Meal Size and Calcium Fears

[lilmizcheezcake]

I seem to be having problems with meal proportions. I have been experimenting with different grains and veggies plus other micro things, but most commonly after I eat, I feel ok, but an hour or two after I eat I feel “empty” or down right hungry. Now my guess is that I must not be eating enough at meals, does this seem true, or is this normal? I hope this is not normal because when I feel hungry I can just think of eating something and tend to want to grab anything in sight, which isn’t very good.

It would be really helpful if someone would list a day of meals that they eat so maybe I could bump it off of what I am eating. I know each individual is different but I really do think an idea of others meal sizes would help me a lot.

Another problem I am having is letting go of that firmly installed belief that I need to drink milk in order to get the correct amount of calcium daily. I haven’t been eating dairy and feel as if any day now a hump will form on my back and I am sure I will get that spine disorder from lack of calcium.

I know that is on the extreme side of things and I also do understand I am getting calcium from veggies ect, that I am eating, it just doesn’t seem like enough, plus it is my understanding that vitamin supplements or pills are not suppose to be taken either. Can anyone tell me how many cups of greens or other foods that must be eaten to maintain a healthy daily calcium amount?

Also I am finding that my kids will not touch greens with a five-foot pole! How am I too give them the healthy amount of calcium if I can’t depend on them getting it from veggies?

Thanks for your patience with beginners on this site. I will keep at the reading to find more info for my unending questions.

Lil Miz

[Bruce Paine]

lilmizcheezcake,

Imagine someone who has never been to your home, asking you over the phone, "How do I get to your house?

It would be very difficult for you to tell them if you don't know where they are coming from or how they are coming!

So, in the same way, if I don't know what specific information you are following (like in what books or by whose advice or instruction) nor what specifically you are eating, how can I or anyone tell you what adjustments you need to make?

That said, here are some recommendations that experienced macrobiotic people would have for you.

A Standard Macrobiotic Diet includes:

Eat three meals a day.
Have a savory soup with 1-2 meals every dayl and have sweet soups once or twice every week. Make one of those daily savory soups, a homemade miso soup.
Eat organic brown rice (short more during the cool to cold months, medium grain more during the warm to hot months) every day and other grains and grain products (grains should be 40%-60% of every meal).
Eat 20%-30% organic temperate climate (tc) vegetables (which may be boiled, steamed, sauteed, pressed, pickled, raw etc) daily and eat at least one vegetable dish with every meal.
Eat 5%-10% organic beans, bean products, & sea vegetables no more than once a day
White meat fish can be eaten once or twice a week.
Organic tc fruit desserts, as well as organic tc fresh and dried fruits may be eaten on occasion.
Organic tc fruit juice is okay occasionally during hot weather.
Organic tamari roasted pumpkin, sunflower seeds and almonds may be enjoyed as a snack or supplement.
Organic rice cakes, puffed whole cereals and popcorn may be enjoyed from time to time, together with above mentioned nuts and seeds.
Teas not containing aromatc fragrances or stimulants, such as roasted bancha (kukicha) twig tea, roasted brown rice tea, toasted barley (muigicha) tea, dandelion tea, and cereal grain coffee may be used on a macrobiotic diet.
Condiments to use with your food , particularly grains and/or in macrobiotic cooking include umeboshi plum, sea vegetable powders, roasted sesame seeds, roasted sesame seeds and sea salt (gomashio) and tekka.

Chew each mouthful until everthing is liquid before swallowing and eat no more than 80% of your capacity.

Get a copy of Changing Seasons Macrobiotic Cookbook: Cooking in Harmony With Nature by Aveline Kushi, Wendy Esko to give you the complete picture towards practicing a macrobiotic diet and lifestyle.

Kristina Turner in her The Self-Healing Cookbook: A Macrobiotic Primer for Healing Body, Mind and Moods With Whole, Natural Foods suggests much of the following to get enough calcium in your diet:

Eat plenty of steamed or quick boiled organic dark leafy greens such as kale, collards, watercress, daikon greens, turnip greens, bok choy, carrot tops, chinese cabbage, mustard greens, parsely, dandelion greens leeks, scallions.

Have a sea vegetable dish a couple times a week and have some finely sliced wakame, kombu, kelp, alaria or dulse in every miso soup

Serve your kids brown rice and beans without any vegetables and very soon they will crave them!

Then give them the dark leafy greans and don't give them the other vegetables until they've devoured the dark leafy greens.

