Macrobiotic Activities
For many decades now, macrobiotics has been contributing to raise awareness and disseminate holistic living practices for the betterment of humanity. During this time macrobiotics has been proposing, implementing and promoting many ideas for developing our way of life. Some areas of macrobiotic involvement include plant based diets; traditional food cultures; balanced nutrition; whole foods; organic foods; natural, regenerative and sustainable farming; traditional and natural food processing; wholesome cooking; healthy lifestyle practices; natural and ecological living; personal and family health care; alternative, preventive and lifestyle medicine; holistic and traditional healing; wellness; Oriental philosophy and practices, environmental remediation and sustainability; solidarity among fellow human beings and greater social harmony; cultural exchange and the development of a peaceful world community. As interest to engage and take a more active role managing our health as well as improving environmental and social concerns continue to grow, many of these ideas and practices are now being shared by many people. Some of the core activities used over the years to transmit macrobiotic views and practices for developing our way of life includes the following:
Providing Education for a Better Life
At the core of macrobiotic activities has been education, including teaching, writing, publishing, opening of macrobiotic schools and education centers, organizing seminars and conferences, and other related activities. This is the main way in which macrobiotic teachings and views have been passed down and experiences, practices, and observations shared.
The main goal of macrobiotic education is to raise awareness, develop ourselves as individuals, make practical improvements in the way we live, and lead more independent, healthier and happier lives. The main theme of study is gaining a better understanding of life and getting to know more about ourselves. Besides modern knowledge, macrobiotics reintroduced in modern society traditional views many of which originate from Oriental thinking including a contemporary energetic interpretation of life that comprises a useful application of Yin and Yang to help create better balance, health and harmony.
Improvement of Dietary Practices and Habits
A common macrobiotic motto is the idea that “we are what we eat” or that we are fundamentally influenced by our food, including the way we select, prepare, and eat it. Macrobiotics was quick to notice that modern food preferences and dietary habits were conducive to nutritional and energetic imbalances and therefore would lead to poor health.
To help amend for this tendency macrobiotics introduced the idea and began promoting a more traditionally oriented way of eating based on a variety of natural quality whole foods primarily from plant sources. Consequently, began to emphasize increasing consumption of whole grains and their products, fresh vegetables, beans, soybean products such as tofu, sea vegetables, seeds, nuts, seasonal fruits and other wholesome plant foods as the foundation for a balanced way of eating leading to sound health.
This is something that in recent years has become recognized and increasingly known. Most chronic diseases and common conditions experienced by a large number of people throughout the world today are known as lifestyle-related diseases and dietary imbalances considered the main risk factor. Lifestyle diseases are defined as diseases associated with the way a person or a group of people lives. They include chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic lung disease, diabetes, and other conditions such as obesity, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson disease and many others.
These are the non-communicable diseases or NCDs which are collectively responsible for over 40 million deaths each year, equivalent to over 70 percent of all deaths worldwide. According to the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO), NCDs are preventable diseases through lifestyle modification of the common causes such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol use. As a result, nutritional science has reached the consensus that a whole food, plant based diet is the most desirable eating pattern to maintain nutritional balance and help prevent chronic diseases or NCDs.
Promoting Better Quality Foods and Making Them More Easily Available
This is another area which macrobiotics has played an important role and continues to be at the center of many macrobiotic activities. Macrobiotics helped pioneer the natural and organic food movements as a way to improve the quality of our food, produce our food in more sustainable ways, and reduce the amount of chemicals polluting the environment and weakening health through ingestion and exposure.
Another idea introduced by macrobiotics have been consuming foods in a whole, unrefined way while reducing or minimizing those that are refined and highly processed. Overly processing our food depletes it of important nutrients and lack in energetic quality or vitality. Also consuming foods mostly from local sources and seasonally instead of from a globalized food market in which foods are transported from faraway places and often consumed out of season or from different climates.
