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Whole grains in the Macrobiotic Diet
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In general, low glycemic index foods are recommended as such foods are said to help people:
High glycemic index foods, on the other hand, are said to be helpful mainly for people who need an energy boost for sports and strenuous exercise, or to re-fuel after exercise.
To some extent, the glycemic index theory supports the consumption of whole grains since they are generally have a lower glycemic index compared to refined grains.
However, according to official glycemic index data, brown rice, depending on the type, quite often has a higher glycemic index than white rice!
For example, the glycemic index for various types of white rice vary from 45 to 69, whereas that for brown rice vary from 50 to 87!
Most grains, whether whole grains or refined, have a glycemic index of in the range of medium to high. And so, a lot of health experts recommend cutting down on grains, including whole grains.
The actual, real life experience of people who follow a macrobiotic diet, however, does not support the glycemic index theory.
Despite eating plenty of brown rice and other whole grains, such people are seldom obese. Macrobiotic people are typically slim and slightly below average in body weight.
At the 1993 Macrobiotic Summer Conference which I attended, there was only one man who was rather big. His waistline was well over 40 inches, and he weighed well over 200 lbs (over 100 kg). But, he told me he used to be very much bigger! And he looked quite healthy, not at all sickly.
Nor do they suffer from heart / cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, diabetes and other health problems associated with high glycemic index foods.
In rural. traditional societies, where people are poor and they eat mainly grains – both whole grains and refined grains – again people are generally healthy and free from degenerative diseases. (But this is not the case with the poor in cities, who eat plenty of white sugar, white bread and other refined flour products).
In fact, some poor people in countries like China, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and elsewhere can afford to eat only rice with, perhaps, soy sauce or some other seasoning, or a bit of pickles. Their diet consists of nearly 100 percent grains! And they are generally healthy.George Ohsawa, who introduced macrobiotics to the West in the 1950s and 1960s, actually wrote about such a "100 percent grain” diet.
In his book Zen Macrobiotics, George Oshawa introduced the idea of seven levels of diet whereby the proportion of whole grains increases until the highest level, called Diet Number 7, where whole grains form nearly 100 percent.
George Oshawa, in fact, had three other levels, called Diet Number Minus 1, Minus 2 and Minus 3, which described the typical modern diet of junk foods.
This idea of a Diet Number 7 was misunderstood by some people – particularly the Hippies – during the 1960s. Some thought they could attain spiritual development and enlightenment by following such a diet.
They switched suddenly to it without making a transition through the other levels. They also continued taking marijuana, LSD and other drugs while eating only whole grains.
One or two of them died. As a result, macrobiotics got a bad name and macrobiotic centres were raided by US health authorities.
But in rural societies, many poor people eat such a diet without problems.
Many early macrobiotic practitioners also did a “brown rice fast” whereby, for 10 to 12 days, they ate practically nothing but brown rice – and recovered from many, long-term health problems as a result.
I say this not to recommend eating grains and nothing else. Even if you wish to do it for only 10 to 12 days, I recommend that you seek the advice of a macrobiotic counsellor first.
I say this only to point out that grains are not all that unhealthy but, in fact, quite healthy.
Some macrobiotic teachers call grains the "true human food”. They point out that grains are the only food that humans can eat, every day, at every meal, from past-weaning to old age, without falling ill.
If a person eats only meat, only vegetables, only fruits or only some other food, sooner or later sickness will set in.
Apparently, some people had "proven” that they can survive eating only meat and nothing else – but they did it for only one year.
Likewise there are people who eat only vegetables, or sprouts, or fruits... and they appear to be in good health. But they have not done it from birth till old age.
Moreover, these people often have what macrobiotic people call an overly yin or expanded condition. For example, their palms tend to be soft like jelly or tofu and very red. Softness is clearly a sign of expansion. Redness indicates that the blood vessels beneath the skin have become overly expanded and thus, highly visible.
In macrobiotics, the rationale for eating mainly whole grains is this – they have the most balanced energy in terms of yin and yang or expansion / contraction.
This cannot be scientifically proven, of course. It requires an understanding of the concept of yin and yang, or expansion and contraction energy.
Foods can be divided into two main types – animal and plant.
