Macrobiotics - A Balanced Life

Based on Aveline Kushi's "Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking"

Yin and Yang

"Yin and Yang," the universal forces of expansion and contraction, create all phenomena.   This philosophy of yin and yang is found in the Bible and many other classics.

Health is balance, the harmony of yin and yang.   It is balance between our outer and inner environment, between mental and physical activity, plant and animal food, cooked and raw food, salt and oil, etc.

Yin and yang are always found together and turning into one another. Night changes into day, winter into spring, and mountains into valleys.

On the extreme yang end of the food spectrum, meat, poultry, eggs, hard dairy foods and refined salt are too contracted for regular consumption.

On the extreme yin end, soft dairy foods, tropical fruits and vegetables, honey and sugar, coffee and other stimulants, and alcohol are too expansive for ordinary use.

Between these two extremes is a central category of foods that are more balanced and appropriate for daily human consumption.   These include whole grains, beans, vegetables, sea vegetables, seeds and nuts, and locally grown fruits.

To balance yin and yang we need to learn how to create, transform and modify energy.   Our body, food and environment are changing forms and patterns of energy. The goal of macrobiotics is to understand the dynamics of change and apply it to all aspects of life in order to optimize our health and happiness.   In this way we become infinitely flexible. We are able to respond to any changing circumstance and cheerfully embrace life in all its manifestations.