Introduction

[John]

Hello everyone! I am new to this forum and would like to introduce myself. My name is John, I have been a vegetarian for several years but I feel that I still eat too much processed food and sugars. I just found out about the Macrobiotic diet and picked up a book about it. It seems like just the thing I have been looking for. I have a couple of questions already Does it matter if I use a pressure cooker or a regular rice cooker to cook rice? Any other advice for a newbie? Thanks!John

[MJS]

Originally Posted by John

Hello everyone! I am new to this forum and would like to introduce myself. My name is John, I have been a vegetarian for several years but I feel that I still eat too much processed food and sugars. I just found out about the Macrobiotic diet and picked up a book about it. It seems like just the thing I have been looking for. I have a couple of questions already Does it matter if I use a pressure cooker or a regular rice cooker to cook rice? Any other advice for a newbie? Thanks!John

Hi John,
I want to say, before I start, I'm not licensed to give advice. Some people may find fault with what I say. I welcome them to give better advice based on their experience and training.
A regular rice cooker relies on electricity. The ideal is to cook with a gas stove, but I am stuck with electric range right now. It's totally possible to transition to macro with whatever you've got, in my opinion. Whatever you can afford. I just got a pressure cooker recently, although I've been cooking macrobiotic for about two years. Pot-boiling on an electric range may not be ideal but I can testify, it works OK and you can heal this way too. However I believe there is some evidence linking electric cookstoves to cancer. I'll be happy to go to all gas as soon as I can. It's much more pleasant for cooking too.
Mara Jean

[John]

Thanks for the response Mara. I have a follow up question. When you say electric stoves are linked to cancer do you mean that the act of cooking near the stove can cause cancer (direct exposure to EMFs) or do you mean that the electric stove will adversely affect the food that is being cooked?

Thanks!
John

Originally Posted by MJS

However I believe there is some evidence linking electric cookstoves to cancer...
Mara Jean

[MJS]

Originally Posted by John

Thanks for the response Mara. I have a follow up question. When you say electric stoves are linked to cancer do you mean that the act of cooking near the stove can cause cancer (direct exposure to EMFs) or do you mean that the electric stove will adversely affect the food that is being cooked?

Thanks!
John

John,
Electricity being a chaotic form of energy transference, it's much more natural & desirable to cook by a steady flame. The quality of energy we use to cook with influences the quality of our food, and natural fire is of much better quality than artificial fire. As far as the cancer risk, I know I've read mention of it in macrobiotic literature, but I'm not really a good source because I don't have any research or even anecdotal data. The EMFs of course are a known risk. The lesser-known and as far as I know, scientifically unproven risk that you'll hear of in the macro community is that of the _energy/ki vibration_ of electricity being detrimental to human health & healing. (Though it may be scientifically unproven, I think that the experiences of many people may be just as worth listening to. If I had cancer, I'd have bought a gas stove immediately.)

This is a great discussion topic. Can anyone else add their experiences and knowledge about electric and non-electric cooking methods?

Wishing I was more knowledgeable ,
Mara Jean

[janeyric]

As one of my closest friends advised me:

'I don't know everything that everybody else dosn't know'

If in doubt, use your intuition. Do not underestimate it!

(Not that I know!)

fearlessness and harmony,
*j*

[Bruce Paine]

Hi John, mara jean, and janeyric,

In the Macrobiotic Food and Cooking Series: Cooking for Health books http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...325535-4075939 by Aveline Kushi and various authors, all contain a certain message about electric as opposed to gas cooking:

"A. Electricity dissipates the molecular structure and strength of your food by causing electrons to bounce out of the atomic field and leaving the atom very unstable.

B. It's very hard to fine tune your cooking with electricity. It isa conductive heat which first warms the coils and then the pot and its contents from the bottom up. You can't change the temperature quickly when turning to high or low because it takes some time to cool or heat the pot. It's difficult to cook uniformly and it's possible that the bottom can burn while the top needs more cooking. A gas flame heats the air around it instead. The food is cooked more evenly and the temperature can be adjusted immediately (a pot of water will instantly stop boiling the moment you turn off the flame, for example) meals are more well cooked.

C. Because of the drawbacks in electric cooking, a person may not feel satisfied with the meal and may crave strong salt or animal food (to counter the yin and weakening effects) which in turn causes a craving for excessive sweets and other yin foods. In other words, it becomes more of a struggle to eat in a balanced manner and stay on the macrobiotic diet".

If one has to use electric cooking for some reason, then a pressure cooker with an Ohsawa Pot inside is a gentler modification of the energy but if for some reason one can't move to a new location with gas cooking, then cooking on a portable (butane or propane) gas stove is perferable in that otherwise electric kitchen.

A good butane stove is the iwatani http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ayphotohosting and though the gas cannisters in marine/hardware stores (which last between 1.5 [high flame] to 3+ [simmering] hours each) cost as much as 5 dollars (U.S.) through a judicious search, one can find them for less than 1 dollar each (like in a Chinese food supermarket).

Propane is cheaper but one must keep one's windows open sufficiently to allow keep the air you are breathing oxygen rich.

I have more information on these stoves and other cooking stategies but now I must go to work.

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine