Crime & Diet - The Macrobiotic Approach - Di Michio Kushi

MICHIO KUSHI AND ASSOCIATES

CRIME &DIET The Macrobiotic Approach

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J a p a n Publications, Inc.

© 1987 by Michio Kushi

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

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JAPAN PUBLICATIONS, INC.,

Tokyo and New York

Distributors: Kodansha International! US A, Ltd., through Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, New York 10022. SOUTH AMERICA: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., International Department. CANADA: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd., 195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario, LjR 4T8. M E X I C O AND CENTRAL AMERICA: HARLA S. A. de C. V., Apartado 30-546, Mexico 4, D. F. BRITISH ISLES: International Book Distributors Ltd., 66 Wood Lane End, Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP2 4RG. EUROPEAN CONTINENT (except Germany): PBD Proost & Brandt Distribution bv, Strijkviertel 63, 3454 PK de Meern, The Netherlands. GERMANY: PBVProost & Brandt Verlagsauslieferung, Herzstrasse 1, 5 0 0 0 Koln, Germany. AUSTRALIA AND N E W ZEALAND : Bookwise International, 1 Jeanes Street, Beverley, South Australia 5007. T H E FAR EAST AND J A P A N : Japan Publications Trading Co., Ltd., 1-2-1, Sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101. U N I T E D STATES:

First edition: September 1987 LCCC No. 86-82767 ISBN 0-87040-682-5

Printed in Japan

Foreword

I wish this book had been available years ago—I needed it, as I believe many others do today. I can remember sitting in the forensic unit oncall at the state hospital during my residency in psychiatry wondering, "What else can I do, something is missing here." This in response to reviewing one more case of the criminally insane and being asked as a new doctor for some new ideas to help relieve the psychotic suffering of this killer who sat in front of me. He had heard everything I had to say before, he knew the medications as well as I, he was taking more now than ever before and still the angry voices persecuted him. He opened another can of cola and glared at me: "You're no better than all the other shrinks, what good are you anyhow." Somewhere deep inside of me I knew he spoke the truth despite my self assuring state-of-the-art training program at an Ivy League medical school. Too bad I hadn't questioned his one more can of cola, or the rest of his diet, or his spiritual well being. Too bad, when years later, as medical director of the same state hospital, I labored with my same frustration while desperately wanting to have a positive impact on the psychosis the patients endured, that I didn't have this book to open my eyes and heart to more than just state-of-the-art medical practice. This book is full of caring people, projects, resources, and lives filled with struggle which now have a new hope. A premise this book puts forward includes, "Mental illness is rooted in daily diet and way of life .. . food and environment are primary in determining behavior." These ideas could put the book in the center of ongoing controversy on diet and behavior. I believe this can be avoided. T h e controversy involves traditional medicine's objection to any hypothesis that food contributes to criminal behavior, much less mental illness. In the "Position Paper of the American Dietetic Association on Diet and Criminal Behavior," published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (March, 1985), the Association reports "a causal relationship between

6 diet and crime has not been demonstrated, and diet is not an important determinant in the incidence of violent behavior." In the Dairy Council Digest (July-August 1985) a self-described "interpretive review of recent nutrition research," results of a conference on diet and behavior were reported. The sponsors, the American Medical Association, the International Life Science Institute, and the Nutrition Foundation Expert Panel found that "the increasing widespread misconception that diet is responsible for criminal behavior has lead to concern on the part of health professionals that food faddism is becoming the official policy of correctional facilities." The report does admit, "recent studies suggest that diet or the composition of a meal influences the synthesis of brain neurotransmitters which are involved in a variety of behaviors such as sleep, mood and depression." According to this book, macrobiotics "is not, as is commonly thought, one among other alternative dietary approaches, it is a way of life, and harmony is the underlying principle of this way of life." The authors are careful to point out, "Foods don't commit certain actions, people do." The medical literature has needed to keep up with the advances of macrobiotics. Many health professionals equate macrobiotics to the practices of Zen Macrobiotics. Here there are ten levels of diet. They begin with a liberal and diverse diet but progress to a diet of whole grains only. Doctors have been quick to write about the danger of pursuing a fasting regime such as this for more than a short time. In the British Medical Journal (November 9, 1985) Dr. Truswell wrote an article entitled "Other Nutritional Deficiencies in Affluent Communities." In the article he warned that the "Zen Macrobiotic diets have led to scurvy and/or impaired renal function, anemia, hypocalcemia and emaciation. In some cases there have been fatalities." An editorial by the AMA Council on Foods and Nutrition, Journal of the American Medical Association (October 18, 1971) states, "the concapts proposed in Zen Macrobiotics constitute major public health problem and are dangerous to its adherents. Individuals who persist in following the more rigid diets of Zen Macrobiotics stand in great danger of incurring serious nutritional deficiencies." Articles such as these have little to do with the macrobiotic way advocated in this book. This diet is modern and broad.

7 These types of articles probably caused my wife's doctor to be skeptical at her desire to try macrobiotics to assist her recovery from an autoimmune form of thyroiditis. This was two years ago. Following both of our personal interviews at the Kushi Institute we have begun to live in the macrobiotic way. I have changed from a two-burgersand-fries luncher to a brown-rice-and-vegetables person, thanks to my wife's dedication to cooking macrobiotically. Today she no longer produces antibodies which were attacking her own thyroid. Both our lives have moved towards harmony with nature and greater spirituality. Even my professional life has changed. Just recently, in my psychiatric practice with the chronically mentally ill, I had occasion to treat two patients with hypoglycemia. The first, a thirty-eight-year-old woman with a history of depression, had been admitted two years ago to the state hospital. Upon discharge the treatment summary noted she had a very low blood sugar level and she probably suffered from hypoglycemia. No follow-up was recommended. My department supervised a five hour glucose tolerance test at the local medical center. The results confirmed a hypoglycemic condition. The second case involves a forty-four-year-old woman diagnosed as manic depressive. She complained that her family was angry since she was unable to lose weight. Her surgeon had threatened to order diet pills since she seemed to have no will power of her own. She complained to me that she would experience panic attacks and feel driven to eat a candy bar. She thought she was losing her mind. She was not. Her glucose tolerance test again revealed hypoglycemia. During the test, at the exact time her blood sugar had fallen to its lowest level she experienced her typical panic attack and went to the hospital gift shop in search of a candy bar. She was relieved to learn she was not losing her mind and could be treated by diet. Too bad my only resource for these two women on subsistence level incomes was to refer them to the nutritional counselors at the medical center—this was better than nothing, better than more pills, but I believe the macrobiotic way would eventually lead to the amelioration of mental symptoms and the cessation of the need for medication. What a joy it would be if over time I could help my hundreds of seriously mentally ill patients to learn the macrobiotic way. Up until now I have been caught up in the usual doctors' dilemma: being faced

8 with patients saying "See me, fix me, yesterday!" Perhaps yesterday truly is the place to start. Today we suffer illness resulting from what we did to ourselves in our yesterdays. As a physician I am constantly asked to react to extremes: "I thought this would go away doctor, so I waited but I can't stand it any longer, do something." Frequently the something done is as extreme as the problem, be it new or higher doses of medication or exploratory surgery. Life needs balance, the elimination of extremes, especially in the diet. I used to wonder why I have patients in the waiting room drinking down quart bottles of cola. When I look at their diets, their medications, their lifestyles I no longer wonder. T h e cola is just the current extreme trying to balance the others, for a moment at least. The macrobiotic way teaches balance. No abrupt cessation of medication is advocated, just careful deliberate and knowledgeable response to the needs of one's body with a diet in harmony with the environment. After reading this book I wondered if some of the people in prison were freer than we on the outside—freer to take the time to look at their lives and begin to do something about it, as opposed to the rest of us who are so busy being free we may never bother looking at our lives at all. This book will touch many people in many ways—this is as it should be. The macrobiotic way has touched the lives of my wife and me in a gentle and positive way. Not knowing it when I began, I would now say it has something to do with faith, in myself, my family and my life. As Michio Kushi elegantly puts it in the opening chapter: "The standard macrobiotic way of eating is not designed for any particular person nor for a particular condition. It is designed for the purpose of maintaining physical and phycological health, and for the well-being of society in general. It further serves in many instances to prevent degenerative diseases and promote possible recovery." Peace and good health. STEPHEN HARNISH, M . D .

Canterbury, New Hampshire

Preface

From the beginning of history, humanity has experienced crime and violence. Why do human beings express themselves in this way? Before we answer this question, we should know that two types of crime exist—crimes that are violations of artificial or human law, and those which are transgressions of natural or cosmic law. These are often contradictory. For example, someone who does not violate human law may violate the order of nature, while a person who follows the order of nature may be accused of violating human law. Many great personalities in history were accused and sentenced —even to death—because they were exercising spiritual, philosophical, and intellectual freedom in accord with their understanding and aspiration toward the universe and nature. Many prophets were accused, and so Jesus Christ was tried and sentenced. Many thinkers were accused, and so Socrates was forced to drink poison, and Galileo was condemned by the Inquisition. However, human laws and institutions are of course relative and changeable, and many are themselves violations of natural law, which may be interpreted as harmony with our planetary environment. A discussion of what constitutes crime in light of natural law is beyond the scope of this preliminary book. In this volume, we discuss problems such as violent and destructive behavior, mental illness, the abuse of drugs and alcohol, and other forms of biosocial decline, and review their causes in general terms. Modern approaches to so-called criminal behavior are often inadequate, and in many respects unjust. Procedures such as accusation, judgment, sentencing, imprisonment, and other forms of punishment deal with symptoms only, with the primary motive being to punish badness or the bad. However, this view does not consider the biological, biochemical, psychological, and social causes of abnormal thinking and behavior. There is no understanding of why someone thinks or

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responds in a violent or destructive manner while many others do not respond in this way when confronted with similar situations. The key to understanding the real cause of so-called criminal behavior lies in knowing the effect of daily lifestyle—especially dietary practice—on the way we think and act. Daily food and drink play a decisive role in influencing thought, emotion, and behavior. We see those who drink alcohol go through a change in personality while intoxicated. The foods we consume daily also influence our thinking and behavior in varying degrees. Criminal thought and behavior can be prevented and corrected through a balanced natural diet and the adjustment of environmental conditions. It is not impossible for the most dangerous criminal to change into the most saintlike person through these methods, or for the most egocentric and selfish individual to become the most altruistic. At present, we are confronting the planet-wide incidence of socalled criminal behavior, while at the same time, moving toward the possible beginning of a planetary culture based on natural harmony. In order for a peaceful world to develop, it is essential that individuals and communities be free from criminal thought and behavior, as well as from degenerative physical and psychological illness. It is our sincere hope that this introductory book will reveal new possibilities for solving these age old human problems, and contribute to the beginning of a new era in which crime does not exist. I would like to thank all of those who assisted in creating this book. I thank our macrobiotic associate, Edward Esko, for coordinating the compilation and editing of the materials, with the assistance of our friends Tom Iglehart and Eric Zutrau. I wish to express appreciation to Stephen Harnish, M.D., of the Greater Manchester Mental Health Center in New Hampshire, for contributing a foreword and for reviewing the text. I also thank each of the contributors, including our friends who discuss their experiences with macrobiotics while in prison, our friends in the corrections field who wrote articles, and the staff of the Kushi Foundation and East West Journal for their contributions and efforts in helping people in prison. I thank Neil Stapleman and friends at the New York Center for Macrobiotics for providing tapes of lectures and seminars, and

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Evelyne Harboun for transcribing this material. I also thank Phillip Jannetta and other members of the Japan Publications staff in Tokyo for their efforts in copy editing and production. I would also like to thank Christian Gautier for his charts and illustrations, and Susi Osterreich, Carry Wolf, Judy Pingryn, and Diane Sacolick for their help in typing the text. I thank Lawrence H. Kushi, Sc. D., currently at the University of Minnesota, for assistance in compiling the statement on the nutritional adequacy of the macrobiotic diet, and Alex Jack for his comments and advice. On behalf of our friends everywhere, I thank John Denver for his support of Kushi Foundation Prison Projects and for his dedication to a better world. I especially appreciate the dedication of Mr. Iwao Yoshizaki and Mr. Yoshiro Fujiwara, respectively president and New York representative of Japan Publications, Inc. in producing this book and others like it for the dream of one peaceful world. MICHIO

KUSHI

Becket, Massachusetts Winter Solstice, IQ86 THE KUSHI FOUNDATION: Information on continuing Kushi Foundation projects to offer macrobiotic literature, education, and balanced natural foods to people in prison can be obtained from: The Kushi Foundation, 17 Station Street, Brookline, Massachusetts 02147, (617) 738-0045. Charitable contributions from concerned individuals help in funding these activities. We encourage everyone who wishes to support these and other humanitarian projects through a tax deductible contribution to contact the Kushi Foundation at the above address. Thank you.

Contents

Foreword, by Stephen Harnish, M.D., 5 Preface, g

1. Crime and Diet: T h e Macrobiotic Approach, 15 A Portrait of Decline, 16 The Role of Diet, 30 Unifying Body and Mind, 36 Behavioral Disorders, 39 Hyperactivity, 46 Depression, 57 Schizophrenia, 65 The Macrobiotic Approach, 75 Macrobiotic Cooking, 101 Suggestions for a Healthy Life, 101 Case Histories, 103 Triumph over Schizophrenia, 104 The Peter Harris Story, 107

Recovering Mental Health, 108 Transforming Our View of Life, 112 A Crime-Free World, 115 Appendix: A Nutritional Overview of the Macrobiotic Diet, 120 2. A Nutritional Approach to Mental Health, 135 3- Profiles, 151 Virginia's Pioneering Prison Project, 151 Macrobiotics in a Danish Prison, 153 The Neil Scott Story: Sentenced to Life, 160 Powhatan: The Story of Chuck Fai-Goon, 166

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Macrobiotics Encounters at Powhatan, 171 Freedom Food, 174 The Powhatan Banquet, 176 Teaching Macrobiotics at Powhatan, 180 4.

T h e View from Corrections, 185 Food for Freedom, 185 Evidence of Food-Health-Behavior Link Revealed in Prison Experiments, 190 Overfed and Undernourished—The Importance of Diet in the Rehabilitative Process, 195 A View of Corrections, 199

5.

T h e Shattuck Model: Macrobiotics in an Institution, 203 The Shattuck Research, 229

6.

