Macrobiotic system. The macrobiotic diet is a philosophy of proper nutrition. Hot rutabaga salad

Macrobiotics is not only a nutritional system. This is a whole philosophy designed to ensure human health, longevity, mental and physical activity. Macrobiotic nutrition rules are based on a person’s contact with his body - it is believed that the body itself will make it clear what exactly needs to be eaten in order to achieve the desired result. The macrobiotic diet is the basis of the diet of Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jerry Halliwell, Yoko Ono and others.

Official science does not consider the rules of macrobiotics suitable for everyone. The ability of macrobiotic nutrition to cure various diseases has not been scientifically confirmed. The doctrine of the influence of food energies on the human body also has no experimental evidence.

What is macrobiotics

A little history
The word "macrobiotics" is of Greek origin (from "macro" - large, great, and "biotics" - vital). This concept is found in the texts of Hippocrates. Macrobiotics teaches how to make your life active, rich, fulfilling and happy.

Although the term is Greek, the principles of macrobiotics are based on the Japanese teachings of masculine and feminine energies, yang and yin. Nutritional rules that correspond to the idea of ​​dividing foods into yang foods and yin foods came to the Western world from the Zen Buddhist monasteries of Japan. The widespread use of macrobiotics in the USA and Europe began in the middle of the 20th century.

Understanding Energy Balance
Followers of macrobiotics see the key to success in saturating the body with the energies that it needs at the moment, season, etc. Macrobiotic nutrition allows you to achieve the correct balance of energies, which should lead to improved health, mental activity and appearance. At the same time, one cannot help but note some confusion in dividing foods into yin and yang groups due to different approaches in Japanese and Chinese cultures.

Principles of macrobiotics

Division into “male” and “female” products
Everything a person eats is divided into two groups: foods with yin energy and foods with yang energy. Yin is feminine energy, it corresponds to winter, cold, night. Yang is masculine energy associated with summer, heat, and daytime. Accordingly, in winter, autumn and in the second half of the day you need to eat foods rich in yang energy, and in spring, summer and in the first half of the day, on the contrary, you need to make up for the lack of yin with foods containing this energy.

The category of vegetables, fruits, cereals, milk, meat and other food and drinks is influenced by a number of factors: the speed and direction of growth of the product, the content of sodium and potassium salts in it, climate, “warming” or “cooling” effect after eating.

Division into whole and non-whole foods
Macrobiotics divides foods into whole and non-whole foods. The second group includes all semi-finished products and other products of the food industry, the consumption of which is undesirable. This food is “dead”; it has no energy. But whole “living” foods, even after cooking, retain energy, which then interacts with the energy of the body.

Selection of kitchen utensils

Macrobiotics provides certain food preparation rules that minimize the impact on food energy. The stove must certainly be gas, and the dishes must be cast iron, wood, glass or ceramic.

Steaming
Microwave ovens and plastic packaging kill energy and should not be used. Steaming food is considered the most correct macrobiotic method of heat treatment. Protein-rich foods are best baked - this is correct from an energy point of view.

Principles of seasonality and locality
Eating seasonal and locally grown products guarantees minimal industrial processing. Fresh, locally sourced food provides more benefits and energy.

Special diet composition
Most of the macrobiotic dietary rules involve vegetarianism, but this system as a whole does not imply strict prohibitions, so meat, fish, eggs, dairy products and even wine are allowed. It is believed that over time, a follower of macrobiotics himself will not want to eat “junk” food, so at the initial stage one should simply introduce healthy macrobiotic foods into the diet and monitor the sensations. The bulk of the diet (50%) should be cereals and grains, preferably whole and unprocessed. Vegetables (ideally raw), seaweed, nuts and fruits are healthy.

The cult of freshly prepared food
It is advisable to prepare macrobiotic food for one meal, at least for one day. At the same time, all food must be chewed very thoroughly (at least 60 times), especially cereals.

Macrobiotic theorists identify the correct ones, from the point of view of this system
food, dishes in almost every cuisine in the world. These include polenta,
green tea, couscous, miso soup, tofu, falafel, pickles,
olive oil, lentil soup, pasta, hummus.

Products with yin energy

• cereals and cereals: corn, rye, oats;
• vegetables: tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, asparagus, spinach, beets, celery, garlic, cabbage;
• legumes: beans and beans;
• meat: all meat;
• poultry: chicken;
• fish: carp, pike perch, pike, trout, tuna, crayfish;
• fruits and berries: almost everything (including melons);
• nuts, oils, drinks, sugar, dairy products (virtually everything);
• spices: vanilla, cloves, ginger, tarragon, mustard, vinegar, bay leaf, nutmeg.

Products with yang energy

• cereals and cereals: buckwheat, millet, rice, wheat;
• vegetables: lettuce, onions, radishes, turnips, green leafy salads, carrots, parsley, pumpkin;
• legumes: peas;
• poultry: pigeon, turkey, duck, partridge, pheasant;
• fish: catfish, herring, sardines, anchovies, caviar;
• fruits and berries: apples, strawberries, mulberries;
• sheep's milk cheese, Roquefort cheese, eggs;
• spices: horseradish, saffron, dill, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, sea salt.

Criticism

Official medicine considers macrobiotics an unsuitable nutritional system for children. A growing body needs a complete diet, so restrictions on meat and dairy products in this case are unacceptable. Also, this diet is not suitable for older people and people suffering from gastrointestinal diseases.

Like any veganism, some levels of macrobiotic nutrition are not balanced. The basic principle of macrobiotics involves consuming a very large amount of dietary fiber, which can negatively affect an unprepared body and entails the risk of impaired absorption of micronutrients.

The macrobiotic diet assumes that foods contain enough liquid, so you should drink as little water as possible, which is contrary to modern scientific findings. Therefore, it is necessary to switch to a fashionable eating style only after consulting a doctor in the absence of contraindications.

Expert: Galina Filippova, general practitioner, candidate of medical sciences
Natalia Bakatina

The author of macrobiotic nutrition, George Osawa, believed that simplicity is the key to health and this formed the basis of the Eastern weight loss system. In his opinion, a person should eat natural food. The macrobiotic diet will appeal to those women who are not averse to introducing grains, vegetables and soy products into their diet for a long time. This nutritional system helps improve health and reduce the risk of developing dangerous diseases.

The essence of the macrobiotic diet

A macrobiotic diet for weight loss is not a week of food restrictions or even a month. You need to stick to it all your life, moreover, you will need not only to reconsider your diet, but also to understand Eastern philosophy. Having achieved harmony of soul and body and realizing that everything in the world is interconnected, you will be able to understand the concept of Eastern methods. The philosophy of the East is based on the balance of the forces of “Yin” and “Yang”. If these energies in a person are in harmony, then he will be healthy both physically and psychologically. The Yin-Yang theory says that diseases appear because one of these energies becomes more abundant. The essence of the diet is to achieve harmony between Yin and Yang. You can do this in the following ways:

• You must follow strict eating rules.
• The products you eat should be healthy and natural.
• You need to cook food correctly.

Basic principles of the Yin-Yang diet

The macrobiotic diet for weight loss has the following principles:

• Natural products are the basis of weight loss techniques. If you choose fish, then it should be fresh, ideally, it should have been swimming in the sea an hour ago. If you include greens in your diet, it would be nice if they grew in your garden bed or windowsill.
• You should eat vegetables that are in season and grown locally where you live. According to Eastern theory, fruits and vegetables grown in “foreign” territory contain the wrong combination of “Yin” and “Yang”. This can upset your inner balance.
• If you eat the right foods, creating a correct nutrition plan for yourself, then the need to eat unhealthy food will disappear on your own, because that same Yin-Yang harmony will be achieved. This means that you won't even want a cake or a fried steak.
• Chewing food thoroughly will ensure better absorption. You need to chew each piece at least 50 times.
• You need to drink about 1 liter of ordinary water per day.

