Ayurveda, macrobiotic diets, and cancer-fighting nutrition

26-05-2005, 11:39

Changing your diet to slow down and control cancer relies on a few simple principles.

1. Consuming precisely selected foods in specific portions that provide slightly fewer calories than the body requires daily.

This starves cancer of the energy it needs to grow.

2. Limiting protein intake to amounts slightly below what the body needs on a daily basis.

This deprives cancer of the raw materials required for growth.

4. Avoiding foods that, due to their composition or treatments involving chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, artificial dyes, or various additives, potentially irritate cancer and stimulate its progression.

5. Shifting your lifestyle and personal philosophy to minimize the negative impact of the fear of death and psychological stress. These factors can irritate cancer and trigger growth; managing them helps mobilize the body's internal strength to fight the disease.

Organizing and sticking to such a way of eating and living is difficult. It demands knowledge, effort, patience, time, and a hell of a lot of persistence. Since cancer patients often lack both the expertise and the time to build a dietary system from scratch using local ingredients, they usually turn to the only fully organized system available: the macrobiotic system by Michio Ukushi.

I believe a well-organized dietary system based on Mediterranean ingredients would be just as effective as the Eastern approach used by Kushner. Individuals have worked on this for their own needs, but no one has yet shaped it into a complete system or organized formal education for it.

Because a patient doesn't have the luxury of researching and experimenting on themselves, it might actually be best to adopt the complete Kushner system—dogmas and all—if they decide to take control of their nutrition.

There is literature and courses available in English, and it is possible to source the necessary foods.

The downside is that this has become a commercialized trade system. Cancer patients are often pitched incredibly expensive "natural remedies" that supposedly aid healing. I have seen this firsthand in the US, where leaders of certain prominent macrobiotic organizations will sense when someone has money and take the opportunity to "rob" them.

In short, I know people who have stopped cancer and brought it under control through the macrobiotic diet and philosophy of the Kushner system.

But I also know those who did not succeed.

V.

Kyle Lee7 said:I’ve been living on rice, steamed veggies, and a bit of broth for about five or six weeks now, and I’m honestly getting tired of it.😢(

The main thing is, I’m sticking to it because it clearly works alongside my treatments. But like I said—I don't see myself doing this long-term. I believe you should eat everything. Food should be diverse. No single ingredient should be treated like a miracle cure, banned, or forced upon you!

Look, since you aren't critically ill and your life isn't on the line, you have the luxury of time to research and experiment. You aren't trying to recreate some legendary medicinal coastal cuisine from the Mediterranean.

You’ve embraced a very strict macrobiotic regimen for a while, simply because, as you noted, it clearly works.

It works right here and right now, not somewhere else in the future.

V.

boldsailor32 said:Look, even if you aren't seriously ill and your life isn't on the line—meaning you have plenty of time to research and experiment—you still aren't exactly following a personalized version of a healing coastal cuisine.

You embraced a super-strict macrobiotic regimen for a little while because, as you put it, it clearly works.

And it works right here, right now, not some vague "somewhere else" or "sometime later."

V.

Actually, that’s not quite right! I was exaggerating a bit, and rice is really the only thing I eat that doesn't originate from our local landscape. Personally, I don't have an issue with rice, but I find macrobiotic practitioners a bit contradictory; by their logic, since rice doesn't grow natively here in the States, I shouldn't be eating it. But I don't subscribe to that theory anyway...

So, what I'm mostly eating right now is:
pasta (and other grains), cornmeal
fish
fresh vegetables, roasted veggies, sautéed veggies, vegetable soups—including those vegetables that macrobiotic followers usually avoid
besides the "approved" sesame oil, I also use olive oil
legumes—beans, lentils, chickpeas, bean pasta, etc.
almonds, hazelnuts, raisins, figs

All of this is much closer to a Mediterranean diet than to anything from Japan!

I eat meat and eggs too, just in moderation.

So, I clearly haven't adopted that ultra-strict version—plus, my husband actually banned certain things that macrobiotic followers normally eat (like bread and fruit), yet he didn't ban the stuff they typically avoid (meat and eggs).

Also, as a matter of principle, I don't eat soy, soy milk, tofu, or seitan—I won't touch anything that doesn't have a traditional American name!!

This current way of eating will only last for a few weeks, maybe two or three months at most. After that, I plan to stick to a few principles, but I definitely won't be cutting out any specific food groups—I might scale back on certain things, but I don't plan on eliminating anything except for the stuff I already avoid because I find it revolting.