Prisoner Correspondence and Projects, 235 Letters from Prisoners, 237 The Kushi Foundation Prison Project, 243 Sample Proposal for Inmate Nutrition and Training, 251 Recommended Reading, 259 Macrobiotic Resources, 265 Index, 267

i. Crime and Diet: The Macrobiotic Approach Michio Kushi In this book, we present new possibilities for solving several of the most pressing social concerns of our age; problems such as crime, juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, and mental illness. Our approach to these problems is actually simple. It involves reorienting our daily lives away from artificiality and toward closer cooperation with the natural environment. The cornerstone of this approach is a more naturally balanced, ecologically based diet. We refer to this approach as macrobiotics. Over the past 35 years, macrobiotics has gained a reputation as an effective method for preventing major degenerative illnesses. T h e role of diet in the development of heart and cardiovascular illness, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses has become more apparent. Leading public health agencies agree that a naturally balanced diet in the direction of macrobiotics can help prevent many degenerative conditions. Macrobiotic education has contributed steadily to the growing public concern about diet and its role in staying healthy. Together with this, macrobiotics has become widely known as a way to recover health even after sickness has developed. T h e macrobiotic approach to illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other widespread conditions has been thoroughly presented in our educational programs and in books and publications. Throughout the world, thousands of people with these and other conditions have experienced a return to good health following adoption of the macrobiotic diet and way of life. In the future, macrobiotics promises to revolutionize our thinking about physical health and the approach to sickness, including sicknesses such as A I D S and immune deficiencies. Macrobiotics provides workable solutions for the modern crisis of physical health, as well as solutions to emotional, psychological, and

i6 behavioral disturbances. The goal of macrobiotics is a peaceful and healthy society, and for this to be realized, problems such as crime, juvenile delinquency, family violence and decomposition, drug and alcohol abuse, mental disorders, and other destructive social trends must be reversed.

A Portrait of Decline We can begin our review of modern social problems with a look at what has happened to the most basic unit of society: the family. The decomposition of the family has become a fact of modern life. Divorce is far more common now than it was at the turn of the century or even twenty years ago. It was so infrequent in early America that records were not kept until the Civil War. In 1867, the first year that divorce statistics were published, there were only ten thousand in the entire country, or about 0.3 per thousand population. By the turn of the century, the number had risen to more than fifty-five thousand, or about 0.7 per thousand. There were approximately 1,187,000 divorces in the United States in 1985, a rate of about 5.0 for every thousand people. There were about 2.4 million marriages in the United States that year; a ratio of about one divorce for every two marriages. The divorce rate has increased more than seven-fold since the turn of the century. The increasing instability of marriage has had a profound effect on parents and children. More than 55 percent of the divorces in the United States involve children. Over one million children are involved in divorce every year. As many as 40 percent of the children born in America during the 1970s will experience the separation of their parents before the age of 18, with divorce accounting for between onehalf to two-thirds of these separations. The increasing instability of marriage has changed the profile of family life. As many as fourteen million children in the United States under the age of 18 now live with only one parent. Although the majority of divorced persons eventually remarry, an increasing number are delaying remarriage or deciding to raise their children alone. At the same time, an increasing number of women are having chil-

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dren without getting married. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of births outside of marriage increased from approximately 224,000 in i960 to 665,000 by 1980. An increasing proportion of these births are taking place among teenage girls. In i960, for example, about 15 percent of the births to young women age 15 to 19 were outside of marriage. By 1980, almost half (48 percent) occurred outside of marriage. In the past, people looked to the home as a refuge from the vicissitudes of society; an oasis of peace, calm, and nurturance amidst the challenges and difficulties of the outside world. However, for many, the home is no longer a place where peace and harmony prevail. According to Time, nearly six million wives or female partners are physically abused by their husbands or boyfriends every year, and 2,000 to 4,000 die as a result of their injuries. T h e nation's police spend about one-third of their time responding to domestic violence calls. At present, the leading cause of injury to women is physical assault by a spouse or partner. However, wives or girlfriends are not the only ones who suffer as a result of domestic violence: One expert estimates that as many as 280,000 men are physically assaulted by their wives or partners every year. Domestic violence is not limited to adult family members, however. All too often it involves children, and according to recent statistics, in increasing numbers. The extent of child abuse in America is difficult to determine, largely because so many cases go unreported. However, the number of reported cases in the United States is rising rapidly. According to the American Humane Association, approximately 413,000 cases were reported-to state and local authorities in 1976. In 1981, the number had doubled to about 851,000, and increased by an additional 12 percent in 1982. Most experts agree that the reported cases of child abuse represent only a fraction of the actual number. Some experts say that as many as six million children are abused or neglected in the United States every year. One authority has estimated that about 25 percent of all broken bones seen in children under the age of two are the result of abuse from parents. It is estimated that child abuse resulted in 50,000 deaths and 300,000 permanent injuries during the period from 1973 to 1982. Juvenile delinquency, crime, drug abuse, and alcoholism are among

i8 many social problems directly related to family violence. Studies of prison populations have shown that a substantial majority claim to have been abused as children. Child abuse and neglect result in enormous losses to society, in terms of physical and emotional suffering, ruined lives, and future crimes. While people under the age of 25 currently comprise about 40 percent of the population of the United States, it is estimated that they commit at least three-quarters of the violent crimes. Teenagers under the age of 18 also make up the majority of persons arrested for vandalism, arson, auto theft, and violation of alcohol and drug laws. Many of the burglaries and a sizable portion of the muggings in the United States are committed by young people. (Arrest rate per 100,000 inhabitants)

Source: U. S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States, 1983 (Washington, D. C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1984), p. 346 Fig. 1

Age-specific violent crime arrest rate, by sex, 1983

Many studies have concentrated on the role of the family in delinquent behavior. Most show a high incidence of broken homes among delinquents. The absence of one or both parents frequently leads to a condition in which a child experiences a lack of love, guidance, and proper care. The emotional climate and level of tension in the family is also acknowledged as an important factor in delinquency. Writing

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in Extraordinary Groups: The Sociology of Unconventional Lifestyles, author William Kephart quotes a study of delinquents and their families that concluded that: "Quarrelsome, neglecting families actually had a higher crime rate than homes in which a permanent separation had disrupted the family—conflict and neglect predisposes a child to crime (even more so than broken homes)." Problems with the family have in turn had a dramatic effect on the schools and on the quality of education that children receive. Crime and violence are commonplace in schools today, especially in the larger cities. A special report issued in November, 1983, by the Boston Commission for Safe Public Schools, stated there was "too much disruption, violence, and fear in the city's schools." In a survey of inner city high schools, the Commission found one of every two teachers and four out of ten students were victims of larceny, assault, or robbery during the previous year. Nearly one-third of the students questioned admitted carrying weapons to school. The scope of the problem is nationwide. In 1978, the National Institute for Education commissioned a study of violence in secondary schools throughout the country. It was found that: • 2,400,000 students had personal belongings stolen • 282,000 students were physically assaulted • 125,000 teachers were threatened with physical assault or violence • 1,000 teachers required medical attention as a result of being attacked while in school Another problem that is growing in scope among young people today is that of teen suicide. Nationally, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young adults and teenagers. T h e rate of suicide in that age group has almost tripled in the last 30 years. Parents and teachers throughout the United States have become increasingly alarmed at this trend, for which no solution has yet appeared.

20 (Number of suicides per 100,000 teens ages 15-19)

Nationally, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults. The rate of suicide in that age group has almost tripled in the last three decades.

Source:

Center for Disease Control, Atlanta

Fig. 2

Rate of teen suicides

Over the last 30 years, as everyone knows, there has been a tremendous increase in the problem of drug abuse. The abuse of drugs and alcohol have grown to become major social problems in the United States. Both are directly related to crime. In an editorial on the drug crisis entitled, The Plague Among Us, Newsweek (June 16, 1986) stated: "An epidemic is abroad in America, as pervasive and dangerous in its way as the plagues of medieval times. Its source is the large and growing traffic in illegal drugs, a whole pharmacopeia of poisons hiding behind street names as innocent as grass, snow, speed, horse, and angel dust. It has taken lives, wrecked careers, broken homes, invaded schools, incited crimes, tainted businesses, toppled heroes, corrupted policemen and politicians, bled billions from the economy, and in some measure, infected every corner of our public and private lives. It is a national scandal, and if we seem powerless to stop it, it is because so many of us are willing to spend the money and break the law to sustain what has become, by government estimate, a $110 billion-a-year drug habit. We have met the enemy, and he is us."

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Annual reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have documented the rise in the use of drugs in the United States in the last 25 years. The headline of the report on the national survey on drug abuse, in June, 1980, stated what everyone already knew; "Reports show dramatic increase in use of marijuana and cocaine." Retrospective studies prepared by the National Institute on Drug Abuse show that the proportion of persons who have used marijuana increased from 4 percent to 68 percent from 1962 to 1980, and the proportion who have tried stronger drugs such as cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, or inhalants increased from 3 percent to 33 percent in the 18 to 25 year age group. These estimates are, according to experts, conservative. The use of drugs is actually much higher. The number of Americans who have experimented with cocaine is estimated at 20 to 24 million, according to 1985 data from the President's Commission on Organized Crime. Newsweek, in a March, 1986 story on Kids and Cocaine, reported that one of every six teenagers will have sampled cocaine before senior-prom night in high school. The editorial quoted above goes on to state: "Marijuana is, as the President's Commission on Organized Crime recently put it, firmly entrenched in American society; one in four of us has tried it, usually in violation of the law, and one in 12 smokes it regularly. Heroin, though fallen from fashion, has a steady 500,000 customers. Cocaine, once the dream dust of the rich and famous, has four or five million regulars—a clientele now reaching from the boardroom to the assembly line and the study hall. . . . Crime has started rising again in our cities, and drugs are implicated in more than half of it." Like the abuse of drugs, the overall rates of crime in America have shown a steady increase in the last 25 years. The number of offenses known to police more than doubled during that period. Public perception of crime has also been on the rise, according to opinion surveys. A Gallup survey conducted in 1983 showed that 45 percent of respondents were afraid to walk alone within a mile of their homes. The numbers had increased more than 10 percent over a similar survey

Young Adults

* Based on reconstructed data, t Includes Hashish as well as Marijuana, except in 1972. Source: Fig. 3

National Institute on Drug Abuse

M a r i j u a n a t: trends in lifetime experience

Cocaine

Fig. 4 & 5 Stronger drugs: trends in opportunity and lifetime experience in young adults

23 Hallucinogens

* Based on reconstructed data

Source:

National Institute on Drug Abuse

conducted in 1965. Similar surveys reveal that a substantial number of people feel unsafe in their homes at night. Clearly, our society is becoming more tense and fear-ridden, with no end in sight. As we can see in the following chart, America has the highest crime rate among the major industrial nations. According to 1980 estimates, one crime index offense is committed every two seconds; one violent crime every 24 seconds; and one property crime every three seconds. According to the FBI, major crimes reported to police rose 4.6 percent between 1984 and 1985. The annual crime index showed increases in every category of crime, with a total of 12.4 million reported crimes in 1985. The report estimated that: • • • •

18,976 people were murdered, a two percent increase over 1984. Forcible rape rose four percent, with 87,340 rapes reported. Robbery increased three percent, at a yearly cost of $313 million. Aggravated assault rose by six percent.

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Note: Violent crimes are offenses of murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Property crimes are offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. For definitions

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States (Washington, D. C.: U.S. Government Printing Office). 1984 Source Book of Criminal Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice Fig. 6

Estimated rate (per 100,000 inhabitants) of offenses known to police, by type of offense, United States, 1960-1983

Every category of property crime also increased with burglary rising three percent; theft, five percent (with a total of 6.9 million reported thefts); car theft, seven percent; and arson, three percent. People whose homes were robbed lost an average $974; the estimated cost of theft in 1985 was $3 billion. According to the FBI, the incidence of violent crime—murder, rape, robbery, and assault—rose by 32 percent since 1976, while property crimes increased by seven percent in the same period. As high as they are, these figures are actually conservative, reflecting only the number of crimes reported to police. According to the FBI, these figures do not represent all crime in America, much of which is never reported. In our lectures and publications, we have chronicled the rise of degenerative illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, infertility, reproductive disorders, and others that have paralleled the twentieth century breakdown of the family and society. Where is this

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26 trend toward biological and social decline leading? The problem of A I D S may give us a clue. Although the focus of this book is on biosocial problems like crime, drug abuse, and mental illness, let us digress for a moment and consider the possible future implications of AIDS. The spread of A I D S has been rapid and dramatic. By 1985, two million people in America were thought to be carrying the H T L V - 3 virus. It is estimated that the number of people carrying the virus could double every year. If the A I D S virus does indeed spread this rapidly, the number of people carrying the virus could increase as follows:

Year 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992

Potential N u m b e r in the United States Carrying the A I D S Virus 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 *256

million million million million million million million million

*Note: T h e U . S . population is n o w estimated at 230 million.

By 1991, more than half of the people in America could be carrying the virus, and if the number again doubles in 1992, the number of people with the AIDS virus could exceed the population of the United States. Meanwhile, if the number of acute cases doubles every year, and if the number reaches 500,000 by 1991, in the following year, there could be one million; in 1993, two million; in 1994, four million; and so forth. At this rate, the number of acute cases could exceed the U.S. population by the year 2000. Clearly, time is running out. Many people with the virus develop a chronic condition known as AIDS Related Complex, or ARC, that gradually worsens; it may take from several years to ten or more years, but eventually, more acute, full-blown AIDS may develop, leading to death. Throughout the world, researchers have been laboring day and night to try to solve this problem. However, there is presently little hope for a medical solution.

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When the A I D S virus was isolated several years ago, researchers were more optimistic. They believed that within two to five years they would discover a solution. But, as the nature of the virus became better understood, its complexity and changeability forced a reassessment of these expectations. Many researchers are wondering whether a solution will be found before the year 2000. It is quite possible that within ten years a majority of Americans will be harboring the AIDS virus. T h e problem of A I D S is not limited to America, but is global in scope. In Central Africa, for example, it is estimated that as many as 10 million people are carrying the AIDS virus. Assuming the number of people with the virus doubles every year, the virus could spread across the planet as follows:

Year 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993

Potential N u m b e r of People Worldwide with A I D S Virus 10 million in Central Africa plus about 10 million elsewhere worldwide 40 million 80 million 160 million 320 million 640 million 1,280 million 2,560 million

1994 *5,i20 million *Note: The world population is now estimated at 5 billion.

