​In my Full Spectrum Macrobiotic Approach, I look at food and health from two major viewpoints, the physical and the energetic. The physical view of health looks at substances such as blood sugar, cholesterol, blood counts and the physical structures of the body. The energetic view of the body is addressing the energetic qualities of both the structures and functions of the body. Energetics is viewed through the intellectual process.

In food studies, much valuable information has been gleaned by analyzing the chemical makeup of foods and what happens when these chemicals or nutrients are deprived from the human body. An energetic view of the body is assessing the overall effect of a food on the body and mind by taking into account its physical qualities of structure and growth, and it’s physical makeup.


Both views of health and food are complimentary to each other. It can be limiting to look at only one aspect of the body or food. For example, excess cholesterol or sugar in the blood is seen as a bad thing for health.Most doctors want to lower them without asking the question, why is the body producing excessive cholesterol or not regulating the blood sugar. If the root causes are not found, lowering the cholesterol or blood sugar will not have a full benefit to the body.

Vitamin A is a crucial nutrient for health that is missing in most people’s diets. Vitamin A is also greatly misunderstood.1 Carrots do not contain vitamin A. What they have in them is pro-vitamin A in the form of carotenes which under the right bodily conditions can turn into vitamin A. As we age, the ability to convert the carotenes to vitamin A declines. The mechanism of the conversion is connected to the health of the liver and thyroid. Many people can’t make the conversion well. Diabetics and those with poor thyroid function, a group that could well include at least half the adult US population, cannot make the conversion. Children make the conversion very poorly and infants not at all — they must obtain their precious stores of vitamin A from animal fats.2

This is why pro-vitamin A foods or supplements are so important for overall health. Pro-vitamin A is only contained in animal source foods and cod liver oil. The top foods with pro-vitamin A are sardines, the livers of healthy naturally raised animals, high vitamin cod liver oil and regular cod liver oil. Moderate amounts can be obtained from grass fed butter, raw cheeses and pasture raised eggs. Supplements can be helpful for serious infections on a temporary basis but must be balanced by vitamin D3 and K2.

The highest sources of vitamin A come from the organs of animals. The organs of animals are considered energetically the most gathering and concentrated form of energy that we can consume in foods. Because of this, people with serious deficiencies of vitamin A would only need to consume liver 3 times per week. After the deficiency is corrected, having this amount every other week would keep the body in balance.

Because of this energetic understanding of the foods that pro-vitamin A is derived from, it can be easy to understand how a deficiency of A creates an internal deficiency of vitality and overall health. In fact, vitamin A is necessary for the health of the eyes, the whole gastrointestinal system including digestion and the immune function. Chronic unknown or known infections such as gum disease or infections, that many people suffer from today, tremendously depletes the storehouses of vitamin A.  In addition, vitamin A is crucial for sexual and reproductive function, muscle, bone, skin and hair health. Vitamin A also prevents kidney stones.

Good quality cod oil can be taken for those who do not wish to eat animal foods.  Liver pills from grass fed animals is an option for people who do not like the taste of liver. Vitamin A in pills is derived from fish oil. There are no vegetarian sources of pro-vitamin A.
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1. Solomons, N. W. and J. Bulus. “Plant sources of provitamin A and human nutriture.” Nutrition Review, Springer Verlag New York, Inc, July 1993, 51:1992-4.
2. Jennings, I. W. Vitamins in Endocrine Metabolism. Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Illinois.

For many years, I followed the idea that we only need nutrition from food for health and that supplementation wasn’t necessary. When one of my teachers died of cancer after eating what I thought was a perfect vegan diet, I started to ask questions about the macrobiotic vegan approach and the need for supplements. 

I studied many traditions and traditional cultures as well as the different opposing dietary camps, research and clinical use of supplements. I came to the conclusion that a whole foods diet was still the best.

After looking at all these viewpoints, I felt the best diet, though, was one that included a variety of natural vegetable and animal foods. This was the diet followed by the true longevity cultures that have been studied around the world.

