Letters About Article: Macrobiotics at a Crossroads

^{Letters to Macrobiotics
Today}

George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation, PO Box 3998, Chico, CA 95927;
800-232-2372; 530-566-9765

To purchase Macrobiotics Today magazine, go to www.gomf.macrobiotic.net

tHE FOLLOWING LETTERS WERE PUBLISHED
IN THE MAR-APRIL, 2005 ISSUE

Crosswords

I want to begin by saying that Michael Rossoff (“Macrobiotics at a Crossroads” January/February 2005) is either unaware of the reality of my current teachings or else is seriously misinformed.

Additionally, it’s hard to understand why he finds it necessary to criticize others in order to validate his own point of view. Sadly, this appears to be an increasing trend among longtime teachers and counselors of macrobiotics. If our thoughts have validity we ought to be able to present them to the public without having to diminish the work of others. If Michael Rossoff’s true intention is to create a dialogue among the longtime teachers and advocates of the macrobiotic way and to help macrobiotics move more effectively into the future, I am all for it. However, in that case, wouldn’t openness to (rather than criticism of) the teachings of others be more effective than direct public criticism?

– Denny Waxman

Philadelphia, PA

Michael Responds

Denny Waxman has responded as though I have attacked him on a personal basis. Rather, my intention is to begin a long-overdue public dialogue about the present and future of macrobiotics. For too long, teachers have functioned as independent spokespersons without real efforts to explore differences constructively. Our teachings and writings deserve scrutiny otherwise we have no mirror to see how we are understood. If we don’t want to narrow the viewpoints by creating Waxman’s macrobiotics or Rossoff’s macrobiotics, then we must grow by debate and by clarifying our understanding and expression. That was my aim with this article. I would still like for Denny to address my critiques about protein (quoted from his article in the November/December, 2003 Macrobiotics Today) and about potatoes (from his article, “Meat & Potatoes,” that is currently, 2005, on his website). This could begin a genuine dialogue between peers.

Macrobiotics is built upon the premise that the dynamic of yin-yang philosophy has practical and powerful implications for helping us live healthier and saner lives. Everyone’s interpretations will be somewhat different, based on his or her experiences, studies, and biases. Macrobiotics is not one person’s belief versus another’s. If so, then one is absolutely right, and the other must be totally wrong. This becomes the very dualism that the Unifying Principle was meant to raise us above. So while every long-time teacher has his/her understanding and interpretation, the greater goal is to grow as a community by exchanging and challenging each other’s ideas. This can be creative and energizing for everyone.
– Michael Rossoff
Asheville, NC

More on Crossroads-------------------------------------------------------

The article by Michael Rossoff was very well organized and had a wonderful flow to it. Moreover, there is an immense amount of enlightening information that is well thought out philosophically. It hits an important nail on the head. I have a patient-educational handout called “Am I Against Macrobiotics?” It says to make the changes that you can, do them in a gradual and comfortable fashion, and if you cannot go all the way (and even if you can), don’t be rigid or absolute. I like what Michael said, but felt at the end that he had not spelled out enough of what can and cannot be reasonably done. As a final thought, I would say that most of us repeat our mistakes and so guidance leading to “mature restraint” will be essential for those who are not “naturals,” which means most people who come to macrobiotics.

– Robert Silverstein, M.D.

Hartford, CT

The article is well written and not too critical at all. I agree with much of what Michael Rossoff wrote about and have voiced similar feelings over the years.

– Norio Kushi

Becket, MA

I wish to comment on Michael Rossoff’s article, “Macrobiotics at a Crossroads.” I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful, insightful essay concerning the future of an outstanding way of life suitable to anyone. I totally agree with Michael that macrobiotics has a two-fold purpose – to inform those who are interested in a saner, more practical, healthier life, and to better train counselors to help those who are ill and want healing.

Also in my opinion, macrobiotics was not founded to heal cancer. Rather it is like a three-legged stool with one leg labeled food, one spiritual, and one emotional. I would be very happy to see macrobiotics return to the basics of large-life thinking that encompasses not only what and how we treat food, but how we personally live our lives with respect to all living things and a more loving respect for one another. Thanks to Michael for awakening us from our complacency.