AIDS has the potential to destroy a majority of the world's population, even if it spreads more slowly than indicated above. In a short time, every American family could be affected by AIDS. T h e A I D S virus has the very real potential to cripple the nation's medical, insurance, governmental, and economic systems. It could cause the collapse of modern civilization. In this emergency, the only solution is to protect ourselves. We cannot depend on government or medicine for solutions. We have to protect ourselves by improving our day to day lifestyle and behavior. Furthermore, our blood has to become the strongest and soundest possible. For that, the macrobiotic approach, or dietary change in the direction of macrobiotics, is essential. Even-

28 tually, everyone, as soon as possible, must go toward macrobiotics. Otherwise, sooner or later, every family will be affected by AIDS. Over the past several years, an increasing number of people with AIDS, ARC, Kaposi's sarcoma, and related conditions have turned to macrobiotics. The results of these experiences are encouraging, and offer hope that an answer to these problems can be found in the practice of a more naturally balanced diet and way of life. Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine, and the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, have been following a group of men with A I D S in the New York area since May, 1984. In a July, 1985 letter to the British medical journal, Lancet, entitled, "Patients with Kaposi's Sarcoma Who Opt for No Treatment," the research team reported on the study: "At the International A I D S Conference in Atlanta last April someone asked if it would be ethical to include a control or placebo group in drug trials in Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). T h e implication was that the lack of treatment would reduce survival. This does not seem to be so. Since May, 1984, we have been studying immune function in a group which includes ten men with KS who have chosen not to enter conventional treatment protocols. Eight are still alive an average of 21.5 months after diagnosis (range 13—37 months). One person died 11 and another 20 months after diagnosis. Two of the men had opportunistic infections (01) 18 and 21 months after diagnosis. Three of the men have had localised radiation therapy for their KS 5, 18 (one of the men who had an 01 and died), and 29 months after diagnosis. The others have not received medical treatment for their KS, nor have they been inpatients since the diagnosis. Most are still working. "These men seem to be surviving at least as well as patients who have been treated. The average survival rate for men with KS alone in New York is 29 months. T h e average survival for men with KS and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia or other 01 is about 14 months. "These men in our study may not be representative of KS patients in general. Their choice to forgo conventional medical therapy may indicate a strong, independent p sychological makeup

29

which could enhance survival. They are all following a vegetarian (macrobiotic) diet and have a strong social support system. They at first had minimal disease with KS lesions diagnosed only on the skin and palate. Their T 4 / T 8 ratio, which reportedly correlates with survival, is higher than that reported for patients with KS. "Survival in these men who have received little or no medical treatment appears to compare very favourably with that of KS patients in general. We suggest that physicians and scientists can feel comfortable in allowing patients, particularly those with minimal disease, to go untreated as part of a larger study or because non-treatment is the patient's choice. "Several drugs are being evaluated or will soon be evaluated in clinical trials. These trials should be scientific and include a placebo control group. T h e survival of men with KS for longer than 3 years with no medical intervention indicates that occasional "successes" in uncontrolled treatment protocols may in fact reflect part of the spectrum of the natural course of the disease that is favoured by as yet undefined host and/or extrinsic factors rather than an effect of a particular drug." In a January, 1986 letter, Elinor Levy and John Beldekas of the Department of Microbiology at Boston University commented further on the macrobiotic-AIDS research: " T h e results of our ongoing study of men with AIDS who are macrobiotic are encouraging. We have been studying men sequentially since May 1984 to follow certain immune parameters. At present the data suggest a stabilization of the % T i positive cells and lymphocyte number in about 50% of the group. The general pattern in people with KS is a steady decline in both % T s and total lymphocyte number. This is thought to be a significant indicator of morbidity. Therefore the ability to stabilize these parameters, in so large a proportion of our study group, is a hopeful sign."* * For a more detailed discussion of the macrobiotic approach to AIDS, please see AIDS: Cause and Solution—The Macrobiotic Approach to Natural Immunity by Michio Kushi and Martha C. Cottrell, M.D., Japan Publications, Inc., 1987.

3° As we can see, the scope of the modern crisis is enormous, and many of the approaches being offered do not seem to be working. The manifestations of the modern crisis are interrelated; for example, the use of drugs weakens the body's natural immunity and provides a fertile ground for the A I D S virus, while the connection between crime and drug abuse is well established. At the same time, the problem of A I D S is causing a crisis in many correctional institutions. It is clear that symptomatic approaches are not enough to reverse our modern spiral of personal and social decay. What is needed is an understanding of the most basic and fundamental causes of this decline and a practical method to reverse it. In this search, we are inevitably led to the all important role of diet in determining the health and well-being of individuals and society.

The Role of Diet Sociologists often associate problems such as crime, drug abuse, and juvenile delinquency with the breakdown of the modern family. Dislocations caused by the shift from a predominately rural, preindustrial lifestyle to an urban, industrial way of life during the twentieth century are seen contributing to the breakdown of the family and increase in social problems. However, while these changes were taking place on the surface, deeper biological changes were also occurring, due to the massive shift from traditional eating patterns toward the modern artificial diet. For countless generations, since before the dawn of recorded history, the majority of humanity ate a natural, ecologically balanced diet. Our ancestors in all parts of the world nourished themselves with the products of their regional agriculture: whole cereal grains, fresh local vegetables, beans and their products, seasonal fruits, and occasional animal products, usually in much smaller amounts than at present. Of course, each region or culture developed its own unique traditions of farming, food processing, and cooking based on climatic and environmental differences, but all were united in their respect for whole cereal grains and fresh local vegetables as principal foods.

3i

Ancient societies, especially agricultural ones, were far more stable and peaceful than at present. The fabric of society was held together by the family, and families were held together by a shared quality of blood that was created by a shared quality of food. This pattern continued until the modern age. Technological developments beginning with the Industrial Revolution disrupted patterns of eating and family life that had existed for centuries. In America, the coming of the railroad, the establishment of cattle drives to rail depots, and the building of commercial stockyards caused meat consumption to rise dramatically, and began the modern romance with beefsteak. Fat consumption also increased with the introduction of commercial vegetable oils and the development of margarines. The introduction of steel rollers into the milling process—introduced first in Minnesota in 1880 and later in the rest of the Grain Belt— completely stripped the germ and bran from wheat, making available an even finer white flour. In 1890, pasteurized milk became available, and the invention of the cream separator, the milking machine, and advances in commercial refrigeration launched the modern dairy industry. Between 1875 and 1915, annual sugar consumption doubled from about 40 pounds per capita to 80 pounds. By the turn of the century, Coca-Cola and other soft drinks had become widely available, and their popularity increased with each new decade. Following World War I, the pace of scientific and technological change accelerated, and eating patterns changed even more dramatically. In agriculture, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, developed in the nineteenth century, displaced organic farming. The creation of mammoth incubators after the war led to the mass production of poultry. In the 1920s, home refrigeration came into vogue, and prepackaged frozen foods reduced the consumption of fresh garden produce. Refined, canned, and dehydrated foods also took an increasing share of the market. In the 1930s the vitamin industry was developed to sell back to the consumer the nutrients removed by refining grain. Artificial colors, preservatives, and other additives found their way into daily food as synthetic flavors, cosmetic appearance, and extended shelf life replaced wholesomeness and nutrition as primary concerns. Following World War II, beef, milk, cheese, ice cream, and other dairy products replaced whole grains, bread, noodles, and pasta as the

32

Source: Fig. 8

HSPA Manual, 1972

Per capita a n n u a l refined sugar consumption

Year

Source: Fig. 9

USD A/ERS, 1975

Year

Source:

USDA/ERS, 1975

Per capita consumption of Fig. 10 Per capita cereal products m e a t , poultry a n d fish consumption

staples in most of the industrialized world. Through breeding, artificial insemination, and growth hormones, the cattle population of the nation doubled. Today, there is a cow for every two Americans. In the 1950s and 1960s fast food became a way of life. The temples of these Golden Calves—McDonald's, Burger King, Dairy Queen— dotted the landscape. Before the Second World War, only 35 chemicals and additives were being added to the food supply. After the war, their use proliferated. Today, there are more than 4,000 preservatives, chemicals,

33 and additives added to foods. During the 1950s synthetic estrogen, as DES, began to be widely used in cattle and other meat animals to promote growth, and a variety of antibiotics were also added to animal feed for a similar purpose. Since 1950, more than 100 billion head of livestock and poultry in the United States and Canada have been given feed laced with penicillin, tetracycline, and other antibiotics. Meanwhile, massive advertising budgets were mobilized to sell this new way of eating. By 1986, for example, the three leading fast food chains were spending more than a half-billion dollars in order to capture larger shares of the $47 billion fast food market. A large percentage of these budgets were directed at children and young people, so that the post-war "baby boom" generation became the first to be nurtured almost entirely on this new way of eating. For the post-war generation, eating out became a way of life; families now eat together less often than ever before. Americans eat nearly one meal in two away from home, according to recent surveys. In 1977 testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, Dr. Carolyn Brown, director of a school for learning disabled children in Berkeley, California, pointed to the social effects of changes in diet and way of life since World War I I : " L e t us look for a moment at a few interesting health and social statistics. The members of this committee know well the evidence of the increase in synthetic foods, and other nutritional changes. " T h e same twenty-five years saw a substantial increase in radiation exposure, through nuclear testing, diagnostic tools, and energy production. There was also a dramatic change in our biological as well as psychological experience introduced by television, which entered 96 percent of American homes in the same quarter century, and in front of which little children now sit for an average of 3.4 hours a day. "What do we know about what has happened to the children that grew up during these twenty-five years ? We know that there was a six-fold increase in arrests of children under 15 suspected of murder, non-negligent manslaughter, aggravated assault and rape. T h e factor increase was three for 15 to 17 year olds, two for 18 to 25 year olds. We know that "accidents" resulting in

34 death rose dramatically among the young, that divorce rates have continued to increase, that suicides have been rising among young people in comparison to the rest of the population. And we know that there has been an unprecedented 14 year decline in the scores of our most gifted children on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests, a decline from 478 to 429 average on the verbal SAT, from 502 to 470 on the math SAT, with a decline in half in the number of SAT's over 700 since 1967. "During the eight years from 1958 to 1966, children under 17 with chronic health problems increased from 18.8 to 24.6 percent. Those from 17 to 24 showed an increase from 39 to 44.4 percent. In the whole population, people reporting no health problems decreased from 58.6 to 50.9 percent—six percent in eight years. "As a non-scientist, I would like to ask you senators, when we know what has happened during the past twenty-five years in terms of the increase in non-nutritious foods, radiation exposure, television exposure, and exposure to environmental toxins—and when we know that children born during that period show a dramatic increase in juvenile delinquency, arrest for serious crimes, chronic health problems, and low scores on Scholastic Aptitude Tests—is it not at least a fair question whether we are exposing our children on the whole to an increasingly powerful set of environmental stressors that is producing a broad range of forms of biosocial decline?" Ten years ago, the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs published a landmark report entitled, Dietary Goals for the United States. T h e report implicated the modern diet in the incidence of six of the ten leading causes of death in the United States, including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. It went on to recommend sweeping dietary changes—in the general direction of macrobiotics—for the purpose of preventing these illnesses. In 1977, the year that Dietary Goals was published, the Select Committee held hearings on the relationship of diet to mental health. Testimony from those hearings was compiled in a report entitled, Nutrition and Mental Health, published in 1977 and updated in 1980. In the introduction to that report, senator George McGovern, the

35 chairman of the Committee, commented on the need for further study on the relationship between diet, mental health, and problems such as crime: "This morning's diet and health hearing marks the first time that the committee has investigated the impact of nutrition on mental health and development. " I n recent years we have begun to obtain some insights into how undernutrition during pregnancy and in the early years of life can cause lifelong mental impairment. However, mental development is only one part of the larger mental health picture that we will be looking at in these hearings. "Today's hearing which examines such topics as early mental development, hyperactivity in children, juvenile delinquency, criminal behavior in adults, and schizophrenia, will demonstrate that the axiom "you are what you eat" applies to both our physical and our mental condition. "Of all the areas of promising nutrition research and knowledge, the relationship between nutrition and mental health and development is the least funded and probably the least well understood. One sign that this is beginning to change is two articles directly concerned with the effects of food on mental health and one's behavior. One article titled "Can Chocolate T u r n You Into a Criminal ?" notes that the link between food and crime is attracting more attention from law enforcement officials. Two of our witnesses will speak to this very issue and their respective experience in working with juvenile and adult offenders. "Achieving recognition of the relationship between nutrition and mental health is still very much a struggle. Established scientific thinking remains weighted against those few scientists and practitioners who are striving to understand the complex links between the food we consume and how we think and behave as individuals. "According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 6.4 million Americans are under some form of mental health care and an estimated 10 percent of all Americans are in need of such care. That translates into over 20 million people, and if further

36 research is undertaken along a nutritional line we could find that a significant number of mental health problems could be cured or prevented by better nutrition." As we can see, America and the rest of the modern world is caught in an accelerating spiral of decline. This spiral has been gaining momentum for the past several centuries, especially since the Industrial Revolution, and has accelerated rapidly in the last 40 years. What is needed now is a change in direction toward an opposite spiral of social reconstruction and recovery. Dietary change toward macrobiotics, together with a reorientation in our view of life, is the most fundamental way of effecting this transformation. These issues are the subjects of the sections that follow.

Unifying Body and Mind Over the past 30 years, thousands of people who were suffering from emotional and psychological problems have come for macrobiotic advice. Many had already consulted with psychiatrists because of problems such as insecurity, anxiety, and depression. Others were having problems with alcohol, drugs, or difficulties with relationships. Many of the people who came to see me had spent months or years visiting psychiatrists. Some experienced improvement as a result of talking their problems through, but many saw no improvement even after spending years in analysis. Experiences such as these are common, and force us to question whether the present approach of treating the mind and body as separate can lead to solutions for problems such as these. That separation began during the age of Greece, and has continued to the present day. At that time, people started to see things as separate, and began to analyze each aspect independently. Body, mind, and spirit were thought to be independent entities, and out of this belief came the preoccupation of science and medicine with the physical world. However, this view was shattered in the twentieth century when studies of preatomic particles revealed that there is no fixed unit of matter; matter disappears and changes into a mass of vibrations or

37 energy. There is nothing solid at all. In other words, matter becomes nonmatter. When we think about our body in these terms, we see that it too is nothing but a mass of vibrations or energy that is constantly moving and changing, and that it is not static. It conforms to the explanation of matter by modern atomic science: Matter appears from time to time from space like a ghost. It appears and disappears. That is the most advanced modern conception of matter. In a similar way, the body is nothing but a mass of vibrations and energies that appear from time to time on this planet, and its essence is nothing but the movement of energy. We cannot hold on to it. Thoughts are the same: Vibrations, energy, and waves. Think about a television receiver. When we turn the television on, waves are picked up and translated into images, sounds, and colors. In the same way, the essence of the mind is nothing but waves. Similarly, the body is nothing but waves. So the body and the mind are one. The difference is that the body is a more dense mass, while the mind is more dispersed or diffused. This understanding was expressed by Shakespeare in The Tempest, when Prospero explains a demonstration of spirits to the young lovers, Ferdinand and Miranda: "These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air: And like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea, all of which it inherit shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep." When the body becomes sick, which means that its energy flow is either stagnating or charging extremely actively, then naturally the mind also changes. So, when I look at a problem such as depression, I do not seek the cause in environmental factors or the type of relationships a person has with his parents or children. Instead I see what kind of physical health the person has. That is the way to understand the cause of the problem and find a solution. For example, if someone

38 has a problem with their husband or wife, it is easy to blame the husband, wife, or someone else while overlooking the individual's own condition. Why do we think this way? Because we lack the ability of self-examination or self-review. This problem is apparent when we consider our view of AIDS and other illnesses. The A I D S virus may be coming from outside, but when it enters the body, if we are healthy, our immune ability will immediately react and neutralize it. But if our natural immunity has been weakened because of our diet and way of life, the virus will take root and spread. It is also possible that the AIDS virus is being created internally by the decomposition of cells, especially white blood cells. We may be creating the virus ourselves through our day to day lifestyle and eating. We may have weakened ourselves to the extent that self decomposition is taking place. Instead of reflecting on our own condition, however, we very easily accuse the virus as the cause of the condition, and so no definite solution is found. As long as we deal with the virus only, we overlook the importance of changing ourselves in order to become stronger. A similar situation has occurred with cancer research, which began about ioo years ago. At that time, like AIDS, cancer was thought to be infectious. Now, a hundred years later, we still do not have a definite solution, except for symptomatic approaches such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and others. Meanwhile, we have not been able to prevent cancer, so it continues increasing. Soon, one out of three Americans will develop it, and it is beginning to affect every family. One hundred years ago, the incidence of cancer was very small. Billions of dollars have been spent on research so far, and efforts have focused microscopically on trying to understand more about cancer cells. For example, finding out whether they are caused by cell mutation, hereditary influences, or environmental factors. We have been looking at cancer cells without self-reflecting on the kinds of foods we are eating or the kind of lifestyle we are leading so as to discover what it is that makes these cells turn cancerous. We have not examined that aspect thoroughly enough. In other words, we tend to put ourselves aside and see our problems as separate, isolated factors, and as things that "happen" to us rather than as things we ourselves create. So there are no solutions. Problems such as crime, drug abuse, and mental illness also cannot be isolated from our physical condition and daily

39 way of life. Only by understanding the interconnectedness between body, mind, and behavior can we begin to solve these and other social problems.

