Macrobiotics Today, November/December 1994, Vol. 34, No. 6
"Don't Trust the Experts" Roger Windsor
To even want to try macrobiotics in the first place, you have to have a certain distrust of experts. Many people end up with macrobiotics because the medical experts they consulted didn't have any good solutions for their problems, or the solutions offered were so undesirable (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation) that an unorthodox, "unproven" alternative seemed worth the risk. But how many of us macrobiotic converts now put our faith in macrobiotic experts, and may suffer as a result?
When I first started to practice the macrobiotic diet almost twenty years ago, I was very skeptical of the claims made in macrobiotic books - they simply didn't fit into my existing belief system. I was judging macrobiotics against the teachings of such experts as the popular nutritionist, Adelle Davis. At the time, I was so enamored with scientific nutrition that I would have disregarded macrobiotics altogether, except that I was unable to clear up a minor, but persistent skin condition. It reached the point where I finally had to admit that my nutritional beliefs and practices weren't working for me, so I decided to give macrobiotics a try.
You've Got To Let It Go
Axiom #1: If something doesn't work, no matter how much you believe in it, how many experts promote it, or how many facts and figure support it, you've got to let it go.
I followed George Ohsawa's 10-day, all-grain diet, and, to my amazement, my skin problem began to improve, eventually clearing up totally. Greatly impressed, I continued to faithfully practice Ohsawa's teachings as best I could. According to one of the more "moderate" of his 10 diet plans, I ate a large percentage of grains, supplemented with two tablespoons of well-cooked vegetables, some beans, all amply seasoned with soy sauce.
After about two months on this diet, I noticed that when I came down to breakfast in the morning my hands would be trembling. I know now I was far too yang, but all I knew at the time was that something wasn't working, even though I seemed to be following the book exactly. Not knowing what else to do, and remembering Axiom #1, I simply asked myself what I felt like eating, rather than what I should eat. I ended up eating twice as many vegetables as grains, and the morning tremors soon subsided.
The Standard Diet And Me
What had happened to me? Because following Ohsawa's dictates had cleared up my skin problem so successfully, I was swayed by his authority and ignored my intuition. I had been eating what I thought I should eat, rather than what my body really needed. Had I been a little less naive, I would not have persisted with Ohsawa's recommendations so unquestioningly. It was only later that I read in his Practical Guide To Far Eastern Medicine that he almost killed himself from his own over-intake of yang foods. I realized then why his recommendations generally might have tended toward the yang pole.
In my view, Ohsawa's yang dietary suggestions were inappropriate as a long-term dietary practice. Michio Kushi may also have taken a too-yang approach, admitting himself that he had initially recommended more salt than was appropriate. Some in macrobiotics who still practice this yang style may use large quantities of coffee or other strong yin to balance out the excess yang.
Let me say at this point that I owe my present good state of health largely to Ohsawa and Kushi. Had I not experienced their teachings, my life would be far less healthy and happy than it is now. But they have their own personal perspectives, and they definitely fall in the category of experts, so we should never blindly accept their pronouncements in lieu of our own intuition and judgment. Rather, we can learn from their difficulties and use their experiences to enhance our own growth. As Ohsawa said, "Don't believe." However, he wrote with a samurai certitude that did little to foster a spirit of non credo in his more impressionable readers.
Over the years, I attempted to practice macrobiotics in a very serious and disciplined way. I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well do it right, and I wanted the good health and spiritual advancement it promised. But I soon began to discover what I thought were limitations in the macrobiotic diet and teachings.
After reading Ohsawa's and Kushi's books, I had the impression that those who practiced macrobiotics must be some kind of super-people. Not only must they be extremely healthy, I thought, but morally and behaviorally they probably act like saints. I was led into these beliefs by claims such as Ohsawa's that if you're healthy, you never get angry.
