What Is A Macrobiotic Diet, Really?

Some might say that it’s a strict diet with rigid rules, limiting you to only a few foods and depriving you of all the foods that you love — this is not true! Others might say that it’s a very specific diet containing very specific foods that you can eat only and nothing else — also not true!

A macrobiotic diet could be either one of those diets, at any given moment in your life, but really what a macrobiotic diet is, is a diet that you create for yourself based on macrobiotic principles and on what you need, given your current condition and situation, which is always dynamic. The diet is dynamic, changing every day, as you change every day and adjust it to what you need accordingly.

A macrobiotic diet is based on the following principles:

• Eat natural, organic food.
• Eat foods that are necessary for humans to sustain life — good air, water, sunshine (the three most important foods), whole grains, vegetables, beans, sea vegetables, and fish.
• Eat foods that are traditionally eaten, locally grown, and seasonal in your particular location.
• Eat whole grains as your principal food, that is, daily and at every meal. Eat all other foods and beverages less frequently, in smaller quantities, and with care. For example, pasta and flour made from organic whole grains are also eaten, but they are not the same as what Nature provides — the whole grain.
• Eat vegetables and seaweeds to supplement the whole grains, but in smaller amounts and less often.
• Eat fish (fresh) and other animal products in even more smaller amounts and less often. (Fertilized eggs are recommended over non-fertilized eggs, which are biologically lifeless.)
• Dairy products, fruits, and nuts are eaten as pleasure foods, in smaller amounts and less often than animal products.
• Drink, if possible, only what your body requires and no more. Water, bancha tea, or undyed natural teas are recommended. Do not drink coffee if you are sick or in a weakened condition. (Coffee is extremely yin, as is being sick or weak.)

In terms of yin and yang, whole grains form the foundation of a macrobiotic way of eating because they are a combination of both a seed and a fruit, abundant on this earth, economical, ecological, and a most nutritious food.

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