The right foods on a macrobiotic diet menu

There is a special pyramid of the macrobiotic diet, which displays the foods in your diet and their quantities:

• Half of your diet should be grains. The authors of the method recommend wild rice, millet, wheat, and oats.
• About 20% of your menu should be devoted to vegetables. Eat raw or steamed vegetables and plenty of greens. Local vegetables are recommended.
• Legumes should make up about 10% of your diet. You can choose beans, chickpeas or lentils.
• Fruits should not appear on your table often. It will be enough to introduce them into the diet in an amount of 5% once every 2-3 days. Here, as with vegetables, the location where the fruit you eat plays an important role. The ideal option is fruit from your garden. But you can simply buy seasonal fruits, as long as they are local.
• Seaweed is a rich source of iodine and should also be included in your menu (5%).
• Soups should be present on your table every day, making up 5% of the diet. Choose soups made from vegetables, seaweed or legumes. You can make miso soup or shoyu. These dishes are prepared on the basis of miso paste, a traditional product of Japanese cuisine.
• Seasonings recommended by the authors of the diet are tamari, tahini, sea salt, brown rice vinegar.
• Corn and sesame oil are must-haves in your diet.
• At least once, or preferably up to 3 times a week, you should eat white fish (3%).
• Red meat is at the very top of the macrobiotic pyramid, that is, its amount in the diet should be minimal, about 2%.

Prohibited foods on the macrobiotic menu

If your choice is macrobiotic nutrition, the menu for the week must be compiled correctly. It is necessary to completely exclude prohibited products from it, namely:

• any foods containing sugar;
• artificial sweeteners and any sweets;
• fruit juice;
• wheat flour and white rice;
• products containing preservatives, stabilizers and flavor enhancers;
• drinks containing caffeine;
• refined oil.

The authors of the method believe that with excessive consumption of Yin products, a person becomes deficient in protein, and as a result, there is an urgent need for Yang products. Foods such as cheese, meat, sugar and fruit make you feel hungry. And consuming foods with preservatives and flavorings leads to a Yin-Yang imbalance.

The benefits of macrobiotic nutrition

The Yin Yang diet generally has a beneficial effect on the body. You will practically switch to vegetarianism, and, as you know, this lifestyle and nutrition brings enormous benefits to the body:

• A large amount of fiber in the menu has a beneficial effect on the gastrointestinal tract.
• Phytoestrogens in soy products reduce the possibility of developing breast cancer. But this does not mean that a macrobiotic diet for oncology can be considered a panacea, because such serious diseases require specific treatment.
• The predominance of plant foods will allow you to maintain a slim figure without effort.
• Eating plant protein in your diet will lower the amount of phosphorus in your body, which will benefit your kidney health.

Disadvantages of the Yin Yang Diet

However, strict macrobiotic nutrition has its disadvantages, including:

• The body may suffer from a lack of microelements such as calcium, potassium and iron.
• If you don't have enough protein food, you may feel weak and in a bad mood.
• The diet is very complex and requires deep Eastern asceticism.

Making a menu for the week

In a macrobiotic diet, a menu for 7 days can be compiled step by step by each woman, according to the instructions described above: include the right foods in your diet and do not exceed the permissible percentage standards. All products must be prepared with your own hands: you are allowed to cook over an open fire or on a gas stove at home. Microwaves and electric stoves contradict the Eastern principle of natural cooking. In the macrobiotic diet, the menu for seven days can be compiled step by step in accordance with your personal wishes, but you need to focus on the macrobiotic pyramid. The menu for the day may look like this:

• Breakfast: oatmeal, bread, green tea.
• Lunch: miso soup, fresh carrot salad.
• Afternoon snack: dried apricots.
• Dinner: steamed fish with lentils.

The Yin Yang diet is highly effective not only in the fight against extra centimeters in volume, but also in improving the health of the body as a whole. Having got a slim figure, as a bonus you will get a great mood and lightness of thoughts.

The macrobiotic nutrition system is not used for weight loss. The Lebedev diet is a diet for people who, during the treatment of oncology, were exposed to heavy drugs that have a destructive effect on all organic systems.

This nutritional system helps cleanse the body and restore the functions of individual organs. But counting on a cure only by switching to macrobiotic nutrition and abandoning official medicine is wrong and even dangerous. The condition may worsen, and then it will be impossible to avoid death.

The fact that with the help of properly selected food products you can stabilize and improve your general condition is not Lebedev’s discovery.

Bragg was the first to describe this method, then many nutritionists and even people unrelated to medicine developed magic diets that eliminated the most serious diseases.

They were a little disingenuous. It is impossible to stop an acute process with food. But maintaining a chronic disease in a state of remission is quite possible. Diet can also facilitate the recovery process during treatment.

Healthy diets are developed for each group of diseases. In the USSR, they were systematized by nutritionist Pevzner. In Japan, the founder of the macrobiotic type of nutrition is the folk healer Oza-wa. The diet he developed was improved by his student Mishio Kushi.

Lebedev’s work is based on his theory: oncology is an unhealthy diet and the introduction of pathogenic flora into the body. The combination of these factors stimulates improper cell division, from which malignant tumors are formed. By the way, there is a grain of truth in these arguments - poor nutrition is 70-80% to blame for the development of oncological processes in the gastrointestinal tract.

When switching to macrobiotic nutrition according to Lebedev, the author advises to repent and go to confession. Everyone must decide this question for themselves individually.

Principles of the Macrobiotic Diet

The basic rules of macrobiotic nutrition are as follows:

• The diet should not contain dishes made from industrially processed products. Everything is made from whole foods;
• 60% of the daily diet is cereals, mainly rice. If everything is cooked with your own hands, then the portions are not limited;
• 30% of the daily diet consists of fruits and vegetables - except tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants - which are either eaten raw and peeled, or boiled to a minimum. No salt is added during cooking;
• The remaining 10% is allocated to legumes, seaweed, nuts and seeds;
• Meat, fish, dairy products, eggs and animal fats can be allowed occasionally;
• You must avoid carbonated drinks and alcohol;
• Cooking technology – cooking and stewing in vegetable oil;
• Wholemeal bread;
• All food entering the body must be chewed thoroughly, making at least 50 chewing movements.

You need to leave the table with the feeling that you haven’t had enough yet. When overeating, the absorption process slows down, increasing portions does not bring benefit, and the body loses energy for digestion, which is necessary for the rehabilitation process.

Diet menu for oncology

When switching to a macrobiotic type of nutrition, the body needs to be prepared. To do this, drink 0.750 liters of oat broth daily.

Its beneficial properties: it contains all the B complex vitamins necessary to restore the body in an easily digestible form. Its action: removal of toxins, destruction of fungi, protozoa, helminths.

Preparation algorithm: pour 1 liter of water into a glass of oats, cook for exactly an hour, and strain off the liquid.

Approximate daily diet:

• Breakfast: porridge, fruit and vegetable juice from 5 types of vegetables and green sour apples, a handful of nuts;
• Lunch: Soup with legumes, stewed vegetables, you can afford a piece of fish, porridge;
• Dinner: Porridge, nuts, vegetable juice, if there are no metastases, then citrus fruits.

Such nutrition should be constant - sweets are completely excluded, sea salt is allowed in small quantities. This is enough to destroy tumors no larger than 20 mm, of course, together with treatment.

If the transition to macrobiotic nutrition in oncology begins at the metastasis stage, then sweet fruits are excluded from the diet.

The juice is made from citrus fruits - oranges and lemons - 2/1 and green apple juice. This composition stimulates the production of bile, which helps to cleanse the liver as much as possible.