When I eventually went to study macrobiotics in Boston, and spent time hanging around longtime macrobiotic followers, I was shocked to learn the reality. Some of these people seemed worse than non-macrobiotic people. They were angry, haughty, close-minded, up-tight and hypocritical. I later learned that Ohsawa himself had quite a temper, and might upset the dinner table if he didn't like his wife's cooking.
At first I attempted to rationalize the contradictions between what I read in the books and what I saw. I imagined that these longtime macrobiotic practitioners must not really be following the diet, or, they were not yet healed. The idea that the macrobiotic diet, itself, was imbalanced, or that its beneficial effects were overstated, was not even a possibility for me. However, I soon came to realize that even though macrobiotics is a powerful healer of the body, and can greatly calm the emotions, it seems to have little effect on a person's basic character.
After studying in Boston, I moved out to California and started a residential macrobiotic teaching center at Harbin Hot Springs. I lived an "ideal" macrobiotic life in many respects, eating a very simple diet, drinking spring water, and getting plenty of exercise in a pristine environment. Even though I was doing everything "right," I still could not force myself to eat the standard macrobiotic diet of 50 percent or more grains. I always ended up consuming much more vegetables than grains. Each year I would attend the macrobiotic teachers' conferences back East, and there I would sometimes talk informally with people about this dilemma, but nobody seemed to be having the same problem, or admit to it. Was it just me, or did macrobiotic dietary recommendations need some modification?
No Satisfaction
Some years later, I heard that several macrobiotic children had suffered vitamin B-12 deficiencies and a few had to be hospitalized. I myself had earlier developed a B-12 deficiency on macrobiotics. I brought the problem up at one of the yearly teacher's conference. "Shouldn't we consider," I said, "that some animal food be regularly included in the macrobiotic diet for B-12, rather than making it an optional item?" At the time, some of the macrobiotic books claimed that eating animal food was "non-spiritual," so even though fish was optional, there was great incentive to avoid it.
The response by the attendees was interesting. No one voiced agreement with me that there might be a problem with the standard diet itself, or the way macrobiotics was taught. They blamed the B-12 problems on the children's mothers who must not have been following the diet properly, or had "weak" cooking, or consumed carbonated beverages.
Some years later, I met a woman living in my home state of New Hampshire whose child had developed irreversible brain damage from a B-12 deficiency during the time they were practicing a macrobiotic diet. She was understandably angry. This prompted me to write one of the leading figures in macrobiotics about the B-12 issue, saying that some people are following the diet the best they can, yet their children are suffering as a result. Wouldn't it be a good idea to include a warning about the potential of B-12 problems in the books?
I further suggested that all the macrobiotic centers be alerted so that they could recognize any symptoms of B-12 deficiency should they arise. I was amazed and angered by his return letter, which said simply that most children have no problems on macrobiotics. No plan to implement any corrective measures was mentioned.
I wrote back stating that while most children may not have problems, a significant number are, so something should be done to try and prevent these cases. I never got back a response from my second letter. Still not willing to let the issue drop, I took it upon myself to write a letter to all the macrobiotic centers alerting them about the possibility of B-12 deficiencies. Of all the centers I knew of, only one, an "old folks" macrobiotic club in New Jersey, responded, thanking me for my efforts, and publishing my letter in their newsletter.
The Brush Off
Axiom #2: Experts can be fanatical and intractable, sometimes at the expense of their followers. They tend to brush off ideas that contradict their own, or in some way could detract from their "great" mission.
At this point, I also want to say how disappointed I was in the yearly, East Coast macrobiotic teachers' gatherings back in the seventies and early eighties. Even though we were practicing and teaching an alternative healing approach with no systematic or reliable information on its effectiveness, when we all came together, there was no organized effort to compare notes and learn from each other. We should have been talking about what worked, what didn't, and trying to improve our teaching and consultations by learning from our successes and failures. Instead, we mainly talked about our strategy for converting the world to macrobiotics. The diet itself and its role in healing was never openly questioned or criticized. I must say, this was a true gathering of "experts." Had we been more self-reflective, refining our teaching, many more lives could have been saved and much suffering averted.
