In this era of all things Paleo pertaining to diet and nutrition the fact that there are several real accounts of cancer victims healing themselves with a diet alone is not well known, even among alternative practioners.

George Oshawa first introduced the diet in the 1960's. The diet was all about balance according to asian philosophy. Balance of many factors as you will see.
 

 

 

The balance is attributed to  the Chinese properties of yin and yang. Balance in these areas are essential to health.  All foods are categorized as yin, yang, or neutral or balanced. In the 1960s, it was not uncommon to go on an all brown rice diet with the prescribed fermented soy sauce for a week or two in order to break through a spell of very bad health, or just as a cleansing fast.  Of course, some people took it too far and perished and consequently this diet received a lot of bad press.

But there is much more to macrobiotics than just brown rice, although it is a staple. The diet focuses mostly on grains and legumes with some vegetables and sea veggies (seaweeds), very little fruit, and no animal meat, although some macrobiotic dieters allow for a little fish. A diet heavy with grains cuts across the current thinking of some highly regarded alternative health practitioners and writers who believe grains create inflammation. However, the macrobiotic diet has a long history of health giving success with its focus on whole organic grains. 

Some raw food is considered okay, but light cooking, usually steaming or stir frying, is the preferred method of preparing macrobiotic foods. Although there are a few dissidents within macrobiotic circles, the macrobiotic diet mostly shuns  ALL supplements, remember though this is back when the soil may have had some nourishment and foods were still unmodified. 

After its introductory impact in the USA, public interest in macrobiotics waned. The notion of curing serious disease by diet alone was not appreciated, and as a method of getting healthier and staying healthy, it was considered too strict and severe by most.

 

 

One facet of macrobiotics that should be applied to all eating is chewing longer. It helps  food digest better and let's you become more aware of when you`ve had enough to eat.  ALSO, Something  HUGE that was completely lost on our culture is that this diet was changed  FREQUENTLY for the individual by their practitioner depending upon their current presentation IE, too yin, too yang, too hot too cold, or based on imbalances in their organs, weakness in the kidney or heart or blood or spleen or liver for example, seasonally and for other imbalances too numerous to list here.

Macrobiotics Today 

Macrobiotics has remained over recent decades through the efforts of Michio and Gabriel Kushi`s books and their involvement with establishing training centers for macrobiotic principles, food selection, and cooking. Many of those who have adopted the macrobiotic diet as a life style did so after being stricken with life threatening diseases such as cancer or debilitating chronic issues such as Type 2 diabetes, chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia. 

They were magically led to macrobiotics, tried the diet strictly, and recovered quickly and painlessly. 

 

I think the really valuable takeaway here is the concept of individualization and balance.  Health is a continuum and what works for a time needs to be CHANGED at regular intervals.  Very few people can do this for themselves.  It really requires someone very knowledgeable who can teach you how to ultimately read your own body and make those changes yourself.

You`ll find those testimonials and resources for more detailed information on macrobiotics in the Sources section below. 

Sources for more information: 

Natural News TV Interview of Ken Walles (in case you haven`t viewed it yet) 
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=75365... 

A very comprehensive website for macrobiotics 
http://www.macrobiotics.co.uk/ 

The Kushi Institute http://www.kushiinstitute.org/ 

The Kushi Institute of Europe http://www.macrobiotics.nl/