by Lawrence Wilson, MD

MACROBIOTICS, AND MODIFICATIONS FOR NUTRITIONAL BALANCING SCIENCE

This article introduces macrobiotics, which is an updated version of an ancient Japanese science of life that is taught in the United States mainly by Michio Kushi and those he has trained. Nutritional balancing science, as I use it, draws from macrobiotics certain concepts related to diet, mainly. However, we have changed a number of Mr. Kushi’s ideas to some degree, though not much. Here are the main changes:

1. I want to begin by giving Michio Kushi and Michael Abesera much credit for their wonderful work. The following changes do not diminish or take away from macrobiotics, which I studied with Michio Kushi in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he was just starting out in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. However, insights from hair analysis research have required a few changes that are humbly recommended in this article.

2. Most people need more omega-3 fatty acids. The rise of processed vegetable oils in many foods, along with the feeding of livestock on grain instead of grasses, their native food, has led to a deficiency of the omega-3 fatty acids in almost everyone today. Therefore, we recommend adding omega-3 fatty acids to all nutrition programs. In addition, good food sources for these include raw, certified dairy products, fish such as sardines and maybe a little salmon, but not tuna as it is too high in mercury, and some grass-fed meat and poultry and eggs. These, however, are often not enough unless one eats plenty of them.

3. The very yin and sick condition of most people today. Although Mr. Kushi relies on oriental diagnosis to assess yin and yang in people, we find that almost everyone is extremely yin and the older diagnostic methods such as face and tongue and other diagnoses, are not adequate today. Most everyone has been exposed to quite severe ionizing radiation, for example, from bomb fallout, medical x-rays and other sources. Also, most everyone is loaded with toxic chemicals and toxic metals which are also very yin.

4. Dairy products are helpful. Macrobiotics does not recommend dairy products much at all. This is an ancient Japanese food pattern that may not apply as much to the Caucasian race. We find that pure, raw, certified dairy products are excellent sources of calcium, magnesium, vitamins such as A and D, and many other nutrients. They should not be eaten in excess, but a glass of raw milk or raw cheese or raw yogurt can be an excellent addition to most people’s diets. This applies less to oriental people, however.

5. Avoid vegetarian diets. Many macrobiotic practitioners and followers suggest vegetarian diets. We do not agree, finding that most people are too yin and they need the meat in their diets. We find that vegetarian regimens cause many difficulties that are subtle and may take years to develop. They include low zinc levels, high copper levels, protein imbalances and others. Vegetarian diets tend to shorten one’s lifespan and cause severe illnesses, particularly brain problems in children such as ADD.

6. Difficulty digesting grains. Macrobiotics suggests the whole, unrefined cereal grains should be the main focus of the diet. This is valid, we find, if people’s digestive system is healthy. Until they become healthier, however, many people have terrible problems with eating a lot of whole grains.

This is unfortunate. Many people have such a load of candida albicans and other fungal infections, for example, that the grains, in excess, aggravate the situation. In this case, one is best to eat more cooked vegetables and fewer grains, often for a number of years, until the body is brought into a better balance.

7. Avoid all wheat and perhaps spelt, too. Wheat, in particular, we find to be a poor quality food today, even organic whole wheat. It has been severely hybridized or genetically modified from wheat that was grown 100 years ago, for example. The protein content is lower, the starch content is higher and the zinc content much lower. Other trace element levels are lower as well. As a result, wheat in any form, especially refined wheat but also whole wheat products, are less healthful today and best avoided completely. It is now an inflammatory food for many people that cause a myriad of subtle inflammatory reactions in the and does not nourish the body well.

8. Rice is an excellent food, but blue corn chips are better. While Orientals do extremely well on whole rice and even white basmati rice, at times, we find that it is often low in certain minerals that people need such as selenium. We therefore prefer blue corn, in particular, as a staple food. Even the organic blue corn chips are a superior substitute and should at least be included. We do not find that a diet high in rice is best for most people, though it is not a bad food, of course.

