ColdCrystal Introduction

[coldcrystal]

I have just started transitioning into a Macrobiotic Diet. I seem to have more energy after only a few weeks. One of the things that I miss are Indian Recipies that use Gram Flour (made from Chickpeas). Does anyone know if this is an acceptable flour to use instead of whole wheat flour occasionally? My son is allergic to Soy and I am trying to come up with some dishes that we can both eat, to avoid having to cook separate meals every day. He really likes the rice dishes that we get from a nearby Indian restraunt. Any ideas would be welcome.

Thanks so much.
ColdCrystal

[Bruce Paine]

ColdCrystal,

Congratulations on transitioning to macrobiotics!

Because you describe no reason for becoming macrobiotic, it's difficult to suggest how you should approach macrobiotics.

It's interesting that you have a strong attraction to Indian food.

You can continue eating Gram flour, and everything you like but if you want to transition to a more macrobiotic way, then you will need to discover how to do that using macrobiotic principles, yin and yang and the seasons.

Get your hands on a copy of The Self-Healing Cookbook: A Macrobiotic Primer for Healing Body, Mind and Moods With Whole Natural Foods by Kristina Turner to start off with.

There is a section on cooking the hearty beans: aduki/adzuki, chickpeas, lentils, and black beans, so a soy sensitive family member can get the proten he needs and wants.

Is that soy problem tofu, or also, tempeh, miso, and shoyu or tamari, too?

The following has a whole chapter on beans and 23 exotic, tasty recipes:
Cooking the Whole Foods Way: Your Complete, Everyday Guide to Healthy, Delicious Eating With 500 Recipes, Menus, Techniques, Meal Planning, Buying Tips, Wit & Wisdom by Christina Pirello

My guess is the Indian restaurants serve white rice, or at best long grain brown rice.

If it's white rice, then I would start transitioning from 90% white and 10% organic brown basmati tomorrow, then 80% white and 20% organic brown basmati the next day, until in 10 days you are all eating 100% organic brown basmati and then for variety, I would have a small fraction (like a 1/4 cup to every 2 1/4 cups of rice) of other grains and cereals like kamut, spelt, rye, wild rice, hato mugi (jobs tears) barley, hulled barley, pearled barley, lotus seeds, etc.

If you live in a temperate region (where temperatures drop below freezing in the winter then you will want to transition to organic medium grain brown rice and finally organic short grain brown rice often by mid-winter.

Of course you will want to include other grains and cereals like buckwheat. oats (whole oat groats, steel cut oats, and rolled oats), barley, millet, and corn as well as bulghur teff, amaranth, quinoa, and couscous in your diet.

Always eating the same thing is yang, whereas variety is more yin.

The oriental approach to macrobiotics is more yang, an Indian approach would be more yin.

Depending on where you live, your activity, your lifestyle, your condition/constitution, and your dream, all contribute to what your diet is and where you want to go with it.

It's all one big adventure.

Please enjoy it!

Thank you, very much.

_||_

Bruce Paine

[coldcrystal]

Bruce,

Thank you very much for the information. I will pick up a copy of the books soon. I do need to learn more about the ying and yang approach. Hopefully these books will help.

My reason for choosing Macrobiotics is that I had some cancer removed recently. If there is something I can do to help my body fight off having to go through that again, I need to find that way. I have allergies to a few preservatives/additives that are put into pre-packaged food, so the combination of these things had me searching the web for alternatives. I started eating organic foods as much as possible last fall, both for myself and to avoid the soy additives for my son.

We have already transitioned into brown basmati and brown short grain rice. I have some barley and lentils that I am hoping to find uses for this weekend. There are other questions I have about some of the grains you mentioned, but I think I'll read through some of your previous posts before I make you repeat yourself. I am finding a great deal of good information on these forums.

My son's soy allergy is to all soy proteins. Hopefully he will grow out of it, but for now any soysauce or tofu is not something he can have. Since sprouts have a lot of protein, I have been looking into how to add them into our lives.

Thanks for your help.

ColdCrystal