It is necessary to avoid adding lemon juice in case of persistent depression. In other cases, its effect will only be favorable.

For dinner, rice porridge with raisins. At 2.00, drink half a glass of green tea with 5 tablespoons of cognac and 4 dessert spoons of sugar. After another 20 minutes, drink castor oil. If your body type is non-standard, calculate the dose as follows: per 1 kg of weight, 1 ml of cognac and 1 ml of castor oil. The procedure is repeated for 3 days.

During the day, follow the Lebedev diet.

What to do about the harmful effects of alcohol? This adverse effect is compensated by the massive death of mature helminths. Oatmeal decoction neutralizes alcohol.

Cysts are destroyed in 4 stages:

• For 2 weeks, take tincture of walnut partitions on an empty stomach - 2 tsp. diluted in 50 ml of water.
• For 2 weeks before each meal, drink 1 tsp 15 minutes. pumpkin oil.
• For the next 2 weeks, take half a teaspoon of cloves on an empty stomach.
• During the last 2 weeks of treatment, take a decoction of wormwood.

All drugs, except wormwood decoction, are purchased at the pharmacy. A decoction of wormwood is prepared as follows: a tablespoon of dry plant material is poured into a glass of water, filtered, and honey is added to drown out the bitterness.

You can add wormwood to your diet when treating fibroids - in this case, the decoction is taken every 4 days. But you need to be prepared - first the tumor will increase sharply, only then it will begin to shrink.

Liver cleansing

Often, when cleaning the liver, black or white crumbs are found in the stool, but there is no need to be alarmed. The crumbs are replaced by fuel oil secretions - this consistency of bile shows that the liver is being cleansed. Discharge continues for up to 3 weeks after dubage.

What is characteristic of the end of the last century and the beginning of the current one is that with the ever-increasing number of people on the planet, each individual person is lonely - psychologists often talk about this. Something similar is observed in the field of nutrition - there are more and more products, their variety is great, but a person is often hungry, energetically hungry, because often brightly colored and pleasant to the touch packaging hides “dead” food - food for the tongue, not for health. But just as in a sea of ​​people a seeker can find a loved one, so in a sea of ​​products one can find energy-rich foods that our body needs and correctly prepare food from them, which will become an elixir of health for us.

The word “macrobiotics” comes from two Greek words: “macro” - big and “bios” - life, so it literally means “big life”, “long life”.

Proper nutrition, simple and easy physical exercise, a harmonious view of nature and the world around us - this is the path along which macrobiotics leads people to a long, long and fulfilling life.

Macrobiotics is an ancient medical and philosophical teaching of the East, but nowadays it is mainly associated with the name of the famous modern Japanese doctor J. Osawa. The philosophy of macrobiotics offers people a natural way of life and proceeds from the fact that illness and misfortune are natural ways of convincing a person to become an adherent of a reasonable lifestyle and proper nutrition. After all, it is important not only that blood reaches every cell of the body, but also the quality of this blood, but it depends on what kind of food we eat. Macrobiotics is the science of life extension, creative longevity through balanced nutrition.

Food should provide energy to a person, so it is important for each of us, firstly, to choose the right energy-filled and balanced diet and, secondly, not to destroy the energy of foods during their processing. The body does not need “empty”, non-energy food, which will clog the stomach like ballast, and then in the form of poisons will begin to spread through the blood and further throughout the body, bringing diseases and premature aging.

How to choose the right foods that will benefit the body?

Macrobiotics suggests eating energy foods in the correct ratio of two vital energies - yin and yang. According to the ancient Chinese canons, yang is active, solar, generative energy, and yin is passive, lunar, nurturing, or also: yang is the energy of the sky and the energy of the human spirit, and yin is the energy of the earth and the energy of the body. Both of these vital forces are needed by the body, but one should strive to harmonize them through a balanced diet of yin and yang.

The following foods are filled with yang energy: rice, millet, wheat, buckwheat, bird eggs, fish caviar, shrimp, lobster, sardines, catfish, herring, salmon and other fish with pink meat, radishes, turnips, leeks, parsley, dill, carrots, horseradish, watercress, cinnamon, chicory, duck meat, partridge, turkey, feta cheese, chestnuts, apples, salt.

The following foods are filled with yin energy: corn, rye, barley, oats, oysters, crayfish, eel, pike, carp, trout, tuna, flounder, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, capsicums, beans, beans, peas, lentils, cucumbers, zucchini, garlic, beets, cabbage, mushrooms, sorrel, pork, veal, beef, lamb, chicken, rabbit meat, kefir, sour cream, cottage cheese, butter, milk, cheese, pineapples, oranges, bananas, lemons, pears, grapes, nuts, watermelons, melons, olives, peaches, fats, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, beer, wine, sparkling water, sugar.

As you can see, there are much more foods containing yin energy than foods containing yang energy.

Man was created by the Creator as an earthly and heavenly being at the same time, as a physical and spiritual being equally. However, a person cares more about the body, forgetting about the spirit. Therefore, his food is mainly Yin, earthly. In this regard, Nishi writes: “We eat too much yin! That is why our spirit becomes weaker and withers... Whoever does not want to remember that he is not only yin, but also yang, not only the body, but also the spirit, will be sick and suffer.”

Consumption of excessive amounts of foods that carry yin energy at the expense of yang energy leads to excess weight, since yin energy promotes expansion, while yang energy, on the contrary, promotes contraction. When we switch to macrobiotic nutrition, trying to balance both of these energies, our life becomes joyful and interesting, our spirit becomes strong, and our body becomes slender.

It is not necessary to achieve a balance of yin and yang in every meal; it is important that this balance be in the total amount of food eaten per day. An interesting fact is that with balanced yin and yang in the diet, the desire to eat and drink “unhealthy” foods, such as ice cream, cakes, and alcohol, practically disappears.

Macrobiotic nutrition does not imply excessive dietary restriction or consumption of only plant foods, macrobiotics emphasizes the correct methods of preparing food and the correct, reasonable proportions of various foods in the diet.

You should not eat industrially processed food. It’s better to cook everything yourself from whole foods.

The basis of the daily diet (50–60%) should be rice and other grains. You should cook your own food from whole, unground cereal grains; You can eat such food without restricting yourself.

Vegetables and fruits should make up 25-30% of the daily diet, and are best eaten raw, with the skins on if possible, or boiled in a small amount of water for a short time. You should not salt vegetables during cooking; in extreme cases, salt them only with unrefined sea salt and only after they are cooked, before serving. Vegetables that are extremely filled with yin energy (eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes) should be consumed as rarely as possible.

Legumes (peas, beans, lentils), seaweed and seaweed should make up 5-10% of the total daily diet.

Soups made from vegetables and grains should make up 5-10% of the total daily diet.

Fish, nuts, and seeds can make up 5–10% of your total daily food intake.

Meat, poultry, eggs, fats, and dairy products can only be eaten occasionally, on special occasions.

You shouldn't drink a lot. For drinks, preference should be given to green tea, coffee drinks made from cereals, herbal vitamin teas, and rosehip infusion. Avoid lemonade, coffee, black tea, cocoa.

You should cook food only with water: boil, or, in extreme cases, stew with the addition of a small amount of vegetable oil. Never fry food.

Avoid bread made from white flour, opt for bread with bran or whole grains. It’s great if you can bake bread yourself - in this case, make bread from wholemeal flour with bran and whole grains.

Food must be chewed thoroughly (50–100 times). Chew as long as you can taste the food, because you absorb the energy of the food while you taste it. If food is truly healthy, then when chewed it becomes tastier.

