Macrobiotics: An Invitation to Health and Happiness

This is the grandfather of modern food consciousness . It is the original macrobiotic book, and does not have the recipes in other macro books that have strayed way off the path and actually include things like sweet desserts. It is based on the traditional Japanese foods and advocates a simple approach beginning with eating just rice to help the body flush out all the bad stuff accumulated through bad eating practices . The body then has a chance to recover and in many cases heal itself. Using its new clean state, the body is then able to make better choices about eating since it is now more aware of things like taste and the importance of preparation of food . What used to taste good in a restaurant, for example, is now revealed as a plate of food with a week's worth of salt and fat, a common practice in eating establishments and cooking shows. The only caveat is that it was written in the 1950's and does not factor in things like hypoglycemia when eating just rice. However, if it only increases awareness of eating, then it has done its job, and I highly recommend it if only for this reason alone.

I came to know about existence of Macrobiotics diet from a Japanese friend of mine who said it is very close to vegetarian diet. I was curious to know whether I can learn anything new in nutrition from Macrobiotics, so I ordered this book written by the japanese man who coined the term Macrobiotics & started this movement.Before ordering the book I read few pages from this book which are offered by Amazon for preview on "What is happiness". These are the only interesting pages in this book, where author compares definitions of happiness by some renowned philosophers & theologists. At the end he offers his own definition of happiness which left me puzzled why after studying history of defining happiness so well, he provided such a superficial, controversial definition of happiness? You can check it for yourself before buying the book. Nevertheless I ordered the book.Rest of the book is about promising you a happy, meaningful, long-lasting life, promising that you will become honest, loving, will have great memory etc by just adopting Macrobiotics diet. While I was going through the pages after pages of this propaganda I was wondering: "when will he finally start defining what Macrobiotics diet is and why this particular diet is good?". It's hard to believe but the book does not go any further in describing what Macrobiotics diet is than by saying that:1) Staple food in macrobiotics is different grains because they combine qualities of seeds & flowers & because they can yield 4,000 lbs. of grain per acre compared to 200 lbs. of meat if you dedicate the land to cattle;2) Fish, fowl, shellfish, eggs & fruits can be used from time to time (yes, fruits also "from time to time"!...);3) Products of different localities and seasons, as well as sprayed foods, to be avoided;4) Whole foods contain all the nutrition & minerals needed.He dedicates more space in the book for criticising other diets, and when he speaks about vegetarian & raw diet he doesn't even bother to distinguish between the two & criticises Vegetarianism for opposing Macrobiotics on the grounds that Macrobiotics allows for cooked food! Nothing else is ever mentioned in the book why Macrobiotics is better than vegetarian diet even purely on the health grounds!I give the book 2, not 1 star only because it has appendix (more that 2/3 of the books' volume) written by another author where some interesting facts are noted, comparing amounts of different amino acids / proteins in meats and selected vegetarian sources, also some facts are given about vitamins. But there are many many books which provide this information in much more organised, complete & practical (in terms of planning your diet) way.When I was in Japan & visited few Macrobiotics restaurants in Tokyo what they served us was actually a very good vegan food. So my guess is that Marcobiotics now remains mostly as a term, but the essence has much developed & changed since George Ohsawa invented the term & now Macrobiotics is another name for vegan living.If you want to _understand_ what diet is good for you & _why_, I recommend you the books: "Becoming vegetarian", "The China story" & "Becoming vegan".

thank you.

If you want to be healthy and happy...READ THIS BOOK