In order to make high quality foods more easily available at a reasonable cost, macrobiotics have been actively involved in a variety of food related activities including organic, natural and other sustainable ways of farming; natural and traditional food processing; establishing companies and mail order food services that provide natural and organic food; opening natural food stores, restaurants, cafes, and many others.
Developing the Art of Cooking
Cooking is another element closely associated to macrobiotics and plays a vital role. Not only have food proportions and food quality been changing over the years but also the way we cook it. Modern busy lifestyles have led to too much dependence on eating out, take-out foods, or those that are already pre-prepared and ready to eat such as packaged and convenience foods. As a result, the majority of people today cannot really cook well, particularly healthful cooking with fresh, wholesome foods. But no matter how good the quality of the ingredients used, if they are not properly cooked we lose much of their benefits. This area continues to be poorly understood and is usually overlooked by nutritional science as well as by many individuals looking to improve health through dietary means.
Macrobiotics respects, learns and incorporates healthful aspects found within traditional food cultures. When observing traditional healthy societies that are long lived such as in the case of the Japanese or in certain Mediterranean areas, it is not just because of balanced nutrition but a combination of factors integrated as part of the food culture. Including access to a variety of fresh local foods, emphasis on seasonal ingredients, simple processing, attention to food preparation and ways of cooking as well as considering how meals are consumed and shared.
Macrobiotics has greatly contributed to develop of the art of cooking in new and original ways. Macrobiotic cooking teachers, instructors and chefs around the world have played an important role teaching how to cook with a wide variety of wholesome, natural foods in more balanced, healthful ways. Besides cooking classes and demonstrations many macrobiotic cookbooks have been published over the years and now many ideas for healthful cooking continue to be shared also through the internet. This, obviously, is part of an ongoing process and it will become even more important in the years to come as more and more people become interested to take better care of their own health and humanity begins to shift towards a plant based way of eating that relies less on animal food and highly processed foods.
Disseminating Healthful Living Practices
Macrobiotics looks at life in a holistic way and pays attention to practical aspects of our daily life in order to achieve better balance and help us realize innate health from within. And while food and cooking are essential aspects to consider for our wellbeing, so are other aspects of our way of life or lifestyle.
Some examples of practical ideas for leading better lives include engaging in outdoor activities and becoming more physically active to help counter the weakening effects of artificial environments and sedentary lifestyles. Macrobiotics has also been encouraging more natural living since we human beings tend to thrive when we live closer to nature and learn to harmonize well with the natural environment. In addition, we now need to minimize chemical exposure originating from our home and work environment which in recent years have been linked to a wide range of health problems. This also includes becoming more ecologically mindful in order to address pollution and many other environmental problems.
Macrobiotics has been actively involved introducing, teaching and helping disseminate various practices and techniques for developing body and mind including Do-In, self-massage, meridian stretches, breathing exercises, meditation, mindfulness, visualization, chanting, yoga, judo, aikido, tai -chi, and many others. Many of these have now become very popular and are being practiced daily by people all over the world. Some are also being recommended for wellness, stress management, and for helping prevent and relieve many chronic conditions.
Encourage Natural, Traditional and Holistic Healing Practices
One weak aspect in the way we manage health in our contemporary society is too much reliance on symptomatic approaches. This has moved the attention away from prevention and the importance of taking responsibility for our own health. Macrobiotics addresses this issue by first encouraging everyone to take better care of themselves. Then providing education, training and guidance on how to manage better our own health. And in contemporary society this implicates helping people adopt more healthful dietary and lifestyle practices. It is now becoming increasingly clear that in order to create a truly healthy society, individuals and families need to become more involved and participate with their own efforts.
Another problem we are now facing because of not placing enough attention in prevention and self-care is that over generations we are becoming weaker and prone to complicated conditions and new illnesses. And in order to cope with it we are making use of more and stronger medication as well as the use of increasingly invasive healing methods that carry with them strong side effects that often result in additional problems. This has led to increased iatrogenic complications, injuries, diseases, and deaths.