Get up from the table with a feeling of slight hunger; a feeling of fullness will come half an hour to an hour after eating, when the food begins to be absorbed. Remember that by overeating, you are poisoning your body.

So, the basis of macrobiotic nutrition is cereals, which are the most energy-dense, healthiest food given to us by nature. Whole grains contain all the substances a person needs in ideal proportions for the body. Eating whole grains of cereals helps get rid of many diseases and, unlike eating flour products, does not lead to excess weight and vascular diseases. However, we must remember that cereals are rich in starch, so they must be chewed thoroughly during meals and ensure that they are well saturated with saliva - this is important for their complete digestion in the stomach.

Vegetables, cooked in a variety of ways, complement whole grain foods well and provide vitamins and minerals. It is also good to enrich your diet with wild plants. Among wild plants, George Osawa especially recommended dandelion, coltsfoot, burdock and shepherd's purse - all of these herbs are both food and medicinal at the same time. Vegetables and fruits should be eaten those that grow in your region, in the climate zone where you live. According to macrobiotics, all living things come from their natural environment. Both people and animals in different climatic zones develop a different set of digestive enzymes adapted for digesting food characteristic of given climatic conditions and soil characteristics of a given region. In modern life, we eat food that comes from many different foreign lands - as a result, our bodies become weak and the number of various diseases increases. In winter, fresh summer vegetables should not be consumed, since, not corresponding to the season, they cannot satisfy true physiological needs. In winter, dried vegetables stored from the summer are suitable for healthy energy nutrition, as well as root vegetables, cabbage and pumpkin, and macrobiotic adherents consider cabbage to be one of the healthiest vegetables.

Thus, although macrobiotics comes from the East, the Russian folk proverb comes to mind: “Shchi and porridge are our food,” only in the case of macrobiotics it is necessary, perhaps, to put porridge in first place, and cabbage soup in second.

To summarize, it is worth emphasizing that the macrobiotic diet is very simple and such food is relatively cheap. Most people can afford it and become healthy.

Carrot or rutabaga salad with gooseberries

Grate 400 g of carrots or rutabaga (or both together) on a coarse grater; mix with a glass of gooseberry or rhubarb compote, season with honey. You can sprinkle with herbs.

Turnip salad

Peel 2-3 turnips, grate them on a coarse grater or cut them into strips. Mash half a glass of currants or cranberries. Stir and season with honey. You can sprinkle with chopped dill or caraway seeds.

Beetroot and rhubarb salad

Cut 2-3 rhubarb stalks crosswise, mix with 2-3 tbsp. tablespoons of honey and place in a cool place for 30 minutes. Grate two raw beets, chop dill and parsley and mix everything together with the prepared rhubarb.

Radish with raisins

Grate the washed and peeled radish on a fine grater, add finely chopped onion, thoroughly washed and scalded raisins and season with vegetable oil or honey. Garnish the salad with sprigs of herbs or slices of carrots.

Red cabbage with apples

Chop approximately 600 g of red cabbage, place in a saucepan, add 2 chopped onions, a little water and simmer until half cooked. Then place 4 apples cut into slices on top of the cabbage. Cover the pan with a lid and bring to the boil until done.

Soaked grain

Wet three tablespoons of oats (instead of oats you can take rye or wheat grains) in the evening and leave overnight. In the morning, drain the water and add either dried apricots, seedless raisins and peeled nuts, or prunes.

Buckwheat porridge with mushrooms

Cook mushroom broth from 50 g of dried mushrooms with spices. Strain the broth and finely chop the mushrooms. Pour two glasses of washed egg with 3 glasses of this broth, add mushrooms, finely chopped onion, mix everything and put on fire. When the porridge boils, remove it from the heat and put it in the oven for an hour and a half. Decorate the finished porridge with herbs.

Millet porridge with pumpkin

Place finely chopped pumpkin pulp (about 200 g) in boiling water and bring to a boil. Then add one and a half cups of washed millet (pre-soak the millet for several hours) and cook until thickened. About five minutes before it’s ready, you can add washed raisins or dried apricots to the porridge.

Millet porridge with onions and caraway seeds

Rinse one and a half glasses of millet in several waters and soak in cold water for 6 hours, then cook the millet in the same water at a boil for 2-3 minutes. Add crushed garlic, finely chopped herbs, chopped onions (onion or green, or both), and cumin to the porridge. Place the pan in a warm place to simmer.

Homemade muesli

Soak one tablespoon of rolled oats in 3 tbsp. spoons of water for several hours (soak the flakes well from evening to night). When the oatmeal swells, grate 150 g of apples into it, constantly stirring the whole mass so that it does not darken; add 1 tbsp. spoon of grated nuts and honey. You can also add any berries and dried fruits.

Rice pilaf with vegetables and dried fruits

Wash one and a half cups of rice, cut 0.5 kg of pumpkin and several apples into small pieces, rinse some raisins and dried apricots. Pour 2 tbsp into a thick-bottomed pan. spoons of vegetable oil, then put pieces of pumpkin so that they cover the entire bottom, pour a layer of rice on top, then put a layer of apples, then again rice, then a layer of dried fruits and again a layer of rice. Pour lightly salted water over the whole thing so that it covers the top layer of rice. Place on the fire and cook until done.

Millet soup with cheese

Pour one glass of washed millet into boiling water and cook for an hour over low heat, then add crushed cheese and stir slowly until smooth. When serving, sprinkle with parsley and dill.

Fresh cucumber soup

Chop fresh cucumbers, parsley root and onion, chop green salad and simmer it all in water until tender. Then pour in boiling water, add some crushed crackers and cook, stirring, until boiling. Before serving, you can add lemon juice and parsley.

Pumpkin soup (with carrots, cauliflower)

Finely chop the onion and fry in vegetable oil. Then add finely chopped pumpkin (about 0.5 kg), add a little water, salt to taste and simmer until half cooked. Season with flour (4 tablespoons), fried in vegetable oil, dilute with a small amount of water and cook until slightly thickened.

Similarly, you can prepare carrot soup, cauliflower soup and even burdock root.

The question remains: what should be the “golden proportion” of products. The founders of macrobiotics believed that we should strive for a complete transition to grain consumption. I think it's better to stick to a different ratio. Excluding sugar as much as possible, take a proportion of 2: 1 (grains, cereals - vegetables), and when including meat and cheese - 5: 2: 1 (grains - vegetables - meat).

The table shows additional possible proportions of various products that make up the human daily diet.

The last three diets should be called gentle, the first three are the most suitable for a balanced diet. More stringent diets are also possible, which should be recommended only in special cases.

A typical macrobiotic diet consists of: whole grain porridge; soups - vegetable with meat broth or lean; vegetables - stewed; some steamed or boiled meat; stewed fish; lentils or beans; seaweed salads; fruits; nuts.

If you want your body’s resources to be maximally activated, then, generally following the indicated diet, give preference to whole grain cereals; vegetable soups; vegetables native to the area, either steamed or stewed; legumes with seaweed; white fish and seafood; fruits, nuts; pickles.

The most strict macrobiotic daily diet is as follows:

The main products are pearl barley, rice and buckwheat.

It is advisable to maintain such a strict diet for two weeks, then return to a simpler one and alternate them.

There is another option for a strict diet:

You can diversify your vegetable menu with fish - boiled or steamed, not too fatty. Once a week - meat, also preferably boiled or cooked over high heat with active stirring.

The equivalent of fish or meat in this diet is cheese (100 g per day), cottage cheese (200 g), squid (200 g). Do not season them with anything, do not add sugar.

When preparing macrobiotic dishes, as well as any other dishes, you should adhere to a number of rules:

Products must be fresh. Dried and salted foods should not contain artificial additives or spices.

It is better to cook each product separately and then mix it.

