Macrobiotic Diets Info

What is a Macrobiotic diet?

Macro = great and biotics = life

The principals of yin and yang are applied to food. A chart by Herman Aihara categorizes foods in both Acid/Alkaline and Yin/Yang categories.

Beans are yin acid, leafly vegetables are yin alkali

Meat is yang acid and millet and quinoa are yang akali.

It is believed that an unbalance of yin and yang can make you ill.

You can maintain a balance by:
1) accenting either a grain or a protein at a meal with a lot of vegetables;
2) chewing well - saliva is very alkaline-forming so chewing every bite 20-40 times is ideal;
3) breathing deeply throughout the day;
4) exercising regularly to actively move the acids out of the body.
5) not eating a lot of dairy products. Eaten in excess, they tend to cause stagnation in the body.

Again this is a diet you would need specialist advice on if you wanted to do this diet strictly.

Shopping List

Use Organically grown foods where possible. Find a local shop selling macrobiotic products and ask for advice there. They may well have nutritionalist working there or advising.

Whole grains
Avoid white rice and flour and pasta. Buy wholegrain versions.

Eat Fresh vegetables at every meal - this is part of the healthy eating advice to eat more fruit and vegetables.

Use unrefinded products where possibly, oils, unrefined sea salt and juices and jams made without sugar.

Use natural sweeteners such as rice syrup and barley malt syrup.

Proteins: avoid red meat and chicken, try white fish, then beans tofu and other soya proteins.

Avoid caffiene.

use sea vegetables. These will be on sale in a great range at a good health food shop.

Styles of Cooking

Use more frequently:
Pressure cooking, boiling, blanching, steaming, soup-making, stewing, quick water sautéing, quick oil sautéing, , pressing, pickling.

Use much less
Baking, broiling, dry-roasting, pan-frying, deep-frying, tempura (batter-dipped), raw foods, juicing.

Use vegetables often

Green leafy vegetables:
bok choy, carrot tops, Chinese cabbage, collard greens, daikon greens, dandelion greens, kale, leeks, mustard greens, parsley, spring onions, turnip greens, watercress
Some aupermarkets might sell some of these, chinese supermarkets will have lots of chinese leaf vegetables (baby bok choi is even nicer) as well as them having seaweeds and sea vegetables.

Other veggies:
acorn squash, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, buttercup squash, butternut squash, cabbage, cauliflower, onion, pumpkin, red cabbage, turnips, shiitake mushroom

Root vegetables
burdock, carrots, , dandelion roots, lotus root, parsnip, radish.

Use occasionally Celery, chives, cucumber, endive, green beans, green peas, iceberg lettuce, jerusalem artichoke, kohlrabi, mushrooms, romaine lettuce, salsify, snap beans snow peas, sprouts.

It is interesting to see that veggies eaten raw are to be used less!

Beans shouldn't be eaten more than once a day - and even small amounts can lead to some people having an "interesting" reaction.

Azuki beans, chickpeas and lentils are to be used more.
Occaisional use of black eye beans, mung beans and kidney beans

Use less frequently still: pinto and navy beans.

For more advice seek out a good book or the advice of a qualified nutritionalist.

See our Marcobiotic links page