What is a Macrobiotic Diet?
Wikipedia says “A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics), from the Greek “macro” (large, long) and “bios” (life), is a dietary regimen that involves eating grains as a staple food supplemented with other foodstuffs such as vegetables and beans, and avoiding the use of highly processed or refined foods. Macrobiotics also addresses the manner of eating by recommending against overeating and requiring that food be chewed thoroughly before swallowing.” Macrobiotics has lots of healthy recommendations and has similarities to the Mediterranean Diet that my cooking and lifestyle is based on. Except that I believe in variety and moderation of all kinds of natural foods, so I would not adhere to the macrobiotic recommendation that certain vegetables be avoided, etc.
I hung out on one particular site which grabbed my attention with phrases like “Trying to understand the true potential and essence of your food through nutritional analysis alone is like trying to understand the current US political agenda using mainstream media spin on the subject as your only source of information. (nutritional analysis alone being people who just count calories or carbs, or buy a cereal because it has lots of fiber)- taken from the article titled Understanding Food Energetics; and
“Today we have a nation that is addicted to sugar. In 1915, the national average of sugar consumption (per year) was around 15 to 20 pounds per person. Today the average person consumes his/her weight in sugar, plus over 20 pounds of corn syrup.” “- taken from the article titled The Hidden Story of Big Sugar. One of my biggest problems with sugar is that it hinders your immune system and makes it sluggish - not at all what I want when my body (or my children) encounters a germ - a sleepy, half-hearted attempt to fight it off.
The site with the above articles and others like Raising Healthy Children and Whole Grains for Whole People is called Macrobiotic Guide. They even list their Top 15 Super Foods. Please don’t hear me saying that I agree every suggestion offered in this guide. Instead, like most every site I find about diet and nutrition, they provide a lot of information that is thought provoking, much of which lines up with commonly accepted beliefs. I always appreciate reading research and theory, and just apply the suggestions that mesh well with my family’s outlook on diet and nutrition.
