Macrobiotic Principles
What is the modern diet?
The modern Western diet emphasises processed foods, but it is unclear whether the body actually produces enzymes for ingredients it cannot recognise. The modern diet is also rich in dairy and animal products, eggs, and 'nightshade' vegetables like the potato.
Some experts have linked the epidemic of chronic diseases to the modern Western diet and lifestyle.
What is modern nutrition?
Today there are so many products available with health claims. For example, low-fat or fortified foods (high in calcium, B vitamins, or XYZ) are often processed foods with a long shelf-life and complicated ingredients.
One trend in modern nutrition is to avoid food that is no ‘good’ for us. For example, we are often told to avoid dairy or gluten if we have an intolerance to it. An intolerance often underlies a sluggish or poor digestive tract which will not necessarily be improved by avoiding certain foods. A healthy colon should actually be able to synthesise a number of vitamins on its own, especially the B vitamins.
Another trend in modern nutrition is to supplement a particular vitamin or mineral which our body may be lacking, e.g. calcium. However, too much calcium can actually leech minerals out of the bones.
Nutritional scientists tend to study nutrients in isolation, but how food works in our body cannot be fully understood in this way. It becomes easy to lose sight of the larger picture. Minerals, fats, proteins, and carbohydrates work in tandem, alongside vitamins and minerals. Eating too much of one thing throws other things out of sync.
It is well-documented that eating too much animal-based protein is dangerous to people’s health, but did you know it was also dangerous to the health of this planet? The livestock industry is among the most polluting industrial sectors in the world.
What is macrobiotics?
Actually, there is no ‘right diet.’ The seasons, the climate we live in, our level of activity, our age, our gender, and our past food/lifestyle habits all influence how our bodies use food as fuel (our metabolism).
Food creates and transforms us: it builds our blood, our bones, our nervous system – every aspect of ourselves. What is not used up in our body accumulates, creating imbalances. It is that simple.
Eating too much of one thing leads to cravings for something else. For example, eating a lot of animal-based protein generates cravings for refined sugar and alcohol. Eating primarily plant-based food, however, creates a more harmonious balance (vis-à-vis blood sugar levels, for example).
This is one reason why thinking in terms of missing nutrients may not be the most helpful direction to go.
Before the rise of industrial food production and the mass movement of food (as commodity) across the globe, almost all world cultures subsisted primarily on whole grains and vegetables, supplemented by fermented foods; seaweeds; fruits; nuts and seeds; and a little animal-based protein. Their health was sound, more so than that of today’s modern food consumer.
What is good health?
Good health is more than the absence of disease. Good health is also about having vitality, clarity, motivation, and suppleness. It relates not only to our own personal life, but to the things we are connected to: our family, our community, our planet. Ideally, we should be eating to live, not living to eat.
Proper nourishment should always come from the daily food that we eat rather than from supplements or 'health' products.
That is why knowing how to select, combine, and prepare the appropriate ingredients is as important as the ingredients themselves. It is an excellent life skill. It becomes much easier to replace old habits (relying on fast or easy food) with new ones, if they bring with them a rich, delicious, and varied menu.
These are among the themes of macrobiotics.