Behavioral Disorders Once the unity between mind and body, or physical condition and mental health is understood, the underlying cause of mental illness becomes clear. As with conditions such as heart disease and cancer, mental illness is rooted in daily diet and way of life. The incidence of mental disorders is increasing, as has the amount of money spent each year on mental health. Officially, 15 percent of the American population suffers from mental disorders at any given time, a figure equal to about 32 million people. However, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has stated that this figure is probably conservative: a more realistic number of mentally disturbed persons is closer to 20 percent of the population. In one study of New York City residents, 25 percent were found to be suffering from disorders such as depression, anxiety, phobias, and other mental problems. Each year, Americans spend more than $40 billion in an effort to recover or maintain their mental health. T h e number of people seeking psychological help has increased tremendously in the last 30 years. In 1955, there were 380,000 people in psychoanalysis: there were 4.6 million by 1977. In the same year, two million Americans were admitted into mental institutions, while many more sought psychological help in private hospitals, community health centers, and nursing homes. The number of psychologists and psychiatrists has also increased in order to meet the growing demand. In 1950, there were about 12,000 psychologists and psychiatrists; by 1980, the number had grown to more than 50,000. As we can see, modern psychology, with its elaborate theories and thousands of trained specialists, has not been able to stem the tide of increasing mental disorders. In the following sections, we introduce the macrobiotic view of behavioral problems; a view based on the unity between mind and

4o

body, and the role that diet and environment play in determining the health of both. T h e macrobiotic view is based on understanding the order of the universe, or laws of nature. These eternal laws function everywhere. Understanding them can help us find a lasting solution to individual physical and mental disorders. Yin and yang are the traditional terms we use to describe the rhythmic movement of life. Yin represents centrifugal, expanding, or upward movement, and yang represents centripetal, contracting, or downward movement. Since everything is continually in motion, yin and yang are present in everything; however, some things have a relatively more yin tendency, and others, relatively more yang. All things come and go, appear and disappear, move and change because of the interaction of these two primary forces.

In the above chart, common foods are classified according to their yin and yang effects. In general, animal foods, including meat, eggs, poultry, and cheese exert a more constrictive effect on the body and mind and are rich in hemoglobin, sodium, and mineral salts. They are, therefore, considered to be more yang. Vegetable foods are gen-

4i erally more expanded, they exert a more relaxing effect on the body and mind, and are rich in chlorophyll, water, and potassium. They are, therefore, more yin. Among vegetable quality foods, those growing in the tropics are more extremely yin than those grown in temperate climates: mangoes, oranges, and bananas, for example, are much more yin than apples or pears. Leafy expanded vegetables, such as lettuce, Chinese cabbage, and bok choy are more yin than compact root vegetables such as carrots or burdock root. Refined sugar, extracted from tropical sugarcane, is extremely yin in comparison to sweeteners derived from the complex carbohydrates in grains such as rice or barley. The foods that form the basis of the standard macrobiotic diet —whole grains, beans and their products, fresh local vegetables, sea vegetables, and others—are more centrally balanced than are extremes such as meat, eggs, or refined sugar. This more centrally balanced way of eating formed the basis of traditional diets for centuries, and protected our ancestors from epidemic rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other degenerative conditions. As we saw earlier, the modern diet has become increasingly extreme. Rather than more balanced complex carbohydrates, such as those in whole grains and vegetables, the modern diet relies heavily on more extremely yin simple sugars, including refined sugar, corn syrup, and fructose. In place of the more balanced proteins contained in whole grains and beans, our modern way of eating emphasizes more extreme animal proteins, including meat, eggs, and poultry. Like the opposite poles of a magnet, yin and yang attract one another. The more extreme the diet becomes at one end, the more we require opposite extremes to make balance. From this point of view, the underlying cause of biosocial concerns such as alcoholism and drug abuse becomes clear. Rising intakes of meat and poultry, for example, have required increasingly powerful forms of yin to make balance. Sugar, chocolate, and spices are commonly used. But, beyond these, many people turn to the frequent consumption of alcohol, or to drugs, which are even more extreme, in an attempt to make balance. Yin and yang are also used in macrobiotic thinking to clarify the dynamic functioning of the body and mind. In the bloodstream, for example, there are two types of cells: more yang and compacted red blood cells, and more yin or expanded white blood cells. These cells

42

share complementary functions. The more yang bloodstream functions in a manner that is complementary to the more yin lymph stream. The lymphocytes, or specialized cells that are involved in the body's immune response, also occur in complementary pairs. T-cells, for example, have a more dense or compact structure, and are more yang. B-cells have a more expanded structure and are more yin. More yang T-cells are easily damaged by the overintake of extremely yin foods and beverages. Overconsumption of sugar, soft drinks, chemicals, antibiotics, alcohol, ice cream, and drugs can weaken or destroy these cells. The result is often some type of immune deficiency. The structure and functioning of the brain and nervous system also reveal complementary balance. The cells in the nervous system, or neurons, come in a variety of forms, but share the same basic structure. The major sections of the neuron include branched dendrites, which receive incoming impulses from other nerve cells; the compact cell body, where incoming impulses are gathered; and the long, extended axon, where impulses are sent out to neighboring nerve cells. The complementary functioning of these components can be seen in the following diagrams:

Fig. 12

Spiral functioning of nerve cells

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Neurons: A schematic figure of the main parts of a "typical" neuron. Part of the cell is myelinated, that is, its axon is covered with a segmented, insulating sheath. (After Katz, 1952).

Fig. 13

Yin and Yang structure of neurons

T h e most yang part of the neuron, the nucleus of the cell body, attracts impulses from other nerve cells, and discharges them through the more yin axon. The nervous system as a whole functions in a similar way. Incoming impulses are conveyed by the network of nerve cells to the central midbrain. From here, the appropriate signals are dispatched back out to the body. The entire nervous system functions as the result

44 of an incredibly high speed balance that exists between positive and negative charges, input and outflow, and excitation and inhibition. The flow of impulses in the nervous system is regulated by two complementary/antagonistic elements: more yin potassium, and more yang sodium. In their resting state, neurons carry a negative charge at the center and a positive charge on the surface, as the result of routinely discharging positive sodium ions and admitting negative potassium ions. When the cell becomes excited, it will admit sodium ions, which cause the inside to suddenly reverse and become positively charged. This sudden reversal produces an electromagnetic charge that goes to the next segment of the nerve cell, causing a reversal in its polarity, and then to the next segment, and so on along the entire length of the nerve fiber. It is this alternating, or yin and yang pulse, triggered biochemically by the interplay between sodium and potassium, that causes the nerve cell to "fire" and impulses to be transmitted. T h e healthy functioning of the nervous system depends, therefore, on the proper balance of these and other important elements in the body. Nerve impulses eventually arrive at the end point, or terminal, of the axon, and travel across the synapse, or narrow space separating the axons of nerve cells from the dendrites of others. When impulses arrive at the cell terminal, they trigger the release of substances known as neurotransmitters that affect the way that the "message" will influence the neighboring cell. These substances, of which 30 to 40 have been identified, can also be classified into two complementary groups: more yang, or activating transmitters that cause nerve cells to become excited and generate impulses at a higher rate; and more yin, inhibiting transmitters that prevent impulses from arising or reduce their rate. One group of neurotransmitters, known as catecholamines, including dopamine and norepinephrine activate the nervous system, and act like adrenalin in stimulating arousal and motor activity. On the other hand, more yin transmitters, such as glycine, act to inhibit nervous activity. Recently, a variety of theories have been put forward stating that disturbances in th.e balance of neurotransmitters may be a factor in a variety of behavioral disorders. T h e quality and function of neurotransmitters is in turn affected by diet. T h e major norepinephrine containing nerve cells are located in the more yang midbrain. Nore-

45 pinephrine regulates many of the body's responses to the environment, causing either an appropriate reaction, or an inappropriate over- or under-reaction. The norepinephrine system has branches that are widely distributed throughout the nervous system, and its function is counterbalanced by another important amine neurotransmitter system, the serotonin system. (Most of the neurotransmitters are breakdown products of amino acids; the amine neurotransmitters share a distinctive single amino group in their molecular structure.) In many ways, serotonin, which is more inhibitory, acts as a balance to norepinephrine, which is more activitating. In an N I H study of patients suffering from depression, those with high levels of serotonin tended to have lower levels of norepinephrine; and those with low levels of serotonin had higher levels of norepinephrine. These and other studies are beginning to reveal the complementary, or yin and yang, function existing in the biochemistry of the brain and nervous system. The endocrine system is also a masterpiece of balance, in which complementary hormones work together in harmony. In the female reproductive system, for example, estrogens secreted by the ovaries cause female sexual characteristics to develop, and these are counterbalanced by the androgens, including testosterone, secreted by the male reproductive organs. Estrogen is a more yin hormone, while testosterone is more yang. Both hormones affect behavior, and the secretion of both is in turn affected by diet. If men eat plenty of sugar, tropical fruits, ice cream, heavily chemicalized, or other more extreme yin foods, their production of testosterone can easily by inhibited. (Foods such as these also inhibit sperm production.) Conversely, the overintake of more extreme yang foods such as meat, eggs, poultry, and hard cheeses can cause an excess of testosterone to be secreted, while overconsumption of these foods normally inhibits estrogen production in women, except in cases where chickens or livestock have been fed synthetic estrogen. Researchers have noted that boys who do not secrete proper amounts of testosterone are often shy and withdrawn. When they are given more yang masculinizing hormones, their behavior becomes more aggressive and rambunctious. On the other hand, men with an oversupply of testosterone often behave in an aggressive or hostile manner, and may suffer from uncontrollable or violent urges. When given a more yin

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hormone such as Provera, their levels of testosterone subside, as does the tendency toward uncontrollable behavior. However, isolating imbalances in specific hormones or brain transmitters, and dealing with them separately does not address the underlying cause. This more analytical approach leads to symptomatic efforts to try to control the problem, such as using drugs to stimulate or block certain neurotransmitters or supplying hormones to compensate for endocrine deficiencies or excesses. Since these approaches do not change the extreme or unbalanced way of eating that causes these imbalances to develop, they are at best partial or temporary. A fundamental and lasting solution to behavioral disorders cannot be found in approaches such as these, but in reestablishing a condition of overall balance through the practice of a more naturally balanced diet. In the sections that follow, we present the macrobiotic view of common behavioral disorders. Here we can see more clearly the role that diet plays in determining the endless variety of human behavior.

Hyperactivity Food and environment are primary in determining behavior. Both influence a person long before conception. They determine the quality of the parental reproductive cells and the genetic information they contain. They also determine the general pattern of culture or type of society a person is born into, which in turn will influence how he or she will think and act. A person's constitution and condition are a product of diet and environment. Behavior is simply the expression of each person's constitution and daily condition. Today, many people have problems with learning, perception, and behavior. Among children, many have trouble learning basic reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic. Some are consistently erratic in behavior. They cannot pay attention, are extreme in their emotions, and are unable to sit still. These children are often labeled as hyperactive or hyperkinetic. They may or may not have specific learning disabilities, although many children who are considered hyperactive

47 are actually quite bright. Hyperactivity is a comprehensive term that usually includes these and other traits. However, it is important to remember that children and teenagers are normally active and energetic. They do not behave like adults, nor should they be expected to. It is necessary to be careful before labeling someone hyperactive, hyperkinetic, or learning disabled. All people learn at different rates. The important thing is not test scores, but whether each person puts forth his or her best efforts. Some experts question whether or not "hyperactivity" actually exists, or whether it is simply a more extreme form of normal behavior. Others maintain that hyperactive children behave in a way that constantly interferes with day to day living and normal learning. Behavior and learning problems are related to the modern highly processed, artificial diet and to an increasingly unnatural lifestyle —including the use of synthetic materials in the home and at school. An extreme diet can interfere with the normal processes of learning and of normal or balanced behavior. An excessive intake of more extreme yang foods—such as meat, eggs, poultry, or refined salt—can produce excessive emotional characteristics like overly aggressive behavior, extreme stubbornness, or an overly self-centered attitude. These items tend to narrow a person's scope of vision and reduce patience, endurance, and sociability. The body and mind become less flexible when more yang extremes are overconsumed. The excessive intake of yin extremes also contributes to behavioral and learning disabilities. Refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, milk, ice cream, refined flour, chocolate, and additives and preservatives (more than 4,000 additives have been used in foods over the last twenty years) can cause more yin disintegrative symptoms such as inability to focus on visual images, sounds, or thoughts, poor memory, a poor sense of balance, and lack of self-discipline. In general, the symptoms of hyperactivity can be classified into two general categories, according to the primary foods that promote them. These include (i) symptoms influenced primarily by the overconsumption of more yang extremes; and (2) those which are influenced primarily by the overintake of more yin extremes. The most common symptoms of hyperactivity are classified below:

