What is a Macrobiotic Diet? (click here for vegan recommendations)
A diet or eating style that promotes longevity is a macrobiotic diet. The word, macrobiotic, is derived from the ancient Greek language. It means longevity. A macrobiotic diet or way of eating is a longevity diet.
A real macrobiotic diet practiced around the world by longevity cultures includes:
* Grains/Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes
* Cooked and Raw Local Vegetables
* Natural Meats, Poultry, Fish, etc…
* Natural Dairy Products from Smaller Farms and from Grass Fed Cows, Goats, Sheep and Other Animals
* Natural Seasonings (Salts, Herbs, Spices)
* Local and Seasonal Fruit
* Beans and Nuts
* Natural Sugars (maple syrup, honey, etc…)
* Fermented foods and Beverages
* Refined Flour or Sugars for Calories in Smaller Amounts for Medicine, Caloric Needs and Enjoyment
* More Local Foods
* Less Factory Processed
Throughout the globe, many groups have been studied who were known for their longevity. These include the Sardinians, Okinawans, Nicoyans, Ikarians, Peruvians and others. People around the world who have been free of modern disease have also been documented along with their diets.
What these people have in common in their traditional eating is that they ate natural foods without leaving out major food groups such as carbohydrates, proteins or fats. All groups ate animal source food from wild or naturally raised animals on a daily or almost daily basis.
None of the healthy longevity groups studied ate a restrictive or narrow diet. Highly processed foods were not eaten.
In the Far East, a longevity approach was said to follow the principles of balance. If a person can balance the different opposites in their bodies of hot and cold, tension and relaxation, calmness and activity, longevity could be achieved by creating balance within us in the body and mind. This internal balance helps us to stay in balance with the physical environment. This balance with the external environment helps us to survive longer, thus creating longevity.
In ancient China, the Taoists were known for their great longevity. Only in advanced ages after 90, were foods eaten by the Taoists restricted in very specific ways. Up until this age, all natural foods had their place in creating balance for individuals.
A macrobiotic diet that is truly universal is based upon what people truly ate in healthy cultures throughout the world and what they ate before civilization existed. The root of this understanding is based on the knowledge that cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other modern maladies did not exist in hunter- gather societies or in traditional cultures living in smaller villages.
There is strong anthropological evidence that all modern diseases appeared with the beginning of cultivating and eating grains, along with the development of cities and agriculture. As people adapted to eating grains and city living improved, health became better as long as good sanitation and adequate varied foods were available.
All varieties of natural foods were valued in traditional cultures. These native foods fostered high level health. Healthy animal foods were an important daily part of people’s diets along with vegetables, grains, beans, nuts, seeds, natural salts, flavorings and seasonal fruits. A universal macrobiotic approach to diet does not demonize healthy foods such as grass fed meats, pastured poultry and raw grass fed dairy products. Instead these foods are valued as important foods for regular consumption in moderate amounts.
Multiple researchers and teachers have documented that people eating traditional diets that included animal and vegetable foods were disease free. Modern macrobiotic books blame animal foods for all of our modern illnesses. This is not accurate. I witnessed many vegan macrobiotic people get sick and develop catastrophic disease. Some have died following a vegan diet. Other vegans have healed themselves after incorporating animal foods. At best, an argument can be made that some of our modern sicknesses can be blamed on the overconsumption of factory farmed animals that have been raised in ways that make them physically and emotionally sick while contaminated with industrial pesticides, hormones and other drugs. Traditional people who ate healthy animals were disease free.
Certain foods are more available in different regions. Specific foods from other parts of the world have amazing health and healing benefits which are valuable for modern people. Coconut oil is an example of an incredibly healing and health promoting food. Eventually, a truly, macrobiotic or longevity system of eating would focus primarily on local foods.
In a real macrobiotic longevity program of learning about food, one must study and grasp the energetics of food and the body in order to understand which food is better for each individual’s health.
A simple way to understand the concept of the energetics of food is that foods have varying degrees of activating the body and mind or building up energy and strength. Learning about these food effects will help us to choose the foods we need at different times.
Everyone has different qualities of vitality at different times of the day, year, and month or from doing activities. This can be understood as each of us having varying conditions of excess or deficiencies of energy. Learning about our health in this way can help us to choose specific foods and lifestyle practices to create balance in our condition of health.
Traditional cultures had different ways of teaching about the energetics of food and health. We have lost this teaching today. Progressive macrobiotic longevity education can help us to restore this knowledge so that we can choose which amounts and kinds of the various healthy foods listed above are appropriate for our changing needs.
People, today, have forgotten the wisdom of our ancestors about how to eat. Many strange and exotic types of diets are promoted promising to create health. Some are recommended to detoxify the body.
The truth is we do live in a polluted world that requires special adjustments. These adjustments are not achieved by eating overly restrictive diets which avoid major foods such as animal proteins or carbohydrates. Most of the adjustments to deal with toxins in the environment would come from taking herbs and nutritional supplements that along with a full spectrum healthy macrobiotic diet will help us to get rid of toxins while staying vital and healthy.
Balanced meals from the above listing of macrobiotic foods will create sustainable health as our ancestors experienced since time immemorial.
