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From: ellen@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.veg
Subject: geo.osawa
Message-ID: <815@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 15-Aug-84 17:21:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.815
Posted: Wed Aug 15 17:21:14 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Aug-84 02:25:03 EDT
Organization: UCLA CS Dept.
Lines: 39

george osawa died of cancer:  
he smoked cigarettes like a fiend.
he figured that, macrobiotically, 
cancer was expansive,
smoking cigarettes was contractive, 
therefore, smoking cured cancer,  
and so he died.

i was strictly macro for 1 yr. or so, and gradually moved
into lacto-ovo vegetarianism, with fish a few times a year,
no fowl and certainly no red meat.
i felt that macro biotics was not truly nutritionally sound, tho'
it had the potential to be (i do not believe that the human body
can create all the protein it needs from brown rice alone) -
(and so much of macrobiotics depends on faith and spiritual
explanations rather than what i accept as scientific reality.
i do have my own spiritual beliefs, which encompass some of
what is included in macrobiotics (i consider myself somewhat of
a closet Buddhist), but i do not reject modern science.).
the philosophy of `Diet for a Small Planet' could be used for
good protein combination within a macrobiotic diet.
also, the choice of foods i found too limiting - and `heavy'
macros tend to be rather exclusively Japanese in food style-
(macrobiotics doesn't have to be that way, but tends to)
i am a bit of a sensualist, and i like variety of taste and
texture, as well as spices (which are acceptable on a Hindu/yoga
based vegetarian diet)
i had some intestinal problems from excesses of high-fiber carbohydrates.
after i went off macrobiotics and into my own nutritionally researched
vegetarianism i was the healthiest i've ever been.
i am no longer a vegetarian - 
the spirit was willing, but the tastbuds got weak when i 
discovered Southeast Asian foods.  i still eat little meat -
1 or 2 times a month at the very most, generally only in Thai 
or Indonesian restaurants, and chicken a bit more often, 
though not more than once a week.
(after living in Southeast Asia and watching my sister-in-law 
kill her own chickens for dinner, i am now LESS squeamish than before)
i have vegetarian Southeast Asian recipes if anyone's interested.