48

More Yin Symptoms: • Inability to focus on one thing at a time, or to think concretely. • Confusion, or inability to make order out of the stimuli received by the brain. • No sense of direction or purpose. • Mixing up common distinctions such as left and right, vertical and horizontal, inside and outside, front and back, or beginning and ending. • Being out of touch with the body, including not being aware of certain parts of the body, a lack of coordination, or loss of control over bodily functions. • Continual movement, especially involving small nervous movements of the hands, fingers, or other parts of the body, including minor twitching or shaking. • Slow development in children, for example, learning to walk, talk, or read later than normal. More Yang Symptoms: • Rigidity in body and mind, including extreme stubbornness or literal-mindedness. • Continual movement, especially of the large muscles of the body, i.e.: Continually getting up from a chair, always running rather than walking, jumping up and down, or rocking back and forth. • Overly rapid development in children, for example, walking, crawling, or talking earlier than normal; or skipping stages of development. • Impatience or lack of inhibition. • Overly rough or destructive behavior, including violent outbursts of temper, destruction of property, and so on. • Aggressiveness toward others, including bullying, harassing, or fighting with others, or cruelty toward children, pets or others in a weaker position. • Extreme ego-centeredness, to the point of being unaware of or insensitive to others. The diet of most people with hyperactivity is generally extreme at both ends—for example, meat, eggs, and poultry on one hand; and

49 plenty of sugar, tropical fruit, chemicals, and refined and processed foods on the other. Their actions and behavior therefore tend to swing unpredictably back and forth between both extremes. Underlying both extremes is often the excessive overconsumption of milk and other dairy products. When someone has a tendency toward hyperactivity, artificial substances in the environment can often trigger symptoms. They frequently react to products ranging from chemicalized toothpaste to felt-tipped markers. A list of substances that can trigger extreme reactions in persons with hyperactivity is presented in our book, Macrobiotic Child Care and Family Health. As will be seen in the way of life recommendations that follow this section, macrobiotics recommends using more natural materials in the home, school, and workplace. Clothing, home fixtures, toys, soap, carpets, furniture, shampoo, toothpaste, laundry detergents, and kitchen utensils made from natural materials are preferred over those made from synthetic substances. Contact with nature is encouraged as much as possible. Current approaches to hyperactivity include nutritional management, behavior modification, counseling, special education programs, and drug therapy. The management of hyperactivity through diet includes a variety of approaches, most notably that developed by the late Dr. Ben Feingold. Dr. Feingold reported success in reducing hyperactivity in about 50 percent of the cases under his care. T h e Feingold Diet involves primarily reducing or eliminating the intake of more extremely yin items, including preservatives such as B H T and BHA, refined sugar, and chemical additives, including artificial flavors and colors. Things such as aspirin, bell peppers, chili powder, coffee, oranges, spearmint and peppermint, commercial tea, and tomatoes, all of which contain salicylates—acidic compounds found in fruits and other more yin foods—have also been associated with hyperactive reactions and are often eliminated from the diet. The avoidance of more yin foods and other substances would lessen the more yin symptoms of hyperactivity. However, at least 50 percent of hyperactive patients do not respond to this approach, an indication that many cases of hyperactivity result from the overconsumption of more extremely yang foods, or from the combined effect of both

So extremes. A dietary approach that takes both aspects into consideration is therefore necessary. The other common approach to hyperactivity involves giving patients, who are often children, amphetamine drugs such as Dexedrine and Ritalin. Like coffee, these drugs are often used as mental stimulants. When taken regularly, they weaken the motion centers of the brain, and eventually cause individuals to become less hyperactive. These substances cause the more yin, front portions of the brain to become very active, and the person's thinking seems to be more "focused." For the most part, drugs are an unsatisfactory response to mental and behavioral disturbances. They are purely symptomatic, and do not address nor change the underlying causes of the problem. There have been no long-term studies of the side effects of the psychoactive drugs given for hyperactivity. In the macrobiotic view, drugs are classified as extremely yin. Being extreme, they weaken the nervous system and internal organs. The long-term effects of chronic drug use include: (1)

Dulling of the body's automatic functions: Drugs such as amphetamines initially activate the autonomic nervous system and its two complementary branches: the orthosympathetic and parasympathetic systems. However, chronic use weakens the parasympathetic system and results in a loss of quickness and accuracy in adapting to the environment. Many parents with hyperactive children have reported that drugs make their children act drugged or over-medicated. Impairment of motor functions also makes someone more accident prone. (2) Declining sensitivity: The continual use of drugs causes the cells of the nervous system to become semipermanently expanded, thus diminishing their reactive powers and leading to decreased sensitivity. (3) A loss of clarity: The intake of extremely yin stimulant drugs weakens the inner area of the brain, especially the midbrain, while activating the more yin surrounding cortex. The more yang motion centers of the brain are also weakened. The midbrain represents the focal point for gathering information from the entire nervous system in the form of stimuli.

SI It simultaneously relays information outward to appropriate parts of the body in the form of various responses such as speech, decisions to act, and so on. In hyperactivity, "gatekeepers" which control input to the midbrain do not function properly. Information comes in without being properly ordered. The relay of information from the midbrain to the various parts of the body is also disrupted. Instead of a more orderly or controlled relay of information, the brain of the hyperactive person sends a variety of poorly coordinated, uncontrolled, and contradictory signals to the various parts of the body. In order for this key function to operate well, the innermost orbit of the nervous system, which is situated at the midbrain, must be tightly coiled and highly energized, with its cells compact. T h e habitual expansion produced by drugs has a damaging effect on mental clarity after a period of time, although the initial impression may be one of relaxation and heightened clarity. (4) Weakening of internal organs: Certain of our internal organs rely primarily on contraction for their normal activity, and others depend more on relaxation, although both tendencies exist in each organ. Like the midbrain and the motion centers of the brain, the major relatively more yang organs tend to be weakened by habitual use of drugs. They include the spleen, pancreas, heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. Which of these are affected to a noticeable extent depends on a number of individual considerations, including constitution, previous illnesses, former diet, and so on. (5) Decline of reproductive ability: Giving drugs during childhood could impair future reproductive abilities. The reproductive organs—the ovaries and testes—are more yang and compact. They are easily debilitated by the intake of extremely yin substances. Infertility and reproductive disorders are practically epidemic in modern society: Approximately 20 percent of married couples are unable to conceive. Many of these problems can be traced to the use of drugs or medications during childhood or adolescence. Continual drug use creates imbalances in the quantity and

quality of hormone secretion, such as testosterone, from abnormal stimulation of adrenal, gonadal, and pituitary glands. This imbalance in the hormone system, when combined with general weakening of the nervous system, leads to debility and irregular functioning of the reproductive system. The debilitating effects of drugs are particularly acute during puberty and adolescence when the hormonal functions connected with sexual maturation become operative. (6) Degeneration of blood quality and weakening of natural immunity : Drugs such as those given for hyperactivity tend to destroy the intestinal flora which are essential for smooth absorption of food into the bloodstream. The liver, spleen, and bone marrow, involved in the continued regeneration of red blood cells, are adversely affected by prolonged drug use. Therefore, people who already suffer from mild forms of illnesses associated with lowered blood quality such as leukemia, anemia, diabetes, asthma, allergies, and skin disorders, could experience a worsening of their condition after prolonged drug use. Drugs also weaken the body's autoimmune system. Functions such as the ability of the liver to detoxify poisons and the ability of specialized cells in the lymphatic and bloodstreams to identify and ingest foreign substances are especially weakened. T h e cooperative functioning of T-cells and B-cells as part of the body's immune response is disrupted by the intake of drugs. Drug use is a contributive factor in many cases of A I D S and other immune deficiency disorders. (7)

Psychological and social impairment: These various manifestations of lessened physical and mental vitality combine to impede the individual and social development of the people burdened with them. People who are given drugs for hyperactivity could easily develop psychological dependence on artificial or superficial methods of dealing with problems. The widespread use of drugs in treating hyperactivity and other behavioral problems is a factor in the increase of drug abuse in society.

53 Aside from these possible long-term consequences, there are many documented short-term side effects associated with the drugs given for hyperactivity. Ritalin, for example, has the potential to produce such immediate side effects as skin rash, fever, scaling or itching of the skin, blood clotting disorders, nausea, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, drowsiness, headache, loss of appetite, stunting of growth, and others. An approach that carries the risk of potentially damaging side effects—both short and long term—while ignoring the underlying cause of hyperactivity is obviously unsatisfactory. Many parents are justifiably distrustful of the use of behavior modifying drugs to control hyperactivity. Most tend to favor nutritional approaches to behavioral problems. Similiar long-term effects apply to the use of drugs in general, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other illicit drugs, and to drugs such as lithium and others used to treat depression, anxiety, and other mental disturbances. Effects such as these can also result from chronic alcohol abuse, although usually to a lesser extent than those resulting from drugs. A more holistic approach to hyperactivity involves changing the underlying causes. Parents with hyperactive children need to reflect on their way of eating and on the way of eating of the family as a whole, together with their overall manner of living and relating to each other. Hyperactivity is the product of the lifestyle of the family as a whole, including daily dietary practice. Approaches that isolate the hyperactive child without considering other members of the family are at best partial and cannot be thought of as solutions. As a first step toward overcoming hyperactivity, therefore, we recommend that all members of the patient's family change their way of eating toward the standard macrobiotic diet described later in this chapter. Appropriate modifications are of course required for each person. The daily life recommendations presented later in this chapter can also be applied, especially the substitution of more natural products for more artificial ones in the home, school, or workplace. In cases where patients have not been placed on medication, the transition to a macrobiotic diet can proceed in a more smooth and straightforward manner. As the family as a whole changes its diet, the

54 hyperactive patient can begin to eat according to general macrobiotic guidelines appropriate for age, condition, and activity. Persons who have been placed on medication need a more gradual period of moderate transition. An overly rapid or inflexible approach to adopting macrobiotics is not recommended. The following general guidelines may be applied in these circumstances. (1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

Whole grains may account for 40 to 60 percent of food intake. Grains may include both whole grains and flour products such as high quality traditional sourdough breads, noodles, seitan, fu, and others, and may be prepared in a variety of styles—pressure-cooked, boiled, served in soups, casseroles, breads, pancakes, noodles, porridge, muffins, crackers, and so on. Soups may be included daily. Light miso or tamari broth soups may be served once a day. Whole grain, vegetable, and bean soups may also be included if desired. Vegetables may account for 20 to 30 percent of daily intake, and may be prepared in a variety of styles. In addition to cooked vegetables, a small portion of raw salad and pickles may be included regularly if desired. Beans may account for about 10 percent of daily intake, cooked in a variety of styles. Traditionally processed soy products such as tempeh, tofu, dried tofu, and natto may be eaten daily in addition to beans. Cooked sea vegetables may account for about 5 percent of daily intake. Because of their high mineral content they are particularly useful in restoring those parts of the nervous system damaged by drugs. Fish and seafood, nuts and seeds, and seasonal fruits may account for roughly another 5 percent of daily intake, varying with individual needs and time of year—for example, more fruit in summer than in winter, and fish on a more regular basis during the autumn and winter. Liquids may be consumed as freely 'as desired, although sugared or artificial soft drinks, milk, and tropical or semitropical fruit juices are best avoided.

55 (8)

Guidelines for seasonings, use of condiments, cooking styles, variety of foods, and so on, are generally presented later in the chapter.

These general suggestions, if followed in a commonsense manner with appropriate adjustments and guidance from an experienced macrobiotic counselor, can lead to a gradual restoration of more normal behavior. Macrobiotic dietary and way of life suggestions may be combined with other approaches such as behavior modification, family counseling, and remedial teaching programs. General guidelines such as these may also be applied in cases where someone adopts the macrobiotic way of life following the use of drugs such as marijuana and cocaine. Individual adjustments are, of course, required for each person, and these recommendations are best implemented with the assistance of a qualified macrobiotic counselor. As the new dietary pattern becomes well established, a gradual improvement of behavior will follow: The individual will become able to sit still, to concentrate, to be more steady in thought and emotion. The person will gradually become more self-controlled, and more responsive to parents, teachers, and co-workers. In many cases, the condition may improve to the point where it is possible to reduce or discontinue medication, without any worsening of behavioral symptoms or decline in learning abilities. The question of when or how gradually it is advisable to discontinue medication is a highly individual issue and is approached with care and in consultation with the appropriate medical professional. As a general rule, reliance on drugs or medications is best withdrawn gradually, rather than all at once, in stages that follow the gradual improvement of condition and permit a regular reassessment of dosages and their effects. Depending on how successful the family is in adopting the macrobiotic guidelines, the drugs that are commonly given for hyperactivity can be gradually withdrawn over several months. It is important to remember that the effects of drugs do not disappear overnight, even though the overall condition is steadily improving. Hyperactive persons are often given drugs daily for extended periods. The amount of time needed to recover from the effects of these medications are generally as follows:

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Duration of daily medication

Period of recovery from effects*

1 - 4 weeks 1 - 3 months 4 - 6 months 6 m o n t h s - i year 1 - 2 years 3-5 years

4 months 1 year 2 years 3 years 4-5 years 6 - 7 years

*Note: The times presented above also apply to recovery from the effects of marijuana. Stronger drugs such as heroin or cocaine generally require a longer time for recovery.

Until the period of recovery is complete, it is recommended that the complete range of foods recommended as a part of macrobiotic practice be included on a regular basis. The percentage of grains is best kept within the general 40 to 60 percent range, while other foods may be increased according to need and personal desire. For example, sea vegetables may be 10 percent instead of 5 percent, or beans and bean products may be 15 percent instead of 10 percent. If the person experiences problems with the withdrawal of drugs, the percentage of vegetables, fruits, and or fish may be increased and the percentage of grains decreased slightly until the symptoms improve. During the period of recovery from the previous use of drugs, improvement is gradual but may be interrupted by occasional recurrence of symptoms associated with drug use. The seminor relapses may include occasional strange or disturbing dreams during sleep, overexcitement or depression, hypersensitivity, general anxiety or feelings of cowardice, laziness or sloppiness, irregularity in writing, speaking, or difficulty with schoolwork, frequent changes of mind and difficulty in making decisions or thinking clearly, low resistance to cold weather or infection, slow rate of wound healing, periodic drowsiness or loss of appetite, difficulty going to sleep or sleeping soundly, and others. Which of these symptoms will appear depends on the former medical history of each person, but none is necessarily cause for serious concern, since they generally disappear of themselves as the healing process proceeds. However, until the period of recovery is complete, persons

57 who were placed on drugs or who chose to take them may experience any of these symptoms. When people experience behavioral problems, and while they are recovering a more natural balance, parents, teachers, and others involved in daily care need to devote time and energy into creating a loving, patient, and supportive atmosphere. The macrobiotic dietary approach, when combined with a loving, warm, and understanding attitude, offers a sane and humane approach to hyperactivity and other behavioral disorders. It offers people with these problems an opportunity to become healthy and productive members of society and to realize their fullest potential, free from artificial dependence.