Another example of the evils of expertism in macrobiotics stemmed from an article I published in my magazine, Spectrum. Since I am an avid practitioner and supporter of macrobiotics in general, I take every opportunity to publish articles showing its benefits, such as a recent story on macrobiotics' ability to help with prostate and pancreatic cancers (based on a study in The Journal of the American College of Nutrition), and an in-depth interview with macrobiotic advocate Dr. Sherry Rogers. There also have been numerous articles in the magazine reporting studies on the benefits of miso, sea vegetables, etc., as well as the dangers of dairy products, microwaved food, and so forth. But, being a "wholistic news digest," I also print the "bad" news as well as the "good."
About two years ago I came across a study showing a high incidence of rickets in Dutch children following the macrobiotic diet, and I reported it in the magazine. What could we learn from such a study? Maybe that getting outside in the sun can be as important as a good diet, or that more animal food is needed, or whatever. But the essential point is that these Dutch families following the macrobiotic diet were apparently doing something wrong, and I felt that people needed to know about it.
After the magazine had been out for a few weeks, I got a call from one of the macrobiotic centers that was selling Spectrum. They were angry about the rickets article, and wanted to stop receiving the magazine at their center. Instead of seeing problems as an opportunity to learn and grow, they viewed them as a threat to macrobiotics, to be covered up and hidden from the public.
Not Quite Whole Grain
One final example of my frustration with macrobiotic expertism. In 1980, during a trip to Asia, I traveled to remote areas of Sumatra, Thailand, the Philippines, and other countries where I often had to hike since there were no roads. The people living there harvested their rice in a natural way, loosening the inedible hull by pounding the grains, then throwing them up in the wind to let the hulls blow away. During this traditional process, some of the bran blew away with the hulls, resulting in rice that was about 90 percent brown and 10 percent white. I figured that this was the way people had eaten rice for tens of thousands of years, so our bodies must be adapted to consuming it in this partially refined form. When I returned home, I began adding 10 percent organic white rice to my brown rice. The result was lighter, better tasting rice.
As you might expect, when I related this discovery to some of the macrobiotic experts, they weren't interested even in thinking about it. For them, 100 percent whole brown rice was the only way.
Two other interesting things I learned on my travels: All traditional people that I saw ate boiled, not pressure-cooked rice, and all ate some amounts of animal foods regularly, even if it was the occasional frog or tiny fish from their rice fields. In my opinion, modern macrobiotics, if the fish option is not taken, cannot really be considered a traditional diet. Those children with B-12 deficiencies might not have gotten sick if they had been eating a truly traditional diet.
I have tried to give some examples from my experiences that illustrate the dangers of following experts, be they macrobiotic or otherwise. However, you might be thinking that perhaps it's me rather than the experts that are wrong. Am I basing my judgments on limited experience, or simply deluding myself?
The truth ultimately comes out for all to see when the teachings fail the teachers themselves, which they often seem to do in a dramatic fashion. Adelle Davis taught that drinking a quart of milk a day would protect from cancer, yet she died of bone cancer. J.I. Rodale, the founder of Prevention magazine, died of a heart attack on the Dick Cavett Show after telling Cavett he expected to live a long life. And now, Aveline Kushi, wife of the author of The Cancer Prevention Diet, is struggling with cancer.
Let me say that I am personally saddened by Aveline's illness. She has helped many people with her cooking classes and books, and my life has been greatly enhanced by her teaching. But there also is something important to learn from this ironic tragedy.
Aveline's illness was a great lesson for me. I had often wondered just how effective macrobiotics was in preventing degenerative illness, but, regardless, I always assumed I would be protected from cancer. After hearing about Aveline, I no longer felt protected. And, I immediately began to think about what could have caused her cancer. These ruminations ultimately reinforced trust in my own intuition to guide me on the right path.
