What Is Macrobiotic

From LoveToKnow Diet

What is macrobiotic cooking? Those interested in taking the macrobiotic road to fitness will learn that what they should eat goes beyond goals like weight loss, although people on the Macrobiotic Diet do lose weight. It's a whole food diet designed to help find the individual's balance between the physical and emotional.

Macrobiotic Soup

Macrobiotic History

To get a better grasp of what macrobiotic means, let us first take a look at what the word means in the Greek. "Macro" means big or great and "biotic" refers to concerning life. Put the word together and it means "big view of life." The word macrobiotic is first found in German literature written by a scholar named Christophe Wilhelm Von Hufeland in 1776.

A little more than 100 years later, in 1896, Dr. Sagen Ishizuka published "Chemical Theory of Longevity" and in 1898 "Diet for Health". He was a Western-trained Japanese army doctor, who founded Macrobiotics in Japan in 1909. At that time it was called Shoku-Yo which means "food cure". In an effort to improve his own poor health, he based his nutritional theory on medicine and nutrition found in the traditional Oriental diet.

What is the Macrobiotic Diet

Dr. Ishizuka was able to cure many people with a change of diet. His recommended diet included brown rice and a variety of vegetables. His practice became so successful that he had to limit the number of patients he could see to 100 per day.

World wide the ancients ate unrefined, whole grains and their products along with locally grown seasonal vegetables. The Macrobiotic diet reflects this tradition and our need to return to whole grains which are referred to as the staff of life. Dr. Ishizuka's healing technique became what is the Macrobiotic Diet today, which is founded on five essential principles:

Foods: the foundation of health and happiness.
Sodium and potassium: the primary antagonistic and complementary elements in food.
Grain: the staple food of man.
Only whole, unrefined, natural food should be eaten.
Eat only locally-grown food in season. -- The ideal diet should consist of food that is found within 300-500 miles of where you live.

Is Meat Allowed?

With the focus on whole foods and vegetables, you may wonder whether or not animal products are allowed when eating a Macrobiotic diet. After all, it does follow many of the same principles found in a vegetarian diet. The fact is, this diet differs from individual to individual depending on what region you live in. That's because foods that make up the mainstay of your diet should be locally grown. That means if you live in Illinois, you won't be eating bananas. The premise behind this restriction is that when we eat food imported from regions with a different climate it leads to an imbalance which physically causes us to lose adaptability to our surroundings. This imbalance increases the risk of getting sick both mentally and/or physically.

Now let's look at the idea of eating meat and other animal products. Non-fatty fish is allowed two to three times a week, but the following products are to be used sparingly or not at all:

Dairy foods: milk, butter, cheese yogurt, ice cream.
Poultry: chicken, duck, turkey
Red meat: beef, lamb, pork

According to the Macrobiotic theory, you can become seriously ill if you eat a diet heavy in animal products and live in a warmer or even temperate climate because a diet high in these products is better suited to the polar regions.

What Is Macrobiotic Cooking

For those who wish to follow a Macrobiotic diet, taking classes to gain a better idea of exactly what is Macrobiotic cooking, and an understanding of what is acceptable on a Macrobiotic Diet and how to incorporate those foods into your daily life. In fact, if you are embracing Macrobiotic living to improve your health, you may want to seek out a macrobiotic practitioner to help establish your new way of life.

During the colder seasons longer cooking times and more salt is used and in the warmer seasons less salt and lighter cooking methods are used. The preparation styles most often used to prepare Macrobiotic meals include:

Blanching
Boiling
Nishimi-style soup-making
Kimpiria-style (sautéing and simmering)
Pickling
Pressing
Pressure cooking
Quick oil sautéing
Quick water sautéing
Steaming
Stewing

Less Used Styles of Macrobiotic Cooking

The less used methods for preparing Macrobiotic meals include:

Baking
Broiling
Deep frying
Dry-roasting
Juicing
Pan-frying
Raw foods
Tempura

Benefits of Following a Macrobiotic Diet

If you're wondering if this is the diet for you, consider the following benefits. Whether you want to improve your health, lose weight, or both, this diet might just be the answer you're looking for. It's benefits include: