[qzw52]

[quote=Nancy]Dave and Bruce, et. al.,

Dave, thanks for the information about Lily Kushi, as I never knew the details. In this case, the cervical cancer could have had a hereditary basis. It is well known that this is one of the factors leading to cancer. If the gene within the family predisposing the women to cervical cancer was pronounced enough, perhaps the best food and knowledge of food and health, was not enough to reverse it.

****It is indeed sad what happened. Sometimes life can be very difficult to say the least. My heart goes out to the Kushi family.

***Heriditary factors certainly are a huge consideration especially when we consider that one will predisposed to certain illnesses based on their physical constitution that originated from our parents and back on the family flowchart.

During the last six months of 2004 I have pressure cooked more than ever as a follower of macrobiotics. Actually, I was closely following some of Michio's prescriptions for my condition, thus, the pressure cooking was included in that. Although, I found myself to have a noticeably calm energy, mental balance, and more active energy, I like you, noticed certain things about pressure cooked food that I did not think was good for my condition. I decided, based on my own intuition and experimentation with myself as the lab, to stop pressure cooking in late spring. I reasoned, it is summer, it is hot, and I do not have to pressure cook. Whewww...what a relief!

***Bruce was saying this too and it really made a lot of sense as well.

***Back in the eighties I was very ill. I wanted to get well so badly. Practically every recipe book I bought, the first recipe was always pressure cooked rice. It was an easy jump for me to make the connection therefore, that a pressure cooker was important if the diet was going to work for me.

***Yet I was very poor, and the expense prohibitive (even now I notice that pressure cookers even on this site cost between 99 dollars and 200 dollars) but being sick outweighed being poor so I made the financial sacrifice. Using the pressure cooker occassionally but perhaps not as much or at all in really hot weather, like during the summer etc really makes sense now. But looking back, I can see myself pressure cooking like a madman in a hot little kitchen in the middle of July. My understanding and judgment then was as poor as my physical health!

***Recently I bought a recipe book that claims to make macro whole foods cookery easier and faster. I noticed that so many, the majority sometimes, of the recipes in the individual categories in the book advocate pressure cooking. Since pressure cookers cook things often enough faster, sometimes it seems that the pressure cooker is used by people as if it is a "macro microwave."

***Yet every front has a back and perhaps sometimes what we make up in speed can have other consequences. But I would say that within yin and yang, there can be times where the energy of pressure cooked foods could be one key to acquiring our balance once again.

In my opinion, pressure cooking creates very yangized food. Noticeably. I talked with one of my macrobiotic friends wondering, "What is this obsession with pressure cooking?" I don't know why there is quite this emphasis from the Kushi camp on pressure cooking.

***My feeling is twofold:

Primarily it is because the Kushi's are/were extremely giving and fine people and when they were helping people with macrobiotics they found they were dealing with people who were quite often very yin or expanded in their condition. People were being helped by lots of pressure cooking, really salty foods and miso soups etc. and that is what they needed at the time they started and/or were consulted on how to improve their condition.

But the thing about macrobiotics is that we're taught that everything changes. It really is important to adjust and fine tune what we are doing continually. However, it can be challenging to do so because when something works, most of us will stick with it. I did and ended up going from one extreme to the other unfortunately.

The second reason is often economics. If you are a person who earns part or some of his or her income from selling pressure cookers, you can become unintentionally zealous in your recommendations for this very expensive kitchen implement.

I come to the same conclusions as Dave. I think those following the macrobiotic diet need to be especially wary of the use of too much salt, and to relegate pressure cooking to a normal place among all the various methods of cooking. To over emphasize pressure cooking, might indeed throw everything out of balance. It only makes sense.

***It's also important to recognize that a person who was born into a family that traditionally has eaten lots of the wonderful foods included in the standard macro diet could be very different than a child born into a family where the standard american diet has been eaten for generations.

I think this might be my 100th post.

Let's have a party!

***congratulations Nancy and sincere thanks. Your posts here at cybermacro have helped me countless times. And again, thank you Bruce for the very same reason. Your posts have helped me countless times as well.

In gratitude,

Dave