What Does Macrobiotic Mean Today?
To many people born sometime after the middle 1970’s the term Macrobiotic may seem strange and unfamiliar. They might even wonder if it’s got anything to do with the fast food “Mac” that they know all too well. A cultural food historian would have to devote at least one chapter to the Macrobiotic movement, which could be described as a health food fad that had its day in the sun 30 or 40 years ago. Some inner city Houston residents may remember the Macro Center which was a very popular healthy dining spot in the 80’s. Many still follow the principles of this way of eating today.
Stated as simply as possible, Macrobiotics is diet based mainly on whole grains and vegetables. A “food pyramid” of Macrobiotics would have a large lower tier of grains, topped by vegetables, then a smaller one of beans, fish, and seaweeds, and finally a cap of cold-pressed oils, nut butters,and condiments made of fermented vegetables. Dairy products are absent, as are refined sugars, and nightshade plants such as tomatoes and potatoes. This is the Macro diet as presented to the world by George Ohsawa in the early and middle 20th century.
Ohsawa got the idea for his diet from a fellow Japanese diet guru, whom he credited with curing him of tuberculosis. He resolved to spread the ideas and philosophy of the diet all over the world in gratitude. He found fertile ground in the U.S. after World War II. Many people then were seeking alternatives to the increasingly processed and toxin laden foods that were being incorporated into the mainstream American diet. Cancer and heart disease were on the rise, and Macrobiotics offered a less risky approach to nutrition. Many Macrobiotic centers and restaurants were opened all over the country.
Today Macrobiotics has lost a lot of its Japanese cultural connections, but miso, tamari, nori, and other formerly strange foods have become part of the American diet. China has its own version of a similar way of eating based on grains, beans, veggies, and seaweed which is associated with Traditional Chinese Medicine. Anyone who is vegan or vegetarian probably eats pretty much according to these principles, whether they realize it or not. Concern over factory farming, processed foods, and climate change will assure Macrobiotics a place at the table during the rest of the 21st century.
John Fain