Macrobiotic food - george osawa diet

The author of macrobiotic nutrition, George Osawa, believed that simplicity is the key to health, and this formed the basis of the eastern weight loss system. In his opinion, a person should eat natural food. Macrobiotic diet will appeal to women who are not averse to introducing cereals, vegetables and soy products into their diet for a long time. This nutritional system helps to improve health and reduce the risk of developing dangerous diseases.

The essence of the macrobiotic diet

A macrobiotic diet for weight loss is not a week of food restrictions or even a month. You need to stick to it all your life, moreover, you will need not only to reconsider your diet, but also to understand Eastern philosophy. Having achieved the harmony of soul and body and realizing that everything in the world is interconnected, you will be able to understand the concept of the oriental method. The philosophy of the East is based on the balance of Yin and Yang forces. If these energies in a person are in harmony, then he will be healthy both physically and psychologically. Theory Yin-Yang says that diseases appear because one of these energies becomes greater. The essence of the diet is the achievement of harmony Yin and Yang. This can be done in the following ways:

• You must follow strict rules for eating.
• Products that you use should be healthy and natural.
• Cooking needs to be done right.

The basic principles of the Yin-Yang diet

Macrobiotic diet for weight loss has the following principles:

• The naturalness of the products is the basis of the method of weight loss. If you choose fish, then it should be fresh, ideally, an hour ago it should have been swimming in the sea. If you include greens in the diet, it would be good if it grew on your garden or windowsill.
• You must eat seasonal vegetables grown in the area in which you live. According to Eastern theory, fruits and vegetables grown on "alien" territory contain the wrong combination of "Yin" and "Yang." This may upset your internal balance.
• If you eat the right foods, having made the correct nutritional scheme for yourself, then the need for eating unhealthy foods will disappear on its own, because the same yin-yang harmony will be achieved. This means that you will not even want a cake or a grilled steak.
• Chewing food thoroughly will ensure its better absorption. Chew every piece you need at least 50 times.
• On the day you need to drink about 1 liter of ordinary water.

The right foods in the macrobiotic diet menu

There is a special pyramid macrobiotic diet, which displays the products of your diet and their number:

• Half of your diet should be cereals. The authors recommended wild rice, millet, wheat, oats.
• About 20% of your menu should be set aside for vegetables. Eat raw or steam vegetables and more greens. Local vegetables are recommended.
• Legumes should make up about 10% of your diet. You may prefer beans, chickpeas or lentils.
• Fruit should not appear on your table often. It will be enough to enter them into the diet in an amount of 5% every 2-3 days. Here, as with vegetables, an important role is played by the growing place of fruits that you will eat. The ideal option is fruit from your vegetable garden. But you can just buy seasonal fruits, as long as they are local.
• Algae are a rich source of iodine, they should also be present in your menu (5%).
• Soups should be present on your table daily, accounting for 5% of the diet. Choose soups from vegetables, seaweed or legumes. You can make miso soup or shoyu. These dishes are prepared on the basis of miso-pasta - a traditional product of Japanese cuisine.
• Seasonings recommended by the authors of the diet are tamari, tahini, sea salt, brown rice vinegar.
• Corn oil and sesame oil must be present in your diet.
• At least once, and better up to 3 times a week, you should eat white fish (3%).
• Red meat is at the very top of the macrobiotic pyramid, that is, its amount in the diet should be minimal, about 2%.

Prohibited Macrobiotic Products

If your choice is macrobiotic food, the menu for the week should be made up correctly. It is necessary to completely exclude prohibited products from it, namely:

• any dishes containing sugar;
• artificial sweeteners and any sweets;
• fruit juice;
• wheat flour and white rice;
• products containing preservatives, stabilizers and flavor enhancers;
• caffeine-containing beverages;
• refined oil.

The authors of the methodology believe that if Yin products are excessively consumed, a person has a protein deficiency, and as a result, there is an acute need for Yang products. Products such as cheese, meat, sugar and fruit cause a feeling of hunger. And the use of products with preservatives and flavors lead to an Yin-Yang imbalance.

The merits of macrobiotic nutrition

Diet Yin Yang in general has beneficial effects on the body. You will practically switch to vegetarianism, and, as you know, this lifestyle and nutrition brings great benefits to the body:

• A large amount of fiber in the menu has a beneficial effect on the gastrointestinal tract.
• Phytoestrogens in the composition of soy products, reduce the possibility of developing breast cancer. But this does not mean that a macrobiotic diet in oncology can be considered a panacea, because for such serious diseases specific treatment is necessary.
• The predominance of plant foods will allow you to maintain a slim figure without effort.
• Vegetable protein in your diet will lead to a decrease in the amount of phosphorus in the body, which has a beneficial effect on the health of your kidneys.

Disadvantages of the Yin Yang Diet

However, strict macrobiotic nutrition has its drawbacks, including:

• The body may suffer from a lack of trace elements such as calcium, potassium and iron.
• With an insufficient amount of protein foods, you may feel weak, in a bad mood.
• The diet is very complex and requires deep oriental austerity.

We make the menu for the week

In the macrobiotic diet, the menu for 7 days can be gradually compiled by each woman, according to the instructions above: include the right foods in your diet and do not exceed the allowable percentage rates. All products must be cooked with their own hands: it is allowed to cook on an open fire or on a gas stove at home. The microwave and the electric stove contradict the eastern principle of the naturalness of cooking products. In the macrobiotic diet, the menu for seven days can be incrementally compiled according to your personal wishes, but you need to focus on the macrobiotic pyramid. The menu for the day can be as follows:

• Breakfast: oatmeal, bread, green tea.
• Lunch: miso soup, fresh carrot salad.
• Safe, dried apricots.
• Dinner: steam fish with lentils.

Diet Yin Yang has a high efficiency, not only in the fight against extra centimeters in volume, but also in improving the body as a whole. Having a slim figure, as a bonus, you will get a great mood and ease of thought.

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