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Visited your nice and informative website.
I live in Kuwait (Arabian/ Persian Gulf). We have basically two seasons, summer and winter. Food is imported from all over the world including neighbouring countries.
My question is: I noticed that you use potato in your recipes, which is a nightshade. In our geographic area, nightshade family is so commonly used in food.
However, macrobiotic teachings ban this and describes it as extreme yin and stressful to body. Please advise about this issue.
- Maha
7 Nov 2002
Dear Maha,
Thanks for your email and your compliments...
Let me tell you a nice short story... This was related by a friend, I was not there when it happened.
Once, during cooking class at Vega study centre which used to be run by macrobiotic teachers Herman and Cornelia Aihara, Cornelia used some eggplant in her cooking.
So one student asked: "Isn't that a nightshade?"
Cornelia answered: "Yes".
(Nightshade is a family of plants that include potato, tomato, eggplant, bell peppers and tobacco.)
And she carried on cooking!
Moral of the story: NOTHING is banned in macrobiotics.
For example: Are eggs banned? If you have heart failure (heart too weak to pump, not the same as heart attack), the macrobiotic remedy is raw egg yolk with shoyu or soy sauce. It can save your life! In fact, the president of Rice Dream Company - which makes Rice Milk and delicious Brown Rice ice cream - had his life saved this way!
Yin and Yang
It is all about yin and yang. Heart failure is extreme yin condition. So very yang remedy, like egg yolk with shoyu, can work.
Of course, the usual way is to aim for the middle rather than go the opposite extreme. But sometimes, it may be necessary to go the other extreme.
Back to nightshades: Yes, they are very yin. But still not as yin, as, say, Coca Cola or Panadol (fever medicine, Paracetemol). Not even as yin as some other tropical vegetables and fruits.
But that is all.
In very hot climate, where nightshades grow abundantly, it is okay to eat nightshades. It might even be good to eat nightshades.
This is the way of nature. God make nightshades grow in hot climates for a good reason.
However, there are other considerations:
- What is YOUR body condition? Yin or yang?
- What is the quality of nightshade? Organic (more yang) chemically grown (more yin) or hydroponically grown in water (even more yin)?
- How do you prepare nightshade? Well cooked (more yang) or raw (more yin) or juice (even more yin)? Some people recommend potato juice as a health drink. That is very very yin but might work for some very very yang people. However, the more common way of eating nightshades is well cooked - even for tomatoes. The idea of eating raw tomatoes is relatively new. Traditionally, the Italians would cook tomatoes for a long time, even overnight, to make tomato sauce. If you go back long in history, before the Europeans discovered America, then of course the Italians did not even eat tomatoes.
- What do you eat it with? Meat (yang) like steak with potatoes and tomato salad, or with herbs and spices (yin).
- etc. etc....
Chewing
When George Ohsawa - the "grandfather of macrobiotics" - was in jail, he was given only yam to eat, which is very yin. Allegedly, he overcame the situation by chewing 3,000 times!
If you know how to balance yin and yang, everything is okay.
You may read in some books that nightshades are "poisonous" and that the native Indians in Central and South America used concentrated potato extracts to make poison arrows for hunting.
This is true, but from the macrobiotic perspectives, "poisons" are merely foods that are either too yin or too yang. Whether or not a food is poisonous depends on the nature of the food, how much you eat and how the food is prepared.
For example, arsenic if a deadly poison. Yet the seeds of apple contain tiny amounts of arsenic and it is supposed to be healthy to eat apples complete with the seeds. Salt is an important food but always eaten in small amounts. If you eat, say, half a kilogram of salt, you will die of "poisoning".
Certain foods, like eggplant, cannot be eaten raw. But when cooked, they are ok. It's all about balancing yin and yang.
Of course, not all of us know how to balance. Even if we know in theory, we may not know in practice. In the yam example, how would we know if chewing 3,000 times is enough, too much or maybe not enough?
In macrobiotic circles, there is another interesting story about some prisoners of war who wanted to commit suicide by eating poisonous berries. Most of them ate and died.
But there were three prisoners who played an interesting game. They challenged each other to see who could chew the berries longest before swallowing. They did not die.
Every day, they ate the berries and played this same game. Instead of dying, they became stronger and healthier!
If you know yin and yang, the explanation is very simple. The berries were extreme yin, hence "poisonous". Chewing very well, and mixing with saliva, made them more balanced and therefore no longer poisonous.
Order of the Universe
Macrobiotics is about understanding "the order of the universe" and applying this understanding to give ourselves freedom.
It is not about bans and restrictions. It is not, as some people call it, a "no, no" diet.