“Americans love to hear good things about their bad habits.”
—T. Colin Campbell
The most pervasive myth is that healthier eating is based on restriction and giving up things that we may feel are very important for our well-being—emotional or otherwise. You achieve health by avoiding animal foods, avoiding soy, avoiding dairy foods, avoiding sugar, avoiding coffee, avoiding carbohydrates, avoiding gluten, avoiding this, avoiding that, avoid perhaps pretty much anything enjoyable. Stranger still, what is replacing all of this taking away?
The idea of restriction and avoiding things is so absolutely pervasive and detrimental that it is hard to escape. There is no model in nature or in life where restriction leads to flexibility, openness, healthy old age, or long-lasting health. We can however consistently be making decisions and actions that support our own health. And as it turns out, we have the ability to reconnect to a natural sense of health.
Restrictions and taking away can lead to imbalances and deficiencies, whereas adding healthy foods cannot. One thing that is common is that science and medicine constantly change their nutritional recommendations to the opposite. The end result is often: Are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, etc. beneficial or not?
UNDERSTANDING NUTRITION
When we began breaking food down into nutrients, we began to lose touch with food itself. Food has to replace nutrition. Activity has to replace exercise. Trying to move toward health has to replace simply avoiding sickness. This book is not against sickness; it is for health. Creating conditions for health naturally diminishes the prevalence of sickness. It is that simple.
The reality is we never really need to think about nutrients. If we eat a variety of plant-based foods according to some orderly guidelines throughout the year, we receive abundant nourishment in all areas.
Our body has the ability to choose what it needs when it needs it, in the exact quantities. This leads to complete and balanced nutrition. Here is a useful analogy: if you like to cook, then you keep a well-stocked pantry and refrigerator. Then when you decide on your meal, you pick whatever you need in the right amounts to create that meal.
When you eat a variety of plant-based foods from different categories, our bodies do exactly the same. What we eat today enters our blood plasma by tomorrow. Plasma is the liquid portion of our blood that carries nutrients and transports waste to be eliminated. It makes up about 55 percent of our blood, and renews itself every ten days. So choosing a variety of plant-based foods over a ten-day period creates the best quality blood. Essentially then, the more variety you include in your diet over a one- to two-week period, the more you will benefit.
With the modern approach in nutritional theory, each nutrient needs another nutrient to be utilized properly. It is impossible to calculate the amounts we need and the types of individual nutrients we need. When using this approach, we may even develop imbalances and deficiencies. The key to good nourishment, from a purely nutritional perspective, is to take the steps to create good eating habits that support digestion, and learn the orderly planning of meals.
We break food down from solid to liquid and then into energy. Food nourishes us on many levels: physically, emotionally, mentally, and even spiritually. It is much more helpful to use the perspective: “How can I nourish and satisfy myself in these different areas?” In this way, we can relearn how to nourish ourselves in the best possible way, guided by our body’s intuition.
Essentially, we need a different approach to nutrition, or at the very least to move away from the belief that good nutrition is based on ingredients. Protein is probably the one nutrient of greatest concern and importance for most people. It is interesting to observe that our thinking has been clouded by superstition, by the myth that animal and dairy proteins are superior nutrients. The fact of the matter is that plant-based proteins provide the highest quality protein that does not tend to move us toward degenerative illness.
Whereas animal foods are combinations of second-hand nutrients and toxins from the animal eating plants, dairy foods for human consumption are third-hand nutrients and provide even more toxins from the animal. Each form of dairy is unique to a species, and is the perfect transitional food until the young are able to take plant-based foods. Therefore, these proteins tend to be highly acidifying and over time, contribute heavily to degenerative illness. The one nutrient that may need to be supplemented in those with plant-based diets is the micronutrient B-12.
