sciore@sbcs.UUCP (Edward Sciore) (10/16/83)
The following is my (rather long) opinion on Macrobiotics: Macrobiotics is the study of a person's place in his/her environment. A macrobiotic diet is based on this principle; that is, one should eat foods which correspond to the local climate and season. For example, in summer we eat more fruit and green vegetables, while in winter we eat more root vegetables. Presumably, the body responds to seasonal changes, and works best with corresponding food. So if I eat a pineapple in the dead of winter it should cause some stress to my body. (Maybe just a little, but of course it is the accumulated little stresses that add up.) These principles can be made very precise using the notions of yin and yang. For example, diets in hot climates usually are very spicy, contain large amounts of fruit, and involve little or no cooking (all yin characteristics); in cold climates, diets contain much more meat, fat, and heavy cooking (yang stuff). I'm not an expert on yin/yang, so I don't follow the details. (That doesn't mean we have to dismiss it as unscientific; we also don't have to follow it blindly. Let's try to *understand* it.) Another aspect of yin/yang is the notion of balance in diet. You don't eat all of one thing, but try to balance the characteristics of the foods you eat. You also don't eat very yin or very yang foods (such as sugar or animal fats respectively), because it makes the body stress to balance it. The proportions of grain, bean, vegetable, etc. given in a previous article were calculated for a typical American person (I think), and are more or less just guidelines. A macrobiotic diet, almost by definition, is the *proper* diet; thus it varies between people. The Kushi institute in Boston will provide personal diets for anyone, based on what you need. (How they do that is the basis of the study of "Oriental Diagnosis". That is, they can tell the state of your internal organs by looking at you. I find this real interesting, but is beyond the scope of my knowledge.) Macrobiotics is perhaps more concerned about nutrition than any other diet. You have to get all proteins and nutrients without vitamin supplements. So sometimes they get clever. For example, seaweed is used a lot because it contains many important minerals that you might not get otherwise. And since you don't have milk to give you calcium (as Steve Dyer pointed out), you drink "Bancha Twig Tea", which happens to be a very delicious tea that has no caffiene and has more calcium than milk. The general rules I have taken from Macrobiotics is (1) use common sense about what you eat, and (2) be aware of what you eat, and how it affects you. Your body can tell you more than a book can. For the basics, the best thing to do to learn more is to read an introductory book by M. Kushi on Macrobiotics, or get the cookbook "Introduction to Macrobiotic Cooking" by Wendy Esko. As far as dramatic cures go, I have a diabetic friend who recently had an eye hemmorhage (a common diabetic problem), and since the blood would not drain, she was blind in that eye. The doctors (in the Joslin Clinic in Boston, no quacks they) had no hope, and were pressuring her into a chancey operation. She switched to a Macrobiotic diet, and three months later the eye began to clear up. My own case is less dramatic. I do not eat strictly macro, but pretty close. I have never felt healthier in my life, and have not been sick in a long time. I heard an interview with Kushi's son, who claimed that he had never even had a cold in his entire life. Of course none of this is magic; it just has something to do with eating properly, and letting your body's immune system do what it is good at. Edward Sciore SUNY Stony Brook ..!allegra!sbcs!sciore