as a necessary precaution to food allergies and intolerances, I assume, that acceptation of some principles of macrobiotic and subsequent menu adjustment could be appropriate method, how to relief oversensitive immunity systém and whole organism of allergic people and in the same time enlarge already poor menu.

Further are then introduced very brief macrobiotic principles, with this, that continuously will appear new recipes from this area.

It’s a way of eating and lifestyle, that is known for several thousand years. In the modern times come up more often to bigger distraction of man from nature, which consequences are more and more not only known diseases, but also diseases and sick conditions, with that new modern medicine can’t help.

The principle of macrobiotic diet is food rich on cereal, legumes, fresh vegetables and fruits and necessary big restriction of meat, cheese, eggs, poultry and refined foods with small contents of fibre, furthermore salt, sugar and fat.

Requirements for correct alimentation and nutrition coming out of geographical location, climate, place, profession demandingness and individual differencies as e.g. state of health.
Makeup of macrobiotic foods

Modern cooking consist of big amount of refined and synthetic foods. It’s assembled particularly satiated animal lipids, cholesterol, refined vegetal lipids, excessive degree of salt, sugar and chemical additives.

Structure of macrobiotic foods

50- 60% cereals (whole grains), 20-30% vegetables, 5-10% legumes and seaweeds and 5-10% soups and 5 percent of relish and remaining foods.

Principles of macrobiotic diet for inhabitants of temperate zone

Consumption of shellfish, mollusc and fishes (compensation of pork, beef and poultry meats).
Soya products (milk products compensation).
Consumption of foods in the most natural shapes - unhusked grains of cereals and their flours, that replace white flour.
Elimination of refined sugars from the diet and their substitution for compound sugars (polysacharides) - they burn slower.
Considerably bigger and more often use of legumes in our menu.

Basic foods in macrobiotic

Whole grains

Cereal grains have to stay whole and also be consumed as whole. They are prepared by cooking in pressure cooker or baking in ceramic pot. The main consumed grains are wheat, barley, brown rice, buckwheat, corn, millet, oat, rye.

Vegetables

In macrobiotic they make together with whole grains the base of the diet. The best is fresh, from home market. We should use seasoned vegetables, thus it’s not suitable to use vegetables, that is not commonly growing in our zone. In the winter is therefore good to consume marrow, cabbage and root vegetables. Vegetable is also recommended to consume with fish, because it help digesting of fish meat. Amongst unsuitable vegetables we classify spinach, rhubarb, asparagus, mangold and tomatoes. They include big amounts of oxalates that are often cause of allergens.

Seaweeds

Seaweeds belong to important part of macrobiotic diet. They are valuable source of vast amount of trace elements and minerals, that are necessary for optimalization of metabolic processes in our body. Seaweeds used in macrobiotic: Agar-agar, arame, Dulse, Hijiki, Irish moss, Kelp, Kombu, Nori, Wakame.

Pulses

Belong as well to basic stone of macrobiotic eating. In the present time are legumes very neglected, and that is big mistake. Legumes contain high quality proteins of vegetable source, hence they are more healthier than meat. On top of that they contain wide range of vitamins and minerals.

Soya and soy products

Also count to very important parts of macrobiotic. To their biggest advantages go easily digestible proteins. To the most used soya products belongs tofu, tempeh, miso and soy sauce Tamari and Shoyu.

Supplemental foods in macrobiotic

Salt - in macrobiotic is used solely see salt, that is obtained by volatilization of ocean water. To other supplemental products and condiments belong for example ginger, rice vinegar, onion, soy sauce, umeboshi plumps, nori condiment, gomasio (sesame seeds + see salt + sometimes powder from seaweeds) and others.
Sweetener - only naturals are used - barley malt, amasake, apple syrup.
Oil - we use only non refined oils, created by simple extraction if cold. To the regular using are the most appropriate particularly light and dark sesame oil and corn oil cold.

Beginning of macrobiotic diet

After your decision to change your whole diet and menu, there should follow gradual restriction of satiated lipids, refined starch and sugar. On the contrary you should include to your menu more cereals, pulses, vegetables, seaweeds. Every day try to eat several kinds of whole grains and vegetables, that should be dominant in cooked condition, legumes and seaweeds.

The basic kitchen tool is pressure cooker , wooden equipment, pots from stainless steel or alloy, knifes from carbon or stainless steel, big stainless steel strainer, ceramic pots for baking in the oven.

We wash foods just before cooking and use them with husk, in husk is contained the most valuable matters. We soak legumes for 8 hours before cooking (through the night at best). The water from soaked pulses strain off, the water from the whole grains you can use for cooking. Vegetable prepare by cooking but more suitable is preparation under steam. Cooked vegetable flavour with little amount of soy sauce and salt with pinch of sea salt.