Depression Depression, like its opposite condition, mania, is classified as an affective disorder, in which the main problem involves mood. Like other disorders of body and mind, these conditions can be understood more clearly when we see them in terms of yin and yang. Modern psychology recognizes the polar, or yin and yang nature of these disorders. Depression often occurs in cycles—episodes may last for one or two days or for several months or more—and researchers have begun to correlate these with natural rhythms such as the 24-hour daily cycle, the changing of the seasons, and the body's internal biological clocks. In the unipolar form of the condition, episodes of depression alternate with periods of more normal mood. In the bipolar form, periods of depression alternate with opposite periods of frantic activity known as mania, and the patient experiences drastic swings between both extremes. The bipolar form of the condition is also called manicdepressive psychosis. According to the National Institutes of Health, about five percent of the American population suffers from major depressive illness. Milder forms of depression are far more common. Suicide, often the

outcome of severe depression, is the second leading cause of death among men between the ages of 25 and 45. The suicide rate in the United States is now estimated to be about 75,000 per year, and, as we saw earlier, the rate among young people has increased dramatically over the last several decades. Depression is related to problems in the pancreas, and to imbalances in the level of sugar, or glucose, in the blood. The pancreas secretes the hormones insulin and anti-insulin. Insulin keeps the blood sugar level down, while anti-insulin causes it to rise. Both hormones are properly balanced in the healthy person, and the level of blood sugar is also kept in moderate balance. In macrobiotic thinking, insulin is a more yang hormone, and anti-insulin is more yin. Elevated blood sugar indicates a more yin blood condition, while low blood sugar means that the condition has become more yang. As we discuss in our book, Diabetes and Hypoglycemia, when blood sugar rises, insulin is automatically secreted in order to bring it down. If, for example, someone eats refined sugar, ice cream, fruit, chocolate, or some other type of simple sugar, the level of sugar in the blood rises rapidly, and insulin is secreted. Salty foods, concentrated animal fats, or proteins lower blood sugar, and when this happens, the pancreas secretes anti-insulin in order to bring it up. If we are healthy, pancreatic hormones help the body maintain the proper level of sugar in the blood. However, many people have been consuming extreme foods since childhood, and these disrupt the secretion of pancreatic hormones. Two eggs, bacon, and a glass of milk for breakfast; a cheese sandwich or a pizza for lunch; and steak, hamburger, or an omelet for dinner

59 are common in diets today. These foods are high in saturated fats, and when eaten excessively, cause hard fats to accumulate in the pancreas, making the organ become hard and tight. In this condition the pancreas it cannot secrete anti-insulin properly; yet insulin keeps being secreted. This causes the level of sugar in the blood to become chronically low. To compensate for that, a person seeks sweets in an attempt to bring the sugar level back to normal. And that is when they reach for a soda, a chocolate bar, or a sugary dessert, or add plenty of sugar to their coffee or tea. Simple sugars (also known as mono- or disaccharides) have a simpler structure than do complex carbohydrates, such as those in whole grains, beans, and vegetables. These more complex carbohydrates are also known as polysaccharides. When we eat whole grains and vegetables, we get plenty of carbohydrates, but these are of the complex variety. These carbohydrates release their energy more slowly and steadily, resulting in a more even balance in the level of blood sugar. However, when the carbohydrate source is chocolate, sugar, or honey, sugar is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and burns very quickly. The sugar level rapidly goes up, and the person temporarily feels comfortable, happy, and sociable. If it stays elevated beyond normal levels, he may begin to experience mania. But since the sugar burns so fast, the level again becomes low, and the person starts to feel depressed and anxious. This is especially true when atmospheric conditions are more heavy and downward moving, as they are during gray, rainy days. On days like that a person feels the effects of low blood sugar more acutely, and can experience more severe depression, anxiety, and insecurity. If we compare the atmosphere in the morning to that in the afternoon, we see that in the morning atmospheric conditions are lighter and more upward moving. We tend to feel more optimistic and positive as the sun comes up. But in the afternoon, the atmosphere becomes more quiet and downward moving, and, if the blood sugar level goes down as well, a person can become depressed, irritable, fearful, and experience strong cravings for sweets. At night, when the atmosphere is dark and quiet, someone with low blood sugar may feel cold, especially in the hands and feet, and may start to feel they are sinking.

6o They often cling to their husband or wife while sleeping, or if they are alone, to their pillow, because they feel fearful and insecure. 2 PM

12 PM Fig. 15

Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and the daily cycle of energy

When the sugar level dips below normal, a person will crave sweets, alcohol, or experience the sensation of hunger. They seek food in order to bring the sugar level back to normal. If an individual receives criticism while he is experiencing low blood sugar, or if people around him say something unpleasant, the person can easily become irritated, tense, and upset, and an argument or fight may start. These arguments usually do not happen after a big meal or when someone eats plenty of sugar. They normally happen after a person's blood sugar level becomes low. This condition frequently underlies family arguments, including spouse and child abuse. Many crimes fit the profile of blood sugar imbalance presented above. In many cases, persons with chronic low blood sugar will turn to alcohol to try to relieve depression and raise their blood sugar level. As we saw above, blood sugar tends to become lower in the afternoon and evening. In the evening, many people with severe hypoglycemia feel depressed, anxious, and seek alcohol to relieve their condition.

6i They may go to a bar or a nightclub and begin drinking. Feelings of fear and insecurity, which hypoglycemic persons experience at night, can easily lead to offensive or overly-protective behavior. Fights, or spontaneous explosions of violent behavior, can easily occur late in the evening or in the early morning hours among persons with this condition. The over-consumption of alcohol, as a result of hypoglycemia, is also a major cause of traffic accidents, and the large number of injuries and deaths that result. The problem of alcohol abuse is considered by many to be the number one drug problem in the United States; a condition associated with many other social problems. It is estimated that at least 60 percent of violent homicides involve consumption of alcohol prior to the attack. In about 40 percent of male rapes of adult women, the offender was found to be intoxicated. About one in four people in mental institutions is or has been alcoholic, while alcohol abuse is directly involved in half of all the traffic deaths each year in the United States. Writing in his book, Diet, Crime, and Delinquency, Alexander Schauss states that "There is a vast medical literature suggesting the role blood sugar disorders can play in antisocial behavior." He also states that " T h e role blood sugar imbalances play in behavior has also received wide-spread attention." Researchers have begun to link hypoglycemia with depression, hyperactivity, and antisocial behavior. Prison populations have been found to contain many people with hypoglycemia— as many as 80 to 85 percent according to some studies. In a classic study on the dietary habits of people in prison, conducted at the Morristown, New Jersey, Rehabilitation Center in 1975, it was discovered that inmates consumed huge quantities of sugar, much more than average amounts eaten by the population in general. Many inmates were found to be sugar addicts; they ate large amounts of candy, drank plenty of coffee sweetened with sugar, and frequently added sugar to foods at the table. The Morristown study went on to suggest that "Diet changes to treat existing hypoglycemia and diet education should be implemented immediately in jails and prisons." One of the pioneer studies in modifying the behavior of an inmate population through dietary change was initiated by Frank Kern, a graduate of the Kushi Institute, who is the assistant director of the Tidewater Detention Homes in Virginia. The Tidewater research pro-

62 ject was conducted by Stephen Schoenthaler, a criminologist and researcher at the University of Southern Mississippi. Mr. Schoenthaler described the results of the project in a letter to Frank Kern: "When you requested that my associates and I revise your institutional diet and measure the impact the change would have upon the incarcerated juveniles, I admit I was somewhat skeptical. Many theoretically sound programs in corrections have failed when carefully evaluated. Nevertheless, as an objective social scientist, I attempted to develop a valid unbiased research design which would be capable of measuring the impact of the dietary change. I have had the research design reviewed by several of my colleagues at Virginia Wesleyan College as well as peers in colleges and universities in Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana. There is a consensus that the design is not flawed. "As you recall, the primary goal was to modify the children's diet in such a manner that it would be (i) politically noncontroversial by being consistent with accepted medical standards, (2) financially practical, (3) easy to implement in other institutions, and (4) capable of being scientifically evaluated. Using these guidelines, a simple reduction in sucrose seemed to be the best initial project. The literature on sugar strongly suggests that a reduction in sugar consumption has no adverse effects and is associated with the elimination or reduction of several negative behavioral characteristics such as hyperactivity, violent behavior, and delinquency. " T h e results of the study are truly amazing. The incidence of misbehavior resulting in institutional discipline has dropped 45 percent. It is important to state that the success of the project depended upon keeping the nine staff members who ultimately made the decisions to formally discipline the children unaware of the research. If they knew that the project was being done, they might have become more lenient and thereby made the project invalid. Therefore, keeping the staff in a state of ignorance was absolutely necessary. "Statistically, the likelihood of the results having been due to

63

random variation in the juvenile population is less than one percent. In short, the reduction of sugar consumption by the children seems to have almost cut the incidence of infractions in half. Neither my colleagues nor myself have been able to create an alternative explanation for this phenomenal success." Similar studies were conducted in institutions in California and Alabama, all with similar results. It was also discovered that behavior became worse once the studies were completed and the youths returned to their normal high sugar diets. These and similar studies have led to a movement within the corrections field to cut back or eliminate sugar and foods that contain it in juvenile institutions. In 1981, for example, the Los Angeles County Probation Department removed sugar and all foods processed with sugar—including soda, chocolate, and candy—from its juvenile facilities. As we saw in the discussion of hyperactivity, refined sugar, although certainly a large contributor, is often not the sole cause of uncontrollable behavior. In the case of hypoglycemia, the cause of imbalance between insulin and anti-insulin is the intake over a long period of time, of foods such as cheese, chicken, and eggs that make the pancreas hard and tight and interfere with its normal secretions. It is this condition that produces the craving for sugar, chocolate, ice cream, alcohol, or in some cases, drugs. The problem of hypoglycemia extends far beyond the walls of correctional facilities. In my estimate, as many as 60 percent of American adults have this condition in one degree or another. Many people constantly crave sweets or alcohol. Some turn to drugs to try to establish balance. As we have seen, hypoglycemia creates emotional instability, in extreme cases, it can lead to severe depression. Anti-depressant drugs may temporarily lighten symptoms, but they do not solve the underlying problem. They also produce a variety of negative side effects. Although a giant step in the direction of a more healthy dietary policy, simply removing refined sugar from the diets of prisoners or other people in correctional facilities does not go far enough. A more total dietary change, in the direction of complex carbohydrates such as those in whole grains, beans, and fresh vegetables, would produce

64 more dramatic and long-lasting results. James Dupree, a corrections administrator in Alabama has had several years of experience in reducing sugar intake in juvenile institutions, with remarkable results. Dupree reports "substantial improvements, not only in the types of antisocial behavior, but also in the frequency." The results were especially dramatic in the maximum security facility. However, Dupree told East West Journal that "cutting down on sugar seems to work with some, but not with others." These results, although encouraging in many cases, are similar to those of the Feingold approach to hyperactivity, in which about half of the children who are placed on the diet experience improvement. A dietary approach that recognizes the dynamic balance between yin and yang, and the role that extremes of either one play in bahavior, therefore, is required for the optimum result. As long as someone with hypoglycemia keeps eating chicken, eggs, or cheese, they will continue to crave sugar, chocolate, or ice cream, or have problems with alcohol or drugs. Their problem will get worse in time. T h e most fundamental solution is to restore normal functioning in the pancreas by basing the diet around the complex carbohydrates in whole grains and vegetables, while avoiding extremes such as excessive animal food consumption and the overintake of refined and other simple sugars. Over the last several decades, many people have become aware that heart disease is caused primarily by the heavy consumption of foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Because of this awareness, many people eliminated or reduced the intake of red meat, and started to eat chicken, eggs, and cheese instead. As a result, the rates of heart disease have degun to drop, but, the incidence of hypoglycemia has been increasing, along with depression and other emotional problems that are related to the condition of the pancreas. In some cases, the pancreas becomes so tight and hard that tumors begin to develop within it. T h e resulting cancer of the pancreas is very difficult to treat, and medical approaches offer persons with this condition very little hope. However, it can be prevented by changing our way of eating, and several people with this condition have experienced improvement after starting the macrobiotic diet. T h e principle of yin and yang can help clarify the biochemistry of

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depression and other mood disorders, and point the way toward a more natural dietary approach to these conditions. When blood sugar becomes elevated, this creates a more yin condition. To balance, the pancreas secretes insulin, and within the brain, the production of more yang neurotransmitters—those involved in arousal and motor activity— is stepped up. Conversely, when blood sugar becomes depressed, a more yang condition, a variety of balancing mechanisms are called into play. T h e pancreas reduces the output of insulin, while stepping up production of anti-insulin. In the brain, the production of activating neurotransmitters is curtailed, in many cases to the point of undersupply. The resulting shortage can lead to depression. The most fundamental way to correct imbalances in the internal chemistry of the body is through a naturally balanced diet. Hypoglycemia, together with related conditions such as depression, fear, anxiety, and antisocial behavior are all correctable through the practice of the macrobiotic diet and way of life.

Schizophrenia Over the past 60 years, as we have seen, the consumption of more centrally balanced, traditional foods, such as whole grains, fresh local vegetables, and beans, went down, while refined and more extremely balanced foods became popular. Together with the shift to the modern diet, heart attacks, cancer, mental illness, and social disharmony have increased. Within this overall pattern, individual differences are created by the way that each person or family chooses to eat. One person may eat more steak but fewer eggs, another, more fried chicken, and another, more fish or seafood. Someone may like ice cream, but dislike cake, and someone else may drink cola every day. No two people eat in exactly the same way, and individual differences always exist. Because of that, each person's physical and mental condition is different. No two people are exactly the same, although similar tendencies do exist. For example, when a person consumes plenty of extreme yin foods, such as sugar, tropical fruits, alcohol, or spices, his or her mind becomes dispersed, unsettled, and hyperactive. The

66 energy produced by these foods has a more upward and activating tendency. A person who eats plenty of these foods can have trouble keeping their thoughts focused or together, and at the extreme, may start to suffer from schizophrenia. If, on the other hand, someone eats plenty of meat, chicken, or salty cheese, their thinking can become more rigid, tight, and concentrated. They may stick to one thing only, and become stubborn and narrow minded. At the extreme, they may develop paranoia. T h e degree of schizophrenia or paranoia varies from person to person, and depends on the volume and kind of food consumed. T h e word "schizophrenia" comes from the greek schizo, "split" and phrene, "mind." It was first used in the early part of this century by Eugen Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist. The condition is quite prevalent in modern society: about 400,000 people in America are currently hospitalized with severe schizophrenia. A review of the major symptoms of schizophrenia confirms the primarily more yin nature of the condition. The most prevalent systems include:

T h i s disorder results from chronic imbalance in internal organs, especially the kidneys, liver, spleen, pancreas, lungs, small brain, and medulla oblongata. The underlying cause is the overconsumption of extremes of both yin and yang.