The main source of B-12 worldwide is dirt, and is especially concentrated in manure, where it is a by-product of digestive fermentation. When food used to be produced by small farms with animals, the transformed manure returned to the soil. In turn, B-12 is found in the crevices of vegetables growing in the soil. We do not need much B-12 in our diet, so in many cases, eating completely organically grown vegetables provides us abundantly with B-12. B-12 deficiency is extremely rare in people following these guidelines. Some people are also more comfortable taking a B-12 supplement. The only sure way to know if you are getting adequate B-12 is with a blood test.
SOURCE OF ALL MAJOR NUTRIENTS
Dairy and Calcium
As far as calcium is concerned, another superstition is that the best calcium comes from dairy. The more animal and dairy foods in the diet, the greater the risks for developing osteoporosis. Excess animal and dairy foods tend to create acidifying conditions that tend to leach calcium from our bones, muscles, and nervous system. The most absorbable and usable calcium is in leafy greens, vegetables, and beans. Seeds and nuts (especially sesame seeds) further aid in building and maintaining strong bones, muscles, and nervous system. Greens and beans have been in human diets for many thousands of years. Traditional people largely did not have osteoporosis; it is a truly modern disease.
The Good and The Bad: Carbs
All of the world’s long-standing civilizations were grain based. In addition, all people identify with, and are inseparable from their traditional grains. Common examples include rice in Asia, bread in Europe, corn in the Americas. This idea that grains were the most important food on the planet has been around for thousands of years, up until 1956 when the United States Department of Agriculture created “The Basic Four.”
The Basic Four—meat and animal proteins, milk and dairy, vegetable and fruits, and starches—conquered the world. Cereal grains dramatically shifted from a place of honor and respect to almost taboo. To make matters worse, cereal grains became confused with breakfast cereals composed mostly of refined grains and added sugars. The traditional un-yeasted sourdough breads made from organic stone ground flours gave way to refined and enriched baked flour products. Both unrefined and refined grains became grouped together as “carbs” and were thought to be simply “fillers” or calories devoid of nutrients.
Contrary to popular belief, protein is not our principal nutrient. Glucose is our main nutrient and nourishes every cell in the body. Healthy glucose comes from grains, beans, and starchy vegetables, which are complex carbohydrates (or polysaccharides). These complex carbohydrates slowly break down into glucose, a monosaccharide. The fiber in these foods guides them through the entire digestive process, allowing them to be absorbed in the intestines in a healthy way.
On the other hand, simple sugars and refined carbohydrates are absorbed directly into the blood without going through the entire digestive process. This immediate absorption creates an acidic condition in the blood, whereby we lose minerals (especially calcium) and vitamins in attempts to neutralize the acidity.
We recommend reintroducing healthy, complex carbohydrates in the form of grains, whole grain products, beans, and starchy vegetables, as opposed to trying to avoid refined or processed grain products. Some examples of healthy carbohydrates are brown rice, barley, millet, oatmeal, bulgur, polenta, durum wheat semolina pasta, and un-yeasted sourdough bread. When we begin to incorporate whole grains, we naturally begin to develop a taste for beans and starchy vegetables.
Complex carbohydrates are the most satisfying and filling foods. They also provide the strongest energy, vitality, and flexibility for physical and mental activities. More and more professional athletes are discovering the power and importance of these foods.
Oil
Oil has a long tradition in cooking; both olive and sesame oil have been in use for thousands of years. Both olive and sesame oil can be pressed naturally without added heat or solvents. Even though oil is not a whole food, it has the ability to transform our foods. The use of oil in food preparation has recently come under question because it is not a whole food and is very calorie-dense. Because it has been in use for thousands of years, it leads me to think that the proper use of high-quality oil has important value.
Oil provides different benefits. Oil changes the taste and satisfaction of the food as well as the physical, mental, and emotional energy of the food. It can also create a heating or cooling effect, and increases our ability to absorb minerals and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) at the deepest levels of our organs, bones, and nervous system. If you use oil at the beginning of cooking, it has a more deeply nourishing and energizing effect and provides warmth. Whereas if you add oil at the end of cooking, there is a more dispersing effect, which tends to be more relaxing and cooling. When oil is used properly, it enhances the taste and texture of the food and does not taste oily because the oil has been integrated into the dish.
