Diet #7

[mistry]

"Peculiar Vegetarianism
diet #7 (Diet No. 7): "Healing regimen" recommended by George Ohsawa (see "macrobiotics" ) in Zen Macrobiotics: The Art of Rejuvenation and Longevity (1965). It principally involves restricting dietary intake (including water) to brown rice and particular kinds of tea (" as little as possible" ) for a period of one week to an indefinite number of months. The purported objective of diet #7 and the nine other diets of Zen Macrobiotics is to maintain balance of yin and yang.

macrobiotics (formerly called "Zen Macrobiotics" ): Quasireligious movement and health-centered lifestyle whose centerpiece is a mystical form of vegetarianism. The thrust of macrobiotic nutrition is regulation of the intake of two alleged elementary forms of energy: yin and yang. Categorizing a food as yin or yang depends largely on characteristics directly cognizable by the senses and is unrelated to nutrient content. Proponents ascribe the modern version of macrobiotics either to Ishizuka Sagen (1850Ð1910), a Japanese physician and author of A Chemical Nutritional Theory of Long Life, or to George Ohsawa (1893Ð1966), whose names included: Georges Ohsawa, Nyoichi (also spelled "Nyoiti" ) Sakurazawa, and Yukikazu Sakurazawa. The leading exponent of macrobiotics is Michio Kushi, according to whom "Natural and Macrobiotic Medicine" encompasses: (a) astrological diagnosis; (b) aura and vibrational diagnosis, allegedly based on the color, frequency, "heat,"and intensity of a one's "radiating aura" and "vibrations"; (c) consciousness and thought diagnosis, a variation of so-called mind reading; (d) environmental diagnosis, whose theory posits "celestial influences"; (e) meridian diagnosis, which purportedly reveals valuable information about "internal energy flow"; (f) pressure diagnosis, which supposedly reveals "stagnation of the streaming energy"; and (g) spiritual diagnosis, an apparent variation of aura analysis (probably rei-so).

Zen Macrobiotics: Early form of macrobiotics, endorsed by Herman and Cornelia Aihara. The Aiharas were students of George Ohsawa (see "macrobiotics") and coauthored Natural Healing from Head to Toe: Traditional Macrobiotic Remedies (Avery Publishing Group, Inc., 1994). They also founded, in 1974, the Vega Study Center, in Oroville, California. The school teaches Zen Macrobiotics."

http://www.acsh.org/publications/pri...egetarian.html