Modern-Day Macrobiotics: Transform Your Diet and Feed Your Mind, Body and Spirit

I purchased this book after my doctor recommended I look into a macrobiotic diet to help balance my hormones. I spent time at a macrobiotic restaurant that has a small collection of books that they sell first, browsing through the various options. This one really jumped out at me, for a couple of reasons:1) I did not grow up cooking American or European food. I learned how to cook based on Indian cuisine, and that is the type of food my family and I eat at home most of the time. This book teaches you the principles of macrobiotic cooking in such a way that you can adopt it to whatever cuisine is most familiar and comfortable for you. It's made it easier for me to adapt to this way of eating, since the flavor of my food is satisfying, but the content of it is better for me.2) I liked out way information about macrobiotics was presented. The layout of the information is very clean and easy to understand. Symbols for the different qualities of food make it easy to remember the principles, and it's much easier to absorb the material when you don't have to read textbook-like pages.3) The pictures of the food are appealing. At the end of the day, it's a cookbook and I want to feel like the food I make is going to be appetizing and presentable.4) Simon Brown's writing style is educational, warm and inviting. I think anyone who reads this book as an introduction to macrobiotics will get a good start, and will certainly learn enough to be dangerous.I'm really happy I got it, and I'm even happier that I am using the principles and recipes in the book. My husband is eating this way with me, and he's not going hungry, and neither am I. In fact, I started feeling better after 3 days, which is so encouraging. I think this is a must read for anyone who wants to learn the principles of macrobiotics and wants a simple way to enhance their diet, especially if you don't want to feel pressured or overwhelmed or intimidated.Enjoy!P.S. The Noodles recipe is awesome!

I love the format, layout and design of the book. The use of charts, colors and pictures is suburb and draws the reader into the book making it easy to understand. This is especially helpful if you are new to macrobiotics. Even the recipes look good, except that only a few of the pictures of the recipes are notated, only a handful have the page number and recipe name associated with them - mmeaning there is no reference for exactly which recipe the picture goes with. In the world of macrobiotics this is not easy to figure out, especially for the novice. This is pretty sloppy editing since it wouldn't have taken a lot of effort to note the pictures - which are indeed beautiful. (Kudos to the photographer.)This is a good book for the beginner, intermediate, and someone brushing up on their macrobiotics, like I am doing. But it is somewhat lacking in organization so I caution that you will need to read the book from beginning to end and make notes in the margins and index for future reference. I found myself having to add my own notes to the lack-luster index constantly. Information is all over the place, which would be fine if it were so noted in the index, but it's not. E.G. he makes at least a half-dozen references (some quite important) to brown rice but only includes the brown rice recipe page in the index. I was also disappointed in how he seems to skim the surface of important aspects of macrobiotics by including only partial lists for things, such as his list of foods for healing specific ailments (he only covers eight issues) or exactly when to use the energy that specific plants impart. There IS a great list of plants along with their corresponding energy that I will refer to many times, but not enough info for when to use them (other than the eight illnesses he mentions). Specifics and expanded lists are needed in several areas. It seems the author bit off more than he could chew by trying to include everything you ever wanted to know about macrobiotics - only to skim the surface on most topics. It would be great to have such a book in its entirety. I noticed the author has another book  Macrobiotics for Life: A Practical Guide to Healing for Body, Mind, and Heart  that is quite longer, but I'm not certain longer means substantive since the "Look Inside" is too limited to give me an idea if these shortcomings have been addressed.I have some of Michio Kushi and Wendy Esko books (very old editions) and find them dry and difficult to read and also poorly indexed. I'm beginning to wonder if this is common to people living life-long macrobiotic diets? Seriously, they are all proponents of vegetarian diets claiming all of our needed nutrients can be found in plant food. This is not so for everyone. Deprived of vitamin B-12, for instance, the brain will begin to shrink. And there are digestive and absorbsion issues for many folks that make make it difficult to properly absorb and convert the B-12 found in plant protein. In addition, there is no mention of the importance of getting the 8-10 essential amino acids (8-10 depending on whom you listen to). Our body is made up almost entirely of protein and our DNA depends on all 21 amino acids to survive. But you must get the essential amino acids from food sources on a daily basis - not always at the same time, but at least throughout the day. While this is easier to do on a macrobiotic diet than a raw foods diet (because of the allowed cooked beans and grains) there could be mention on how to combine your daily intake of food to include all of the essential amino acids, and maybe something on food combining to make complete proteins. (Such as beans with the addition of corn or grains to complete the protein.) In his defense, I'm not sure this information is included in any one macrobiotic book - and there is some disagreement as to the need to combine certain proteins. Instead, Simon Brown writes in terms of weekly consumption, which I get (and applaud) when it comes to making sure you don't over-consume certain foods that can throw off your pH balance, but we also need to be concerned with our daily consumption - namely, getting 100% of our essential amino acids, along with enough absorbable and convertible B-12 EVERY single day. My simple answer to this is to include some fermented, organic, raw dairy, organic eggs and chicken (preferably from a local source where you know the chickens are allowed to scratch freely outdoors and the eggs aren't washed in toxic substances), perhaps some smaller deep sea fish like wild salmon (the mercury debate needs to be considered here though, especially if you are already toxic) and occasional grass fed and finished red meat. Even on this diet I keep testing low in B-12 so I take injections which seem to make me feel much better. I administer them myself. Any doctor can prescribe these and it's much cheaper to do it yourself than to go into a clinic - about $1/shot to do-it-yourself - which might only be needed once a week after you've caught up.Having studied Chinese Medicine, I love the macrobiotic diet and lifestyle since many of the principles are intertwined. Which brings up another point, I do not believe, nor have I ever seen, a macrobiotic diet alone cure cancer. I don't think these claims are being made so much today as in the past, and no claims are made in this book. But it can be used in conjunction with other healing modalities, depending on which one you choose to follow. Back in 1997 I included a macrobiotic diet (with no meat or dairy) along with the Johanna Budwig and Hulda Clark protocols while I was healing of late stage cancer. I did this without radiation or chemo, but with the aid of surgery.I guess I am on the hunt for a definitive guide to macrobiotics - one that includes in-depth information on the primary subjects of energy flow: where, when, why, and with fully compiled lists, a well-organized recipe section with corresponding pictures, a complete index, and up to date information on the need to properly combine foods and the need for most people to supplement the diet with some form of animal-sourced protein and/or B-12 shots. (Michio Kushi's early work supported the consumption of some animal protein.)This work by Simon Brown is a great start and on the right path. I am sure I will refer to it, but it is by no means complete. I give it 3 stars for content and an extra star for the beautiful design. As long as you don't mind compiling and organizing your own notes it is an enjoyable read - and a good starting point for most.

