Tamara Dabić |
6 Principles of the Macrobiotic Diet |
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Diet is part of our daily lives and a factor through which we affect both our health and general well-being.
It is our responsibility whether that influence will be beneficial or not, and macrobiotic principles provide us with the tools and compass for positively affecting our livelihood.
How do we utilize those principles for longevity, health, a more fulfilled and complete life? Quality of life can be achieved by choosing quality ingredients and their quality application.
With a macrobiotic diet, you are taking into account several basic principles.
1. Use wholesome ingredients
You are using wholesome ingredients in their original, unprocessed form, which possess vitality and from which nutritive elements have not been eliminated.
According to the macrobiotic approach, the presence of nutritive ingredients is a consequence of a certain ingredient’s vitality and wholesomeness, at which point the synergistic action between your body and the ingredient becomes key.
The body, which also serves to represent a whole, more easily recognizes and utilizes nutritive ingredients originating from integral ingredients than those disintegrated from their natural whole.
Processed foods should most definitely be avoided in one’s diet.
Besides their vitality and nutritive elements having been extracted via processing, such products often also contain additives,
which is most definitely not beneficial to your body or health.
2. Choose ecologically grown ingredients
Ecological ingredients are the best choices to include in your diet. They have been cultivated on chemically untreated soil, and remained untouched during all phases of growth.
Using ecological ingredients helps you avoid exposure to GMO foods, an increasingly important factor in today’s world.
Ecologically grown ingredients possess greater nutritive value, motivate vitality and have a fuller taste. However, equally important is what they don’t contain, and that is various chemical elements and pollutants, which can’t be said for conventional products.
Ecological cultivation of ingredients nurtures and preserves the health of the environment and planet as a whole. We should find this important, as Earth is the only habitat we have.
3. Respect diversity
Applying the principles of diversity to one’s diet is manifested in several ways.
This diet principle can be nurtured through:
- diverse food choices
- diversity in food preparation techniques and the use of spices
- using different cutting techniques
- creativity in the preparation of meals
4. Adjust your diet to the season and your needs
This principle implies adjusting diet to climatic circumstances, and tailoring ingredient choices as well as the ways in which we prepare them.
For example, in winter you will choose ingredients and preparation methods which warm the body, while summer choices will be aimed at having a cooling effect.
Adjusting diet to one’s personal needs is also important, seeing as how each individual is unique and different from the next.
Individual adjustment of diet takes into account your age, gender, daily activity level and ultimately the state of your health.
Individual adjustment should also be reflected in your acknowledging the diverse needs of other people.
It is therefore possible to apply macrobiotic diet principles while being a vegetarian, vegan, or choosing a more Mediterranean or oriental diet concepts.
All of this is made possible in accordance with the lifestyle, activity level, and region in which the individual lives.
5. Adhere to proper ingredient ratios
According to macrobiotic principles, the diet of individuals in regions with moderate climate (like the one we live in) should consist of:
- 30% to 60% whole grains and based products
- 25% to 40% vegetables
- 10% to 20% legumes and based products
- 10% fruits, seeds, nuts, algae, spices, etc.
These recommended diet ratios arose from careful monitoring of climate conditions, evolutionary development, human physiological characteristics, as well as the specific needs of modern living, in which people are subject to much stress and pollution.
Also, the above mentioned ratios should not be understood literally, with each meal being tailored to fit the prescribed measures.
They are simply guidelines and a framework within which to move about, while at the same time taking into account all other aforementioned principles.
Apply them, while thinking within the context of all the day’s meals.
Considerable attention should also be paid to the preparation of ingredients.
Ingredients will then be considered a source of vitality and life energy, and cooking a transformation of that same energy. It is therefore important to preserve the food’s vitality and its nutritional ingredients.
6. Exercise moderation
Finally, the macrobiotic way tells us that the ultimate measure of a food’s quality also relates to its quantity.
No one ingredient, no matter how useful, can be eaten in unlimited quantities.
If you are consuming only one or a few useful ingredients in (over)abundance, you can create a very one-dimensional and ultimately detrimental diet.
At the same time, a "bad" ingredient eaten on rare occasions and within a diverse diet can’t cause much harm to your body.
Open-mindedness, adaptability and constantly updated education are indispensable for both diet and maintenance of a healthy overall state.
Most common misconceptions tied to macrobiotic diet
Through our work, we’ve noticed that certain misconceptions are inevitably tied to pursuing macrobiotic principles.
These are sometimes a reflection of insufficient knowledge and awareness, and sometimes of taking the path of least resistance, seeing as how a quality change of habits involves invested effort and education.
1. Macrobiotic food is a special type of food
Macrobiotic implies not food, but rather a diet approach and choice of ingredients in accordance with macrobiotic principles.
The food recommended by the macrobiotic approach is wholesome and ecological.
2. The macrobiotic diet is one of reduction
Wrong. On the contrary!
A diet in accordance with macrobiotic principles is exceptionally diverse, something you may have picked up on yourself through reading the aforementioned principles.
If you are applying macrobiotic principles to your diet, by adjusting your choices to personal needs and the conditions you find yourself in, you will have created a very diverse and quality diet.
This also stands as true for situations in which you wish to solve a serious pre-existing health issue.
Your diet will then be directed at the achievement of a determined goal, but will still encompass a very wide range of ingredients and methods of their preparation.
3. Cooking in accordance with macrobiotic principles is complicated
Wrong again.
All food preparation requires time, and your deciding on preparing ingredients in the macrobiotic way implies your simply reworking existing habits.
Yes, it will be necessary to "reorganize" your schedule and organize yourself well (additional seminars and materials will be of great help).
However, all in all, a quality meal prepared in accordance with macrobiotic principles takes as much time as any other preconceived one would.
And your reward for the invested effort (along with the tasty meal) is nothing less than - good health.
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