How to Take Precautions on a Macrobiotic Diet

Any change in diet will affect your body. Adopting a macrobiotic diet means overhauling not only the way you eat but also the way you live. Because following a macrobiotic diet means rarely, if ever, eating meat, poultry, dairy, sugar, and caffeinated drinks, you may have to learn new ways to eat foods that will provide you with the calcium, protein, iron, zinc, vitamin D, vitamin B12, riboflavin, vitamin A, and omega-3 fatty acids you need. Do so gradually. Even George Ohsawa, the Japanese philosopher who coined "macrobiotics" and brought it to North America, suggested a ten-stage macrobiotic diet, with each stage more restrictive than the previous one. Understand, though, that most modern macrobiotic practitioners suggest ways to adapt macrobiotic principles to your local and bodily needs. Some call this new approach a "flexitarian" diet.

Critics of the most restrictive macrobiotic diet warn that children and pregnant women should not follow it because of possible malnutrition. If you are a non-pregnant adult who wants to eat healthier, following a macrobiotic diet means you have to become smarter about the food you eat. When you learn exactly how food feeds our body, you'll discover that there's nothing inherently better about eating meat or the foods you have grown accustomed to. You'll find, for example, that you can eat the calcium you need in leafy greens, nuts and seeds.

Before changing your diet, talk with you physician about your health. Discuss your cholesterol levels, your blood pressure, and your weight. Ask her or him how you can adopt a macrobiotic diet's healthful approach to your particular food needs. Keep talking with your physician as you transition to a macrobiotic diet in case you have any negative reactions to the new foods you are eating or to the removal of foods you were used to eating.

Critics of a strict macrobiotic diet worry that it provides too much sodium and not enough of a variety of fruit since tropical fruits like bananas, mangos, pineapples, and citrus fruits. Some worry that the "nightshade" vegetables that macrobiotic diets do not include -- tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplants -- are not unhealthy. (They may be if you have an allergy or sensitivity to one or more of them). More important than any one "restricted" food, however, is its philosophy to eat locally-grown foods in season. Thus, if you live somewhere where bananas are grown, for example, adopt the macrobiotic philosophy to your specific environment in the way that its initial Japanese practitioners did.

Don't focus on the diet's restrictions. Rather, adapt your own food choices to its ecologically-minded philosophy of healthier eating and cooking.