The Macrobiotic Way: The Definitive Guide to Macrobiotic Living - Softcover

THE
MACROBIOTIC
WAY

OTHER AVERY BOOKS
ABOUT MACROBIOTICS

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MEREDITH MCCARTY

Changing Seasons Macrobiotic Cookbook

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The Macrobiotic Approach to Cancer

MICHIO KUSHI WITH EDWARD ESKO

The Macrobiotic Cancer Prevention Cookbook

AVELINE KUSHI WITH WENDY ESKO

Macrobiotic Community Cookbook

ANDREA BLISS-LERMAN

Making the Transition to a Macrobiotic Diet

CAROLYN HEIDENRY

THE
MACROBIOTIC
WAY

Preface

The earliest recorded use of the term macrobiotics is found in the writings of Hippocrates, the father of Western Medicine. In his essay “Airs, Waters, and Places,” Hippocrates introduced the word to describe people who were healthy and long-lived. Translated from the Greek, macro means “large” or “great,” and bios signifies “life.” Herodotus, Aristotle, Galen, and other classical writers used the term macrobiotics to describe a lifestyle, including a simple balanced diet that promoted health and longevity.

In the late eighteenth century, the German physician and philosopher Christopher W. Hufeland renewed interest in the term. His influential book on diet and health was entitled Macrobiotics, or The Art of Prolonging Life.

Nearly a century later, the term macrobiotics experienced another revival, this time originating in Japan. Two educators, Sagen Ishizuka, M.D., and Yukikazu Sakurazawa, cured themselves of serious illnesses by adopting a simple diet of brown rice, miso soup, sea vegetables, and other traditional foods. They spent many years studying and integrating traditional Oriental medicine and Eastern philosophy with Judeo-Christian teachings and holistic perspectives in modern science and medicine. Sakurazawa went to Paris in the 1920s. Later, he adopted the name George Ohsawa and applied the term macrobiotics to his teachings.

From the time of his illness until his death at the age of seventy-four, Ohsawa devoted himself to defining macrobiotics as it applies to modern living. He did much to spread information about the macrobiotic lifestyle, visiting more than thirty countries, giving more than 7,000 lectures, and publishing more than three hundred books.

Ohsawa had many students, among them Michio Kushi, the author of this book. Kushi was born in 1926 and graduated from Tokyo University with a degree in international law before coming to the United States in 1949. While completing further studies at Columbia University in New York, he also began teaching the macrobiotic approach to diet and health as the areas to achieve world peace. Kushi enjoyed sharing his knowledge of macrobiotics and natural health with others so much that he made it his life’s work.

When Kushi began teaching macrobiotics, he met many people who were eager to learn, but were unaccustomed to eating simple whole foods. He saw that there was a need to adapt the macrobiotic diet to modern tastes while retaining its integrity. Over the years, Kushi has traveled extensively, lecturing and teaching the macrobiotic way to groups around the world.

Macrobiotics advocates the use of traditional foods such as whole grains, beans, and locally grown vegetables as the primary sources of food energy and nutrition. In addition, the diet includes nutritious soyfoods, which have been used in Asia for hundreds of years, and mineral-rich foods from the ocean—sea vegetables and certain types of fish. In the macrobiotic diet, moderate amounts of white-meat fish and shellfish are often substituted for the red meat and poultry that are common elements of the typical Western diet. Sea salt and natural grain sweeteners such as rice syrup and barley malt replace the refined salt and sugar that currently play a major role in modern fare.

When Michio Kushi first accepted the challenge of helping people shift to a more healthful way of eating and living, he had trouble finding many of the wholesome foods that he recommended. So, with his late wife, Aveline, he started a natural foods business to fill the need. Later to be called Erewhon Foods, this small enterprise developed into a $17 million business specializing in macrobiotic and natural foods. After acquiring the nearly 100-year-old U.S. Mills, the company adopted U.S. Mills as its name, and Erewhon remains as a brand name.

To research and popularize the macrobiotic approach, Michio and Aveline Kushi founded the East-West Foundation and the Kushi Institute (of which their son Phiya is now executive director), both nonprofit educational organizations; the East West Journal, a monthly magazine that reached a worldwide circulation of more than 75,000 copies; and several macrobiotic restaurants. The Kushis had five children and five grandchildren.

