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Macrobiotic Diet
When people are asked, “what is a macrobiotic diet,” they often answer without
a clear response. Many link macrobiotic diets with traditional Oriental philosophies
while others link it with rigid vegetarianism. Some people look at the name
and assume it is a dietary program heavily based on scientific principles. Others,
though, have heard only rumors about the macrobiotic diet and claim it to be
a short-term method of losing weight in an unhealthy manner.
Despite the different assumptions out there about the Macrobiotic Diet, explaining
what is macrobiotic diet is actually a simple task. Made up of the Greek terms,
“macro” or great and “bios” or life, macrobiotics is defined in the Dictionary
of the American language as the: “art of prolonging life, as by special diet.”
The term, macrobiotics, was first used by the Ancient Greek philosopher and
father of medicine, Hippocrates, who made numerous references to it in his writings.
However, modern macrobiotics was developed in Japan by George Ohsawa, a Japanese
philosopher and educator. The George Ohsawa macrobiotic diet was developed with
the intent of integrating Zen Buddhism, Asian medicine, Christian philosophy,
and aspects of Western medicine to create a dietary program that would help
prolong one’s lifespan. Believing that the Macrobiotic Diet was instrumental
in maintaining good overall health and had positive effects in treating cancer
and other serious illnesses, George Ohsawa began to advocate the macrobiotic
diet through his teachings. In the 1960s, Ohsawa brought his teachings to the
United States. The Macrobiotic Diet now enjoys cult popularity among dieters
in North America.
Heavily rooted in the Oriental philosophical school, the Yin-Yang school, the
Macrobiotic Diet attempts to achieve a dietary harmony between yin and yang.
Yin represents an outward centrifugal movement that leads to expansion. Yang,
on the other hand, represents an inward centripetal movement that produces the
effect of contraction. Examples of yin foods are sugar, coffee and alcohol;
whereas examples of yang foods are meats, eggs and cheese. From a dietary perspective,
yin and yang represent opposite forces:
| Yin Food Properties
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Yang Food Properties
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| Cold
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Hot
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| Sweet
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Salty
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| Passive
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Aggressive
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Theorizing that the key to life is maintaining a balance between these yin
and yang forces, the Macrobiotic Diet is designed to recognize the yin and yang
properties of our food choices. For example, when one is eating a steak, a food
that contains heavy yang or contractive properties, they naturally balance it
with foods such as mashed potatoes, ice cream, or alcohol, which displays heavy
yin principles. This is an example of how we subconsciously try to balance the
yin and yang energies in our food choices. Another example of the way our body
naturally tries to balance the yin and yang energies of food is the way that
it reacts when we eat too many sweet foods. The body, as a natural response,
sends out a signal craving salty foods as a way to balance the sugar derived
from the sweet foods. This example shows one of the fundamental principles of
the Macrobiotic Diet, which is that extreme foods need extreme balance. By consuming
foods that are predominantly extreme in their Yin or Yang energies will require
balance of oppositely extreme foods that will result in a shock to the body.
Consequently, the Macrobiotic Diet is intended to provide a harmonious balance
between yin and yang foods.
Under all Macrobiotic Diets, foods are classified according to their tastes,
properties, and effects it produces on the body between the categories of yin
and yang. Certain foods are either prohibited or reduced in the amount of times
consumed based on their yin or yang properties. Grains and vegetables are the
two food groups that make up the basis of what can be consumed under the Macrobiotic
Diet. This is because grains and vegetables have the least pronounced yin and
yang qualities, which help the person dieting to achieve a more balanced dietary
condition that reflects the natural order of life.
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