Roy
Here is a controversial article referring to Ohsawa and his smoking:
"Macrobiotics was founded by Yukikazu Sakurazawa (1893-1966)-better known as George Ohsawa. His first book in English, Zen Macrobiotics, was published in mimeographed form in 1960. Macrobiotic insider Ronald Kotzsch, Ph.D., who wrote Macrobiotics: Yesterday and Today, portrays Ohsawa as a quixotic Japanese nationalist who, while preaching the "Unique Principle" of yin and yang, smoked heavily and occasionally enjoyed cheesecake, doughnuts, Coca-Cola, coffee, Guinness Stout, and Scotch whiskey. In Kotzsch's words, "Ohsawa was a man who for forty years taught about health with a cigarette in his hand."
http://www.quackwatch.com/01Quackery...ics/kushi.html
(".....although macrobiotic eating might improve the health of many American adults-it presents significant and unnecessary risks of nutritional deficiency. Nutrient supplementation, lab tests, and consultations with a qualified nutrition professional could minimize this risk. But macrobiotic philosophy discourages such safeguards.")