Try to find the highest quality, mechanically-pressed and unrefined sesame and olive oils for use as your primary oils. You can tell much about the quality by the taste and smell—similar to water. Think about the water in different cities, or at different times of the year. Sesame oil is drier than other types of oil; it has a lighter, more refined quality and encourages the intellect and practicality. Olive oil is richer and more moisturizing, and nourishes the emotions more. Imagine the differences in Japanese and Italian cuisine. You may want to experiment on your own, trying periods with or without oil in your food preparation. Always mind the quality and quantity of the oil.
Oil should never burn. When using oil at the beginning of cooking, slowly and gently add water before the first sign of sizzling to disperse and cool the oil. Do not wait until the oil is too hot or sizzles loudly. This method allows us to use less oil and combines the oil with the food more thoroughly. You may also add oil near the end after steaming or boiling to add a light, refreshing effect to a dish. These suggestions and insights have come from my experience with how we use oil at home, at seminars, and in my counseling practice.
Protein
One of the common misconceptions about vegan diets is that they are deficient in protein due to the lack of animal and dairy foods. However, all foods in their natural state contain protein; it is nearly impossible to have a protein deficiency. Eating a variety of grains, beans, vegetables, fruits, and naturally pickled and fermented foods provides the most complete and high-quality protein available.
The research of T. Colin Campbell brings to light epigenetics, and how our food choices regulate how our genes express themselves. It seems the combination of animal and dairy foods moves us closer to the potential to develop cancer. His research demonstrates that consuming casein (dairy protein) has a stronger potential to cause cancer than red meat. At first, I was surprised about these findings, but upon thinking, it makes perfect sense.
When we eat a whole-foods, plant-based diet, we are getting protein directly from nature. On the other hand, when we eat meat, we receive second-hand protein as well as the toxic waste produced by the animal through processing the protein. When we eat dairy foods, we receive third-hand protein, as the food went through another stage of processing in the animal. What we are told about the source of superior protein is actually much more inferior. Not only that, but the commercial conditions in which most animals are raised increases the amount of toxicity we receive from these animal products.
What we eat today enters our blood plasma by tomorrow. Plasma is the liquid portion of our blood that carries nutrients and transports waste to be eliminated. It makes up about 55 percent of our blood, and renews itself every ten days. So choosing a variety of plant-based foods over a ten-day period creates the best quality blood.
My long-term observation has been that people naturally lose their taste for animal and dairy foods once they base their diet on grains, beans, and vegetables. I find it interesting that most macrobiotic children are in the top 50 percent of their class for height and weight. They are generally raised on what is considered a low-protein diet. Macrobiotic children raised eating a variety of healthy foods are never thinking about individual nutrients. Food is a source of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual nourishment.
Many of these children often have little taste for many protein-rich foods other than tofu and broccoli. Shifting our thinking away from food as a set of composite nutrients is one of the keys for adopting a healthy and satisfying way of eating. Nature provides for us abundantly, and choosing plant-based foods that nourish us directly gives us the additional satisfaction of feeling a deeper connection with nature.
Soy and Miso
Throughout its history Japan consumed little animal food, and almost no dairy. Breast and prostate cancer rates are very low. Could it be that the use of traditional soy products made that possible?
What Is Healthy Soy?
Soy has been called both a superfood and a danger to the thyroid, hormone, and nervous systems; it has been suggested that it may cause cancer. It is no wonder eating healthy feels impossible. What you need to know is that the quality of soy matters. To get the all these benefits from soy, buy organic, non-GMO. Instead of soy isolates used to make fake meat and dairy products, use a variety of traditional soy products including miso, shoyu, tofu, tempeh, natto, and soy milk. Soy isolates, like textured vegetable protein (TVP or TSP) are harmful due to the high level of processing. TVP is not a natural process. Soy meat substitutes such as Tofurkey should be avoided. They are not tofu. Reserve soy chicken and hotdogs for special occasions.