My Way
Now, when I go into the kitchen, I throw macrobiotics out of my mind and just eat what my body wants to eat, and I feel better doing so. To others, it may still appear that I practice macrobiotics, because I eat grains, vegetables, miso soup, and so forth, but it's no longer according to the books. For example, I found that I like bread, so I started eating it frequently and using less rice. My ancestors were bread-eating Europeans, not rice-eating Japanese, so it also makes sense theoretically that my body might be more adapted to wheat. I still eat a larger proportion of vegetables, as I did back in California, as well as mix 10 percent white rice in with my brown. I make it a point to eat fish at least twice a week, and I eat more fruit and salads, also.
As a temporary supplement to foods, I'm taking a low-potency multi-vitamin and an occasional "green" drink to redress any imbalances that may have arisen from any past, too-strict macrobiotic eating. (If I lived in a polluted environment or had other kinds of stress, I would probably supplement regularly.)
What may be good for me, however, is definitely not good for everybody. Life is an art, and we've all got to find our own way. It's either that, or become slaves to the experts, risking life and limb under their "care."
And, following intuition is not the whole story. We have the capacity for both intuitive and rational judgment, and we need both to achieve and maintain health.
When you sit down to a bowl of pressure-cooked brown rice after twenty years of macrobiotics, and you just can't eat it, don't force yourself, even if the "great teachers" or their books say so. On the other hand, if you've been brought up on the American diet, when your body needs protein your intuition may say "eat steak." But eating meat regularly could contribute to promoting disease. This is where rationality can balance intuition. By using the wisdom and experience of others, even that of the experts, intuitive bodily desires can be put into perspective, getting beyond the confines of personal and cultural programming.
Apparently, I'm not the only one who has learned from Aveline's illness. In conversations with those recently at the Kushi Institute, I have learned that they now frequently serve boiled rather than pressure-cooked rice, and use white rice from time to time. The standard dietary recommendations have been changed to include more vegetables than grains (technically, 50 percent grains by weight rather than volume), and spices are sometimes added to recipes. These changes make the diet overall more yin, a much needed change from the over-yang past.
I was glad to hear that some of the practices I had discovered earlier - previously ignored - are now receiving "official" sanction. I'm glad not only because I like being right, but because I had always had some lingering worry that my maverick approach might be wrong, and if so, it could result in me, and/or others who listened to me, becoming sick.
Macrobiotics, as she practiced it, eventually didn't work for Aveline. Initially, it didn't work for me. There probably have been many people who have tried macrobiotics, but quit because their practice was too yang for their condition. They were smart enough to ignore the macrobiotic experts before they got sick, but, by quitting, they may have unfortunately missed all the good things about macrobiotics.
A Little Balance
I have been very critical in this article, but I believe for a good end. Occasional criticism of the experts helps weaken the slavish attachment of their followers who need to exercise their intuition a bit more. Now let me conclude by adding a little balance to my criticism.
I, too, have been guilty of expertism, and on many occasions have unwittingly steered people in the wrong direction with incorrect advice. It is the lot of teachers to put forth their best understanding at any given time, even if later on the facts and further experience should prove them wrong. So as critical as I am, I also see the good side and necessity of experts.
Macrobiotic teachers, in particular, have had to struggle with an indifferent, sometimes hostile society to spread their message of health. In the face of this challenge, they have persisted, and ultimately played an important role in turning the whole country toward a more healthy lifestyle. For that they should be praised.
End of Article
Author bio-statement: Roger Windsor is the editor and publisher of Spectrum: The Wholistic News Magazine. For more information on Spectrum write to: Spectrum, 61 Dutile Rd., Belmont NH 03220.
Dual-Cartridge Drinking Water Enhancement System
Complete
with twin filter cartridges, chrome faucet diverter and easy to follow
instructions. Installs in seconds, switch from filtered to unfiltered
with the touch of a button.
Voted Best Buy 2006 by Consumers Digest Magazine
Price: $99.99