Vegetables must be cut, chopped, chopped beautifully, trying to maintain geometric proportions, so that their very appearance emphasizes balance and equilibrium.

Use seasonings sparingly.

It is best to add sea salt.

Vegetable oils must be unrefined or cold pressed.

The dish should be laid out beautifully on the plate - this also contributes to the balance of the food.

You need to cook cleanly.

A special role is given to your mood to prepare a certainly healthy, tasty and appetizing dish.

But the most important thing, without which neither preparing nor eating food is possible at all, which is the very essence of macrobiotic nutrition, is Love And joy. It is this energy that the right food brings.

You already know that the main macrobiotic foods are whole grains and everything that can be prepared from them. At the same time, none of its edible components are discarded. Everything must go into use - bran, germ, endosperm (the tissue of plant seeds in which the nutrients necessary for the development of the embryo are deposited). It is this complex that provides the body’s needs and also serves to restore the disturbed balance.

Whole grains contain a set of substances that are extremely necessary for humans: complex carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals, and in those proportions that help us get exactly the amount of energy we need.

So, dishes made from buckwheat, rice (especially brown), oats, millet, wheat, corn, etc. should become welcome on your table. Eat them at least every day. Porridges are appropriate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In this case, there is no strictly regulated set of dishes. You can alternate them at will, just be sure to be based on maintaining the yin-yang balance.

Rice

While almost anyone can prepare porridge from buckwheat or millet, cooking rice is a special matter. You can not only cook rice, but gradually evaporate the water to make the porridge thick. You can also fry it, which does not reduce its energy value. The most nutritious part of rice is filled with yang. When we eat it, we restore the yang-yin balance.

1. One cup brown rice, 11/2 cups water.

Pour water into a pan, add a little salt and add rice. It is better to press this mixture with some kind of pressure so that the rice is under pressure. Place on fairly high heat. Bring to a boil (the lid will shake). Then reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes. After this, turn off the heat and keep the rice covered for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and weight to allow steam to escape from the pan. Drain off excess water. The rice is ready.

2. One glass of rice, 5 glasses of water. A little salt.

Cook the rice in salted water until it remains slightly undercooked. Take this porridge to increase appetite, as well as to improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.

3. Rice is so healthy that you can even eat it raw, only thoroughly washed. Take a handful of this pure uncooked rice for breakfast. Eat in very small portions, chewing thoroughly (50–100 times). Mentally focus on receiving useful external qi and transforming the energy into internal resources in your body. Eat uncooked rice for a week. Then take a break for a month.

4. Onions and carrots go well with brown rice. You can add a number of other ingredients. Cook brown rice according to recipe 1. Finely chop the carrots, onions, and parsley. You will also need nuts and raisins. The nuts need to be crushed, but not into flour, the raisins (preferably from white grapes) should be crushed. Mix vegetable oil separately, add salt, vinegar and nutmeg to taste. Combine rice, chopped vegetables, and chopped nuts and raisins with the oil dressing. Mix everything thoroughly so that the products are well saturated with oil and the dish has a harmonious taste. Let everything stand in a cool place, but not in the refrigerator, for an hour - and you’re ready to eat.

Oats

It's better to buy grain. Make flour out of it, do not mix it with anything, and do not use baking powder. Mix oatmeal with water in a ratio of 1 tbsp. spoon for 150 ml of water. Cook, stirring constantly, until you get a slimy mass. Add salt to taste. Porridge cooked in this way increases appetite and becomes a source of additional energy in the cold season. In addition, it helps improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. Just eat small amounts so as not to increase acidity.

Chapati

In the East, an indispensable food is chapati, a healthy macrobiotic product. It can be prepared from wholemeal wheat flour, buckwheat flour or millet, as well as a mixture of crushed grains.

250 g sifted wholemeal flour, 150 ml warm water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 3 tbsp. spoons of butter.

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Add warm water and stir until soft dough forms. Then knead properly. Sprinkle with water. After this, cover with a linen cloth and leave for an hour at room temperature. Take a cast iron skillet and place it on the heat to get hot. Divide the dough into 15 parts, make balls out of them, kneading them constantly. Roll out the balls into 15 flat cakes. Place them on the frying pan. When small white bubbles appear on the surface of the chapati and the edges begin to curl upward, turn the cakes over to the other side. Cook until bubbles appear. Now carefully take the chapati by the edges with tongs, preferably wooden, so that the cake does not tear. Bring the cake to the fire and hold it until brown spots appear. Grease one side with oil.

Vegetables

Vegetables are a great addition to buckwheat and rice. They contain the entire range of vitamins and minerals that a person needs to restore and maintain strength. Plus, vegetables whose skins come in so many different colors will add color and appeal to your food. This increases appetite and serves important energetic purposes: food should be beautiful, because beauty on your table is one of the embodiments of universal beauty. Sliced ​​in different ways, stewed, boiled and fried, vegetables make whole grain dishes airier and more delicious. You can also eat fresh vegetables, good and salty.

Cabbage has always been a very common vegetable in Russia, primarily white cabbage. It, like red and colored ones, is a very nutritious product that contains many vitamins, proteins and minerals. Cabbage makes great salads.

In Russia they prepare a lot of dishes from cabbage and beets. It is not recommended to consume them in large quantities, but they are a good addition to the rice base of a balanced diet.

Cabbage for rice

2 parts cabbage and 1 part carrots, you can change the proportion to 1:1.

Shred the cabbage and cut the carrots into strips. Mix vegetables. Now squeeze them with your hands properly so that the cabbage gives juice. Add salt, a little parsley, dill, celery. Pour vegetable oil over the salad.

Beetroot for rice

2-3 large red beets, 1-2 carrots.

Grate the beets and carrots on a coarse grater or cut into small cubes. Beets should make up at least 60% of the volume of the dish. Place the mixture in a frying pan with 2 tbsp well heated. spoons of unrefined sunflower oil. Lightly salt it. Fry until done.

Pumpkin

Dishes made from pumpkin perfectly diversify your daily diet. Absorbed by the body quite easily, they bring warmth and increase blood flow into the abdominal cavity. Thus, a person receives a lot of energy, which is especially important in the winter season. If you can't get used to the pumpkin taste and aroma, you can interrupt it by adding mint. In this case, steam the pumpkin, first sprinkling it with chopped mint leaves.

Pumpkin porridge

2 cups chopped pumpkin, 1 cup millet, 1 medium onion, vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon raspberry leaves. Pass the pumpkin pulp that has separated along with the seeds through a meat grinder to obtain a homogeneous mixture.

Carefully sort and rinse the millet in warm water. Peel a medium onion and chop it very finely. Pour oil into the bottom of the pan, place a glass of pumpkin, and smooth it out. On a layer of pumpkin - millet, and then - a second glass of pumpkin, pureed pumpkin pulp, onions, raspberry leaves. Pour in salted hot water (3 fingers above the last layer). Do not stir. Bring everything to a boil and cook for 10 minutes over low heat - so that bubbles appear on the water, but it does not boil. Remove from heat, close with a lid, wrap and leave to simmer for half an hour. Before serving, turn the pan so that the bottom layer of squash is on top.

Pumpkin soup

Option 1. Pumpkin, 5 medium cloves of garlic, 1 large carrot, 1 large onion, unrefined vegetable oil.

Chop the carrots, then saute them over low heat with the addition of oil. Finely chop the onion and sauté until golden brown. Mix onions and carrots. Pour 0.5 liters of hot water and boil the broth. Peel the pumpkin and remove seeds and cut into small cubes. Place the cubes in boiling salted water - add enough pumpkin so that the water barely covers it. Cook until done. As soon as the pumpkin cubes begin to lose their shape, add the mashed garlic. Cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Cool and thoroughly grind the mixture to a puree. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Option 2. Pumpkin, 2 tbsp. spoons of minced meat (beef) (its proportion can be reduced), 1 large onion, 1 large carrot, 1 glass of chopped pumpkin, unrefined vegetable oil.