Michio and Aveline Kushi wrote many books on macrobiotics, including The Book of Macrobiotics; The Book of Do-In: Exercise for Physical and Spiritual Development; The Cancer Prevention Diet; Your Face Never Lies: An Introduction to Oriental Diagnosis; The Macrobiotic Approach to Cancer; Natural Healing Through Macrobiotics; How to Cook with Miso; The Changing Seasons Macrobiotic Cookbook; and Macrobiotic Pregnancy and Care of the Newborn. Michio Kushi is also the author of a series of books, Teachings of Michio Kushi.

I came to know Michio and Aveline Kushi well—both extraordinary people with endless reserves of energy, patience, and compassion for others. As a scholar, philosopher, writer, and teacher, Michio Kushi is often busy from early in the morning until after midnight. Whether he is greeting individuals for counseling sessions, discussing plans for the further development and growth of the macrobiotic way, attending a session of the macrobiotic scientific committee, giving a seminar for medical and health-care professionals, or just talking about life with a friend, Kushi is always actively sharing his boundless enthusiasm for living and his ability to view life’s problems with gentle good humor.

This book is the result of my desire to understand Michio Kushi’s macrobiotic approach to diet and health and to explain it in simple terms to a general audience. Michio Kushi is the author of this book inasmuch as its contents are derived from discussions with him. In addition, material from his lectures, published books, and articles has been drawn upon.

Both Michio and I are indebted to our families and friends for their valuable assistance in preparing this book. We would especially like to thank Aveline Kushi and Wendy Esko for helping to develop the recipes and cooking sections, with the assistance of Karen Williamson, Caroline Heindenry, and Colleen Blauer. Special thanks also go to Lawrence Haruo Kushi of the Harvard School of Public Health, to Phillip Kushi and Ed Esko of the East West Foundation, to Bill Tara of the Kushi Institute, and to Lenny Jacobs, Linda Roszak, and Mark Mayell of the East West Journal, for reviewing the style, tone, accuracy, and clarity of the other sections of the book.

My greatest hope is that the spirit of sharing and cooperation, through which this book became a reality, will somehow touch the lives of its readers. For in giving is to be found abundance, peace, and happiness.

Stephen Blauer
Boston

Introduction

Macrobiotics is a way of eating and living that has been practiced for thousands of years by many people around the world. It stems from an intuitive understanding of the orderliness of nature. Modern macrobiotic philosophy focuses on offering a way of living that closes the widening gap between humans and the natural world. Macrobiotic theory suggests that sickness and unhappiness are nature’s way of urging us to adopt a proper diet and way of life, and that these troubles are unnecessary when we live in harmony with our environment. The macrobiotic diet is based on whole grains and traditional foods in harmony with the seasons.

As we have become somewhat removed from the natural elements, we have lost much that is valuable. We can learn a great deal from cultures such as those of the Hunzakut people, of a region now in northeast Pakistan; the Vilcabambans, who live high in the South American Andes; and the Abkhasians, who reside in an area of the former Soviet republic of Georgia located between southern Russia and the Black Sea. One characteristic shared by these cultures is that the people often live in continuous close contact with nature. They are also vitally healthy and very active physically, many beyond their hundredth birthday. Most of the foods they eat are locally and organically grown, vegetarian, and unprocessed. Their diet is essentially macrobiotic, as it is based primarily on whole cereal grains such as wheat, barley, buckwheat, corn, and brown rice, with fresh vegetables and greens, peas, nuts, beans, and fruits. Though they do eat some meat, dairy products, and poultry, these foods account for less than 1 percent of the diet.

We may not be able to adopt these peoples’ level of activity (although many people feel we should), or their more rustic lifestyle, but we can adopt a more wholesome diet. In fact, nutritional research performed for the United States government has long recommended a more simple approach to diet. Two publications, Dietary Goals for the United States and Diet, Nutrition and Cancer came out in favor—in 1977 and 1982, respectively—of sweeping dietary changes, including more whole grains, whole-grain products, beans, fresh vegetables, and fruits, and less red meat, cheese, eggs, poultry, and highly refined foods that are lacking in fiber. The studies also recommend reducing salt, sugar, and fat consumption.

