oshawa 7

Hello. I have read some about macrobiotics as some therapist recomended me the 7 Oshawa diet. I have read that it can be dangerous... What is your opinion. I would go for this diet for a better concentration, cause i have some problems and i am stressed and have an excess of estrogens.

[Blue Dolfin]

The greatest danger is when you try to follow #7 for too long of a time. The question is, how long is a safe time? Unless you are in a very deficient state, a week or so would not hurt.

There is also danger that after you resume normal eating, you will want to eat too much and want very unbalanced foods. I've found that the best way to avoid this problem is to cook your grains into a softer state, like a porridge, and include a bit of seaweed and umeboshi.

I love doing #7 because it is so simple and feels so good. For me, a few days is often enough but occasionally I will do it for a week or more.

Hello. Thanks for your answer.
Today is the sixth day of this diet. I am so sick of porridges that i wouldn't eat anything. But i shall get up and fight until the 10th day
My meals are wheat porridge, boiled rice, baked wheat, wheat flour +water baked cakes, dip wheat, wheat milk, rice soup with wheat dumplings.
I have discovered that i feel best after eating dip wheat.
Or else i haven't observed any change. But this is my first macrobiotic experience... Anyway now i don't feel bad.
What other recepies do you use for this diet?
How does the macrobiotic diet change your life?

[Derek]

and here i thought the #7 diet consisted of four things:

1) Pressure-cooked organic short grain brown rice (no condiments)

2) Kukicha (as little as possible)

3) Spring, Well, or Mountain water

4) Unrefined sea salt

The only variation i've seen is cooking soft rice in the morning, then basic rice for the other one or two meals.

Am I wrong in thinking this? A response would be helpful seeing as i'm going to try it next week.

[Klara]

Derek,

What is prompting you to start the diet next week?

I've been thinking about it alot, especially since so many here have posted on it's wonderful results. So I got the book Francoise Riviere's #7 Diet, which btw you can order at the shop on this site. I thought it would simplify the diet for me, but what I found is that there are indeed quite a few choices and even different levels of #7 diet. It's a small book, but oh so much information. I highly recommend you get it, for besides what foods go in your mouth, there is more in that little gem of a book, both regarding the #7 diet and also a wonderful basics of macrobiotics.

Klara

From all the articles i have read in romanian and of that which my therapist gave to me i understood that there are 4 cereals you can eat during this diet: wheat, rice, millet and another one i can't translate
I used only wheat and rice. And you can cook them: dip, baked or boiled.
My question about the macro diet's benefits was to learn from your experience and not from that of a book, but from your daily lives.

Klara tell us please more about what you learned from this book. I have read the short description of the book. There is something that i didn't know. Is there a restriction in the amount of water drunk? I have read a lot of articles not macro, about 2l of water/day. So i use to drink a lot of water. And how can toxins be elimined unless by water?

[Klara]

Iula,

I hope someone better acquainted with the physiological part can explain it to you. From my understanding, the strict mb diet will help clear out the toxins by creating a "cleaner" inside so everything can move and function better, organs won't be blocked from what they need to do. Also from what I understand too much water taxes the kidneys.

From what I've read so far in the #7 Diet, 3 small cups of bancha tea are recommended, tho in other parts of the book I recall her saying to drink the least amount what is comfortable. She also recommends mu tea and lotus root tea, and and kuzu tea. Different kinds of coffee are also mentioned (hatto, yanoh, bardan, rice, barley) Water is not one of the drinks she talks about.

Buckwheat is another grain that is mentioned - I believe that's the same as kasha??

on p. 127-128, she warns of "be(ing) careful of (certain) errors", of which she mentions: "over-restricting beverage consumption for a rapid recovery, then suddenly slackening the restriction. This is characterized by drinking large quantities of liquid." She also empahsizes cooking grains on the dry side so one is encouraged to do thorough chewing.

She also mentions different condiments (pickles, tekka, gomasio, tamari) but very limited amounts - even tiny tiny amount of seaweeds and azuki beans, but again that depends on which diet, she mentions so many variations.

It's kind of funny, the statement you made about not wanting to hear it from books, but from a real person's experience. Aren't the books based on real person's experience?????

Do you have a macrobiotic group in Romania? I know there is an active one in Hungary. I can send you the e-mail address if you are interested.

Klara

Yes, books are based on ones experience, but books may alter the reality. And i wish to hear the opinion of more people begginers like me, or more experienced. For me ot's more credible. This does not exclude books. Of course they are the main guide...
I don't know any macrobiotic center. I might not be well informed... But macrobiotics is a subject discussed in certain forums and of course there are therapists which are better documented.

[Derek]

Klara-

i'm starting a new job next week, actually. The big one. The one that i've been waiting for since i graduated college. A job that I could (if i wanted) make a career out of if I work hard enough. An intensive training program will begin next monday, and the training session lasts 10 days. I want to be at the top of my game...to have a heightened sensitivity to studying and receiving information...And so i recalled an article on fasting where the author claimed that the fathers of western thought (in ancient greece) required that their best students fast for forty days before receiving the highest teachings. This inspired me to do the grain fast. I think it would focus me from thinking about food (which i do a lot) to focusing on my training. I'm actually quite excited to try it! What do you think?

[Klara]

Derek,

I wish you the very best of luck. My friend thought I'd do well with it as there's not much room to fudge (pun not intended), but while reading #7 Diet, I just couldn't see myself restricting myself that much.

But you have a reason, which as Susan had said on our chat, that gives you more commitment. Keep that goal always in mind when you get "fed up."

But just about all comments I have heard from those who have tried it says it really does put you on a different plane. I love the comment about the 40 days' fast.

The other question is where were you coming from, eating wise? and also be gentle when coming off the fast, add foods slowly. Don't forget the chewing is a crucial part of it.

My friend who did the diet had the rice with sauerkraut. The condiments and tiny tiny amounts of pickles that are mentioned in the #7 Diet book does seem to have a place in the "fast." but I sure don't want to confuse you more.

I think it's wonderful that you're doing it and for a great reason.

Klara

[Derek]

Klara-

i've coming from a lifetime of 'modern-diet' eating, followed by about 7 months last year of wrestling with the macrobiotic diet. I made a commitment to myself on Jan. 1st to become fully committed, and since then have been very good about maintaining and expanding my practice...thus leading me to this site, for example.
So, monday morning at 9am i'll start digesting my new job if anyone is in the boston area, come visit me when we open! I'll be in the mens department of Barney's New York at Copley Place!

Derek

[Klara]

Derek,

I'm a bit confused. This coming Monday is THE BIG ONE that you needed the 10 day fast preparation for? So does that mean you're in the midst of the 10 day rice fast now???

btw, Boston in my eyes seems like a great mb place to be. I know there's a group there that gives you all kinds of info of what's going on in the area, do you know of it? I"m sure there are people here also in the Boston area, and I do wish you once again the best of luck.

Klara

[Derek]

no no, i mean to fast during my training, so that i'm not preoccupied with food concerns

And if there are other young macrobiotic practitioners in boston, i havent found them. so far i'm a diamond in the rough. everyone else i know is middle-aged (no offense meant) and using the diet as a means to heal illness. i'm merely young and enthusiastic about the lifestyle...i just wish i had some friends that were as interested in it as i am.

thanks

d

Hi.
So Derek how's going? Do you really don't think at food?
When i kept the diet i was sitting for 2-3 hours daily in the kitchen.
I think i can concentrate better now but i've got some problems with my teeth... It hurts when chewing with my left teeth. I must go to the dentist