What is Miso?
Miso is a unique food. It is a fermented soybean paste often made with brown rice or barley. It can be used as a seasoning in various types of sauces, spreads, soups, and for pickling other foods such as vegetables, tofu, or fish. Certain preparations of miso provide the most benefit. In macrobiotics, we recommend using barley or brown rice miso that has been aged two to three years. Miso soup can be enjoyed often or daily, and even two to three times a week will start to improve your health.
Health Benefits
A recent article reported that miso may prevent a number of modern illnesses. It provides protection from radiation and other environmental toxins and can be eaten for digestive and cardiovascular health.
A great way to get the amazing benefits of miso is to make it into a soup with wakame seaweed and vegetables. The benefit of properly prepared miso soup is that it immediately strengthens digestive health, blood quality, and circulation. Miso helps clean the intestinal villi and creates healthy bacteria and enzymes in the digestive tract. Enjoying miso soup regularly strengthens our digestion and alkalizes our overall condition.
SALT, SUN, AND STRESS
It is so strange and unfortunate that three things absolutely essential for life have become villains in our society: the sun, salt, and stress. There is hardly any rationale or evidence that these nefarious claims are true. They only become a problem when they become too much.
Salt
Today’s diets blame salt for chronic diseases, high blood pressure, and hypertension. They claim a major decrease in salt will cure these problems. However, salt is an essential nutrient that every living creature needs in order to survive. What we have discovered in macrobiotics is that not all salt is bad and too little salt is just as harmful as too much. Instead, salt should be evaluated on what type of salt is used—refined salt or unrefined white sea salt—and when salt is added to food. This will determine if the salt will be harmful or beneficial to the body.
What Is Refined Salt?
Refined salt or table salt is sodium chloride that has been stripped of all minerals and elements. It is brined in sulfuric acid or chlorine, added with anticaking chemicals, and bleached. This means refined salt has extra additives and harsh chemicals that are not natural. If the salt is unnatural then the body cannot use it to perform vital functions.
On top of it, refined salt is heavily added to processed foods. The overprocessed foods and refined salt increase toxins and acidity in the body. That acidity decreases your health by weakening the immune system, making you vulnerable to health issues such as high blood pressure and hypertension. That is why it is important to not get rid of all salt but decrease intake of refined salt by eating less processed foods.
What Is Unrefined Sea Salt?
Unlike refined salt, unrefined white sea salt is a whole product that can be utilized by the body. Sea salt is evaporated from sea water and washed. It is never exposed to harsh chemicals, therefore the natural minerals and elements stay intact. Unrefined sea salt is also stable and balanced. That balance from the sea salt is transferred to our bodies and helps our blood to have an alkaline condition instead of acidic. This improves our immune system and healing ability. A high-quality unrefined sea salt tastes sweet before tasting salty.
Cooking with Sea Salt
Not only does the quality of salt matter, but incorporating unrefined sea salt during cooking is essential. Adding the salt while cooking allows the sea salt to blend and bring out the natural flavors without increasing your blood pressure. Never add salt after cooking or while eating. The strongest application of salt is the catalyst for most natural fermentation processes.
Benefits of Sea Salt
The benefits of sea salt include balance of blood fluids, prevention of low blood pressure, prevention of dehydration, ability to transmit nerve impulses, allowing nutrients and oxygen to travel to their destinations, keeping bones strong, and improving the immune system. Salt brings out and preserves the nutrients in food; it is essential for the absorption and utilization of carbohydrates. The properties of salt help us to create and maintain an alkaline condition, which strengthens immunity and aids in healing ability. Salt is also the basis of physical and mental resistance and memory. The way salt is used is very important. Salt helps us be active and strengthens our determination.