As a child, I used to be picky with my food, avoiding certain ones that were served to me at the dinner table (and the dog that sat near my chair was getting fat) and then I was sent on a summer camping trip at Lake Arrowhead for a couple of weeks with other children and we slept in unheated drafty cabins where the temperature dropped twenty degrees lower than we were used to and when we woke up in the morning, we were starved, and pity the kid that was slow and meek when grabbing the food that was placed on our common tables at breakfast, lunch, and dinner!!!

My parents were shocked when I returned from that trip that I devoured everything that was served to me!

Macrobiotics is a balance of grains and vegetables and if we deprive someone of the component that is one side of that balance, very soon they will crave what's missing.

Hungry kids eat everything you feed them!

Read Kristina and Aveline's books and very soon, you will know more than me!

Thank you, very much.

Be well and somewhat hungry.

Bruce Paine

[lilmizcheezcake]

Bruce-

Wow! Thank you for your very thoughtful and informative reply. Point taken on the “house directions” analogy.

The information I have been following is bits and pieces from the net and different books. I have The Self-Healing Cookbook, by Kristina Turner -which is really great. I just started reading The Hip Chick’s guide to Macrobiotics, by Jessica Porter, and I have The Macrobiotic Path To Total Health, by Michio Kushi on its way from the library. Plus I have been trying to get to read all the great info on this site.

It seems like the basics of macrobiotics is sinking in but the issue I am having seems to be what proportions are good for me with both health and satisfaction in mind. Also I find myself not getting very elaborate with my meals because I also have to cook meals for my family which is different than my own because they aren’t to keen on eating the things on my menu. I don’t think I will get them to fully eat MB but in the future I hope to incorporate it into meals more smoothly. I enjoy cooking but I don’t enjoy it that much to do a lot of cooking everyday. Luckily if I understand right, most MB meals are better simpler, so maybe this isn’t such a big deal.

I am currently having two MB meals, breakfast and lunch, with a non-macrobiotic dinner. The dinner meal will get easier over time, I hope, even if I do cook a different meal from my family, and I won’t be so tempted by non-macro food. For breakfast I have been experimenting with different grains. I have had oatmeal, brown rice, millet, and buckwheat all in around 1 cup cooked portions. I don’t measure or anything but I eat about near half of one cup uncooked. This seems satisfying at the moment, but as I mentioned before doesn’t seem to last long enough. For lunch I have miso soup or left over grain from breakfast with veggies. The only thing I have been drinking with meals is water or tea. Usually when I have soup I don’t have grain unless I put a little in the soup.

I wouldn’t mind losing weight, about 20 pounds would be nice, but if I feel as though I need to find something to snack on between meals I don’t think that will be helpful to me at all. I do not feel hungry when I leave the table but sometimes I notice that I stop eating not because I am full, but (I know this is going to sound bad,) but because I am bored. I haven’t learned how to cook “excitingly” when it comes to MB meals and it seems like I get bored when I am eating making me not want to eat anymore. I hope this will change with time and with experimenting with more recipes.

When you made mention about serving the kids rice and beans, when I prepare that, would you suggest cooking the rice and beans separate or together? What a great idea with the trade off and craving the other(veggie.)

I have my five year old tell me the other day the brown rice I served him “tasted like garbage.” He didn’t say it in a way of, “Yes world I am a brat,” but his honest opinion. I wish I had known about MB sooner because I can’t blame a little boy who has been eating chicken nuggets, wonder bread, and candy. Sometimes it is frustrating that most parents out there do think that their kids are eating healthy with all the packaged foods. I find it so strange that my whole life- never was their mention that dairy was bad, and to think of all the gallons of milk I drank. It is strange for me to think that as a society we are really uneducated when it comes to nutrition and diet. How could this link be passed over but instead we pass on McDonald’s to our kids.

Not to be pessimistic- I am happy I did find out about MB when I did. My kids are still young enough to work on changing views and I, (eating MB,) can have more control over my life. Even though I may not be able to convince my family to change enough to be completely MB I still know I will be making their lives a bit healthier by knowing the things I am learning. Just that side of brown rice, or extra veggie, I feel- will make some difference. I realize I can only control myself and my decisions I can’t control what my kids do end up picking as adults or what my husband decides as his future eating habits.

Well, I think I about talked your ear off, I feel as though I should apologize or something. Thanks again and I hope I answered some of the questions as to what I have been eating. Take care-

Lil Miz