Minced meat should be very tender and well chopped. It should be mixed with a small amount of cold water to form a liquid puree. Add finely chopped onion and chopped carrots there, pour in a little vegetable oil. Leave everything in the refrigerator for an hour. After this, fill the mixture with hot salted water (about 1 liter). Mix thoroughly. Add a glass of chopped pumpkin. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. The soup is served hot. You can add parsley.

Pumpkin pudding

2 cups minced pumpkin, 3 tbsp. spoons of semolina, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp. spoons of raisins. Salt is added to taste.

Peel the pumpkin from peel and seeds. Pass through a meat grinder to obtain a homogeneous mass. Also chop the raisins and add them to the pumpkin. Mix everything thoroughly. Add eggs and unbleached semolina. Add some salt. Mix the mixture, beating it a little, until it becomes homogeneous. Place the mixture into a dry pan. Place the pan on a rack in a large saucepan with some hot water. Cover the pan with a lid, bring the water to a boil and cook for 15–20 minutes. Remove the dish from the mold and serve.

Pumpkin dessert

1 cup chopped pumpkin, 1 tbsp. spoon of raisins, 1 teaspoon of finely grated raw beets, 1 carrot, 1 apple, raspberry leaves.

Peel the pumpkin and chop the pulp. Peel the apples from seeds and chop them too. Stir quickly into the pumpkin so the apples don't have time to brown. Peel the beets and carrots. Grate these vegetables on a coarse grater. Mix everything, add raisins. Place washed raspberry leaves on the bottom of the salad bowl (dry leaves should be steamed), and the resulting mass on top.

Pumpkin seeds

There is another pumpkin “dish” that many people like. These are pumpkin seeds that have amazingly beneficial properties.

The seeds can simply be washed, dried, then doused with lightly salted water and warmed well. You can fry them in a frying pan with the addition of a small amount of vegetable oil. This simple dish not only gives the body a lot of energy, but is also delicious.

Sometimes people believe that macrobiotics is limited to a set of specific recipes, and are afraid of culinary monotony. In vain. Your imagination is limitless. Guided by the principles of rational nutrition, you can come up with a variety of dishes yourself. The scope for experimentation is endless.

A bad mood is very often accompanied by decreased vitality. A person becomes susceptible to stress, and things begin to go wrong. Here it is important to constantly remember the ability given to us to find internal energy. Engage in Eastern practices that allow you to find peace. Switch to a different diet.

An approximate weekly diet is given below. Stick to it at least once a month and you will be able to find the missing resources. Alternate this selection of dishes with a “softer” menu. Don't force yourself to eat. Good will is an indispensable condition for change for the better.

1st day

2nd day

3rd day

4th day

5th day

6th day

7th day

Between meals you can drink mineral water, green tea or herbal infusion, as well as freshly squeezed juices.

People in Russia love salads. Macrobiotic nutrition allows for many different options for these tasty and healthy dishes, prepared according to certain rules for maintaining energy balance. Try to make your menu pleasing to the eye, invent, experiment.

Cabbage salad

400 g white cabbage, 2 medium carrots, 200 g prunes.

Chop the cabbage, add salt and squeeze. Separate the soaked and swollen prunes from the seeds and finely chop the pulp. Grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Mix everything, place in a salad bowl, garnish with carrot slices and parsley.

Celery salad

200 g celery root, 2 green apples.

Peel the celery, lightly boil and chop. Apples need to be grated on a coarse grater and mixed with celery. Salt to taste, add a little vegetable oil. Mix everything and garnish with herbs.

Bean salad

100 g beans, 1 onion, 2-3 medium cloves of garlic.

Wash the beans and soak for 3-4 hours. Then cook until tender. When it becomes soft, drain it in a colander, rub through a meat grinder or chop. Add finely chopped and sautéed onion to the mixture. You can also use 1 carrot, grated on a coarse grater. Add some salt. Ground garlic is a good addition. Season everything with unrefined vegetable oil. Garnish with celery or dill.

Beans with pumpkin

150 g each of beans and pumpkin pulp.

Rinse the beans and dry them in a frying pan over low heat, turning them over. Place in a saucepan, add water and salt. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. It is important that the beans are under water the entire cooking time. Cook until it becomes soft. Chop the pumpkin pulp into small cubes and place in a separate pan. When cooked, remove and drain the water. Mix pumpkin and beans, add vegetable oil and serve.

Irritability and excessive excitability are the causes of many diseases. These not the most pleasant emotional states lead to rapid aging of the body. It is no coincidence that psychologists even have a special term for a very unimportant human condition - “burnout.” The more irritated we are, the faster we get tired, weary, and with regret we feel that our strength is leaving us. In order not to “add fuel to the fire,” try to exclude all fatty foods in such difficult moments, completely give up any meat, and do not use any spices. But seaweed dishes should be eaten every day.

Seaweed contains large amounts of iodine, magnesium and potassium. Brown (kelp) and red algae contain tens and even hundreds of times more of these elements than, for example, beets. Brown algae (nori) rivals carrots in vitamin A and many other vegetables in phosphorus. Black-blue seaweed (haijiki) is much richer in calcium than milk.

Seaweed creates an alkaline environment in the body, reduces fat reserves, and protects the heart muscle. That is why algae is called a means of longevity.

There are few types of seaweed sold in Russia. They are called "sea kale". Many people associate this product with times of shortages and empty shelves in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But, really, it’s worth overcoming your prejudices in order to fully experience the benefits of seaweed. As a first step towards “reconciliation”, we offer several recipes for delicious macrobiotic algae dishes.

Porridge with seaweed

200 g soaked seaweed, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sesame oil (can be replaced with rice or sunflower oil), 21/2 cups rice.

Rinse the rice and let it stand in water for 1.5–2 hours. Soak the seaweed and cut into pieces, put in a frying pan and fry in oil. Then add 1 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Pour the broth into the pan. Add rice to it and cook until cooked through. Add some salt. Serve.

Sea kale salad

100–150 g of pickled seaweed, 2–3 carrots, 1–2 apples, vegetable oil, salt and herbs.

Grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Cut the apples into thin slices. Mix carrots and apples with pickled cabbage, salt and season with vegetable oil. When serving, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley.

Casserole with seaweed

100–150 g frozen or dried seaweed. If you use dried, then pre-soak it for 10 hours in a ratio of 1:7 with water. Drain the water, fill it with cold water again, bring to a boil and cook for about 20 minutes. When the cabbage is ready, drain it in a colander. Cut into strips.

Chop 300 g of white cabbage. Boil for 10 minutes. Mix with seaweed and place in a saucepan. Add a quarter cup of semolina, stir everything thoroughly. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes. Cool the mixture and place it in a frying pan with vegetable oil. Bake in the oven until done. Cool the resulting mass to 40–50 °, add a raw egg to it, mix and place in an even layer in a frying pan, greased and sprinkled with grated breadcrumbs. Sprinkle with grated cheese, drizzle with oil and bake in the oven. Cut the finished casserole into portions and top with sour cream.

An approximate weekly diet for increased excitability looks like this:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

You can supplement your diet with rice dishes or buckwheat. It is acceptable to replace individual dishes with vegetable soups.

Anxiety, like irritability, destroys the balance of power in the body. It is dangerous because a person gradually finds himself in its power. Various little things begin to bother him, which otherwise he would simply not notice. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of people living in Asia is known: they are characterized by special equanimity, resilience and calm. The presence of a large number of centenarians in India, China and Japan is associated with the peculiarities of national character and organization of nervous activity. This, in turn, is explained, among other things, by the uniqueness of traditional cuisine.

