Isn't the macrobiotic diet acid forming?

In an earlier article about acid forming and alkaline forming foods, we learned that grains are acid forming – and that in order to achieve optimum health, we should take more alkaline forming foods to make the body environment slightly more alkaline.

So why does macrobiotics recommend a diet of mainly whole grains? Isn't there a contradiction here? Not really as Herman Aihara explains...

This article forms part of a series based on macrobiotic lectures that Herman Aihara and his wife, Cornelia, gave in Singapore in 1995. Following that, I published an entire issue of The Good Life, summarising his key teachings in Singapore.

Herman Aihara passed away on 25 February 1998 and Cornelia Aihara passed away exactly eight years later, on 25 February 2006.

Brown rice is acid forming. It is more acid forming than white rice. Other whole grains, apart from millet, are acid forming as well.

So why does macrobiotic teaching recommend brown rice and other whole grains as our main food? Wouldn’t that make our blood and other body fluids too acidic?

Some health writers claim that a grain-based diet is too acid forming and therefore “bad” for health. They say was should live on salads and fruits instead.

It is true that grains form acids in the body when they are digested. But to then say that the entire grain-based macrobiotic diet is acid-forming only goes to show an incomplete understanding of macrobiotics.

To begin with, the macrobiotic diet is not just whole grains. It also includes a substantial amount of vegetables, plus some sea vegetables, miso, soy sauce, and etc. These are all alkaline forming foods.

Even the so-called “brown rice fast” – which is not widely recommended nowadays – is not a diet of only brown rice. It includes small amounts of miso soup and condiments.

To fully understand how macrobiotics can produce a healthy, slightly alkaline condition, we need to look beyond the food. We need also to look at the way of cooking, way of eating and other factors.

For example, brown rice and other whole grains are usually cooked with a pinch of sea salt or a small piece of seaweed. Both are very strong alkaline forming foods.

Beans, which make up a small part of the macrobiotic diet, are also acid forming. And again, they are usually cooked with salt or seaweed.

Rice and other grains are also usually served with gomashio, a condiment made with sesame seeds and sea salt. Sesame seeds, too, are alkaline forming.

Grains may also be served with various other condiments – seaweed flakes, shiso powder, tekka condiment, umeboshi... all alkaline forming foods.

And, its recommended that we chew our food very, very well – at least 50 times per mouthful, preferably 100 times or more. The advice is that we chew until our food turns liquid, before swallowing.

The purpose of chewing is not just to break up the food. A machine can do this. The purpose is to mix the food thoroughly with saliva, which is alkaline.

It is important, therefore, that we seriously heed advice beyond what to eat and what not to eat.

Macrobiotics is not just a brown rice diet. It is an entire way of eating. And a way of life.

Click here to read how, apart from diet, other lifestyle factors can make the body more alkaline.

Click here to read why whole grains are truly "human food".