– Joanne Goldman

Newton, MA

Thanks to Michael Rossoff for writing the article in Macrobiotics Today. I hope that it will encourage people to think and to discuss how to improve and continue to evolve the teachings of macrobiotics. I believe that the teachings of macrobiotics are unique and beneficial in many ways compared to other natural health ways being taught today. This is my reason for teaching for the last 25 years.Although I enjoy the insights of Chinese medicine, I think that Ohsawa’s and Michio’s attempts to clarify the energetics of yin and yang from the traditional have merit. This, as has been discussed, still needs more development.– John Kozinski
Becket, MA

I just finished reading Michael Rossoff’s article – well done. Thank god that he mentioned at the end for us to align ourselves with the core understanding of TCM – yin yang principle – something I have been saying for 18 years! Macrobiotics has to come clean with that one to move on. I think the TCM view of food energetics has a much richer understanding than just simple categories of yin-yang. The macrobiotic community in the United States needs to think in terms of blood xu-qi foods – warming, cooling, etc., to help broaden the understanding of what food does. My macrobiotic center in Sydney, Australia that I ran for 18 years always taught the TCM view. We had no problems with people getting stuck and fixed on certain ideas.
It was wonderful to see the picture of Michael with Herman Aihara. I sponsored Herman and Cornellia to teach at our summer retreats in the early 1990s. I miss him.
– Roger Green
New York, NY

I find it interesting that Michael Rossoff mentions Denny Waxman’s name in several instances in a not-so-positive sense but does not mention that Dr. Sattilaro’s book, Recalled By Life, was written documenting his experience and recovery using Denny’s counseling and guidance. Michael also mentions that Kushi Institute is the only Institute that trains counselors and fails to mention that Denny founded the Strengthening Health Institute (SHI) in 1997 and has been training people to be certified macrobiotic health counselors ever since. At SHI, Denny teaches people not only how to eat macrobiotically but also is constantly updating and making changes by what he has observed by his clients in private practice and the problems he sees happening as a result of what they are doing. He teaches that all food has a purpose and that if one understands how to use it, one can get the benefit from it. He teaches for the general health of individuals and educates those that are ill. Instead of making blanket statements about what is or is not being taught out there, it seems to me that Michael should take the time to see what is actually being taught and by whom.
I have studied and worked with Denny at SHI and every person who attended an SHI program came away inspired, encouraged, and over only a week’s time, a healthier person. One could see a difference after just a few days. Most all of his students are either teaching, cooking, or just living a macrobiotic lifestyle – and not in a deprived, restricted manner.
– Jill Sherman
Kimberly, ID

I read the January/February 2005 issue from cover to cover and think this was the best issue I have read. I loved every article. I know Michael Rossoff and always enjoy his formal and informal comments about macrobiotics at our monthly potlucks here in Asheville, North Carolina. Having only followed macrobiotics for 5 plus years I’m not an expert, but I think that one’s condition dictates how strict or loose one can be.

After I got through the technical part of Jym Moon’s article on vaccinations, the last 2 pages were very interesting and informative. I plan to send it to our children who don’t receive Macrobiotics Today. The reprint of the establishment of the macrobiotic community from the East coast to the West coast was very interesting.

Carl Ferre’s article on Rickets was excellent as usual and Julia Ferre’s recipes on umebosohi condiments stimulated me to get out some shiso leaves (or powder) and to try some of her condiments. I’m sure they will be excellent.

I’m relatively new to macrobiotics and really enjoy the work that the Foundation is doing. I love being in control of my health rather than in the control of the healthcare system. Keep up the good work.

– Mike Bernatovicz

Asheville NC

THE FOLLOWING LETTERS WERE PUBLISHED
IN THE MAY-JUNE, 2005 ISSUE

Personal Choices Concerning Protein
By Denny Waxman

I am responding to Michael Rossoff’s request (Letters column in the March/April 2005 issue) to clarify my views on protein. Let me begin by stating that although I see macrobiotics as an orderly approach to both diet and lifestyle, in this response I am going to focus on diet.
Grains and vegetables together at every meal provide the basis for complete and healthy nutrition. Soup further enhances our nourishment and digestion. All other foods complement and enhance the nourishment we receive from the grain and vegetable basis of our diet. I am not suggesting that we limit our diet to grains, vegetables, and soup. I am proposing that we follow an orderly progression in planning our meals. Do we want to include fish or other animal protein as part of our diet? In my view, that’s a personal choice.
All food has protein. Is it necessary to emphasize protein in every meal? I would say no. We include protein dishes on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis depending on our needs and desires whether or not they are of vegetable or animal quality. Through the varied selection of foods and methods of preparation, we can derive complete and balanced nutrition from a vegan style of macrobiotics. For a variety of reasons, many of us may want to include fish or other animal protein as part of our diets. I want to state clearly that the choice is ours.
I recommend the following guidelines for planning healthy meals at home or away:
Questions to consider before planning the meal itself:
1. What is my grain or grain product? Grains are the basis or centerpiece of the meal.
2. What are my vegetable dishes? Vegetables balance, complete and harmonize grains.
Questions to consider every day:
1. What type of soup will I have today? Soup activates and harmonizes the digestion.
2. What other foods, dishes and cooking styles do I need to feel satisfied and be well nourished? In this category we can choose from beans, bean products, sea vegetables, nuts and seeds and their butters, oils, condiments, seasonings, fruits, healthy snacks, sweets, desserts, and beverages. We can also include high quality animal and dairy food, if we choose.
Is it necessary to include animal and dairy food for the long-term practice of macrobiotics? I would say no. I do think it is easier for many of us to include them. To practice a vegan style of macrobiotics takes more time and effort in food selection and preparation.
Whatever your choices, remember to sit down to eat without doing other things and to chew well.

