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Modern macrobiotics dates from the late 19th century when
a Western-trained Japanese Army doctor, Sagen Ishizuka,
became frustrated by allopathic medicine's ineffectiveness
treating his own chronic illness. He researched traditional
Oriental medicine and developed a therapy he called shoku-yo
("food-cure"). This treatment proved so successful
that Ishizuka left the army and set up a private clinic.
According to David Briscoe, macrobiotics teacher, blood
is the foundation of health, both physical and mental. For
the blood quality to be good, the quality of the food must
be good. Without changing your blood quality, it is probably
not possible to have long-term health.
All other changes,
beneficial as they may seem, will be undermined if the blood
quality is not healthy. Blood quality is much more than
having adequate volume of blood or enough production of
red and white blood cells. Blood quality is determined by
many factors in the blood, as follows:
- pH or acid-alkaline balance
- Blood sugar
- Fat and oil
- Water
- Na/K (Sodium/Potassium) balance
- Concentration of other minerals
- Yin-yang balance
These factors are determined daily by what we consume. Macrobiotics
teaches about changes in diet that will improve blood quality
and thus, improve both physical and mental health. The macrobiotic
view is that eating proper varieties and proportions of
foods helps us achieve balance and harmony. Therefore, appropriate
food choices depend on variables such as an individual's
health, age, sex, geographic location, physical activity,
ancestry, the season, etc.
Theoretically,
there are as many definitions of a macrobiotic diet as there
are people practicing it. Macrobiotics encompasses a broad
spectrum of theoretical and practical interpretations. There
is no macrobiotic diet per se. One practitioner, Ohsawa,
proposed ten different diets (idiosyncratically numbered
-3 to 7), ranging from one including 30 percent animal-derived
foods, to the legendary 100 percent whole grain Diet #7.
The latter was intended only as a short-term healing diet
for serious illnesses—preferably administered under
supervision. Having gained recognition for its effectiveness,
macrobiotics has been growing in popularity as the natural
health alternative, and qualified macrobiotic cooks, cooking
teachers and counselors are in demand.
Training/Licensing
In North America,
the two main schools of macrobiotics are based in Massachusetts
and California respectively. The West Coasters tend to be
laid-back and intuitive in their approach, while the larger,
Eastern faction is more systematic and formulaic, although
these are broad generalizations.
To learn macrobiotic or Chinese dietary cooking, it is best
to take cooking classes from an experienced cooking instructor.
Cooking instructors often have developed their profession
through many years of their own self-healing practices and
serving as apprentices under major teachers, going to conferences,
studying in Kushi, Vega or Europe.
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