some very positive results. I have found some of them particularly helpful, especially the application of the general theory of opposites to food and healing. Carefully and cautiously applied, it can help us make correct choices in food and find remedies for whatever ails us. Here is how: Let’ s begin by noticing that living systems and energy fields maintain themselves through a continuous give and take, buildup and breakdown, expansion and contraction. That which sustains both the systems and their energy fields must also encourage these opposing forces or tendencies. Food does just that. It expands or contracts us, heats or cools us, acidifies or alkalinizes us. The pendulum swing of our metabolism between those and still other opposites is what keeps us more or less stable; but let one of these elements grow out of proportion, let the pendulum dally too long to one side, and balance is disrupted. We feel unwell. It’ s as simple as that. Most of the time, balance is maintained automatically. However, there are times when we consciously wish to aid the automatic processes— when we don’ t feel quite right, for example. Then, to act appropriately, to make conscious choices that will help us rebalance ourselves quickly, we need to have a clear mental picture of the various kinds of food opposites. By knowing which foods are the opposites of others, you can quickly undo any simple health problem that arises from excessive reliance on one category. For example, if you’ ve been eating only raw foods for five years and you’ re not feeling as well as you’ d like to feel, you can go to the opposite and start eating cooked foods.( Curiously enough, our bodies often tell us what to do: we get yens, cravings, deep longings. It is important to learn not to ignore these cravings simply because they may not fit into some nutritional plan or theory.) The sets of opposites that most directly apply to food are: Quantity-Quality, Expansive-Contractive, Acid-Alkaline, Warming-Cooling. Let’ s look at each set in turn. QUANTITY AND QUALITY: A LOT AND A LITTLE A simple example: If you’ ve stuffed yourself at a banquet and are all puffed up and expanded, by abstaining from food the next day( fasting is the opposite of eating a lot), your body will, following the law of the pendulum, contract naturally and regain its proper shape. EXCESS FOOD
FASTING
STUFFED STOMACH
RAVENOUS HUNGER This is obvious. I’ m not telling you anything you don’ t know, simply reminding you of what you do know. And we all know that the above are extremes. Swinging from extreme to extreme can indeed keep us balanced, but it will be a violent balance. Its most dramatic expression is the classic binge-vomit cycle of the bulimic or anorexic sufferer. It is more sensible— and much healthier— to maintain balance by moving between less extreme positions: MODERATE FOOD
NO SNACKING
STOMACH 80 PERCENT FULL
GOOD APPETITE The above is the range within which most healthy people keep themselves. Interestingly enough, moderation and frugality in the quantity of food consumed are often responsible for the good health of people who pay no attention to what they eat. My favorite example is that of my friend Mort Glankoff, the founder of Cue magazine, who at eighty-three is in better health than many a younger man; yet he chain-smokes, drinks both liquor and coffee, eats in restaurants all the time, and laughs at my“ healthy” diet. His secret is that he orders half portions, eats only what he wants( which can be half of that), and doesn’ t hesitate to leave food on his plate. As he never stuffs himself, his system can always handle whatever he eats and thus remains balanced. Quantity, said George Ohsawa, changes quality. In atomic physics there is a specific volume of material known as critical mass, below which certain reactions cannot take place. We could say that there is an optimum quantity at which a certain quality becomes manifest at its peak( the opposites quantity and quality are thus also functions of each other). WRONG QUANTITY
WRONG QUALITY
RIGHT QUANTITY
RIGHT QUALITY Applying this idea to food, we can see that, in fact, food of perhaps not the very best quality can keep you going if not eaten in excess, and food of the best quality will become harmful if consumed in the wrong quantity— either too much or too little. Both excess and deficiency can turn health into sickness, medicine into poison. EXPANSIVE AND CONTRACTIVE As George Ohsawa taught, foods can be classified into those that have an“ expansive” effect, and those that have a“ contractive” effect. Please note that I am using the words expansive and contractive metaphorically. For example, if I get a headache from an“ expansive” food or drink( for example, ice cream or alcohol), I can quickly tip the imbalance by taking in something“ contractive”( for example, salty food). But whether my tissues expand thus compressing my blood vessels after I’ ve eaten ice cream or vice versa I cannot know for sure; whether the salt contracts me or not I cannot measure. What is important is that the headache does go away, and there are no negative side effects. From a practical viewpoint, then, such a classification is quite useful, whether or not it reflects the actual effects of various foods. To classify foods as either contractive or expansive, a number of factors have been taken into account( see the