Kyle Lee7 said:Hmm... peasants had cows, and cows give milk—I’m not entirely convinced they hadn't figured out milking by the 20th century.
What did they do with all that milk—just toss it? I find that hard to believe.

As for cheese, I seem to recall learning about where and how it was produced—for instance, Trappist cheese—monks were making it in monasteries long, long before the 1900s.

😬 Back then, most peasants didn't actually own cows; if you had livestock, you were considered wealthy. And even then, people weren't exactly drinking cow's milk; usually, the cow was nursing a calf that would eventually be sold or kept to help pull a plow. Maybe a little skim milk here and there, I suppose. In monasteries, they made cheese, but they weren't eating pounds of it daily—more like a tiny five-gram sliver once a week. Being overweight was incredibly rare, and those who were heavy were usually the wealthy elite. Even today in parts of the Middle East, being stout is often seen as a sign of prosperity.

boldsailor32 said:Look, even if you aren't critically ill—your life isn't hanging in the balance, so you have plenty of time to experiment and dig around—you still aren't exactly sitting on your own personal version of a healing Mediterranean diet.

You jumped into a super strict macrobiotic regimen for a bit because, as you put it, it clearly works.

It works right here and now, not some vague time in the future.

V.

To really transition to macrobiotics, I think you first need to cleanse the body so it's actually ready for such a massive dietary shift. Here are some photos from people who cleared out their digestive tracts http://www.hps-online.com/samples.htm and basically shook off their ailments that way, since a stronger system can handle its own healing. One method, which doesn't require buying overpriced supplements, is the Master Cleanser diet http://www.curezone.com/cleanse/bowe...er_cleanse.asp. Macrobiotics only seems to work while you're strictly adhering to it; once you stop, the symptoms tend to crawl back. During the process, a person can probably see for themselves which foods actually sit well and which don't.

Kyle Lee7 said:That isn't quite right! I was exaggerating a bit,
.
.
.

So, my current diet consists mostly of:
pasta (and other grains), cornmeal,
fish,
fresh vegetables, roasted vegetables, stews, vegetable soups—including some veggies even macrobiotic followers avoid.
Besides the "approved" sesame oil, I also use olive oil and olives.
Legumes—beans, lentils, chickpeas, bean pasta, etc.
Almonds, hazelnuts, raisins, figs.
.
.
.

I eat meat and eggs too, but in moderation.

.
.
.

But in your previous post, you stated:

"For about 5 or 6 weeks now, I've been living on rice, cooked vegetables, and a little soup, and I'm already tired of everything."😢

A little exaggeration??? 🙏 🙏 🙏

V. 😉

The guy who started this thread isn't even breathing anymore.

He just didn't have the time.

At this stage, neither this topic nor any further debate can help him.

However, we should keep this discussion going. We need to clear up the fog surrounding "macrobiotics" for everyone else's sake.

V.

Kyle Lee7, you mentioned in one of your posts:

"Macrobiotic principles I found online:

1. Traditional diet—eat what people in your native region have eaten for thousands of years.
2. Eat seasonally—stick to seasonal fruits and vegetables instead of eating strawberries in the middle of winter.
3. Eat locally grown food.

Let's test principle number one.

"Eat what people in your native region have eaten for thousands of years."

Please recommend a menu for tomorrow—or better yet, a full week's worth of meals.

What should I have for lunch and dinner that fits the profile of what people in my area have consumed for millennia?

I am waiting for you to draft this menu. Once we agree the plan is authentic, I commit to buying the ingredients, preparing them using ancient recipes without modern appliances, and sticking to this diet for an entire week.

I will gladly document the whole experience with photos and descriptions.

To set the scene: the year is 33 A.D., and I am living in a small settlement near the ruins of an old Roman outpost in the US.

I am not wealthy; I live simply on the fruits of my own labor.

So, what is on the menu for lunch today?

V.

boldsailor32, what's your diet actually look like?

Aside from sucking blood from aunties on the internet, of course.😬

Hey, check out this local link and an American Ayurvedic center I found. Not trying to sell you anything, just thought it was worth sharing:

www.ayurvedic-center-example.com

Look, I'm not here to preach for or against macrobiotics...

but...
correct me if I've got this wrong...
About 15 years ago, I came across an interview with Michio Ukushi (I've been into this kind of stuff since I was a kid), and he was talking about macrobiotics as this sort of detox method you'd do for just one month out of the year...

So why the change of heart? Am I off base if I say that back then, macrobiotics was basically what we should be doing during Lent?

I also read up on that Breusov therapy—you know, that "total therapy" thing—which actually seemed pretty logical, and apparently, it even worked.