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Macrobiotic cancer treatment

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Macrobiotic recommendation how to feed for patients with cancer and other serious diseases

Only on the fingers of one hand is probably possible to count these that remember declaration of president USA Nixon from the year 1971: “We provided scientists so many resources and gave them enough possibilities, that during the two year, the cancer problem will be solved.” Today, nearly after thirty five years, the problem of cancer is still not solved.

According to present statistics it’s even increasing breast cancer and cancer of lungs. There also appeared completely new, so far incurable forms of cancer and they overgrow to pandemic. To the whole world epidemic.

Causes: modern civilization harms more than helps. Official science doesn’t keep up to correct their damaging consequencies. And can’t manage even to prevent them. It doesn’t know prevention in the right word meaning - as a elimination of cause.

To the problem of breast cancer, science even officialy admit unknowingness and incapability of prevention. In the world press, it does appear again in the half of 2005. In the connection with the most popular and most favourite pop star Kilie Minogue, after discovery her carcinoma was suggested surgical removal of tumour, irradiation and chemotherapy. Prevention was brushed with saying: “Against breast cancer doesn’t exist no other prevention than their timely discovery.”

Suffice however to carefully read american original of Kushi’s prominent book: Cancer prevention diet. There’s cited 31 scientific reports from years 1984 - 1993. Scientists from America, Japan, China, France, Scandinavia and others, in them on various examples show, that in prevention and treatment breast cancer is showing as positive factor consumption of foods from whole grains, soya cheese, fermented soy products, miso soups, seaweeds.
Say in another way: by partial researches is confirmed macrobiotic as a whole. Cow milk and milk products are, in the quoted scientific researches, valued as positively non beneficial. Up to dangerous. States there, that women, that were breastfeeded for a long time as a neonates are endangered less by breast cancer.

Other important findings

We will show almost trivial example of science demerger. One part of science in the last years as a advice for improvement of health, started extensive campaign, that encourage: Eat a lot of fruits. Other scientists did on the contrary participate on the concrete researches, that demonstrated negative influence of fruits on the cancer of women’s sexual organs. As announced Internation Journal of Cancer, they went out with these results:

Breast Cancer
With consumption of whole grains, decreased occurence of 64%, mortality fall of 70%
With consumption of legumes, decreased occurence of 43%, mortality fall of 46%
With consumption of fruits, INCREASED occurence of 64%, mortality raise of 44%

Cancer of the uterus (briefly)
Whole grains - occurence decreased of 58%
Legumes - occurence decreased of 46%
Fruits - occurence INCREASED of 54%

Cancer of the ovary
Whole grains - occurence decrease of 43%, mortality fall of 78%
Legumes - occurence decrease of 41%, mortality fall of 53%
Fruits - occurence INCREASED of 16%, mortality RAISE of 31%

For an interest yet at least few important figures: by consumption of milk, with all three cited forms of cancer (in the same order), increase occurance of 66%, 64%, 47%. Mortality increase: breast cancer of 73%, cancer of the uterus of 66%.

We could quote further. It’s however more benefical summary inform, that traditional energy medicine has in comparison with disjointed modern science for disposal in the long run verified complex system. It engages not only about details, but treatment as a whole. Nourishment and supplemental activities harmonize at the same time from the view of quality of two basic energies. And offer not only prevention of cancer, but also significant help with its treatment. What most expecially: it can effectively implement all in the practice - it teaches patients how to examine in the nature, how to provide external applications at home - and particularly: how to work in the kitchen.

What for the last broadly fifty years appeared as a solution of battle against cancer, but wasn’t versatilely effective? For example theory about this, that originators of cancer are bacteries. Later: that causation are viruses. Or: living environment in general. Eventually climate. Unsuitable environment in the place of working. Various radiances. Artificial ingredients in the foods and industrialy manufactured foods. Using of plastics. Excessive consumption of fats. Consumption of red meat. Or relatively new view, that cancer is isolated cell disorder.
In all we have introduced is always ONLY PIECE OF TRUTH.

It’s given by two mistakes

1. The view is narrowed to only one particular problem
2. It’s still common inability come from materialist view of the world (as a form of material) to view much deeper. To the recognition of world as a space with endless variants of various energy qualities. The stone is thick energy, the cauliflower is significantly less thick energy, curtain is yet more less thick, thought is rather dissipated energy, spiritual shell of our body has quality of the most light energetic waves and frequencies.

All existing variants, that are milliards, have own origin in the different ratio of two basic energies.

In the centripetal energy, contracting, densing, coming in the spirals from the whole infinite Universe.
And centrifugal energy, expansive, dilatating, releasing, dissipating, arising from the rotation of giant mass of our planet around own axis.

Both in the whirling spirals are creating, affecting and constantly changing all, what is in Universe and thus on our planet, and around her, do exist. Even our foods and through it also our bodies alone.