SUN
There is no mistake that we get vitamin D from the sun. All of life depends on the sun, and sunlight is an essential ingredient for an overall healthy life. It is important to overcome our fear of the sun and the many myths surrounding sun exposure as an enemy to health. It’s very clear that the sun is our friend and absolutely essential for good health: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The sun cleans and renews our energy. It promotes good health and prevents cancer. The sun also releases stagnation and toxification physically, emotionally, and mentally.
To get the most benefit sit up, stand, or take a walk outside in the sun. A vertical position (active, standing, or sitting upright) activates our metabolism and allows us to use the energy of the sun in the most healthy and beneficial way. When we are in a horizontal position, as in sunbathing, we deactivate our metabolism. Falling asleep in the sun feels similar to having an overly rich meal. Too much sunbathing is like eating too much rich food. It can also weaken immunity, causing the skin to dry out and age prematurely. Unhealthy skin and overexposure to the sun may result in the development of skin cancer. The sun is good until we become very slightly red. This is the sign that it is time to cover up or take cover.
STRESS
The great historian Arnold Toynbee interpreted history in terms of challenge and response. The development of civilizations is possible by their responses to neighboring people and the environment. It is stress. If the challenge is either too great or insufficient, a civilization is not able to develop. A lack of stress means we develop in a spoiled environment, and if the stress is too great, it can be crushing or stifling.
All three, salt, sun, and stress are great additions to our lives if we keep them balanced.
A MACROBIOTIC PERSPECTIVE ON GLUTEN ALLERGIES AND SENSITIVITY
Grains are currently under attack as a cause of many modern Western illnesses. The two most widely consumed grains in the world are rice and wheat. Attacks on rice are for arsenic contamination and phytic acid’s role in mineral absorption. Attacks on wheat are for its gluten content and for being over-hybridized. This is not a scientific explanation about gluten sensitivity and allergies, as others have adequately explained gluten issues from a scientific perspective. Instead, I offer a macrobiotic perspective of the value and importance of these grains for our enjoyment and health. This is based on my understanding of diet and health and my experience with my students and clients over time. I have helped many people overcome their gluten sensitivities completely.
The common grains containing gluten are wheat, barley, and rye. These grains are among the most ancient grains, and wheat in particular has been cultivated as early as 16,000 b.c.e. in Egypt. All long-standing civilizations and their cuisines developed and evolved using grains as a primary source of nourishment. For more information about what a grain actually is, I provide an overview in Step 3.
Whole grains provide the ideal balance between minerals, proteins, and carbohydrates, making them the most complete source of nutrition of any food. Gluten is a combination of two proteins and is found in the endosperm (or starchy part) of certain cereal grains, and gives dough its texture. Grains essentially have encapsulated within them the entire life cycle from seed to fruit, so they are the vital food that provides and maintains the foundation of our nutrition.
There are three parts to the problem with the modern treatment of grains. First, it is true that many modern grains have become over-hybridized, sacrificing quality for yield. Second, modern milling practices (which use steel hammers and develop excessive heat) as opposed to the gentle quality of slow-grinding stone mills disturb the quality of the grain. Third, refining and enriching the grain disturbs the nutritional balance. This works like shattering a mirror and merely pasting it together and expecting it to look and function the same as before. Although enriched and refined grains have the same amount of nutrients as a whole grain, they are nutrients out of their original context and do not act the way the nutrients do in whole grains. It is likely that the combination of modern grain and our overall weakened health caused by imbalanced diet and lifestyle are the causes of gluten sensitivity, which is more like an allergic reaction. It’s also important to differentiate between gluten allergy/sensitivity and celiac disease. These guidelines are not for people with celiac disease who should avoid gluten completely.
The science of epigenetics demonstrates that diet and lifestyle regulate the way genes express themselves, which means that autoimmune diseases may reverse themselves over time with healthy diet and lifestyle practices. Many people have reported recovery from degenerative illnesses through dietary and lifestyle changes. A healthy person has the capacity to enjoy nature and life at their fullest, which includes the complete enjoyment of the foods eaten for thousands of years by the world’s long-standing civilizations. Food and environmental allergies have become rampant in our society. Allergies are results and indicators of imbalances, and are related to a weakened blood, lymph, and digestive quality, caused mostly by an overly rich or nutritionally imbalanced diet. Gluten sensitivity is an allergy of the digestive system. The base cause of digestive issues is the overconsumption of animal foods, especially red meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, and other dairy foods. Our digestive system is not designed primarily to digest and process animal foods efficiently.
