GLOBAL MACROBIOTICS
“Cultivating Healthy Living for Personal & Planetary Wellbeing”
The world needs strengthening health and restoring balance. For decades macrobiotics have been promoting a more natural and harmonious way of living and guiding individuals and families towards better health and happiness. Global Macrobiotics is an initiative by individuals interested to study, practice and share macrobiotics with others. And who wish to participate making macrobiotics more relevant today and beneficial for future generations. Through our network of schools and organizations we provide education and organize activities for cultivating healthy living and helping improve the lives of people around the world. We believe that through self-development and the practice of a more balanced and natural way of living we can also help address many of today’s environmental and social problems at the root-cause and bring about positive change in the world. Prevention is more significant today than remediation and we emphasize cultivating practical aspects of healthy living that can be simply implemented by individuals, families and communities around the globe. In this way we can all share and enjoy the benefits of healthy living while contributing to realize planetary wellbeing and participating in the creation of a bright future for all life on this planet. Global Macrobiotics key areas of involvement and development for cultivating health and planetary wellbeing include the following:
HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE WORLD FOOD CULTURE
Food is essential to our lives and it can both contribute to strengthen or weaken health. Poor dietary habits and unhealthy diets has resulted in an unprecedented rise of lifestyle and nutritionally-related diseases that virtually affects everyone today. Paying attention to our food and shifting our way of eating in a healthier, more traditional direction have now become necessary. Likewise, the way we grow, process, distribute and eat our food is wasteful, require excessive use of energy and resources, pollute the environment and is a major contributor of deforestation, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. Finding an environmentally sensible and sustainable way of nourishing all of humanity is now vital for the continuous life on earth. At Global Macrobiotics we think that food provides us with an invaluable tool for helping realize personal and planetary health. We regard food in a comprehensive way and play a central role in our activities. Main areas of involvement towards achieving a healthy and sustainable world food culture include the following:
Plant Based Diet
We promote a balanced plant based diet centered around whole grains, vegetables from land and sea, beans and traditional soy products, seeds, nuts and fruits with moderate amounts of animal food for those who wish or may require. We encourage a way of eating that is familiar, enjoyable, easy to implement and sustain, and can be flexibly adapted to individual needs, family preferences and communities’ orientations.
Whole Food
We encourage a shift towards whole foods and those that are unrefined, minimally processed or traditionally made in order to preserve the natural vitality and nutritious quality of our food. We also encourage everyone getting involved processing some of our own food in simple, natural ways.
Natural and Organic
We encourage a shift towards natural and organic foods that are grown without artificial fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. Animals that are wild or humanly raised with natural feed in an adequate natural environment and not given hormones or antibiotics. And natural foods that are free of synthetic or artificial ingredients or additives.
Local
We encourage a shift towards self-sufficiency and local food production and distribution. We also promote a way of cooking and eating that is well adapted to the local climate and environmental conditions.
Traditions and Heritage
We respect all traditional food cultures developed around the world including indigenous plants, native food, culinary traditions and food heritage. We encourage revitalizing the healthy aspects of traditional food cultures that are worth passing down to future generations and sharing them with other people around the world. In life everything changes and traditions should be periodically revised, improved, and further developed so that its practice become beneficial to us. Food unites us all and by sharing our food and the healthful aspects of our culture it is a way to celebrate the preciousness of being alive on earth as one
Agriculture
We encourage a shift towards a natural and sustainable way of farming and producing our food. We support the work of farmers around the world who are recovering the health of soils, cleaning and protecting the environment, providing us with safe foods grown without the use of chemicals and other harmful substances, who are improving seeds and recovering heirloom varieties, and who are willing to align with nature to provide us with better quality foods. Our health and that of the planet now largely rely on their continuous efforts and accomplishments. We also encourage engaging in farming as part of healthy living and for improving self-sufficiency by helping feed ourselves with healthy foods
HEALTHY COOKING
We are what we eat and since cooking changes the quality of our food it also influences who we are. At Global Macrobiotics we want to make cooking an integral part of healthy living. The significance of cooking to our lives is often overlooked but a change in food and dietary habits cannot take place unless there is also a change in the way we cook. It should be noticed that the decline of home cooking coincides with the spread of ultra-processed foods, over reliance on the convenience of pre-prepared foods and eating out, the emergence of fast food, junk food and other unhealthy aspects of our contemporary food culture that result in poor nutrition and consequent loss of health worldwide. And by replacing traditional food cultures built around home cooking we are now left with an inefficient global food system that can’t properly nourish all of humanity nor can be sustained much longer because of its impact on the planet. We think that now is a good time to reconnect with the kitchen, rediscover the joy of cooking and use it as a practical tool for regaining balance and restoring health worldwide.
HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
The way we conduct our daily lives, or more commonly known as lifestyle, is an intrinsic aspect of healthy living. We advocate maintaining an active daily physical and mental life. And to incorporate lifestyle practices that are easily learned and may be implemented by any individual for successfully restoring and maintaining health. Healthy lifestyle may include holistic practices to develop body, mind and spirit such as dance, yoga, tai chi, martial arts, breathing exercises, do-in self-massage and stretches, mindfulness, meditation, visualization, chanting and many others that are currently being spread in society and contributing to wellbeing.
NATURAL LIVING
Global Macrobiotics encourages a natural way of living that foster health, reduces chemical exposure and help offset pollution, electromagnetic radiation emitted by electric appliances and other adverse aspects of modern living. We recommend spending time outdoors in nature and taking some time to reflect upon its beauty and express our appreciation for sustaining our lives on earth. We encourage everyone to become better informed and mindful of the current environmental situation. And to take steps towards implementing a way of life in harmony with nature that is sustainable and can honestly solve the environmental problems in the world. This is something that affects us all and therefore require our participation. In this regard and in order to achieve tangible results, we encourage a spirit of cooperation and solidarity among people for taking care of the earth and do whatever is at hand so that we can succeed passing down a more clean and better planet to future generations.
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DIY HEALTH
Global Macrobiotics promotes a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) approach to health based on diet, cooking and lifestyle for taking proper care of ourselves, our families and our communities. It is in line with science based preventive medicine and lifestyle medicine approaches that regard a whole food plant based diet and healthy lifestyle as the best way of preventing disease and facilitating recovery. We also incorporate simple practices based on oriental traditions that regard food as medicine and cooking as a tool for strengthening health and regaining balance. This approach to health is integrative and may be followed along with other holistic, alternative and conventional approaches.
EDUCATION FOR SELF-DEVELOPMENT
At Global Macrobiotics ，we engage in education that promotes self-development, encourage health and help us realize happiness. We make use of modern knowledge and science for learning about the world around us and come up with useful means of improving our lives. We also respect traditional views and ways of life developed around the world and look for inspiration in their time-honored wisdom. We participate in the study of traditional oriental notions of energy (also known as Ki or Qi) and Yin and Yang for gaining a better understanding of life, enhancing health and attaining harmony through simple applications to our way of life.
LIVING WITH PURPOSE
Our lives and our world today need change. Challenges offer us with a unique opportunity for self-reflection, growth and implementing changes for the better. If we seek improvements in our lives and wish for a better world we have to do it ourselves. We encourage everyone to live with a sense of purpose and to take steps towards improving health and leading a happy life. And dedicate our lives towards peace and the creation of a harmonious world.