“I am a macrobiote.” This is how I answer those who ask me why I don’t eat tomatoes or drink coffee. My answer is so amazing to the questioners, as if I, at least, admitted that I flew from Mars. And then the question usually follows: “What is it?”
What exactly is macrobiotics? At first, it was difficult to describe in a few words, but over time, its own brief formulation appeared: macrobiotics is such a nutrition and lifestyle system that helps maintain health, excellent mood and clarity of mind. Sometimes I add that it was this system that helped me recover in a few months from diseases that doctors could not cope with for many years.
The most terrible disease for me was an allergy. She made itself felt with itching, redness and very poor skin condition. From birth, allergies have been my companion, which haunted me day and night. How many negative emotions – for what? why me? What a waste of time fighting! How many tears and shame! Despair…
A thin, shabby book on macrobiotics came to me just when I almost believed that I had no chance. I don’t know why I believed George Osawa at that moment, but I did. And he, taking my hand, led me along the path of healing and proved that I have a chance – just like all of you! They say that even those who suffer from diabetes and cancer have a chance to be healed.
George Osawa is a Japanese doctor, philosopher and educator, thanks to whom macrobiotics (ancient Greek – “big life”) became known in the West. Born in the ancient capital of Japan, the city of Kyoto, on October 18, 1883. From childhood, George Osawa suffered from poor health, which he was able to recover by turning to oriental medicine and resorting to a simple plant-based diet based on the principles of Yin and Yang. In 1920, his main work, A New Theory of Nutrition and Its Therapeutic Effect, was published. Since then, the book has gone through about 700 editions, and more than 1000 macrobiotic centers have opened around the world.
Macrobiotics is based on the Eastern concept of the balance of Yin and Yang, known for more than five thousand years, and some principles of Western medicine. Yin is the name of an energy that has an expanding and cooling effect. Yang, on the contrary, leads to contraction and warming. In the human body, the action of the energies of Yin and Yang is manifested in the expansion and contraction of the lungs and heart, stomach and intestines during digestion.
George Osawa took a new approach to the concepts of Yin and Yang, meaning by them the acidifying and alkalizing effect of products on the body. Therefore, eating Yin or Yang foods can regulate the acid-base balance in the body.
Strong Yin foods: potatoes, tomatoes, fruits, sugar, honey, yeast, chocolate, coffee, tea, preservatives and stabilizers. Strong Yang foods: red meat, poultry, fish, hard cheeses, eggs.
An excess of Yin foods (especially sugar) causes a lack of energy, which a person tries to compensate for by eating a lot of Yang foods (especially meat). Excess consumption of sugar and protein leads to obesity, which entails a whole “bouquet” of various diseases. Excessive consumption of sugar and insufficient intake of protein leads to the fact that the body begins to “eat” its own tissues. This leads to exhaustion and, as a result, to the development of infectious and degenerative diseases.
Therefore, if you want to be healthy, do not eat strong Yin and Yang foods, as well as chemically and genetically modified foods. Opt for whole grains and unprocessed vegetables.
Based on the properties of the products listed above, 10 nutrition modes are distinguished in macrobiotics:
Rations 1a, 2a, 3a are undesirable;
Rations 1,2,3,4 – daily;
Rations 5,6,7 – medical or monastic.
Think about what you choose?
Text: Ksenia Shavrina.