Dear Editor,
I was moved to respond to Michael Rossoff’s article, Macrobiotics at a Crossroads (January/February 2005). While he had some good initial statements which I loved, such as remembering the wonderful way out that macrobiotics offers us of the “good versus bad” dualistic thinking about food and life - I was left feeling he had made a very strong case for “not being too narrow” and embracing animal food. It made me think about how so many macrobiotic people have made good use of animal food and alcohol and sugar in order to get out of their own personal good/bad system about food... they have thrown out their rules and conceptuality and loosened up and gotten more humility and this is all great! Liberating and necessary. But let’s not throw out the baby with the dirty bath water. I have been eating grains and vegetables for 35 years, since I was six, and every year I feel that I am getting stronger, more flexible, have a clearer mind and sharper senses, than the year before. A whole, different river valley opens up to a person who has wandered away from the reliance on animal food and concentrated foods. Whole grain energy is cooler, lower key, but steadier, subtle, and more adaptable than animal food energy. Animal food gives a strong, irreplacable hit - just like it’s counterparts, sugar, drugs and alcohol - it's fabulous, we all come from it and love it - but that energy is wider swinging and more erratic. The journey from one kind of fuel to another involves time, and vision, and a non-good/bad base. It’s different - two different systems of life, two river valleys.
I don’t want us to lose faith in the grain based vegetarian version of macrobiotics just because a few people ate a few too many umeboshi plums and got a little overly conceptual. Just because we don’t have a social environment that backs up this simple way of eating, doesn’t mean we can’t start building one. I have seen boys and girls grow up without any fish or animal quality protein of any sort and become strong, strapping, energetic, beautiful, buff and buxom young men and women - I have seen men and women pass sixty, eat simpler than ever, and become more relaxed, physically fit, and have a better sense of humor - so I know from experience as well as understanding that a grain based diet has lots of life to offer.... in fact, I could argue that it’s the valley least explored so it’s one of the more promising places to go looking for solutions to some of the paradoxes built in to modern times. In our need to rebel against conceptuality and “good vs bad” thinking, we sometimes forget the very reason we got into all this business in the first place!
Thank you,
-Eliza Eller

Fear-Based Practice

I was very impressed by the recent article written by one of my first teachers – Michael Rossoff (Macrobiotics at a Crossroads, January/February 2005). In his own understated style he tackles head on the issues that face those of us involved in teaching macrobiotics today. Like me he identifies the turning point for us all in direction when Tony Satillaro’s story hit the press. Many of us were overwhelmed by the public’s clamor to find out more and our training as “barefoot doctors” was quite adequate but in many ways our youthful enthusiasm to help was swamped by the new direction our classes and consultations had to adapt to the new demand. Life and work got very serious and the play element certainly diminished also.
I remember vividly in 1984 being placed on the set of a live news program in London opposite a furious cancer professor who held aloft a copy of Michio’s Cancer Prevention Diet and read extracts such as – “leave your spouse if they do not support you in your healing process.”
While our intentions were noble and our desire to help came from the heart, many of us had to learn fast that there were other areas than diet that needed addressing in a compassionate and sensible fashion. To this day I take a much wider perspective in counseling and several old kernels in the macrobiotic community simply dismiss my approach claiming that I have lost the plot!
I am convinced that if George Ohsawa turned up today he would align himself with those who have stood on his shoulders and forged ahead rather than to hang out with those rigidly sticking to a style of macrobiotics from 50 years ago.
Well done for publishing Michael’s piece – may it bring about constructive changes and the dissolution of a fear-based practice of macrobiotics.
-Jon Sandifer
London, England