Natural Health Remedies

Macrobiotic Diet You Really Are What You Eat

Living in harmony with nature by eating a simple, balance diet, can affect your health and happiness. The basis of a macrobiotic diet lies in the belief that using little or no processing in high quality food and cooking in traditional methods leads to greater effects on the mind and body than most people know.

George Ohsawa, founder of the modern idea of macrobiotics, claimed in 1920 to have healed himself from a serious illness using only a change in diet. A believer of the Chinese concept of Yin and Yang, Ohsawa proposes that a natural balanced diet keeps the two in balance. Opposites of one another, Yin is the sweet, cold, and passive side, while Yang is t he salty, hot, aggressive side. The yin traditionally represents the outward circular movement, and yang represents the inward motion.

With the association of yin and yang, macrobiotic foods are categorized as one or the other. The particular properties, tastes, and effects of a food decide to which category it belongs. Especially important to the macrobiotic diet, grains and vegetables are not strongly yin or yang. Avoiding extremely yin or yang foods, one should rely more on the neutral foods to balance the yin and yang.

Of course, macrobiotic foods should be organically grown. Although some refined flour is accepted, whole grains should make up 50% to 60% of the diet. You can choose from barley, brown rice, oats, millets, rye, core, or buckwheat.

Twenty-five percent to 30% of the diet should consist of fresh vegetables. Primary chooses include broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, collards, turnips, mustard greens, turnip greens, radish, onion, butternut squash, acorn squash, and pumpkin. Used only two or three times a week, other acceptable vegetables are iceberg lettuce, celery, snow peas, mushrooms, and string beans. Whichever vegetables you use, they should be lightly steamed or sautŽed with unrefined cooking oil. Ideally, you should use corn oil or sesame oil.

Since sea vegetables are rich in vitamins and minerals, they should make up 5% to 10% of the diet along with beans. Recommended types include chickpeas, adzuki beans, tofu, and lentils.

With beans and vegetables as the major content, soups and broths can make up 5% to 10% of the diet. All should have a soybean paste.

Very few servings of seeds, nuts, and fresh fish are allowed in the macrobiotic diet. Barley malt and rice syrup serve as acceptable sweeteners. Flavorings of plum and brown rice vinegar, as well as soy sauce and sea salt, can be added occasionally.

It is important to drink only when thirsty while using a macrobiotic diet. Since teas with caffeine or aromatic fragrances are unacceptable, one may drink teas from dandelion greens, roasted grains, or leftover broth from preparing soba noodles. All water, whether for cooking or drinking, must be purified first.

Strongly yang foods, such as eggs and dairy products, are banned. Other unacceptable foods include the strongly yin foods such as chocolate, refined sugar, tropical fruits, coffee, fruit juice, soda, and hot spices. Artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives are also avoided.

Closely bound to nature, the macrobiotic diet is not just a fad; it's a lifestyle.

Common Herbs And Some Specific Uses

LIVER TONIC

Barberry or Oregon Grape	2 parts
Milk Thistle Seed		2 parts
Chaparral (Larrea)		1 part
Toadflax (Linaria)		1 part
Echinacea			1 part
Burdock Rt or Seed		1 part
Yellow Dock			1 part
Leptandra or Blue Flag Rt	1 part

An old-fashioned "shotgun" formula. Grind well and encapsulate. Echinacea is the only one of these herb that deteriorates in a powdered form, so the best compromise would be to keep it as a rather coarse grind, the rest as fine a powder as desired.

Useful for passive liver "heaviness", with periodic light stools and/or frontal headaches brought on by overeating or eating rich foods when tired. Look for greasy hair, acne on the cheeks (both kinds of cheeks) and acne around the mouth. It should be tried for those that regularly work with solvents or that drink regularly, whether in moderation or excess. In general, for those that regularly eat before going to bet and are slow in waking, grouchy and sluggish in the morning...they also have to cut back on the snacks.

DOSE: Pronounced liver dysfunction, but w/out pathology: 2 caps, 3X a day.

No overt symtoms, but having many of the risks mentioned: 1 cap, 3X a day.

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