Kyle Lee7 said:Not even close. I was exaggerating a bit, and rice is pretty much the only thing I eat that isn't grown locally here in the States. Personally, I don't have an issue with rice, but I think those macrobiotic types are being contradictory. By their own logic, they shouldn't be eating rice in America since it doesn't grow here. But then again, I don't really buy into that theory anyway...

....

I also refuse to eat soy, soy milk, tofu, or seitan on principle... I won't touch anything that doesn't have an American name.

Exactly. 👍 🙏

Fine, so you don't eat potatoes. That’s actually an Austrian term anyway—Grundbirn...
Does sesame have some kind of local American name too?... 🤔
Since you're using sesame oil... 😬
And I bet you call spaghetti or pasta e keluja something else while you're actually eating it... You used the Italian names just now... but I'm certain once you sit down to eat, you go right back to using American terms... 👍
Look, principles are principles. I get that... 🤣

Can anyone drop a link to a list of foods categorized by how they affect the body—specifically, whether they're more acidic or alkaline? I'm not sure if there's a better way to put it 😵 I tried digging around on Google, but I clearly wasn't using the right search terms because nothing useful popped up... 😢

fadedheron18 said:Can someone drop a link to a list of foods categorized by how they affect the body? You know, like whether they're more acidic or alkaline. I'm probably not using the right terminology. 😵 I tried digging through Google, but clearly my search terms were off because I came up empty... 😢

Click here.🙂

Thanks😘 I just couldn't think of the word alkaline...

Kyle Lee7 said:Diet can definitely assist with recovery, sure, but diet isn't what made you sick, and diet isn't what's going to cure you.

???😕

So, diet has absolutely zero impact on health? I guess.
Try telling that to someone with diabetes...😲
obesity, type 2 diabetes,
cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, dental issues, and osteoporosis are all linked to what we eat.

There's also a connection between nutrition and certain mental health struggles, like depression and bipolar disorder.

Hey everyone participating in this thread,
I hope nobody takes this the wrong way because, just like you, I’ve got my own experiences to share, and I’m definitely not trying to attack or put anyone down here.
I’ve been a vegetarian for 10 years, and for the last two, I’ve been following macrobiotics. I'm 32. I decided to go the macrobiotic route when I realized something was seriously off—I was gaining weight and feeling terrible, even though my diet felt right both physically and morally. But look, before we embrace anything in life, we have to be educated on it. Jumping into something without having all the facts sink in—the very things that make us decide to try it in the first place—is risky, to say the least. Looking at the posts here, it seems like some of you had macrobiotic eating "forced" on you (mostly for health reasons), so naturally, you aren't feeling it. You either have tiny amounts of info, or you were hanging out with the wrong crowd of people who are super exclusionary, which isn't right. I was lucky enough to enter this world and actually HEAL, both body and soul, thanks to my advisor (I'll drop her link at the end). Honestly, maybe you guys should seek out a second opinion too? An ancient philosophy is never bad; it's just the people interpreting it that get it wrong.
Now, I want to build on what stuck with me after reading through all your posts.🙂
Macrobiotics doesn't mean you can't use foods that aren't native to our neck of the woods. If something gets cut out, it’s usually tropical fruit in the middle of winter, since that cools the body down when we actually need to warm up. That’s a core principle of macrobiotics: eating in harmony with nature and its cycles. Our ancestors didn't eat anything that wasn't growing seasonally in their local fields. Nowadays, because of giant supermarkets, food from halfway across the globe is everywhere, so we really have to watch what we buy. Olive oil is a staple, mixed with sesame, corn, pumpkin, or flax oils. Tomatoes, eggplant, spinach, etc., are avoided (but NOT banned) because eating too much of them can leach calcium from your bones due to the acids they contain. Mushrooms are considered lower energy because they grow in the dark and feed on decay. And sugar? Well, it's not just macrobiotics telling you to skip sweets; science proves how much sugar—especially refined sugar—trashes your body and physiological processes. Milk and dairy can be eaten, but in moderation, since they're loaded with animal hormones and ingredients our bodies weren't designed to process—nature made them for calves, just like human breast milk wouldn't make a calf grow big and healthy. Etc, etc... The real idea is to eat according to your own cravings, tastes, and habits, while just being mindful of the quantity, the timing, and what you pair with what. It goes back to what you guys mentioned about being born in a specific climate with flavors and foods used for centuries that fit our constitution best. For example, you don't have to eat seitan marinated and just pan-fried if that flavor profile grossess you out. This leads to the next point: if we want to heal and stick to a diet (not just for a few months, but for life!), we have to actually enjoy it, right? Instead, you could toss that seitan in a pan with Mediterranean spices or bake it with veggies and potatoes. Add a side of 40-50% rice and a spoonful of seaweed or carrots, and boom—you've got a complete meal without overthinking it or following strict recipes. We also have to realize something huge: people in China and Japan are already used to this kind of eating, whereas for us, it's totally new. So, forget those rigid recipes from Oshawa or similar cookbooks. Just pick out what works for you and what brings you joy, for yourself and your loved ones. The key is eating soups, making sure half your plate is grains, adding some veggies, two tablespoons of beans, and a pinch of seaweed. How you combine that is up to you. There’s tons more info out there about specific foods—the good, the better, and the absolute best for your body—and macrobiotic principles, but... if you truly want to improve your quality of life while you're on this planet, you'll work to find what is long-term best for *you*. Don't just blindly accept or reject things without giving them a fair shot, otherwise, nothing will ever change—not for yourself, inside or out. Following a specific diet like macrobiotics or Ayurveda for a short burst to regain balance is great and totally valid. But don't forget: the stuff that made us sick comes right back once we revert to our old habits. Food carries a message to our cells, which is how they are built. That's why the saying exists: "You are what you eat."
Life isn't actually complicated, and life itself isn't some big puzzle. We’re just the ones making it messy and shaping it that way.
Sending you guys nothing but good vibes—I truly hope everyone stays happy, healthy, and full of life!