Of the two, animal foods are more contracted (more dense / compact / concentrated) while plant foods are more expanded (more loosely structured, diffused, watery, etc).
Among plant foods, however, grains are the most contracted. They are small and compact. And if left in their husks, they do not rot or fall apart (expand) for hundreds or even thousands of years.
On this basis, macrobiotics considers whole grains to have the most balanced energy.
Again, this is not something that can be scientifically proven. Rather, it is an observation of world history.
Another interesting observation is that the Chinese word for peace is made up of two other words, grains + mouth, suggesting that peace comes from eating grains.
Again, this is borne out by historical observation. In One Peaceful World, macrobiotic teacher Michio Kushi points out that wars are fought mostly among meat-eating societies, or by meat-eating societies conquering grain / vegetable-based societies.
For example, the Mongols conquered China, the Persians conquered India while the majority of wars were fought among Europeans.
Modern nutritional research supports this idea.
Today, it is known that carbohydrates increase the level of the brain chemical, serotonin.
Serotonin, in turn, regulates many of our feelings, including pain, sleep, mood and hunger. It makes people feel calmer and less irritable… in other words, more peaceful!
Thus, the Macrobiotic Diet recommends a pattern of eating as follows:
The pattern is the most important. Even when you cannot control the quality of your food, as when you eat out in restaurants, you can still choose the pattern and, in that sense, observe a macrobiotic diet.
Most types of whole grain may be eaten as part of a macrobiotic diet, even if they come from somewhat different climatic zones. This is because most grains can grow in wide climatic zones.
For example, millet grows in South China and India, which are relatively mild climates, as well as in Japan and Korea, which are much colder climates.
Whole grains that are more suitable for tropical and sub-tropical climates include:
Whole grains that are more suitable for temperate and colder climates include:
There is no great harm in occasionally eating grains from another climatic zone, but they should not form the main food.
For example, people in the tropics should not take oats, or buckwheat as their main food, people in cold climates should not take corn as their main food.
Exceptions may be made, however, to adapt to one's personal condition. Short grain rice has more contracting energy and may be eaten by those in the tropics who have an overly expanded condition.
Likewise, long grain rice has more expanding energy and may be eaten by those in colder climates who have a contracted condition.
Whole grains can be cooked dry like rice, or wet and soft like porridge, which is usually eaten for breakfast.
It is also useful to eat a variety of grains, as different grains provide different nourishment. The easiest way to do this is to mix them, for example, cook:
Whole grains can also be made into breads and noodles or pasta.
Generally, it is better to eat the whole grain, rather than broken grains like rolled oats and polenta (corn), or flour products like bread and noodles. However, wheat is usually eaten in the form of flour products because whole wheat is very hard and chewy.
Whole grains are better because once a grain is broken and exposed to air, it starts to oxidise – just as an apple starts to oxidise and turn brown when it is cut, except that the oxidisation process in grains is less obvious.
But those who are used to fresh grains and fresh flour can tell the difference.
I once met two ladies who were avid bakers, and they would make bread with freshly ground flour. They told me that if the flour was just a day old, they could tell the difference. Even their hands feel different when kneading the dough.
Most people, however, make breads and cakes with flour that is at least a few months old and they are none the wiser.
In Singapore, there is a soba (buckwheat noodle) restaurant (at the Paragon, basement level) where the noodles are made from freshly ground flour. Near the entrance of the restaurant is a big stone mill where the flour is ground, and the soba maker makes his noodles there for all to see.
The soba does taste very different from the dried, factory made varieties.
How the grains are ground also makes a difference. Commercial flour mills use steel blades to produce flour and the blades get very hot. This affects the quality. Stone grinding is a cooler process that does not affect the quality as much, so if you buy flour, look for those that are stone ground.
Look also for flour that is unbleached, and generally organic / natural. Regular flour is not only bleached, but is allowed by law to contain more than 20 chemical additives without the consumer being informed.
Baked flour products, including regular bread, cakes, pastries and pizza - and especially hard and dry products like biscuits - are best avoided or minimised.
Noodles as well as breads that are cooked in a short time, like pancakes, Indian chapati & prata or Chinese man tou (steamed buns), are healthier and more suited for tropical climates.
Baked bread is more suitable for people in colder climates.
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