The Yin and Yang of Food

I just had a very interesting conversation with my friend ‘Lot’.  She and I shared the very same belief about the importance of food to our health…physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

Lot told me ‘If I have children, I will raise them without any sugar during their first twelve years.’  The reason behind this idea is that sugar is highly addictive.  Among many other possible negative side effects, it is a major cause of cavities as well as mood and energy fluctuations.  Children raised without sugar tend to be calm and have steady level of energy during the day.

Lot also has great understanding about food. She had spent some time working in a Macrobiotic kitchen in Brussels where she also followed the Macrobiotic diet very strictly.  She explained about the theory of yin and yang which in fact describes all phenomena. Yang is convergent (energy going towards the centre) and yin is divergent (energy going away from the centre).  Nothing is completely yin or completely yang, as shown in its symbol with yin being inside the yang as the dark eye in the white fish, and yang in the yin by the white eye of dark fish.

From Wikipedia ‘Yang has traditionally been associated with fire, and yin with water.  Every single thing in the universe has both yin and yang factors, but one will always be dominant over the other. Yin and yang are considered properties of energy and they bring about, cause, or enhance certain movements or conditions.  For instance, take a carrot. It is neither yin nor yang by itself. The orange, dense, hard part of the carrot is yang in comparison to the leafy, expansive, light-seeking, green tops, which would be considered more yin. But that same "yang" orange carrot would be considered more yin in relation to another object that was even more yang than the orange carrot, say a ginger root, which is even more dense and hard and heating than a carrot. The carrot's sweetness compared to ginger's lack of sweetness makes it more yin compared to ginger. So it is impossible in macrobiotics to say that a food or a person or any one thing "is yin" or "is yang.’

Georges Ohsawa formalized Macrobiotics by drawing from Asian and Japanese folk medicine to create his version of this philosophy of health.  He was convinced that if these principles are taught in modern education, it would solve problems and conflicts of humanity.  Balance of yin and yang also leads to optimum health.  Therefore, the Macrobiotic diet suggests how to prepare and eat well-balanced food in each meal, taking also consideration of the current individual condition, season, and location.  Each food can be described as more yin or more yang compared to another food.  Sugar is considered the most yin, egg the most yang, with brown rice being in the middle.  All plant foods are more yin, while all animal-based foods are more yang. And apart from heat which makes food more yang, salt, pressure and cooking time can also add more yang into food.

Lot went on and said more about some symptoms or appearances of imbalance, and I was completely amazed by how logical this theory is.  Later I have come to reflect it on many of the modern beliefs about health foods.  It is true that a vegetarian-based diet is healthier than an animal-based diet.  But in order to stay healthy and vibrant, one definitely needs to understand much more than just what food to eat or to avoid!

Sasha