Dairy foods confuse our immune system, and sugar paralyzes its ability to react appropriately. The immune system filters our blood and neutralizes acidity. Excessive consumption of dairy foods and poor quality fats clog and stagnate our immune system. They interfere with its ability to filter blood. In essence, the function of the immune system is to gather, localize, and neutralize toxins. The immune system does not fight—it harmonizes and balances. The highly expansive nature of simple sugars (such as white sugar and fructose) incapacitates our immune system’s ability to gather and localize toxins when consumed above a certain level. Only the liver can metabolize fructose, whereas all of the cells in our body metabolize glucose. The combination of dairy foods and fructose especially affects the liver, the spleen, the pancreas, and the immune system in general. In Eastern medicine, the liver and gallbladder are nourished and balanced specifically from the grains containing gluten. In a diet too highly saturated with dairy foods and fructose (especially high fructose corn syrup and agave nectar), our liver and immune system functions are compromised and may react inappropriately to these grains.
Two things cause allergic symptoms: the cause of the problem and what relieves the problem. In other words, symptoms cannot tell us directly whether a problem is getting better or worse. My experience also shows that people produce symptoms when they are recovering their health, which makes the healing process seem scary to many. We’ve associated symptoms with illness itself, which is not the case.
There is a huge difference between boiled grains such as brown rice or bulgur wheat and baked or toasted grain products. Baked, toasted, fried, yeasted, refined, and enriched grains (such as doughnuts, cookies, pastries, and commercial breakfast cereals, to name a few) seem to cause the worst reactions. From my experience, many people who are gluten sensitive are not affected by wheat or barley cooked or boiled together with brown rice. If people react to wheat or barley cooked with brown rice, it is a sign that they may have a more serious issue that requires more time to recover from.
Our body is meant to run on complex carbohydrates, especially those found in whole grains, beans, vegetables, seaweeds, and other unrefined, plant-based foods. These foods go through the entire digestive process and are eventually absorbed by the small intestine. Simple carbohydrates (such as enriched and refined grain) become absorbed directly into the blood before they go through the duodenum where they would otherwise naturally go through an alkalizing process. Baking or toasting these refined grains using dry heat can convert complex carbohydrates into trisaccharides which also causes them to be absorbed by the blood more quickly and may spike the blood sugar.
Baking and toasting are important cooking methods and I am in no way suggesting that we stop enjoying them. However, their overuse with many refined foods and added sugars contributes to the imbalances in our health. Boiling grain aids in our ability to efficiently digest and absorb its nutrition.
For those with gluten sensitivity, there are methods to try to reintroduce grain. First, avoid the foods with gluten that you know cause you to experience a reaction. Then, slowly and systematically reintroduce barley, farro, or wheat cooked with brown rice. Then, one by one, reintroduce other boiled, unrefined grains. If they cause a reaction, wait at least ten days and then try again. Then when you’re ready, try to introduce soup seasoned with naturally fermented miso. If you have difficulty or continue to experience reactions, you may want to consult with an experienced macrobiotic counselor.
There is a lot of confusion about soy products as well. My experience is that the traditional soy products, which include miso, natural soy sauce, tofu, and tempeh are all protective against estrogen-related illness. It’s been found in China and Japan that traditional soy products are protective against breast cancer. In addition, these traditional soy products have a rich array of nutrition and are helpful in practicing a healthy vegan diet.
I hope you will not be dissuaded from eating foods that have been enjoyed by people for thousands of years that provide wonderful health benefits, taste delicious, and even give us emotional satisfaction and fulfillment.