Macrobiotic nutrition allows you to gain self-confidence and overcome confusion and anxiety, wherever you live. The main assistant in this case remains grain - be it rice, pearl barley, millet or buckwheat. The best thing is rice. Another important component of the diet in this case will be beans and soybeans.

Why this particular set of products?

Rice, for example, contains a lot of lecithin, which activates brain activity. Rice grains also contain a special saccharide that restores intestinal function. Rice also contains a substance that allows you to cleanse blood vessels and prevent an increase in blood pressure. All together significantly enhances the body’s strength.

Soybeans are one-third protein, making them an excellent meat substitute. The elements they contain, by analogy with female hormones, increase bone mass and slow down cell aging.

Legumes are an important source of protein and carbohydrates, which are easier for the human body to digest than any other product. In addition, beans (especially sprouted ones) contain a number of vitamins and minerals. In China, they eat cottage cheese made from pressed soybeans - tofu. It can also be bought in Russia. Try a few tofu recipes.

Tofu salad

100 g tofu, the same amount of boiled soybeans, 2 medium onions, 4 tbsp. spoons of vegetable oil (preferably sesame oil). Salt to taste.

Cut the tofu into pieces. Chop the onion. Puree the soybeans. To do this, rinse and soak them in water for 12 hours. Drain the water, pour in new water, add salt and cook for 3-4 hours over low heat. Pass the boiled beans through a meat grinder. Mix all salad ingredients well, adding vegetable oil, and serve cold.

Cutlets with tofu

Option 1.200 gsoya beans, 150 g tofu, 1 egg, vegetable oil for frying.

Soak the beans for a few hours, then cook them until tender. Cool and mince along with the tofu. Add egg, salt. Mix well. Make cutlets, roll in breadcrumbs and fry on both sides.

Option 2.3 beets, 200 g tofu, 5 tbsp. spoons of semolina, 3 tbsp. spoons of soy flour, 3 tbsp. spoons of soy milk.

Boil the beets, peel them, and pass through a meat grinder. Add milk and heat well. Add semolina. Simmer until the cereal is ready. Cool the mixture. Add pureed tofu and soy flour to the still warm beets with semolina. Add some salt. Mix everything thoroughly and knead the dough. Make cutlets and fry on both sides.

Bean side dish

400 g beans.

Rinse and soak them until they swell slightly. Cut the beans into wedges. Pour vegetable oil into the pan so as to cover the bottom, add the beans and, stirring, fry for 1-2 minutes over low heat. Pour in a third of a glass of water, add salt, and close the lid. Simmer for 3 minutes. Open the pan and simmer the beans for another 5 minutes, stirring.

Lentils

1 cup lentils, white cabbage, 2 carrots, 1 onion.

Finely chop the onion and fry lightly. Grate the carrots. Add it to the onion and add a little water. Simmer over low heat until the water evaporates. Rinse the lentils and cook in a 1:3 ratio with water so that the liquid evaporates completely and the lentils swell. Add some salt. Shred the cabbage. Its quantity is determined by taste and can be 2 times more than lentils (if you don’t like cabbage, you can exclude it completely). Once the lentils are ready, add the onions, carrots and cabbage. Simmer everything together until done.

In fact, macrobiotic cuisine turns out to be not at all as harsh as it might seem at first. Give free rein to your imagination, experiment, and you will love what you cook with love and interest.

Here's another weekly diet. It can be alternated with other options so that the effect of energy coming from outside is greatest. You can stick to this regime for one week a month, then be more free in your choice of dishes.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Spices and herbs have a long history. Each of them is associated with magical ideas of different peoples. In addition, spices have long been used as natural destroyers of bacteria and pathogens, which are very abundant in hot climates.

A balanced diet requires that you stop overusing many of the exotic seasonings whose homelands are very far from where you live. The consumption of black pepper and bay leaves, so beloved by many, will also have to be significantly reduced. The same can be said about vinegar (especially wine), margarine and mayonnaise, so revered in Russia.

Suitable for regular use are onions, parsley, celery, natural mustard, horseradish, garlic in moderation, natural soy sauce and natural mustard.

Russia has its own wonderful seasonings. Here, many plants create macrobiotic taste. For example, cherry and blackcurrant leaves are added to pickles. Oregano and other herbs are actively used. This helps further maintain the yin-yang balance in food.

Which salt should you prefer? Housewives sometimes buy fine, purified, iodized salt in stores, which is advertised as healthy. However, a dish with such salt develops a “chemical” aftertaste. If you make pickles, then know: such salt is absolutely excluded. Its processing technology makes this product unsuitable for a healthy diet. It is better to use unrefined salt, which contains more “information” about natural processes, which it will share with your cells.

Sea salt gives food a special quality, which also has a significant healing effect, strengthening the body's defenses. It is obtained from sea water by evaporation in the sun. More microelements remain in it. However, you need to remember that sea salt should be combined with crushed, toasted sesame seeds to soften the excess saltiness in a ratio of 1: 10. The seeds are toasted, crushed in a mortar or coffee grinder and mixed with ground sea salt.

It is known that when preparing dishes it is important to take into account the balance of taste created by the combination of salt and sweeteners. We are talking about natural products that contain sugar. As you remember, you should keep their consumption to a minimum. You can occasionally use only dried fruits (from fruits growing in temperate climates), raisins, fresh fruits - in their natural form or quickly cooked. It is also not forbidden to eat almonds, peanuts and sunflower seeds from time to time.

The use of refined vegetable oils has become common. However, sometimes the process of processing such a product itself involves the addition of a special antioxidant, not to mention the regulation of all other parameters of natural oil. Therefore, its value from the point of view of restoration processes in the body is not so high.

Unrefined vegetable oil is better absorbed by the body. It promotes healthy cells and capillaries. In addition, it provides the necessary amount of fats, the lack of which threatens to reduce resistance to stress, which undermines the body's protective functions. You should consume at least 1 teaspoon of oil per day. Sesame and sunflower are most suitable. You can use rice, soy, corn and olive.

Of the drinks that we have become accustomed to over the past decades, almost nothing is suitable for macrobiotic nutrition. First of all, you should give up coffee, especially instant coffee, and carbonated drinks with sweeteners and preservatives. Even black tea, which has become the national Russian drink, should not be consumed constantly. In macrobiotics, preference is given to herbal infusions.

Rice tea

Fry brown rice until brown. Add water in proportion to rice 10: 1. Boil. Lightly salt. Cool slightly and drink.

Wheat drink

Toast the wheat grains until they turn brown. Pour 1 tbsp. spoon of grains 150 ml of warm water. Boil the infusion. Cool.

Cereal drink

Take 3 tbsp. spoons of rice, 2 tbsp. spoons of wheat grains, 1 tbsp. spoon of chicory, 1 tbsp. spoon of barley. Toast the grains individually until brown. Cool. Grind in a mortar or coffee grinder. Pour one tablespoon of the mixture into 0.5 liters of warm water. Bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Strain. Cool.

Drink with soy and sesame

The mixture is prepared as in the recipe described above. Only in this case, glutinous rice grains, oats, soybeans and sesame seeds are fried. Then everything is ground up. For one and a half tablespoons of the mixture you need 0.5 liters of warm water. Pour in, boil, cool.

Mint drink

Take 100 g of mint leaves per 0.5 liter of water. Pour in, boil. Add some salt. Drink a quarter glass before breakfast.

Radish drink

Pour two tablespoons of grated white radish into 750 ml of hot water. Add 2 tbsp. spoons of soy sauce and a teaspoon of grated ginger. You can drink it if you have a cold.

