Hi Cool Dude,
I think Macrobiotics is excellent. Personally it has exposed me to a great way of thinking about my food. There is something about the Macrobiotics diet that I feel is superior to other diets. All I'm saying really is that I don't feel like Macrobiotics is a Japanese diet exclusively. By that I just mean that one need not consume miso soup, sea vegetables and rice to be macrobiotic - at all. The general principles - stressing mainly grains, mainly vegetables, and certain proportions of other foods seem to me, to be the most potent message.
There are many different types of grains and vegetables. I enjoy rice but why should it be considered superior to other grains? I'm not sure why Ohsawa thought of it as the perfect ratio of yin and yang but perhaps it was for him but not for another. Either way, only personal experience will tell. Of course, if you've had great experience with the Japanese type diet, kudos to you. Its really great to hear that.
It simply makes sense to me to stick with things in my local area and things my family has eaten for generations. (in europe) None of them had any exposure to rice and I've had grandparents that have lived almost to 100 in good health. They pretty much solely ate wheat and corn. They also included nightshades, but they didn't have much exposure to white bread or snack bars, so they didn't have any ailments to recover from, like me.
I have nothing against eating foreign foods but I think Macrobiotics can still hold with more familar foods. That's just my gut feeling but if you don't agree with me, that's ok too. We have the freedom of choice
I found this information really interesting in case anyone wants to do more reading on this:
http://www.macrobiotics.co.uk/macroorientalfoods.htm
I think that as long as Macrobiotics seems to have a Japanese-preference to it, people will be asking these kinds of questions. Shouldn't a great idea feel universal?