Fig. 16

Patient with catatonic schizophrenia who spent almost all of his waking t i m e in a crouched position

67 • Thought disturbances, including difficulty in maintaining one guiding or unified thought, with the tendency to skip from one unconnected idea to the next. • Problems in focusing attention, including the tendency to be frequently distracted by irrelevant thoughts and by stimulation from the environment. • Withdrawal from society and retreat into a private delusional world, in some cases, leading to the condition known as autism, in which the patient cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality. • Problems with communication, in which others have difficulty in understanding the patient. • Hallucinations, including "seeing" imaginary persons or things, or "hearing" nonexistent voices. • Lack of motivation, such as when patients become indifferent to their own fate or that of others, with such behavior as staring vacantly into space or speaking in a flat and toneless voice. • Inappropriate emotional responses, for example, responding with laughter to news of a relative's death, or becoming angry when someone says hello. • Behavioral disturbances, including bizarre mannerisms such as grimacing, or making odd repetitive movements, or remaining practically motionless for long periods of time, often in some unusual posture. In one type of schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia, the overintake of more yin and yang extremes combine to produce symptoms. T h e overintake of meat, poultry, eggs, and cheese combines with the overconsumption of sugar, tropical fruit, spices, chemicals, and other more extreme yin items to create a set of delusions that are often organized into a very elaborate system. Paranoid schizophrenics are often tense and suspicious, and often believe that external events have some special significance for them, personally. For example, the patient may observe strangers talking and believe they are talking about him, or may hear someone on the radio and believe the announcer is trying to convey some type of secret message. Many paranoid schizophrenics develop a delusion of persecution, in which they believe that some outside group or organization is spying on them, or plotting against them. Paranoid schizophrenia is the most common form of the disorder.

68 As with depression, blood sugar imbalances also play an important role in schizophrenia. Chronic low blood sugar, caused by overconsumption of poultry, cheese, eggs, and other more yang foods, leads to overintake of sugar, tropical fruits, and other more concentrated forms of yin. The chronic overconsumption of sugar and other more extreme yin items causes the cells in the brain and nervous system to become chronically weak and overexpanded, producing an eventual deterioration in mental functions. When the brain cells become overly yin, or expanded, they easily become oversensitive to more yang stimuli, including more activating neurotransmitters such as dopamine. According to the dopamine hypothesis, an oversensitivity to this neurotransmitter produces a chronic overstimulation in the brain. T h e patient becomes hypersensitive to more immediate sensory messages in the environment and loses touch with more yin shorter wave vibrations coming from greater distances. This leads to a cognitive overload and a decline in more refined thinking abilities. Many people with schizophrenia show symptoms of excess sugar consumption. This overconsumption disrupts the balance of vitamins and minerals in the body. Our blood normally maintains a weak alkaline condition, and when sugar, which is strongly alkaline, is introduced, an "acid reaction" takes place in order to make balance. Regular consumption causes the bloodstream to become overly acidic, and to compensate, internal reserves of minerals are mobilized to maintain proper blood pH. The minerals in daily foods and in the bloodstream are usually enough to meet this situation if it occurs occasionally. However, persons who consume plenty of sugar every day must depend on minerals stored deeper in the body, particularly on calcium stored in the bones and teeth. If this continues long enough, calcium depletion can result in weakening of the bones and in tooth decay. A common symptom of schizophrenia is numerous white spots on the fingernails. This is a sign of mineral deficiency resulting from the overconsumption of simple sugars and other yin foods, including refined sugar, honey, and corn syrup. Many schizophrenics also have a sweet odor on their breath, also the result of overconsuming sugar. A variety of mineral deficiencies and imbalances are also common, especially deficiencies in zinc, manganese, magnesium, and sodium.

69 The overconsumption of sugar also robs the body of the B-complex vitamins necessary for the synthesis of glutamic acid in the brain. The function of our judgment is to decide, in any situation, whether we proceed (go ahead) or control (stop). A key to this ability is glutamic acid, a vital compound found in many vegetables. When we taste the sweetness in cooked carrots and onions, for example, we are detecting glutamic acid. This substance divides into two complementary yet antagonistic compounds. One produces a "proceed" reaction, the other a "control" response. The B-vitamins play a very important part in this process. Whole grains are rich in B-vitamins. These vitamins are also produced by symbiotic bacteria in the intestines. When someone eats plenty of sugar, every day, these bacteria die, and the stock of the Bvitamins becomes very low. The result is often cloudy thinking, loss of memory, and a loss of control over one's actions. Nearly 50 years ago, it was discovered that B-vitamin deficiencies were related to mental illness. About ten percent of the people who were diagnosed with schizophrenia and committed to mental hospitals in the South were found to be suffering from pellegra, a vitamin-B deficiency. When they were placed on corrective diets, their previously diagnosed "schizophrenia" cleared up, and their behavior returned to normal. The overconsumption of alcohol also robs the body of vitamins and minerals, including those in the vitamin-B group. Alcohol, which is more extremely yin, neutralizes more yang antidiuretic hormones. The person then urinates more frequently, causing the loss of water soluble vitamins and minerals. T h e relationship between alcohol abuse and crime is well documented, as we have seen. The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse estimates that as many as 40 percent of all deaths from accidents, homicides, and suicides are related to alcohol abuse, and that many young people who commit crimes do so under the influence of alcohol. The continual intake of an excessively unbalanced diet including high amounts of sugar, chemicalized foods, meat and other animal proteins, and milk and other dairy products overburdens and eventually weakens the body's organs of discharge including the intestines, lungs, kidneys, and skin. The body's ability to discharge toxins is correspond-

7o

ingly lessened. Deposits of mucus and fat begin to accumulate, and these deposits often contain high concentrations of aluminum, lead, and other toxic factors. When a person eats a moderately balanced diet, normal discharge processes including urination, bowel movement, sweating, and breathing are normally sufficient to discharge unused or excessive factors, including toxic substances taken in food, in the air, or through the skin. The more balanced foods in the macrobiotic diet contain compounds and substances that bind with toxic elements and cause them to be readily secreted from the body. Whole grains, fermented bean products such as miso and tamari, vegetables, and sea-vegetables all contain substances that help remove toxins. Similarly, macrobiotic way of life recommendations encourage the use of more natural and organic materials, avoiding toxic substances wherever possible. Cast iron, stainless steel, and enamel cookware is recommended rather than aluminum, and the use of deodorants, hair sprays, and other artificial body care products often become unnecessary as one's condition becomes more naturally healthy, thereby eliminating exposure to aluminum compounds in aerosol sprays as well as other artificial and potentially toxic substances. On the other hand, persons with schizophrenia and behavioral disorders frequently have higher than normal concentrations of these substances in their bodies. Exposure to lead is a by-product of modern civilization, it comes from breathing auto exhaust, from foods and drinks that have been contaminated, and from sources such as pottery glaze, plaster, putty, and paint. Cow's milk is also a source of lead; it is estimated to contain about 200 times as much lead as mother's milk. T h e connection between high lead levels, hyperactivity, and learning disorders in children has been documented in a variety of studies. Similarly, tests of juvenile delinquents have revealed that a majority suffer from learning disorders, and also have elevated levels of lead and other toxic metals in thier bodies. Allergies, especially to milk and other dairy products, are also being associated with delinquent behavior. In a study conducted by criminologist Alexander Schauss, and reported in Diet, Crime and Delinquency, the diets of a group of juvenile offenders were compared to other young people without behavioral problems. The male offenders

7i were found to drink an average of 64 ounces of milk a day compared to an average of 30 ounces of milk a day for the others. Two of the delinquent boys drank as many as 14 glasses of milk per day. Studies conducted by the San Luis Obispo County Probation Department found that young offenders frequently had intolerances and allergic reactions to milk. The medical records of nearly 90 percent of the young people studied revealed a history of these problems, and tests conducted by the Probation Department confirmed that 88 percent still had these conditions upon being tested. Overconsumption of dairy products leads to the formation of fat and mucus throughout the body. Since more oxygen is needed to carry hemoglobin to cells enveloped with mucus, the amount of oxygen available to the brain decreases, and dairy food contributes to uneven thinking, dulled reactions, and emotional dependency. Some of the findings linking excessive dairy food consumption with a wide variety of sicknesses including cramps and diarrhea, multiple forms of allergy, iron deficiency anemia in infants and children, aggressive and antisocial behavior, atherosclerosis and heart attacks, arthritis, and several forms of cancer are reported in Don't Drink Your Milk by Frank A. Oski, M.D. and John Bell. As we can see in the examples presented above, daily food is a primary factor in thinking, mood, and behavior. Dreams that occur during sleep also reveal the influence of diet. Horrible dreams, such as those of monsters such as Frankenstein or Dracula, are caused by the overconsumption of animal foods, especially hamburger, steak, and the like. Foods such as these can produce terrible, bloody nightmares. To cure nightmares, we must stop eating these foods. After a week or two there will be no more violent dreams. Dreams in which one is falling from a high place and screaming are caused by overconsumption of fruit and juices. The overintake of fruit and fruit juice causes the heart to become overly expanded and beat irregularly, as it does in cases of a heart murmur. During sleep, at the moment when the heart skips a beat, the sensation of falling is experienced. Minimizing the intake of fruit, especially raw fruit and juice, causes the heart to return to a more normal condition, and as a result, these dreams disappear. Dreaming of fire indicates the consumption of too many spicy foods such as mustard, pepper, curry, ginger, and others, together

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with meat. If one dreams that he or she is traveling long distances or swimming in the ocean, the cause is an excessive intake of fish. Dreams in which one sees oneself drowning are caused by too many liquids. Excessive fluid causes brain cells to become overexpanded and watery. Examining dreams can help us to understand how food affects our physical and mental condition. The images we see while awake are also created by day to day eating. The images and dialogue in Star Wars, for example, came about because the writer and director were eating a certain way. The film became very popular because many people eat in a similar way, and have a similar imagination. Since the audience's way of eating is very similar to that of the film's creators, when they see the film they think it is great. Different ways of eating produce different patterns of thinking. A diet of heavy animal foods, for example, causes the rear portions of the brain to become more active. On the other hand, a diet of more extreme yin foods such as soda, salad, fruit juice, ice cream, chocolate, honey, and sugar activates the front sections of the brain. The front portions, including the cerebral cortex, are involved in creating future visions, while the rear portions generate memories of the past. People who eat more yin foods tend to be more liberal and oriented toward the future, while people who eat more beef, veal, or eggs tend to think more about the past and have a more conservative approach. There is only a three inch difference between more liberal or new wave thinking and more conservative or traditional thinking. So when members of the young, new wave generation talk, their parents, who often consume plenty of more yang foods, may not be able to understand them. And when parents want to talk to their children, the children, who are eating plenty of more extreme yin foods, often cannot understand, and this results in what is sometimes called the "generation gap." In some cases, the separation between parents and children becomes so wide that the children want to run away, and seek freedom, and the family splits apart. The number of teenage runaways, for example, has been increasing; between i960 and 1975 there were more than 750,000 runaway children. The modern family has lost the traditional practice of eating together. Parents eat by themselves in a restaurant or at the office,

73 while their children eat with their friends at coffee shops, pizzerias, or at school. So, of course, parents and children cannot share the same mind or way of thinking. In order to have a happy family life and restore togetherness, the most important condition is to restore good family cooking. If the members of a family live separately, they can at least share a similar way of eating. But if that way of eating is based on foods such as steak, hamburger, eggs, and cheese, then the members of the family risk the development of cancer, heart disease, or some other degenerative condition, or of seeing one or more family members suffer from depression. If their way of eating includes plenty of honey, ice cream, sugar, and tropical fruits, they risk developing conditions such as breast or skin cancer, schizophrenia, hyperactivity, herpes, or even AIDS. According to the Centers for Disease Control, between 30 and 100 million people in the United States already have herpes. As we saw earlier, if the number of people with AIDS continues to expand geometrically, within five years, this disease could affect every family. It is already causing a crisis in the nation's jails and prisons. Many of the people who developed A I D S had particular habits in the past, including the use of drugs, as well as the overintake of sweets and sugar, milk, butter, cheese and other dairy foods, and tropical fruits such as bananas, papayas, mangoes, and orange juice. Many AIDS patients also consumed plenty of oily and greasy foods. This type of eating weakens the blood condition. When a person takes drugs, which are very yin, and consumes plenty of extreme yin foods such as sugar, chocolate, and tropical fruits (all of which are very juicy, sweet, and expanded, and decompose very rapidly), and uses a lot of more yin oils, their body cells, including those in the immune system, gradually become very weak. As a result, immune ability diminishes. If the A I D S virus is introduced, it can easily take root and become active. A I D S Related Complex (ARC) leading to full blown A I D S is the natural result of this condition. The extreme overconsumption of more yin foods and beverages causes the white blood cells to begin decomposing, while the body's tissues, which are also made up of cells, also start to decay. Meanwhile, the body tries to discharge toxins, including excess fat and sugar, in order to continue functioning. These toxins either discharge toward

74 the surface of the body, for example, through the skin, or toward those internal organs, such as lungs or intestines, that present a pathway to the outside. These discharges can result in conditions such as Kaposi's sarcoma, the type of cancer that many people with A I D S develop. As A I D S progresses, the entire body begins to decay, and this is simply the decomposition of foods such as chocolate, sugar, soft drinks, and oily and greasy items, as well as drugs, including those taken in the past in the form of medication. A variety of modern practices weaken immune response and can contribute to the development of immune deficiencies. They also affect our mental and emotional health. T h e tonsils and adenoids are very important to the normal functioning of the immune system. Removing them weakens a person's natural immunity. Today, many babies are not breast-fed, and are instead given cow's milk formulas. After delivery, and for several days before mother's milk comes in, the breasts secrete a yellowish liquid called colostrum. Colostrum contains antibodies that convey natural immunity. When babies do not receive colostrum, their future immune abilities are weakened, and especially so if the mother took plenty of sugar, soda, alcohol, or chemicalized food during pregnancy. The declining quality of modern foods also contributes to a reduction in immune power. If we look at commercial vegetables, for example, including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, carrots, and others, we see their quality is different than it was 25 years ago. Vegetables are now bigger, more "beautiful," and more expanded as the result of increasing use of chemicals and fertilizers. Our parents and grandparents ate much smaller carrots, apples, oranges, and beans. The eggs they consumed were often from organically fed, fertilized hens. If you place eggs such as these in a warm place, they will hatch into baby chicks. If you do the same with commercial eggs, they will decay. Besides, as we saw, chickens, beef cattle, pigs, and egg laying hens are given chemicalized feed, antibiotics, and more yin hormones which make them become bigger and fatter more quickly. People are also consuming a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that are imported from tropical climates, including New Zealand and other places in the southern hemisphere. As reported in Time (August, 1986), fruits and vegetables such as cherimoya, jicama, loquat, malanga, tamarillo, ceriman, carambola, chayote, pomelo, kiwi, kiwano, and

75 others from tropical regions of Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean have become fashionable in the United States. Consumption of these more extreme yin products weakens our adaptability to the climate in North America, and contributes to a lessening of natural immunity. Vegetables, grains, and fruits have also become more yin as the result of modern agricultural practices. Add to that the enormous consumption of sugar, plus other more extreme yin products such as chocolate, alcohol, drugs, and medications, and we can see why, compared to several generations ago, people have become much weaker, both physically and mentally. Several generations ago people were generally shorter and sturdier. They had endurance and were hard workers. Now, people can't carry on. They are also taller, on average. Nowadays, many people cannot stand cold weather and move to Florida, California, or some other hot place. Few people move to Nova Scotia or Canada. On the whole, modern people are much weaker, and so naturally, we see the rapid spread of AIDS, herpes, and cancer, as well as schizophrenia and mental illness. T h e cause of these problems is modern civilization itself. But we accept and approve of it, and we enjoy its benefits. Therefore, these problems are the result of our own thinking and behavior. The most sure way to correct them is to self-reflect on our mistakes and resolve to change for the better.

