Three: Food and the Law of Opposites
A MATTER OF BALANCE Recent scientific developments, as we have seen, no longer support a mechanistic view of the universe, which sees everything in terms of more or less independently functioning parts. We now know that the whole world is one big system comprised of myriads of other interconnecting systems. We also know that the energy within whole systems is always moving and that it moves in specific patterns. Yet a given system remains stable within that movement— that is, balanced. Remaining in or attaining balance is today one of our most earnest concerns in the area of nutrition and health. Often I hear people say,“ I’ m not exactly sick, but I feel off-balance,” a vague description that is nevertheless intuitively clear to most of us. To help us in our quest for equilibrium, we must understand the concept of opposites. All energy, according to natural laws, moves in a pendulum swing between opposites, as day turns to night, for example, and night to day. It is an extremely dynamic concept, applicable to almost any situation, and we see it at work everywhere around us. Heat alternates with cold, noise with stillness, joy with sadness, sweet with salty, all in full turn. It is, we must remember, a value-free concept. In any pair of opposites, one side is neither better nor worse than the other— only radically different. Ancient religions and philosophies understood how opposites rule the relative world. The word religion, in fact, is thought to derive from the Latin re-ligare,“ to reunite”; and indeed, the major religions have as their goal the unification of opposites, such as body and spirit, male and female, human being and God. This goal is expressed in their well-known symbols, which usually consist of two interconnected opposing designs:
Chinese philosophy is based on a carefully thought-out system of dealing with opposites, called the yin-yang theory. Basically, it is a classification of opposite categories, extremely detailed and comprehensive, that can be applied to practically any field of endeavor( chemistry, biology, anatomy, medicine, diet, movement, art). The original Chinese concept of the formation of the universe is based on the division of substance into a“ lighter” and a“ heavier” part. That is, the Primary One was divided into two opposing forces, eventually to be reunited again. The Chinese philosophers then gave the names yin and yang to the components of that duality. 1 Originally yin meant“ the shady side of the hill,” and yang stood for“ the sunny side of the hill.” Thus, yin represented the cool, dark element, and yang stood for the hot, light element. The I Ching, or Book of Changes, uses the terms“ the yielding” and“ the firm” instead of yin and yang. 2 From these original, basic meanings yin and yang took on a host of others, and certain aspects of the theory were eventually imported to the West. As applied to food and health, they became greatly popular, although in a modified version, largely due to the work of a scholar known as George Ohsawa( his Japanese name is Sakurazawa Nyoiti). During the late 1940s and’ 50s, he began lecturing in Europe and the United States about food and health, using the principle of yin-yang— the play of opposites— as the basis of his approach. He termed his system macrobiotics, intending it to mean“ the art of longevity.” What interests us most in Ohsawa’ s macrobiotic philosophy is his classification of foods into relative stages of yin-ness( expansiveness) and yang-ness( contractiveness). Alcohol, sugar, and fruits were on the furthest extreme of yin, while meat and salt were on the furthest extreme of yang. Grains, most notably brown rice, were placed in the middle, as the most balanced food. Healthful eating meant always, continuously, striving for a balance between the opposites of the yin and the yang, the expansive and the contractive. Since in the working out of his theory Ohsawa partially— and purposefully— reversed the original Chinese definitions of yin and yang, thereby creating some confusion, I will not use those terms in this book and will say instead“ expansive” and“ contractive.” * Ohsawa’ s dietary recommendations were extremely radical at the time he started teaching. He suggested people completely avoid meat, sugar, dairy, white flour, canned foods, artificial additives, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, coffee, and tropical fruits, and adopt instead a diet based on whole grains, beans, soy products, and fresh vegetables. Yet many who followed his recommendations healed themselves of all manner of illnesses, including hemorrhoids, skin rashes, acne, dandruff, asthma, and even( in a case well known to me, where radiation treatment had already failed) Hodgkin’ s disease. Whether Ohsawa’ s theories are universally applicable or not, one thing is clear: They have had