SHOULD WE FOLLOW A MACROBIOTIC APPROACH TO LIFE?

While Macrobiotics does advocate giving up or minimizing dairy, sugar, refined flours, alcohol and animal foods. It does not advocate that if you don’t do this, you cannot live a life. What it beautifully does is make you walk a path and see which turn you’d like to take. If you get completely healthy, what would you choose to keep and get rid of, once you know and apply the principles. Of course for those with health ailments its does become a little stringent. However, for those that want to apply it to their daily life it advocates ‘Living with Freedom’ do not be bound by rules but also do not be ignorant of them.

There have been views that the diet maybe deficient on B12 as this is obtained from animal foods, but experienced practitioners will take care of this once you are on the program and help you incorporate foods that will give you abundant B12. B12, is replenished with miso paste and fermented foods. If the diet is rich in leafy greens and sprulina, calcium and vitamin D deficiencies are taken care off. There have been questions about the protein content that comes out of a Macrobiotic approach, which gets addressed with balanced meal plans, and vegan protein powders if required. While strong Macrobiotic advocates say that nightshade vegetables like: eggplant, tomatoes, okra, potatoes and peppers should be eliminated or minimized, it is a matter of choice depending upon where one lives. Macrobiotics also believes in eating locally and looking at climatic conditions and these nightshades are fine to eat in a tropical climate like that of India.

Healthy every day, every minute or up and down for the rest of one’s life? This is a choice that every individual must make for oneself. A Macrobiotic approach makes one live with freedom, knowledge and awareness at each step; understanding that the only way to being healthy is being conscious of what we eat, respecting the environment and being in sync with it.