Just a couple of comments out there for those of you who are not sure about the macrobiotic diet.
My first encounter with the macrobiotic way of eating came from a book called Sugar Blues by William Dufty. This book changed my life.
When I started the diet, I was only doing it as an experiment in nutrition, not because I was actually trying to solve any health problems.
I started seeing my health improve every month. The first thing that disappeared was my need for asthma/allergy inhalers. Before the diet, I took them 4-5 times a day plus pills! My roommate at the time noticed first that I had not taken my inhalers in a while. When she pointed it out, I was amazed.
After 3 months of being on the diet, I noticed that mosquitos weren't biting me any more. I used to be the main target at every outdoor activity in the summer!
After about 5 months, I was noticing that my skin had smoothed out, no more acne or discolorations. Plus, I was less likely to burn, even though I have blonde hair & blue eyes.
After about a year, I had more energy than I ever thought possible. I could take in a full breath of air and my lungs felt extremely clear!
Some of the other things that happened (I can't remember at what stage, the results were all throughout and very encouraging!) were no constipation, my hair & nails started growing like crazy, no stomach upset, and not feeling sleepy after eating a meal. Lastly, my body became less bloated so my clothes fit a lot better!
Almost 4 years later, my "seasonal" allergies are gone. No drugs. No more painful allergy shots. I breath through my nose when I sleep at night, no snoring.
My hypoglycemia, which used to make me depressed on a regular basis, disappeared. I can finally live life the way it was meant to be. I can work out every day (with a FULL breath of air!!!) without being a slave to all the allergy & asthma drugs they used to give me.
I know all my food intolerances and can work around them. I am not as strict with the diet as I used to be, but when given a choice, I always choose the healthy/vegan choice. I have gained a new appreciation for the taste of raw food veggies & fruits.
Up until 5 years ago, the medical community was teaching me to just "live with" allergies & asthma. THERE IS ANOTHER OPTION. The solution to most health problems is not found in a pill.
Through learning about macrobiotics, you will makes some mistakes, everyone does. The point is to KEEP LEARNING. Never stop trying & trust the process. You don't have to permanently give up the processed foods you love, just initially to get you started so that when you do add some of them back in, you will know better how to structure your diet.
Chances are, if you cut out all the white wheat flour goodies, sugary and salty snacks for 6 months, you will find that when you do eat them again, they will taste ARTIFICIAL (like plastic!!!). Trust me on this one, folks. I have seen it work on myself.
Breathing easy and loving it!
Kristin
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This email addresses the post-asthma diet, more along the lines of maintenance.
After starting the diet (and maintaining steadily for about a year), I found that I could ease up on the constant staple of brown rice and start addressing what was really causing my asthma & health problems.
I slowly started adding in one food at a time, watching closely for any kind of adverse reactions. It took me a few weeks, but I found milk products to be the culprit.
Even worse was the combination of milk products, bleached wheat, and processed sugar (cakes, ice-cream, & breakfast cereals). These items really caused my nose to itch & sneeze after a meal. Now that I know this, I can make the conscious choice to stay away from items containing the above.
And digging further, I found that it was the protein in the milk (not the lactose) that was causing the problem. The way I was able to find this out was due to my intolerance to athletic "body-builder" bars which I tried to eat for a snack once in a while. The ones I had the most trouble with were the ones containing milk proteins (caseinate). Since many soy cheeses contain casein, I won't eat these either.
After my year-long strict diet, I did start adding some meat back in, but I have never been big meat eater so it was never very much (less than 6 oz per day, if any). Recall that my problem with diet wasn't the meat, it was the sugar, milk, & bleached carbs that got me to my unhealthy state to begin with!
Lately I have been into more nuts & seeds rather than beans, and different kinds of seaweed. Real Japanese cuisine cooks with a lot of fish & seaweed broth, and I love raw sushi (raw tuna has a tendency to get rid of a nasal allergy attack quicker than pills....my theory is that it comes from the high amounts of minerals in the fish itself). So I have moved on from merely trying to increase my intake of nutrients to getting a higher level of mineral content (Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Copper & trace elements).
Since I naturally eat a lot of fruit anyway, the vitamins take care of themselves. B-vitamins are still probably the toughest to get on a daily basis, but I try to eat a lot of raw spinach to compensate.
I know that the specifics behind my diet won't work for everyone. It takes a long time for the damage in the body to occur based on what we eat, and it takes time for the body to repair itself.
Some people have asked me in the past what I did to get rid of the asthma/allergies and I refer most of them to the "Sugar Blues" book, saying that they need to learn what they were doing wrong before anyone can help them.
There is NO ONE ANSWER to a health problems. A person can only look at what they were doing, and try to fix it based on their lifestyle. A food diary is essential in order to learn how to fix what is wrong.