A diet or eating style that promotes longevity is a macrobiotic diet. The word, macrobiotic, is derived from the ancient Greek language. It means longevity. A macrobiotic diet or way of eating is a longevity diet.
A real macrobiotic diet practiced around the world by longevity cultures includes:
* Grains/Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes
* Cooked and Raw Local Vegetables
* Natural Meats, Poultry, Fish, etc…
* Natural Dairy Products from Smaller Farms and from Grass Fed Cows, Goats, Sheep and Other Animals
* Natural Seasonings (Salts, Herbs, Spices)
* Local and Seasonal Fruit
* Beans and Nuts
* Natural Sugars (maple syrup, honey, etc…)
* Fermented foods and Beverages
* Refined Flour or Sugars for Calories in Smaller Amounts for Medicine, Caloric Needs and Enjoyment
* More Local Foods
* Less Factory Processed
Throughout the globe, many groups have been studied who were known for their longevity. These include the Sardinians, Okinawans, Nicoyans, Ikarians, Peruvians and others. People around the world who have been free of modern disease have also been documented along with their diets.
What these people have in common in their traditional eating is that they ate natural foods without leaving out major food groups such as carbohydrates, proteins or fats. All groups ate animal source food from wild or naturally raised animals on a daily or almost daily basis.
None of the healthy longevity groups studied ate a restrictive or narrow diet. Highly processed foods were not eaten.
In the Far East, a longevity approach was said to follow the principles of balance. If a person can balance the different opposites in their bodies of hot and cold, tension and relaxation, calmness and activity, longevity could be achieved by creating balance within us in the body and mind. This internal balance helps us to stay in balance with the physical environment. This balance with the external environment helps us to survive longer, thus creating longevity.
In ancient China, the Taoists were known for their great longevity. Only in advanced ages after 90, were foods eaten by the Taoists restricted in very specific ways. Up until this age, all natural foods had their place in creating balance for individuals.
A macrobiotic diet that is truly universal is based upon what people truly ate in healthy cultures throughout the world and what they ate before civilization existed. The root of this understanding is based on the knowledge that cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other modern maladies did not exist in hunter- gather societies or in traditional cultures living in smaller villages.
There is strong anthropological evidence that all modern diseases appeared with the beginning of cultivating and eating grains, along with the development of cities and agriculture. As people adapted to eating grains and city living improved, health became better as long as good sanitation and adequate varied foods were available.
All varieties of natural foods were valued in traditional cultures. These native foods fostered high level health. Healthy animal foods were an important daily part of people’s diets along with vegetables, grains, beans, nuts, seeds, natural salts, flavorings and seasonal fruits. A universal macrobiotic approach to diet does not demonize healthy foods such as grass fed meats, pastured poultry and raw grass fed dairy products. Instead these foods are valued as important foods for regular consumption in moderate amounts.
Multiple researchers and teachers have documented that people eating traditional diets that included animal and vegetable foods were disease free. Modern macrobiotic books blame animal foods for all of our modern illnesses. This is not accurate. I witnessed many vegan macrobiotic people get sick and develop catastrophic disease. Some have died following a vegan diet. Other vegans have healed themselves after incorporating animal foods. At best, an argument can be made that some of our modern sicknesses can be blamed on the overconsumption of factory farmed animals that have been raised in ways that make them physically and emotionally sick while contaminated with industrial pesticides, hormones and other drugs. Traditional people who ate healthy animals were disease free.
Certain foods are more available in different regions. Specific foods from other parts of the world have amazing health and healing benefits which are valuable for modern people. Coconut oil is an example of an incredibly healing and health promoting food. Eventually, a truly, macrobiotic or longevity system of eating would focus primarily on local foods.
In a real macrobiotic longevity program of learning about food, one must study and grasp the energetics of food and the body in order to understand which food is better for each individual’s health.
A simple way to understand the concept of the energetics of food is that foods have varying degrees of activating the body and mind or building up energy and strength. Learning about these food effects will help us to choose the foods we need at different times.
Everyone has different qualities of vitality at different times of the day, year, and month or from doing activities. This can be understood as each of us having varying conditions of excess or deficiencies of energy. Learning about our health in this way can help us to choose specific foods and lifestyle practices to create balance in our condition of health.
Traditional cultures had different ways of teaching about the energetics of food and health. We have lost this teaching today. Progressive macrobiotic longevity education can help us to restore this knowledge so that we can choose which amounts and kinds of the various healthy foods listed above are appropriate for our changing needs.
People, today, have forgotten the wisdom of our ancestors about how to eat. Many strange and exotic types of diets are promoted promising to create health. Some are recommended to detoxify the body.
The truth is we do live in a polluted world that requires special adjustments. These adjustments are not achieved by eating overly restrictive diets which avoid major foods such as animal proteins or carbohydrates. Most of the adjustments to deal with toxins in the environment would come from taking herbs and nutritional supplements that along with a full spectrum healthy macrobiotic diet will help us to get rid of toxins while staying vital and healthy.
Balanced meals from the above listing of macrobiotic foods will create sustainable health as our ancestors experienced since time immemorial.