What book describe fundamentals, like centering diet and fasts?

[damon]

Hi,
I've been reading and practicing macrobiotics for about four months now. Most of my knowledge comes from a mixing pot of books and internet sites, including this insightful one. I'm however looking for information on macrobiotic centering diets. What I refer to is the regime macrobiotic practitioners will follow when they need to aggressively battle a serious health condition.

From studying the philosophy and principles, I realize that there's no textbook recipes for everyone to follow. I however suspect that I've missed out on some fundamental reading and guidelines because I've not seen this discussed with any detail beyond just alluding to it as a highly strict diet.

I've also not read anything about the 10 day grain fast, which supports my theory that I've missed a fundamental book or two.

Can someone tell me where these ideas are discussed?

In case it helps, books I've read: Zen Macrobiotics for Americans (by Roger Mason), Pocket Guide to Macrobiotics (by Carl Ferre), Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy (by Dirk Benedict), Changing Seasons Macrobiotic Cookbook (by Aveline Kushi and Wendy Esko), and Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics (by Jessica Porter).

Thanks for reading this; I appreciate any insight!
Damon

[damon]

For those equally new and curious, I was able to find the answer to one of my questions. Apparently the 10 day grain diet is described in the book, You Are All Sanpaku (by George Ohsawa).

Yay, I always love an excuse for going to the bookstore!

[WendyLouWho]

I would highly recommend the books by Sherry Rogers:

The Cure is in the Kitchen: the strict healing phase of the macrobiotic diet

and

Macro Mellow

She has others, but I believe you will find everything you need in the first book I have listed. You are What you Ate is also wonderful, full of case histories if I am remembering correctly (I don't own that one yet but read it on inter library loan).

[damon]

Wendy, those look to be some wonderful references. Having read the excerpts on Amazon, I'm extremely excited to get my hands on them! Thanks so much for passing these my way

Damon

[garymill]

We sell all those Books right here by Dr Sherry Rogers, I would appreciate if you purchase from us as it supports what we do here.

Thanks,

Gary

[WendyLouWho]

Oh gary! What a dork I am <blush> I've changed my links in the original post.

[garymill]

Thanks Wendy, and I know you only meant to be helpful in the first place with your recomendations.

Gary

[Bruce Paine]

Damon,

You are right that the 10 day brown rice fast is in You Are All Sanpaku by Sakurazawa Nyoiti (George Ohsawa) with William Dufty.

A really excellent book for centering oneself on the macrobiotic diet is The Great Life Handbook:a practical guide to Health Happiness and Freedom by Denny Waxman, (that features Seven Steps to Strengthen Your Health), which Gary tells me that he is considering, carrying in the Simply Natural Foods Macrobiotic Bookstore

And, of course, the best macrobiotic cookbook for centering oneself, I feel, is The Self-Healing Cookbook: A Macrobiotic Primer for Healing Body, Mind and Moods With Whole Natural Foods by Kristina Turner!

But, if you want to better understand the ideas behind the basics of macrobiotics, then check out Essential Ohsawa: From Food to Health, Happiness to Freedom by George Ohsawa

There are so many excellent macrobiotic books to read.

It seems that one could spend a lifetime just collecting them all.

Enjoy the adventure!

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

[garymill]

If you are looking for a more up to date book that details a brown rice fast, look to this one, "#7 Diet, An Accompaniment to Ohsawa’s Zen Macrobiotics"

Gary

[damon]

Gary, thanks for mentioning that these books are available on your website. These forums have been so insightful, the least I can do is show my support by purchasing through cybermacro (and I just did )

Bruce, thanks so much for all the references as well! There were a few I wasn't familiar with and eager to check out.

Additionally, I read up on the Denny Waxman and Kristina Turner books you mentioned; however, I'm not sure if they're exactly what I'm looking for. In Dirk Benedict's book and Sunny Matthews' Macrobiotics Today article, for example, both briefly describe a highly strict diet that was developed with the assistance of a macrobiotic counselor to immediately combat their serious health conditions.

Perhaps the reason I'm having trouble finding more info on how to assemble a healing crisis regime is because these diets are more "advanced" and require either thorough understanding of macrobiotic principles or the assistance of a counselor. Would anyone say that is correct?

Damon

[Klara]

Hi Damon,

I think you're doing remarkably well for just four months. Keep in mind this is a lifetime practice, and one is always practicing, never at an end, as life is always changing.

You haven't mentioned if you are doing this research because you are suffering from a serious illness or just from intellectual curiosity. If from curiosity, then just realize 4 months is a drop in the bucket, enjoy your delving deeper and deeper. If it's a serious illness, then also realize that others have delved for longer and may have both knowledge and experience that isn't gotten so quickly - and also very important, the development of intuition, which comes from the experiences. But no one is perfect or infallible, only more experienced.

Are you located where you can find other mb people with more experience? If you are suffering from a serious disease then ask around and go for the best person you can find, and also do trust your own intuition when speaking to someone.

Also a good counselor besides what I mentioned already, uses other tools, amongst them oriental diagnosis - a tool I believe works and is acquired, as everything else, through much experience.

Even if you embark on a strict diet for healing by yourself, you do need to know what to look for in how your body responds. As you said, it is not a cut and dry thing, where x equals y - alot of factors come into play, and one needs good detective skills to figure out what's going on. A good counselor can help there.

Good luck
Klara

[damon]

Klara, thank you for the encouraging post! Your points were very clear.

As for the nature of this research, there's definitely an intellectual aspect; however, I'm also suspicious of a developing condition. My logic is that a strict regime that's empowering enough to combat serious illnesses should be able to knock out whatever might be developing within me. At worst, it would serve as a thorough detox.

As for using a standard mb diet for improving a condition, well, I've been trying that without much success. While an improvement over my 6 years of being a vegan sugar/processed foods addict (which likely got me in this situation), my current mb regime is lacking in diversity and likely complete nutrition. I understand this will improve over time as I learn; however, this is another reason why a strict regime is attractive to me - less overwhelming from abundance of options; a foundation from which I can expand.

But most importantly, I see the strict diet as something that I can use now to halt whatever condition might be progressing while I continue to study.

I haven't done any serious investigation into local mb counselors; however, it's a good suggestion that I'll act on.

As always, I appreciate everyone's insight and comments!

Damon