9. Legumes and other protein quality issues. Macrobiotics recommends the heavy use of legumes in the diet. We find that the quality of the protein is not good enough in the legumes and grains. Thus we recommend more eggs, meats, poultry and sardines, in particular among fish.

10. Sea vegetables contain mercury and other toxic metals. An important part of the Japanese diet are the very mineral-rich sea vegetables such as wakame, hijiki, nori and others. However, today all products from the sea contain some mercury and other toxic metals. Therefore, we limit the use of sea vegetables, sadly, and prefer kelp or kombu which appears to be higher in alginates and other chemicals that help remove the mercury and other toxic metals from the body that are contained in all sea vegetables.

11. Fish are all contaminated today. Fish is an important food in macrobiotics. It is a very nutritious food. The problem is that today’s fish is more and more contaminated with mercury, in particular, usually from coal-burning power plants in China and India, in particular, and from fossil fuel burning around the world. As a result, we sadly have to limit fish because anyone who eats any quantity of larger fish, especially, begins to show high levels of mercury on hair mineral analyses. The best fish are the very small ones such as sardines, and perhaps fresh herring, smelt, anchovies or other very small fish.

Macrobiotics may also allow seafood such as shrimp, oysters, lobster, clams, scallops, etc. These foods are even more contaminated with toxic metals today, so we do not recommend any of them at any time, no matter where they come from.

12. The role of women. Macrobiotics was fascinating to me because it emphasized that women were more fit than men to prepare food due to the women’s more sensitive nature and for other reasons having to do with their more yin nature, in general. However, today we find that in America, particularly, the role and the body chemistry of the women is changing fast and the differences between men and women are fading fast. In fact, many women are very out of touch with their feminine nature in some ways. So while the idea is basically correct, as the roles of women change, we cannot make too many generalizations about who should cook the food, for example, and other related matters.

13. The problem of food preparation. One problem with macrobiotic eating is the amount if time needed for food preparation. While spending this much time is good, it is not practical for most people today. As a result, we suggest using a electric steamer and simple methods of quick and easy cooking instead of the more lengthy methods suggested in macrobiotics. The long cooking is simply not needed in most cases.

14. The use of synthesized food supplements. This is a large area. A separate article entitled Why Use Food Supplements discusses all the reasons why we find food supplements not only helpful but absolutely necessary for most people today. In the days when macrobiotics was set up, supplements such as herbs were adequate and available. Today many herbs are not as good, some are toxic from the orient particularly, and modern nutritional science has provided us with some excellent products that help people to renourish the body, support the eliminative organs and balance the chemistry. So we use some of these sparingly and carefully. We agree fully with macrobiotic theory that synthesized supplements are far more yin and therefore one should not use too many.

15. The need for more drinking water. I learned in macrobiotics not to drink too much water, since water is very yin. However, this is not good advice today, in our view. It will slow one’s progress drastically in some cases. It is true that water is very yin, and it is correct not to drink with meals so as not to dilute the stomach acid and digestive juices. However, reasons we find that adults need to drink 3 quarts or even more water for a while, include:

· The level of toxins in the bodies today is enormous and we need to remove them.

· Grains break down in the body to water, in part. However, we do not recommend the large amount of grains that many macrobiotic practitioners would recommend.

· Eating more meat adds some toxins that are inevitable, but may require more water

· Especially those on a nutritional balancing program who are eliminating toxins very quickly, definitely need the extra drinking water.

The need for more water today is quite important. Also, we find that only spring or distilled water adequately hydrates the body. I do not recall if macrobiotics recommends a particular type of drinking water. However, we find that reverse osmosis water does not hydrate the body well enough in most cases, and that tap water is often contaminated with chemicals that cannot be filtered out too easily with carbon filters.

Macrobiotics makes extensive use of the ancient concepts of yin and yang. For more on this fascinating topic that is paramount in nutritional balancing science, read Yin And Yang Healing.

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