GREAT LIFE! FREEDOM FOR ALL!

ENJOY THE MACROBIOTIC WAY OF LIFE

Basic Principles

The word "macrobiotics" comes from two Greek words which mean great or long life. It was first used many centuries ago. Its current use can be attributed to George Ohsawa, widely regarded as the founder of the modern macrobiotic movement. Ohsawa actually based his movement upon the work of Sagen Ishizuka. However, the roots of macrobiotics go back much further in time, indeed, beyond recorded history. Only the historical movement can be traced because the principles from which that movement sprang are grounded in the primal traditions of many, perhaps all native cultures.

Macrobiotics is commonly understood to be a set of dietary guidelines. Perhaps its most vigorous contemporary advocate, Michio Kushi, produced the Standard Macrobiotic Dietary Guidelines which codified the essential elements of a well-rounded diet. It is important to understand that the diet is derived from a philosophy which provides a means for comprehending the order of nature and our place within it.

The Way of Eating. Many people have heard about the macrobiotic diet, but there are numerous misconceptions about it. Some people, including medical practitioners, believe that it is a "brown rice diet". Others believe it is very strict, severe, or that the food itself is bland or without flavor. Nothing could be further from the truth! The Standard Diet encompasses a vast array of foods, styles of preparation, ethnic variations and all the necessary dietary components. For a thorough overview of the Standard Dietary Guidelines, click here.

Far from being restrictive, a diet based on macrobiotic principles is inclusive. These principles are easy to understand as general ideas. The first of these is that the primary food of humankind is whole grain; the second is, that, to the extent possible, vegetable quality foods should be locally grown and eaten in season, and, third, that animal food, if taken at all, should be regarded as supplemental and based upon physical condition and activity.

In general outline these principles describe the diet of traditional cultures throughout history and time up until the industrial period, when the diet of humanity began to undergo profound and largely deleterious change. It should also be easy to see that such a diet is biologically and ecologically sound because vegetables and grains require less resources per yield than animal foods; less energy for preparation, storage and transportation is required by adhering to the second principle; and, because foods are used in their fresh whole state, they are more potent biologically.

Those general principles underlie macrobiotic eating. But there are many refinements which help us to understand and choose proper food. Unlike our ancestors, whose choices were very much guided and directed by environmental parameters, such as geography, seasons, type of community (agricultural, pastoral, nomadic, etc.), modern people have access to foods out of season, from different types of geography and climate, procesed in factories, picked before ripening, highly refined, preserved and flavored with non-nutritive chemicals and frozen or canned.

With so many choices, it is very easy to make choices which are not health supportive or even harmful. However, by following the several guiding principles and their logical correlates, it is much easier to make sound choices. Macrobiotics as presented by Ohsawa, Kushi, Aihara, and others further refines those principles by drawing upon traditional wisdom, modern understanding and the extensive writings on Chinese Five Energy theory and Chinese Medicine.

The Unifying Principle. Following the Standard Macrobiotic Diet will enable anyone to make good dietary decisions. But in order to really appreciate the value of the macrobiotic way of life, it is important to understand its guiding concept. Ohsawa presented what he called the Unifying Principle or the Yin and Yang Principle. From that he derived The Seven Laws of the Order of the Universe.

Michio Kushi has presented those "Laws" as Seven Universal Principles and Twelve Laws of Change. I shall present them here. They are quoted directly from Natural Healing through Macrobiotics (p. 193):

"The Seven Universal Principles of the Infinite Universe

1. Everything is a differentiation of One Infinity.
2. Everything changes.
3. All antagonisms are complementary.
4. There is nothing identical.
5. What has a front has a back.
6. The bigger the front, the bigger the back.
7. What has a beginning has an end.

The Twelve Laws of Change of the Infinite Universe

1. One Infinity manifests itself into complementary and antagonistic tendencies, yin and yang, in its endless change.
2. Yin and yang are manifested continuously from the eternal movement of one infinite universe.
3. Yin represents centrifugality. Yang represents centripetality. Yin and yang together produce energy and all phenomena.
4. Yin attracts yang. Yang attracts yin.
5. Yin repels yin. Yang repels yang.
6. Yin and yang combined in varying proportions produce different phenomena. The attraction and repulsion among phenomena is proportional to the difference of yin and yang forces.
7. All phenomena are ephemeral, constantly changing their constitution of yin and yang forces; yin changes into yang, yang changes into yin.
8. Nothing is solely yin or solely yang. Everything is composed of both tendencies in varying degrees.
9. There is nothing neuter. Either yin or yang is in excess in every occurence.
10. Large yin attracts small yin. Large yang attracts small yang.
11. Extreme yin produces yang, and extreme yang produces yin.
12. All physical manifestations are yang at the center, and yin at the surface."

Living a macrobiotic way of life has two parallel components: diet and lifestyle. Most people in the United States hear about the macrobiotic diet Many people come to macrobiotics because of illness. They may have heard about amazing recoveries from cancer, heart and coronary disease and other degenerative illnesses. I have personally seen such recoveries. But the dietary component of macrobiotics cannot successfully be detached from the lifestyle components for an extended period of time. Above all, macrobiotic philosophy is about change and how to maintain one's integrity, physically, mentally and spiritually within that process of change. Although the so-called Standard Macrobiotic Diet is a healthy diet, it can only produce lasting health if it is seen as dynamic and is adjusted as we change our health, age, condition, constitution and environment.

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