Rice drink

Take a half glass of brown rice. Rinse and dry. Fry in a frying pan. Pour in 2 liters of warm water. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 1-2 hours. The rice actually cooks, turning into a jelly-like mass. Strain it by squeezing it. The rice can be eaten, and the drink is useful as a soothing evening tea.

Vitamin teas

All the teas offered below are strengthening.

Mix rose hips (100 g) with sea buckthorn cake (100 g), add hawthorn fruits (20 g); Pour 1–2 teaspoons of the mixture into a glass of water and bring to a boil. Let it brew in a porcelain teapot for an hour. This drink stimulates the activity of the cardiovascular system.

For 0.5 liters of water, take 25 g of dried lingonberry leaves and 4 tbsp. spoons of raisins. Pour boiling water over it. Let steep in the kettle for 15 minutes. Drink warm.

For 0.5 liters of water – 25 g of dried strawberry leaves and 10 g of mint. Brew in a teapot. Let it brew for 10 minutes, drink warm.

For 0.5 liters of water, add 70 g of dried rowan berries, 15 g of raspberries, 1 teaspoon of dried black currant leaves. Brew in a teapot. Let it brew for 10 minutes, drink warm.

For 0.5 liters of water - 50 g of dried thyme leaves, 50 g of St. John's wort, 10 g of dried lingonberry leaves. Brew in a teapot. Let it brew for 10 minutes, drink warm.

For 0.5 liters of water – 50 g of dried rose hips, 25 g of dried rowan fruits, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of dried oregano leaves. Brew in a teapot. Let it brew for 10 minutes, drink warm.

For 0.5 liters of water - 1 tbsp. a spoonful of dried leaves of strawberries, blackberries, black currants, 2 tbsp. spoons of St. John's wort and thyme. Brew in a teapot. Let it brew for 10 minutes, drink warm.

For 0.5 liters of water - 1 tbsp. a spoonful of a mixture of dried rose hips, blueberries, bird cherry, nettle leaves in a ratio of 3: 2: 1: 3, respectively. Boil for 10 minutes, pour into a thermos and let steep for 2 hours. The collection, among other things, has a fixing effect, so drink with caution if you have constipation (half a glass warm).

There are as many macrobiotic drinks as there are options for the diet you choose. If you are following a stricter regimen, then minimize the intake of any sweet fruit supplements. Otherwise, they will serve as an excellent addition to the main dishes of macrobiotic cuisine.

It is impossible to say for sure who was the first to practice the macrobiotic diet. What is known is that its roots are deepened in ancient Japan, and its basic principles are built on the main ideas of such philosophical movements as Zen Buddhism, the works of Hippocrates and the Western European culture of vegetarian nutrition. The distributor of this technique in the West was the Japanese-American John Ozawa, who studied macrobiotics for 48 years before proposing his own theory of using it in nutrition.

The word “macrobiotics” itself, translated from ancient Greek, means “long life” or “amazing life”. Just from the name itself, it immediately becomes clear that the nutrition system was developed not so much for weight loss, but to achieve complete harmony with oneself and the world around us. This is not just another weight loss method, but a whole philosophy that hides more than a banal intake of healthy food.

For those who have decided to achieve final enlightenment, let us say right away that this diet is not a one-time diet. It cannot be “jumped off” because it is designed to last a lifetime. This is such a twist, but how did you want it? Enlightenment does not come so easily. After Ozawa published his book Zen Macrobiotics, thousands of people began to follow specific nutritional principles.

The essence of this system is to balance your diet. You don’t have to count calories or measure portions; you just need to eat the same amount of foods that have Yin and Yang energy. In the modern interpretation, these will be two groups of products, one of them forms an acidic environment (contains potassium and phosphorus), and the second - alkaline (contains calcium and sodium). Yin energy, or the feminine principle, is an acidic environment, and Yang energy, or the masculine principle, is an alkaline environment.

Your task in the first stages will be to eat equal amounts of food with Yang energy and Yin energy. This will help you achieve the balance both physical and spiritual that you will need to move to the higher levels of the macrobiotic diet.

• ginseng;
• chicory;
• sage;
• parsley;
• horseradish;
• carrot;
• pumpkin;
• eggs;
• meat;
• fish roe.

Ozawa recommends consuming all these products in their natural form whenever possible, but if processing is still required, you can boil, bake or stew the food. The drinking regime is also not quite usual in this system; you need to drink clean water without gas in small sips and only if you are thirsty.

Stages of the path to health and longevity

Ozawa states that the main goal of the macrobiotic diet is a smooth and gradual transition to a diet that consists exclusively of grains and water. According to the author, this food contains extremely useful components that are absorbed by the body in an environmentally friendly way. But due to the processing of proteins and fats, waste, toxins and other harmful substances accumulate in our body, which lead to the appearance of various diseases.

• 1st stage

At this time, you will need to maintain a certain proportion in taking different foods. At this time you will need to exclude from the menu:

• alcohol;
• sugar;
• sweets;
• fruits;
• fat meat;
• all products that contain chemicals.

The food ratio will be as follows: cereals and cereals - 40%, fresh or minimally processed vegetables - 30%, lean meat (except chicken) or fish - 20%, any soups, except those that contain mushrooms - 10%. A person determines the duration of each stage individually, based on his well-being, sensations and readiness to move on to the next changes in the diet.

• 2nd stage

At this time, you will create a menu for the week based on the following proportion of allowed products: cereals - 50%, vegetables - 30%, fish and meat dishes - 10%, soups, also without mushrooms - 10%.

• 3rd stage

At this stage to achieve your highest goal, you will have to completely abandon animal products, fish and seafood, they are completely excluded from the diet. At the same time, the amount of grains increases, they should be 60%, vegetables invariably make up 30% of the total menu, and soups - 10%.

• 4th stage

At this time, you will need to “give” 10% of vegetables to grains. It turns out that cereals will take up 70% of the diet, fresh vegetables - 20%, and soups will remain in the same quantity as they were - 10%.

• 5th stage

At this time, you will have to further reduce the variety of the menu by excluding soups from it. All 10% that fell on these dishes go to cereals, now they will be 80% in the diet, the remaining 20% ​​will be vegetables.

• 6th stage

We reduce the amount of vegetables consumed to 10%, try to eat them raw, grains make up 90% of the diet, they can be prepared in any way acceptable to you.

• 7th stage

This period is the final one, we have achieved complete enlightenment and can freely eat only rice or buckwheat porridge and make do with a minimum amount of water, but at the same time feel cheerful and full of energy.

The macrobiotic diet is used to treat many diseases, including cancer. Ozawa himself promises that after switching to the “correct” food, we will completely stop getting sick and will feel a special lightness in the body, the desire and need to take any medications and even vitamin supplements will disappear.

Adapted diet 7 to cleanse the body

Eastern teachings may seem quite complicated for a European person; it will not be very convenient to perceive them also for the reason that in our country there are practically no products that will initially be included in the diet, for example, fresh fish, algae. Diet 7 was developed especially for those who want to improve their health, which involves eating exclusively cereals made from cereals, medicinal plants and grains for 10 days.

In addition, whole grains help normalize the intestinal microflora, since they contain a large amount of fiber. Coarse fibers cause a long-lasting feeling of fullness, and they also act on the body like a natural “brush”, as they absorb waste and toxins and then remove them naturally. The experience of losing weight using this method gives excellent results - you can lose from 5 to 14 kg of excess weight!

Despite the fact that followers of macrobiotics can expect excellent results and longevity, this diet must be taken very seriously. Compliance with the diet should be supported not only by the desire to lose weight, but also to completely change your lifestyle and worldview. You might want to try a 10-day grain-based trial to see if you can feel comfortable with such severe deprivation.