At the same time as I was studying this, I started to question the idea that food was enough. Even with nutrient dense vegetable and animal foods, there are health issues that nutritional supplements and herbs could address for both self-healing and prevention. Some of the main issues that affect our health and getting disease include genetic tendencies, environmental and lifestyle stresses, aging and more. Longevity has a been a topic of study in the far east in many Asian countries for thousands of years.  Modern scientific research into aging, food and supplements offers additional clues to life extension.
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In the larger picture, nature doesn’t care if we live long only that we live long enough to reproduce. Longevity is something that we have to take steps ourselves to achieve. In the last decades and today, there is some amazing research into what can keep the body and mind healthier into the golden years and before. 

Recently a study was done in Sweden that showed how taking supplements of Co-Q 10 and selenium can reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease. This nutrient combination has also been found to improve heart function,1,2 improve quality of life,2,3 reduce the number of days a patient stays in the hospital,3 lower cardiovascular mortality risk by 49%, and even provide protection years after the subjects stopped taking the supplements.4

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death both globally and in the US.5,6 It kills more than 17 million people worldwide every year5—more than all forms of cancer combined.7

• Co-Q10 has a long history of use in boosting cellular energy levels and making mitochondria more efficient at releasing energy from chemical bonds in molecules from food.
• Selenium is an essential cofactor for many of the enzymes in our natural cellular free radical scavenging systems.
• Studies now show that CoQ10 and selenium have effects that help protect against tissue-damaging oxidative stress.
• A series of new human studies from Europe shows that the combination of CoQ10 and selenium supplements reduce heart disease risk and improve quality of life.

Both Co-Q10 and selenium have benefits that go far beyond heart health. Co-Q10 has been found in research to have protective effects in the brain and nervous system, in asthma and chronic lung disease, in diabetes and the metabolic syndrome, on ocular health, and even on the aging immune system. The body produces C0-Q10 but the amount decreases substantially as we age.  

Selenium acts by multiple, complementary pathways to prevent cancers from developing. This phenomenon, known to scientists as pleiotropy, allows selenium to attack cancer on many different fronts, at many different stages.8 Selenium boosts the immune system. I have seen first-hand that recommending Selenium reduces the frequency of colds and flus.

The best form of Co-Q10 is Ubiquinol. Selenium is best in the form of Selonomethionine. There is a benefit from getting a selenium supplement with a multiple form of selenium. There is a synergistic effect which makes these two nutrients complimentary to each other.
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1. Alehagen U, Johansson P, Bjornstedt M, et al. Cardiovascular mortality and N-terminal-proBNP reduced after combined selenium and coenzyme Q10 supplementation: a 5-year prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial among elderly Swedish citizens. Int J Cardiol. 2013;167(5):1860-6.
2. Witte KK, Nikitin NP, Parker AC, et al. The effect of micronutrient supplementation on quality-of-life and left ventricular function in elderly patients with chronic heart failure. Eur Heart J. 2005;26(21):2238-44.
3. Johansson P, Dahlstrom O, Dahlstrom U, et al. Improved Health-Related Quality of Life, and More Days out of Hospital with Supplementation with Selenium and Coenzyme Q10 Combined. Results from a Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Prospective Study. J Nutr Health Aging. 2015;19(9):870-7.
4. Alehagen U, Aaseth J, Johansson P. Reduced Cardiovascular Mortality 10 Years after Supplementation with Selenium and Coenzyme Q10 for Four Years: Follow-Up Results of a Prospective Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial in Elderly Citizens. PLoS ONE. 2015;10(12):e0141641.
5. Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs317/en/. Accessed July 6, 2016.
6. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/statistics.htm. Accessed July 6, 2016.
7. Available at: http://www.theheartfoundation.org/heart-disease-facts/heart-disease-statistics/. Accessed July 6, 2016.
8. Rayman MP. Selenium in cancer prevention: a review of the evidence and mechanism of action. Proc Nutr Soc. 2005 Nov;64(4):527-42.