www.quantum.com (my go-to guide)
www.ayurvedic-wellness-center.com
www.organic-grains.com

P.S. I’ve got some more info on therapists who might be able to help out your friend fighting cancer, so just give me a shout if you need it.

I've been messing around with the "alternative" scene for as long as I can remember, so over time I’ve developed my own little set of views regarding "healthy" eating. Here's what I think:

- Macrobiotics was actually designed by Michio Ukushi, and originally, it was meant to be used as a diet for just one month out of the year (I read an interview with him once). I don't really get why he decided to extend it.
- In my opinion, vegetarian food is only better because it offers more variety. Basically, vegetarians end up healthier simply because they actually pay attention to what they eat—their whole lifestyle is just different from everyone else's.
- Milk isn't bad, per se, but I don't think it's anything special either. The thing is, we only have the enzyme to process milk naturally until about age five; after that, we basically just keep it going by continuing to drink it.

If you ask me, a healthy diet should include:
- Avoiding too many products made with processed sugar or white flour.
- Eating slowly and in moderation.
- Stopping when you feel full, not when you feel like you've got a heavy weight sitting in your stomach.
- If you suddenly feel like you need to eat something right then and there, well, maybe that's fine... your body might just be telling you what it needs.
- For anyone wanting to go vegetarian, just look at traditional American staples—cabbage, kale, beans, boiled beets, stuff like that. Americans have a long history of plant-based eating.
- Originally, humans didn't eat much meat. There wasn't nearly as much chicken back then (since corn wasn't even around, it was a different kind of grain), and certainly not pork (they weren't raised like they are today; they were more like wild hogs that didn't yield much meat). Actually, I guess we should still eat meat, just not in massive amounts, since we don't really need it much after we hit twenty.
- The causes of illness lie in our diet, our lack of movement, and even our mindset. If someone is sick, they probably need to switch to a specific diet, start being physically active (if they can), and work on their mental state (through meditation or Stoicism). From everything I've heard or read, Breussov's therapy is one of the best ways to handle that.
- Vitamins and things like that are mostly heat-sensitive. So, the healthiest way to eat veggies is raw... not boiled or whatever (maybe steaming is okay).

I really need some advice from the macrobiotic community! So, I picked up one of those books by Ukushi and decided to try making some brown rice. I was following the instructions to a tee—getting the water-to-rice ratio exactly right and everything—but then it said to toss it all into a pressure cooker and let it blast for 50 minutes. Some of my neighbors were trying to tell me that sounded like way too much, but I told them, "Look, don't tell me how to cook in my own kitchen..." So, I went ahead with it. And what happened? After just 15 minutes, the whole thing was scorched beyond recognition 😠. Now I’m stuck scrubbing the pot for the rest of the day, and I can't help but wonder... where did I go wrong? Please, if anyone knows, help me out. Today, I'm switching back to a stainless steel pot and just cooking it the traditional way 😁

I’m sitting here just waiting—hoping maybe someone might have some insight regarding glioblastoma? If anyone knows anything at all...