Medical and nutritional scientists believe such dietary changes can reduce the incidence of heart disease, hypertension, obesity, gallbladder and liver disorders, and cancer. The first report, issued by the McGovern Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, concluded that our present eating habits “may be as profoundly damaging to the nation’s health as the widespread contagious diseases of the early part of the century.”

Although these monumental studies received little, if any, attention from the news media at the time, thousands of people began turning to alternatives such as the macrobiotic diet to prevent illness and improve their health. Several well-known physicians, including Dr. Keith Block, a medical and nutritional consultant for CBS radio in Chicago, and Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, former medical director of the American International Hospital in Zion, Illinois, praised the macrobiotic diet as a ray of hope in the prevention of illness.

Drs. Edward Kass and Frank Sacks of Harvard University reported in the American Journal of Epidemology, May 1974, that the macrobiotic diet normalized blood pressure. Their study of 210 individuals who switched to macrobiotics showed that the largely vegetarian diet was effective in bringing high blood pressure down to normal levels and that it maintained these levels far more effectively than the diet eaten by the average American.

A year later, The New England Journal of Medicine published another study by Drs. Kass and Sacks, this time stating that people who switched to the macrobiotic diet had healthier-than-average blood fat and cholesterol levels, despite having eaten the typical modern diet (which tends to elevate blood fat and cholesterol levels) most of their lives. In 1982, J. T. Knuiman and C. E. West confirmed Drs. Kass and Sacks’s findings in their own research, which compared the total blood fat and cholesterol levels of macrobiotic, vegetarian, and nonvegetarian males. Their report was published in the journal Atherosclerosis.

The success of the macrobiotic diet in controlling blood pressure, fat, and cholesterol levels has made it medically credible. Some physicians are now recommending it to their patients along with standard medical treatments. In fact, at Boston’s Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, wholesome macrobiotic meals are available to the staff and some patients. In Linho, Portugal, a group of prisoners have been given the opportunity to eat macrobiotically. Chico Varatojo, director of a macrobiotic center for the prison, feels that the poorly balanced nutrition of the conventional diet is largely responsible for crime and delinquency in modern society.

Unlike most other diets, macrobiotics has continued to grow and expand its sphere of influence for well over fifty years. Macrobiotic educators have been pioneers of the natural and organic foods revolution. Today, there are more than 500 learning centers teaching macrobiotics worldwide. In just about any large city, from Dublin to Dallas and from Athens to Atlanta, you will find people following the macrobiotic way. In many cities you will find one or more macrobiotic restaurants or restaurants that serve macrobiotic meals. Many individuals throughout the world have tried macrobiotics and discovered that it truly helped them to overcome poor health, even if they had been suffering for some time. They credit three factors as contributing to successful recovery:

These aspects of the macrobiotic way are the focal points of this book. In the chapters that follow, you will learn what the macrobiotic diet consists of, how it compares to the diet currently eaten in many parts of the world, and exactly how you can use the macrobiotic diet and lifestyle to improve your health and that of your family.

ONE

The Way to Better Health

The macrobiotic approach to diet, exercise, and living can lead to better health for you and your family. If you choose to eat macrobiotically and follow the other suggestions in this book, you will reap the rewards of an active, intelligent, energizing approach to life. You will discover richness and harmony in nature, even amidst the pressures and hazards of our complicated world.

Macrobiotic philosophy teaches that a wholesome diet is the most direct path to good health, so the first part of this book is directed to examining the role of nutrition in the macrobiotic way. More so than any other approach to diet, macrobiotics appreciates and emphasizes individual differences such as where you live, what you do, and your present state of health.

Based on the philosophic principles of balance and harmony, the idea behind the diet is simple: your climate or geographical location, activity level, and physiology determine your nutritional needs. In making dietary choices, these factors are far better guides to follow than general nutritional and caloric tables.

In addition, macrobiotics points out the harmful effect modern methods of food processing and refining have upon our physical and mental health. The macrobiotic diet uses only whole foods and foods that are processed by traditional methods.

WHOLE, UNPROCESSED FOODS

Unlike the people of Hunza, Vilcabamba, and other traditional cultures, who eat locally gr...