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I should probably also add to my testimonial that I do not take any vitamins or supplements. Once in a while I take a few spirulina caplets or an occasional "Ester-C". But I found that all my nutrition I can get through eating properly. Besides, if you vary your foods daily and don't flood your body with chemicals, you don't need supplementation anyway.
I discover more foods every month that help me maintain good health. My latest "good pick" food-finds (chock-full of minerals for those of us who don't eat milk products) include: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and seaweed.
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My introduction into Macrobiotics began with someone recommending the book "Sugar Blues" by William Dufty. I read only one chapter a day so I could properly absorb the information. In the meantime, I also kept a food diary and started analyzing my eating habits with those in the book.
I did just as the book described: I rummaged through my cabinets and threw all my processed foods/cereals away. I then stopped eating dairy, meat, bleached wheat, & processed sugars (The good thing about "Sugar Blues" is that it teaches you to read labels which is KEY to surviving in this world of processed foods). Since I work outside the home, I had to come up with a plan to carry lunches with me.
Breakfast consisted of a banana (sometimes 2) & 3 oranges or a cantaloupe half. Lunch was an "Amy's" brand frozen vegetarian meal with a quart container of two of the following (I varied this daily): organic fresh broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, or bell peppers. Apples were reserved for the late-afternoon snack, when I felt like I "needed" a sugar fix and they worked great to get rid of the "need."
Dinner was usually some kind of organic brown-rice dish with tamari sauce or Bragg's liquid aminos (the reason for the brown rice was due to something I read in the "Sugar Blues" book about hypoglycemics being Vitamin B- deficient, and that brown rice is loaded with B-vitamins).
Weekend meals were usually a bit different since I wasn't at work and could cook more. I did a lot of 13-bean soups with fresh veggies, experimented with some of the frozen meals that they had at Whole Foods market that met my criteria, etc.
Fruit salads became such a treat that sometimes (on hot summer days) I would cut up about 2 pounds of 5-6 different kinds of fruit in a big bowl and eat that as a meal. I found different kinds of grains & ate those for breakfast (millet with cinnamon, buckwheat waffles with REAL maple syrup, or amaranth cereal with unsweetened soy milk. YUM!).
Variance was also key. It was an adventure trying different foods! I tried to vary my foods daily so I wasn't eating the same thing every day.
Whole Foods market (in Ann Arbor, Mich.) played a big role in the variety that was my diet since they are so well-stocked. When I did have noodles, I limited myself only to whole grain noodles (wheat or spelt) with some kind of vegetarian sauce (lots of these available made with all veggies & low or no sugar).
Another great food item for daily variance: salads eaten with no dressing (spinach or some other kind of leafy green - no iceberg). To me, vegetarian did NOT mean eating only salads (a common misconception I see among quite a few people). Salads were only part of the whole overall equation since I had to concentrate also on protein intake.
Food mixtures were also important. I tried not to mix the proteins and the carbs at the same meal. If I ate beans & soy for lunch, dinner would be brown rice & veggies.
A *rare* (once every 2-3 weeks) treat was some soy ice cream, a soy ice cream bar, or a spoonful of honey or maple syrup (yeah, I know -- HONEY! Animal product!) But it also contained nutrients for digestion, and that was what I was primarily after!
Honestly, I can tell you that I wasn't craving anything sweet like this.
The first week was hard, but after that it actually became a lot easier. I got into my routine and after a while, even the soy ice cream tasted a bit artificial since I wasn't used to it.
I guess my overall concentration after reading "Sugar Blues" was nutrition content in foods. I tried to eat like a poor farmer, as if I had never seen these "processed" foods before, and it worked. If the food was in it's most natural state (fresh) then it was the ideal food. I read a lot of labels and turned down the ones containing added sugars, bleached/enriched wheat, chemicals, or hydrogenated fats. The key here was NOURISHMENT. I didn't have a juicer at the time (I was still learning & adjusting), but I have one now. I don't use it every day since I really enjoy eating the fruits & veggies in their natural state.
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I am 28 now, but was about 24 when I started "treating" with my diet as described in my story. I live in Roseville, Michigan (Detroit area).
I didn't mention it in the story below, but my main source of exercise consists of about 5-7 hours per week of very active figure skating in a USFSA (US Figure Skating Association) member skating club. I have been doing this for about 2 years now because I CAN.
Before the macrobiotic diet, my heavy & wheezing lungs would have never put up with this much activity/exercise! I see some skaters (kids!) at the ice rink with asthma inhalers and I just want to shake them and tell them that there is another option besides drugs!!
So feel free to publish my story. My only wish is that it will help at least one person out there who is looking for an answer.
My email address is: industrial_girl_2000@yahoo.com
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