Sua,
Lino Stanchich in his book
MACROBIOTIC HEALING SECRETS, VOL. I http://www.macrobioticconsultation.c...Products.shtml says
"...One of the most miraculous pickles and digestive aids is the umeboshi..."
"If you have a digestive problem, pull off one quarter to one half of the umeboshi flesh and place in a cup of (bancha twig) tea. Drink the tea and eat the piece of plum.If the problem still persists after a half an hour, chew another portion and if needed, take a third time. Avoid overeating any salted foods. Limit your total intake to one small umeboshi (the size of a large grape).....The Japanese believe that one umeboshi per day is the best defense against all kinds of infection.That quantity might be too much for us Westerners, who should eat about two per week to strengthen digestion and the intestines as well as increase the stomach's digestive juices..".
Besides the seasonings and condiments that Nancy mentioned, there is one souce of lactobacili that many longtime macro counselors and visitors from the Far East have found lacking at macrobiotic pot lucks that otherwise offered delicious, creative and made from high qualty ingredients and that is pickles and sauerkraut.
Lino says that " ..Pickles are the digestive aids of the macrobiotic diet..and that a macrobiotic pickle is fermented with (sea) salt or with fermented sauce such as shoyu/soy sauce, miso or ume vinegar. There are short term pickles and long term pickles. Commercial pickles we buy in the store are often made with vinegar and sweeteners and are heated when packed. Therefore they have lost their ability to promote intestinal flora which helps digestion. Homemade pickles are generally of higher quality and effectiveness. Pickles improve assimilation, prevent and treat heartburn, reduce flatulence, and diminish the bloated and lethargic feeling one may experience after a meal."
According to Klaus Kauffmann and Anneles Schoneck in their
The Cultured Cabbage:Rediscovering the Art of Making Sauerkraut http://goldminenaturalfood.com/catalog/PDFcatalog.pdf, "SauerKraut eliminates disease causing "bad" bacteria and reintroduces friendly "good" bacteria (such as Lactobacillus acidophilus)."
Some recipes are introducedf in an earlier archived post:
http://www.cybermacro.com/forum/arch...php/t-284.html in many macrobiotic cookbooks, in another of Kauffmann and Schoneck's books:
Making Sauerkraut and pickled vegetables at home http://www.discountnaturalfoods.com/...erkrautbo.html, and here:
http://www.discountnaturalfoods.com/.../harsch30.html .
You can eat properly pickled vegetables with every meal and derive great benefits.
I hope that helps.
Thank you, very much.
Bruce Paine