Articles
on Macrobiotics
Written by Michael Rossoff
by
Michael Rossoff
A basic goal with macrobiotics is
to be truly satisfied
with our daily eating. Many people, even after
years of study and practice, remain unfulfilled. This
becomes the unspoken cause for over eating or for
habitual bingeing.
There
is a way out of this dilemma. It requires a clear
understanding about the nature of foods, about our
relationship to foods, about our mistaking the effects
of other things we do and about our expectations for
our life.
The
nature of foods includes two essential factors. First
is the nutritional side: the protein, fat, carbohydrate,
minerals and vitamins contained in all foods. These
are the measurable aspects. Yet these measurements
do not convey the “vitality” factor of foods. Many
people mistakenly believe that calories indicate this
important side. Calories are a measurement of the
heat given off when a food is burnt in a laboratory,
not the inherent “vital force” contained within each
food.
Chinese
medicine evaluates all substances by their energy
nature—either more yin or more yang. It also uses
the 5 Phase Theory, which further distinguishes yin
and yang into five classifications: Wood, Fire, Earth,
Metal and Water. Yin-yang and 5 Phase are efforts
to give meaning to the invisible quality of energy.
We
need nutritionally sound foods, with ample vitamins,
proteins, fats and sugars (carbohydrates). Even more
central is the need for strong energies within these
foods. The simplest way to achieve this is by buying
organic foods whenever possible. The energetic benefits
are worth the added expense. Likewise, tamari, miso
and other common macrobiotic foods are much more enhanced
with nature’s vitality when they are made by traditional
methods.
Our
relationship to food is deep and primal. It is also
blended with years of habits, emotional entanglements
and unconscious drives. We must distinguish our needs
from our endless desires. We need to honor food as
providing us both nourishment and sensory satisfaction.
All too often the best macrobiotic practice is assumed
to be very limited in food selection and range of
flavors. No wonder macrobiotics has a reputation as
a bland diet!
Macrobiotics
must respect that there are numerous ways to gratify
our natural senses. These include culinary herbs (such
as basil, thyme, anise, rosemary and sage), daily
use of salts (including miso, umeboshi, tamari and
seaweeds) and oils (good ones include sesame, canola,
and olive), and a valid place for sweeteners and fruits,
fish and flour products and occasional beer or wine
(for those who like it). Further, the art of cooking
is fundamental to fulfilling the senses. This includes
various cooking styles, food combinations and the
subtle aspects that turn food into a beautiful and
delicious meal.
Many
people eat well balanced meals and assume they have
achieved balance in their diets. But they often ignore
the other substances that they take and the effects
these can create. For example, some people take vitamins
(and minerals). Others are ingesting “medicinal” items
like blue-green algae, concentrated herbs, shark cartilage,
melatonin and DHEA. Still others are on prescription
medicines for high blood pressure or high cholesterol,
or take hormones like estrogen or synthyroid. All
of these—from the algae to hormones—have distinct
and powerful effects. None are neutral; rather each
is either more yin or more yang. Therefore, they often
create intense cravings. For example, women taking
estrogen often crave strong yin, like chocolate. Unless
we recognize that these items exert powerful forces
that demand to be balanced, we can easily feel strange,
unexplainable cravings and desires. We can feel out
of control.
What
are our expecta
tions for our life? The greater our clarity, the more
simple it becomes to stay on a reasonable path for
success. Otherwise, we are easily susceptible to the
myriad influences from others, whether the “others”
are family, friends, commercialism, or society’s norms.
This degree of clarity requires that we come to know
ourselves better. Who am I? What are my potentials?
What are my dreams and aspirations? This is Inner
Work. This is personal refinement and self-improvement.
Macrobiotics won’t give you the answers. Rather it
can offer you the well being to create the calm and
open-minded reception necessary to discover the answers.
You
may ask, How strict do I need to be to pursue and
achieve the goal of well-being? To me the question
is wrong. Better to ask, What is appropriate broadness
to eating and lifestyle that will achieve this goal?
The first question comes from the assumption that
macrobiotics is a healing diet only. But a “healing”
diet differs from a broader, natural macrobiotic approach
by degrees of limitations. A healing diet may be necessary
to create a “jump-start” to the self-healing powers,
but even over the long term it will naturally broaden.
Others believe that “strict” means
and that spiritual achievement automatically flows
from a rigidly disciplined diet. This “spiritual diet”
is the most unsuccessful because the degree of strictness
has no end in sight. We always have room to grow spiritually,
so we can stubbornly justify more and more narrow
eating. But this is just fanaticism detached from
reality—a true sense of how things are. Even fasting,
the ultimate extreme, is impossible to maintain for
very long. And so it should be.
Instead we need to cultivate the
ability to switch from broad to “stricter” eating
whenever we feel so inclined, whether for spiritual
or any other reason. This is no longer experienced
as “strict,” but as “simple” eating. Now each bite
of such humble food can deeply satisfy all levels
of nourishment. As satisfying as this can be, we need
the flexibility to also eat broadly for our greatest
adaptability to life in these modern times.
To
me, “real” macrobiotics encompasses a spirit of learning
through our experiences, using the Unique Principle
of yin–yang that can inspire a greater understanding
of all that is inside and outside of us. It is like
using a magnifying glass to focus the sun at one spot.
Then a spark ignites the fire. This is utilizing macrobiotics
for living with a spirit of adventure and discovery.
www.michaelrossoff.com