I've been through the wars with macrobiotics...from the endless brown rice only diet to the "raw" macrobiotics approach...for, off and on, forty years. This is the best that the macro-vision can testify to. A beautiful book, with engaging photographs, intelligent information, and, best of all, very rewarding recipes, all merging together to give the reader a healing and joyously appealing approach to a very diverse and often stringent lifestyle.Macrobiotics can be so utterly daunting, so conservative, unbending, and foreign, that we often throw the baby out with the bath water. Brown's book is informative without being preaching; kind, and encouraging. Do try it out. It is enormously beneficial.

If you are looking for an inspirational cookbook, then this is it. Brown goes to great length to explain theory and adjust for these times. He has several options in the book that can be used to fit a person's dietary needs. Whether it's a one day detox or a 4 month healing plan, he doesn't disappoint. The book is easy to read, and goes quite well with other books you may be reading on the subject of healing diets. There are lots of visual aids, colorful graphs and pictures of food that make you want to pursue the macrobiotic way of life. I read the book from cover to cover and I refer to it often.

Me ha gustado mucho este libro. Tengo unos cuantos de macrobiotica porque me gusta mucho esta dieta. Este libro explica que es la dieta macrobiotica sin demasiados detalles pero con claridad, así que me parece un buen primer libro. Tambien con recetas sencillas.

Love it

so this book is more me!I have 'the macrobiotic path to total health' too,but as a beginner this is so much more accessible for meit has some really good detailed pictures and some really good recipes that go with itthis book is a good start and introduction to macrobiotics and seems to really be for the modern-day with up to date recipes that seem really easy to put together,this book has changed my mind about this way of eating and is making me consider changing from Atkins to this,the potato and carrot soup looks awesome!

I'M USING FOR MY CLASSES AND TEACHING

Very good choice for those, like me, who had no idea of what 'macrobiotics' is. The author is not too pushy, suggesting that the diet can be adopted for one day a week or one week in a month.