III. 正食的5個基本原則

3. 多持榖物和蔬菜

In today's modern world, people are living full of desire, social pressures and stress. 多持榖物和蔬菜 is a way for humans to regain their true human nature with health and love. Every animal has its staple food. From a biological point of view, humans are best suited to a grain based diet although it may depend on the environment in which they live. According to many studies, it is found that people become peaceful and gentle with a grain-based diet. Also the meals based on grains and vegetables purify the blood and activate the function of the brain stem. This results in stronger sensitivity, better decision-making, and sharper intuition. Maintaining our true human nature results in a much greater capacity to understand and embrace varying points of view.

On the contrary, overeating animal foods can make humans physiologically dull, violent, and rough. People tend to adopt addictive habits and unnatural desires. There was an American teenage detention center which shifted its meals to a grain and vegetable base. This change resulted in the boys' behaviors and personality becoming milder and changed their environment for the better. Even after only four days of changing the diet, the incidence of violence was reduced by over 50%. A grain and vegetable based diet can physiologically alter stress, desires, and sanity, offering a more naturally peaceful state of mind.

4. 陰陽平衡

"Yang refers to contracting, centripetal energy. "Yin" means diffusing, centrifugal energy. Macrobiotics uses the terms "Yin" and "Yang" as a way to better understand and measure events and happenings, and learn from life occurrences. Every food is not fixed in a "Yin" or "Yang" state. One basic way one can approach food is in looking at animal products as "Yang," vegetables as "Yin," and grains as neutral from the whole food viewpoint. Balancing "Yin" and "Yang" by cooking thoroughly and adjusting the amount of salt is important. For example, although eggplants are "Yin," it is all right to eat a small amount, or cook them well and/or balance them with miso or salt which are "Yang" in nature. As important as the quality of the foods we choose are, the amount we eat is as important. Even overeating brown rice changes it to "Yin." Secondly, when "Yin" or "Yang" is unclear, cooking the foods well helps to equalize the Yin-Yang characteristics of the food. Third, is adjusting the amount of salt when cooking. When coordinating foods, it is important to include both sea vegetables and mountainous foods. Sea vegetables contain sodium that is "Yang" and mountainous foods contain potassium that is "Yin."

Animal foods have stronger energy to fasten, solidify, and warm the body than other foods. They also contain more sodium that is "Yang" in nature, and taking too many animal foods causes thickening blood to raise blood pressure and block arteries. In order to moderate the effects of animal food, "Yin" products such as seasoning, fruit, and nightshades that have loosening, dissolving, and cooling functions and the substance potassium, are used. However, the best diet should be based on grains that are neutral in nature and supplemented with vegetables and sea vegetables. The traditional Japanese meal with rice, vegetables, sea vegetables, and pickles is recognized worldwide as the best-balanced in "Yin" and "Yang."