Iatrogenesis is defined as any injury or illness that occurs as a result of medical care, including the activity of a physician, medication, or therapy. Iatrogenic deaths, such as from adverse drug reactions, has become the third leading cause of death in the United States. Meanwhile healthcare expenditure has been increasing and becoming an economic burden while many individuals have difficulties making ends meet or simply can’t afford it anymore.
Over the years many people around the world have been drawn to macrobiotics because of health concerns. And as many people began to feel improvements and others were able to recover their health through the macrobiotic approach, macrobiotics also became known as a holistic way to prevent and help relieve disease naturally. The macrobiotic approach towards regaining health through natural means usually involves specific adjustments in the way of cooking and eating as well as incorporating various healthful lifestyle practices. This is part of a self-care approach that is now gaining more interest as more individuals wish to take a proactive role managing their own health.
Many macrobiotic teachers and practitioners have also integrated and sometimes involved teaching various traditional and holistic methods of healing. Particularly those that are less invasive and may be helpful to regain health while reducing or minimizing the risk of undesirable side effects or complications. Examples of holistic methods of healing that are sometimes related or used along with macrobiotics include Shiatsu, Seitai and other forms of massage and bodywork practices that help stimulate and regulate energy flow; Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) such as acupuncture, moxibustion and acupressure; Chiropractic, palm healing, natural and traditional herbal medicine, Ayurveda, Naturopathy and Aromatherapy, many of which are being widely practiced around the world and offered at medical centers, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, health spas, wellness centers, and other places.
Cultivating Environmental and Social Awareness and Finding Practical Solutions
Macrobiotics has always been involved raising environmental and social awareness through its various educational activities. Many of the practices and recommendations that form part of the macrobiotic way of life are not just meant for individual purposes or taking better care of our families, but also for improving society as a whole and taking better care of the planet. For example, the macrobiotic diet is not only a balanced, healthful eating pattern but is also aimed at addressing many of the environmental and social concerns of our times.
Our modern food system and dietary practices are environmentally unsustainable and wasteful. Intensive farming along with livestock production are major emitters of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and climate change. Today about one third of the food produced globally is lost or wasted before being consumed. And not only the food but also all the resources needed to produce the food are also squandered while contributing to unnecessary pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases.
Meanwhile much of the grain, most of the soybeans produced, and a large part of the fish caught from the oceans are being used as animal feed to produce the enormous quantities of animal products being consumed. This leaves less food available for direct human consumption and along with food wastage is the main reason why many people around the world today still experience hunger and malnutrition. Food scarcity along with degraded environments and climatic changes could easily cause mass migrations in the near future with many social implications and additional pressures.
Macrobiotics have been promoting over the years a more natural and sustainable way of producing and processing our food, an eating pattern primarily based on plant food sources that is well adapted to the different climates and environmental conditions, and a shift towards increased self-sufficiency by centering our way of eating on seasonal, locally produced foods. If implemented, this would dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions, improve soils, decrease pollution, ease the pressure on the natural environment, lessen food wastage, reduce the risk of novel virus and bacterial diseases originating from animal farming, and help feed humanity in a healthier, more equitable and responsible way.
Up to now macrobiotics has mainly attracted the attention of individuals and families interested in leading healthier, better lives. But if these ideas were to be practiced more widely in society, it would also be useful for helping recover the health of the planet and achieve tangible improvements in society. Since implementing positive changes in our way of life can be done by anyone at any time, macrobiotics may be considered an effective way of addressing environmental and social concerns. And it could be done efficiently with little investment. Actually, it could help save money in the long run depending how we look at it because environmental remediation, costs related to climate change, health-care expenditure, and farm subsidies destined to an unworkable food system have all been increasing in modern society. From this point of view , the macrobiotic way of life may be considered a sensible approach for creating a better world and realizing a brighter future for humanity.