Tuesday November 17, 2009

Eating naturally

Review by MAJORIE CHIEW

Benefit from a diet that has been around for five millennia.

Macrobiotics for Life
Author: June Ka Lim
Publisher: Seashore Publishing (M) Sdn Bhd

IF foods can heal and nourish the body, a macrobiotic diet can do wonders for it – well, that’s one reason this healthy eating concept has been enjoying a surge in popularity in the last decade.

With the conviction to promote healthy eating, June Ka Lim, a holistic nutritionist who runs Woods Macrobiotics restaurant in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, has come out with this bilingual cookbook (English and Chinese), her second, about “eating for better health”.

Macrobiotics, which means “long life diet”, has a history of over 5,000 years. The concept and practice began in Japan and spread to India, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the United States, South-East Asia and the Mediterranean countries. It was only in the last 50 years that macrobiotics has been on the leading edge of dietary change.

A total health concept, macrobiotics teaches that the mind, body and spirit are unified in harmony with nature. It’s about eating whole (unrefined) foods like wholegrain cereals, land and sea vegetables, beans, seeds and nuts, miso soup and condiments and avoiding chemically processed foods. It also promotes pure food as medicine to heal an ailing body.

The concept of macrobiotics, Lim emphasises, is not about eating organic vegetables but eating in harmony with nature. Modern macrobiotics excludes meat, dairy milk, dairy products, eggs, chemically processed foods and refined sugar.

The book is a pretty package of 50 assorted recipes that are easy to follow, with enticing food shots of colourful dishes. The impressive variety of one-dish meals (rice/noodles), soups, pickles, teas, beverages and desserts are encouraging choices to help kick-start a healthy diet change.

If you’re thinking of one-dish meals, consider Organic Sprouted Multigrain Rice with Black Bean, Organic Cold Somen Noodles with Pine Seed Dressing or Organic Brown Rice Vermicelli Soup.

Soup lovers can go for Organic Miso Soup with Tororo Kombu, Organic Creamy Cauliflower Soup or Organic Yuba and Nori Soup. Menopausal women can try Organic Agedashi Tofu (fried tofu with minced radish and ginger) said to help regulate the hormonal system, while those who want to slim down can sip Organic Slimming Barley Tea.

Each recipe briefly lists the health benefits of the dish. For example, the somen noodles with pine seed dressing is said to be good to improve memory, while the yuba and nori soup helps prevent osteoporosis.

For novices like me, a guide to the various ingredients in macrobiotic cooking is such a great idea. Knowing more about whole grains, macrobiotic seaweed, legumes, seeds, pickles, dried food, miso and noodles allows the reader to make informed choices about the nutritional benefits of foods.

For instance, Lim says cooking barley with brown rice can help strengthen the liver and gall bladder, while mung beans are helpful to neutralise toxins in the body. And eating buckwheat soba noodles (yang) is suitable for warming cold hands and feet while five energy somen noodles (neutral) is suitable for restoring weakened organs.

Besides, you’ll be armed with ample knowledge of how to best use the macrobiotic food ingredients and seasonings (such as tamari, kudzu powder or black rice vinegar) that you’re unfamiliar with.

At the onset, I was rather perplexed by the instruction “to sprout brown rice” (that is to soak rice in water for eight hours to sprout) and later, found out that it was “to enhance the energy of the rice”.

For those new to this food concept, an easy guide to follow is to remember that “the macrobiotic tropical diet is 50% wholegrain cereals, 30% vegetables, 10% beans/seaweed and 10% seeds/nuts”.

There is a brief introduction on how to differentiate yin and yang of food (vegetables) or simply to rely on colours to do so. A quick way to instantly diagnose your body constitution – is to refer to “the yin and yang of the body table”.

Other than this repertoire of recipes, there are suggestions for a healthy lifestyle “makeover”, which includes going to bed early, eating until your stomach is 80% full, and exercising or going to nature to exchange energy with trees.

Then there’s the jaw-dropping advice to “Chew your food 50 times per mouthful!” Sounds incredible but it’s supposed to improve digestion and activate the brain cells (that’s quite mind-boggling for most of us who constantly forget to chew our food properly!).

Whilst some people switch to healthier diets after suffering from chronic diseases, it makes more sense to eat natural, wholesome foods to prevent illnesses rather than deal with them later.

Not all of us can seriously switch to a macrobiotic diet and maintain it for life but it’s good to make a conscious effort to eat healthily, don’t you think?