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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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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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Complex carbohydrates

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES
Complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides), found in whole grains, beans, vegetables, and sea vegetables, enter the bloodstream gradually and contribute to overall health and balance. Because of their protective effect in the development of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other serious disorders, scientific and medical guidelines all call for substantial increases in complex carbohydrates and corresponding decreases in intake of simple carbohydrates such as sugar, white flour, and white rice. See Paleolithic Diet, Premenstrual Syndrome, Whole Grains, World Health Organization.

• Saturated Fat and Cholesterol - Comparing the blood values of middle-aged Irishmen living in Ireland, their brothers who had migrated to Boston, and unrelated men of Irish descent living in Boston, researchers at Harvard School of Public Health found that mean total blood cholesterol levels were strongly correlated with intake of saturated fatty acid and dietary cholesterol from meat and other animal food. Fiber intake and vegetable consumption were also lower among those who died from coronary heart disease, leading the researchers to speculate that a decrease in complex carbohydrates rather than a change in fat consumption was the main causative factor in increased mortality from heart disease.
“Although the risk of coronary heart disease has been reported to be related to the intake of dietary lipids, an equally consistent finding has been the relation with starches and complex carbohydrates,” the scientists noted. “. . . The principal nutritional change that has occurred since the early 1900s has been a decrease in the consumption of dietary carbohydrates, not including sugar, of about 45 percent during the period from 1909 to 1976. In contrast, changes in the consumption of dietary lipids have been much smaller.”
Source: L. H. Kushi et al., “Diet and 20-Year Mortality from Coronary Heart Disease. The Ireland-Boston Diet-Heart Study,” New England Journal of Medicine 312:811-18, 1985.

• Complex Carbohydrates Stimulate Mental Development - At Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), researchers have investigated the effects of food on the brain and nervous system. “It is becoming increasingly clear that brain chemistry and function can be influenced by a single meal. That is, in well-nourished individuals consuming normal amounts of food, short-term changes in food composition can rapidly affect brain function,” explained Dr. John Fernstrom. According to scientists, whole grains and other foods high in complex carbohydrates have the capacity to increase the brain’s intake of tryptophan, an amino acid that aids in relief of pain and in lowering blood pressure. Tryptophan has also been associated in studies with lifting depression and improving sleep. In contrast to grains and vegetables, meals high in animal protein lower levels of tryptophan reaching the brain. This “growing body of information now points to new clinically useful applications of tryptophan and thus also for the use of specific meals that would increase tryptophan levels,” Fernstrom concluded.
Source: Tom Monte, “A Nutritional Approach to Mental Health,” Michio Kushi et al., Crime and Diet (Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, 1987), pp. 146-47.

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Colon cancer

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

COLON CANCER
Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States, accounting for 56,000 deaths each year. Consumption of foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol increase the risk for this disease. Alcohol and smoking are associated with causing polyps, benign growths in the large intestine that may become malignant. Low intake of whole grains, high in fiber, and vegetables, especially those high in folate, are also linked to colon cancer. See Broccoli, Cabbage,
Polyps, Water, Whole Grains, Women’s Health.

• Meat Raises Risk of Colon Cancer - Women who eat beef, lamb, or pork as a daily main dish are at two and a half times the risk for developing colon cancer as women who eat meat less than once a month. The conclusion, drawn from a study of 88,751 nurses, over a ten-year period, found that the more fish and poultry in the diet the less chances of getting colon cancer. “The substitution of other protein sources, such as beans or lentils, for red meat might also be associated with a reduced risk of colon cancer in populations that consume more legumes,” researchers concluded. Investigators also found that eating the fiber from fruit appeared to reduce the risk of colon cancer. The fruits mentioned as possibly protective included apples and pears.
“The less red meat the better,” recommended Dr. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, who directed the study. “At most, it should be eaten only occasionally. And it may be maximally effective not to eat red meat at all.”
Sources: Walter C. Willett et al., “Relation of Meat, Fat, and Fiber Intake to the Risk of Colon Cancer in a Prospective Study among Women,” New England Journal of Medicine 323:1664-72, 1990 and Anastasia Toufexis, “Red Alert on Red Meat,” Time, December 24, 1990.

• Whole Grains Protective Against Colon Cancer - In a population-based case-control study of over 4000 people in California, Utah, and Minnesota, cancer researchers reported that high whole grain intake was associated with up to 60 percent less risk for this disease, while intake of refined grains increased the risk one and a half to two times. Foods high in fiber, vitamin B-6, thiamine, and niacin were also protective.
Source: M. L. Slattery, “Plant Foods and Colon Cancer; An Assessment of Specific Foods and Their Related Nutrients,” Cancer Causes Control 8(4):575-90, 1997.

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