The Macrobiotic Approach As we have seen, a properly balanced diet is the most fundamental way to correct the imbalances that create behavioral disorders, including antisocial behavior, as well as the abuse of drugs and alcohol. Changing the overall dietary pattern toward the complex carbohydrates in whole grains, beans, and fresh vegetables helps restore the pancreas to more normal, healthy functioning, and modulates extremes in the level of blood sugar. As this more traditionally balanced diet is adopted, the craving for more extreme substances, including refined sugar, alcohol, and drugs will gradually diminish. Behavior will also begin to stabilize, and a more calm, peaceful, and orderly disposition will emerge. Let us now examine the outlines of the standard macrobiotic diet.

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This way of eating, with the necessary modifications for each individual, can serve as the basis for the recovery from various mental disorders, as well as for an effective approach to social rehabilitation. T h e standard macrobiotic diet has been practiced widely throughout history in every major culture. In modern times it has often been misunderstood due to a lack of information and understanding of the dietary practices of traditional cultures. Macrobiotic eating is very broad. Dietary practices such as those presented below have been observed by hundreds of thousands of people, especially in the last 15 years—people wishing to attain better health and create well-being within their families and society. The macrobiotic approach has also been adopted by a variety of institutions such as prisons, hospitals, and correctional facilities, with positive and encouraging results. However, macrobiotics offers more than just an orderly way of eating. It encompasses a whole lifestyle that respects human tradition and the order of nature, with the spirit of fostering personal and social well-being and creating a healthy and peaceful world. In contrast to modern dietary habits, macrobiotic eating is based on the following nutritional considerations: 1) More complex carbohydrates and fewer simple sugars; 2) More vegetable quality protein and less protein from animal sources; 3) Less overall consumption of fat—more unsaturated fat and less saturated fat; 4) Adequate consideration of the ideal balance between vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional factors; 5) Use of more organically grown natural quality food and fewer chemically sprayed or fertilized items; 6) Use of more traditionally processed foods and fewer artificially and chemically processed foods; 7) A larger intake of foods in their whole form and less intake of refined and partial foods; and 8) More consumption of foods rich in natural fiber rather than foods that have been devitalized.

77 The macrobiotic way of eating is similar in orientation to dietary guidelines issued by the following public health agencies: 1) The United States Congress, Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs' publication, Dietary Goals For the United States (1976); 2) The U.S. Surgeon General's report, Healthy People: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (1979); 3) Dietary guidelines issued by the American Heart Association, The American Diabetes Association, The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture; 4) A 1981 report by a panel of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; 5) The dietary guidelines for cancer prevention issued by the National Academy of Sciences in the 1982 report, Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer; and 6) Dietary guidelines issued by the American Cancer Society (1984). The standard macrobiotic way of eating is not designed for any particular person nor for a particular condition. It is designed for the purpose of maintaining physical and psychological health, and for the well-being of society in general. It further serves in many instances to prevent degenerative diseases and promote possible recovery. These basic guidelines have been practiced daily for more than 20 years by hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world, including many families. Furthermore, the same or similar dietary practice has been observed traditionally among many cultures for thousands of years. A number of institutions, including prisons and hospitals have begun to incorporate macrobiotic principles in their food selection and meal preparation. T h e articles in the following chapters detail several of these experiences. The guidelines presented below are designed particularly for people who live in a temperate climate. Modifications are required for people in a tropical and subtropical climate, as well as those in polar and semipolar regions.

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T h e macrobiotic way of eating is derived from bioecological principles. It is based on harmony with nature, and: • Considers human needs within the order of biological life. • Respects centuries' old dietary customs from cultures throughout the world. • Can be readily adapted to climatic, seasonal, and environmental differences. • Considers social and economic requirements and can be practiced widely throughout the world at a reasonable cost. • Satisfies the nutritional balance and basic requirements for human needs. Below we examine each category of food in the standard macrobiotic diet.

Beans and Sea Vegetables 5-10% Plus Supplementary Foods

Fig. 17

T h e standard macrobiotic diet

79 WHOLE GRAINS: Within the standard macrobiotic way of eating and especially in a temperate climate, whole grains are an essential part of the daily diet. They comprise 40 to 60 percent (average 50 percent) of the daily intake of food. Kinds of Whole Grains and Grain Products: Brown Rice Brown rice—short, medium, and long grain Genuine brown rice cream Puffed brown rice Brown rice flour products Brown rice flakes Sweet Brown Rice Sweet brown rice grain Mochi (pounded sweet brown rice) Sweet brown rice flour products Wild Rice Wild rice grain Whole Wheat Whole wheat berries Whole wheat bread Whole wheat chapatis Whole wheat noodles and pasta Whole wheat flakes Whole wheat flour products, such as crackers, matzos, muffins, and others Couscous Bulgur Fu (baked puffed wheat gluten) Seitan (wheat gluten) Barley Barley grain Pearl barley Pearled barley Puffed barley Barley flour products

Rye Rye grain Rye bread Rye flakes Rye flour products Millet Millet grain Millet flour products Puffed millet Oats Whole oats Steel cut oats Rolled oats Oatmeal Oat flakes Oat flour products and puffed oats Corn Corn on the cob Corn grits Corn meal Arepas Corn flour products such as corn bread, muffins, etc. Puffed corn Popped corn Buckwheat Buckwheat groats Buckwheat noodles and pasta Buckwheat flour products, such as pancakes, etc. Other Traditional Grains, such as triticale, etc. Cooking Styles for Whole Grains Pressure-cooking Boiling Steaming Baking Frying, such as fried rice or noodles Roasting

8i Other traditionally practiced and commonly used cooking styles Cooking Varieties for Whole Grains Cook with a pinch of sea salt Occasionally cook with vegetables Occasionally cook with beans Occasionally cook with other grains Occasionally cook with sea vegetables Occasionally cook with fish or seafood (paella) Occasionally cook in soup with vegetables and sea vegetables Cook as a breakfast porridge Other traditionally practiced and commonly used methods of cooking Seasonings That can be Used When Cooking Whole Grains: Season with or without a pinch of sea salt Season with or without a touch of tamari soy sauce (fermented soybean and grain soy sauce) Season with or without miso (fermented soybean and grain paste) Season with sea vegetables Season with pickled umeboshi plum Other traditionally practiced and commonly used seasonings SO UP: T h e macrobiotic way of eating recommends, under normal circumstances, an average consumption of one or two cups or bowls of soup each day. Kinds of Soup: Light broth for noodles or pasta Vegetable soup Vegetable and sea vegetable (usually wakame or kombu) soup Bean and vegetable soup Grain and vegetable soup Fish and vegetable soup Fish, vegetable, and sea vegetable soup Noodle vegetable soup

Mochi and vegetable soup Bread and vegetable soup Dumpling and vegetable soup Stew with grains, vegetables, beans, sea vegetables, and/or fish and seafood Other traditionally used and commonly consumed soups Kinds of Vegetables Usually Used in Soup: Acorn squash Jinenjo Bok choy Kale Broccoli Leeks Brussels sprouts Lambsquarter Burdock Lotus root Mustard greens Buttercup squash Mushrooms Butternut squash Onion Cabbage Parsley Carrots Carrot tops Patty pan squash Celery Parsnip Celery root Radish Cauliflower Red cabbage Chives Rutabaga Scallions Chinese cabbage Shiitake mushrooms Coltsfoot Snap beans Daikon Snow peas Daikon greens Sprouts Dandelion leaves Summer squash Dandelion roots Turnips Endive Turnip greens Escarole Watercress Hubbard squash Wax beans Hokkaido pumpkin Green beans Other traditionally used and commonly consumed vegetables Kinds of Grains Used in Soup: Wholewheat dumplings Brown rice Corn Buckwheat noodles and pasta

Millet Couscous Barley Mochi Oats Other traditionally used and commonly consumed grains Buckwheat Whole wheat noodles and pasta Kinds of Beans Usually Used in Soup: Lentils Azuki beans Split peas Black Beans Other beans Chick-peas (garbanzo beans) Kinds of Sea Vegetables Most Popularly Used in Soup: Nori Wakame Kombu Dulse Other edible sea vegetables Fish and Seafood Occasionally Used in Soup: Carp Herring Cod Scrod Dried fish Snapper Small dried fish Sole (iriko) Trout Flounder Other white-meat fish Haddock Less frequently used seafood: Cherrystone clam Littleneck clam Clams Crab Lobster Octopus Oysters Seasonings for Soup: Miso Tamari soy sauce Sea salt

84 Sesame or corn oil (occasionally) Other traditionally used and commonly consumed condiments Garnishes for Soup: Grated ginger root (occasional use) Nori sea vegetable Parsley Scallions Others VEGETABLES: A wide selection of vegetable dishes prepared in a variety of cooking styles may comprise approximately 30 percent of daily food intake. Kinds of Vegetables: Acorn squash Kale Bok choy Kohlrabi Broccoli Leeks Burdock root Lotus root Lambsquarter Buttercup squash Butternut squash Mushrooms Mustard greens Cabbage Celery Onion Celery root Parsley Parsnip Carrots Pumpkin Carrot tops Cauliflower Patty pan squash Chinese cabbage Radish Chives Red cabbage Collard greens Romaine lettuce Coltsfoot Scallions Cucumber Shiitake mushrooms Daikon Snap beans Daikon greens Summer squash Dandelion leaves Turnip Dandelion roots Turnip greens Endive Watercress Wax beans Escarole

85 Winter melon Green beans Wild grasses that have Green peas been used widely Hokkaido pumpkin for centuries Hubbard squash Other vegetables that Iceberg lettuce have been traditionally used Jinenjo and commonly consumed Jerusalem artichoke Cooking Styles for Vegetables: Raw salad Pressed salad (salt and pressure added for a few hours to a few days) Boiled salad (adding vegetables to boiling water and cooking for i to 3 minutes) Boiling Baking Broiling Steaming Water sauteing Oil sauteing (using a small volume of vegetable quality oil) Waterless cooking (cooking with a small volume of water and high steam until the water evaporates) Deep-frying (usually with a batter made of whole wheat unrefined flour) Pickling Other traditionally used and commonly practiced cooking styles Seasonings for Vegetable Dishes: Miso Tamari soy sauce Sea salt Mirin (fermented sweetener made of sweet brown rice) Brown rice vinegar Umeboshi plum (pickled plum) vinegar Oil (sesame, corn, mustard seed, safflower, sunflower, or olive) Note: Vegetables can be served in a variety of ways:

86 Cooked in soup Cooked with grains Cooked with beans Cooked with sea vegetables Used as an ingredient in sushi Served with noodle or pasta dishes Cooked and served with fish or seafood Used as an ingredient in dessert dishes BEANS: The standard macrobiotic way of eating recommends regular consumption of beans and bean products. Beans may comprise 5 to 10 percent of daily food intake. Kinds of Beans: Azuki beans Navy beans Black-eyed peas Pinto beans Black turtle beans Soybeans Black soybeans Split peas Chick-peas (garbanzo Whole dried peas Bean sprouts beans) Other beans which have Great northern beans been traditionally Kidney beans used and commonly Lentils consumed Lima beans Mung beans Kinds of Bean Products: Dried tofu (soybean curd that has been dried) Fresh tofu Okara (residue in making tofu) Natto (fermented soybeans) Tempeh (fermented soybeans) Cooking Styles for Beans: Pressure-cooking Boiling Roasting Baking Fermenting Steaming

8? Other traditionally used and commonly practiced cooking styles Cooking Variations for Beans: Cook beans with a pinch of sea salt or miso Cook beans with sea vegetables, usually kombu sea vegetable Cook with carrots or onions Cook with acorn or buttercup squash Cook with chestnuts Cook with vegetables Cook as dessert Other traditionally used and commonly practiced cooking varieties Seasonings Generally Used in Cooking Beans: Sea salt Miso Tamari soy sauce Mirin Barley malt Rice malt Oil (vegetable quality) Garnishes Generally Used with Beans (depending upon the particular dish): Grated ginger root Sweet brown rice vinegar Grated fresh daikon Mustard Grated fresh radish Umeboshi vinegar Grated fresh horseradish Other traditionally used and Chopped fresh scallions commonly consumed Chopped fresh onions garnishes Brown rice vinegar SEA VEGETABLES: The standard macrobiotic way of eating recommends that sea vegetables be consumed daily or frequently as side dishes or in the preparation of other foods. Sea vegetables may comprise a small percentage of daily intake. Kinds of Sea Vegetables: Arame Nekombu (kombu root) Agar-agar Nori

88 Wakame Dulse Other sea vegetables Hijiki that have been Irish moss traditionally used (sea moss) and commonly consumed Kombu Mekabu (wakame's flowering sprout) Cooking Styles for Sea Vegetables: Pickling Boiling Waterless cooking Steaming Drying Deep-frying Roasting Soaked and raw Toasting Cooking Variations for Sea Vegetables : Cook sea vegetables alone Cook with beans Cook with grains Cook in vegetable dishes Cook as gelatin Cook in sauces Cook with fish or seafood Cook in soup Other FISH AND SEAFOOD: The standard macrobiotic way of eating recommends fish and seafood as an occasional supplement to the above categories of food—grains, soups, vegetables, beans, and beverages. T h e amount of fish or seafood can vary according to personal needs and can range from once in a while to several times a week. The average, however, is twice or three times a week—with the amount not exceeding 20 percent of the total volume of food consumed that day. The kinds of fish and seafood recommended are those with less saturated fat and those which are most easily digested. Kinds of Fish and Seafood: Carp Herring Cod Scrod Dried fish Smelt Small dried fish Snapper

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Sole (iriko) Trout Flounder Other white-meat fish Haddock Halibut Seafood Used Occasionally: Octopus Cherrystone clams Oysters Littleneck clams Lobster Clams Shrimp Crab Infrequently Used Fish (not preferred for regular use): Tuna Bluefish Other blue-skinned Salmon or red-meat fish Sardines Swordfish Variety of Cooking Styles for Fish and Seafood: Raw and fresh (sashimi and sushi) Marinated Steamed Boiled Baked Broiled Sauteed Pan-fried Deep-fried (tempura) Dried and then boiled Dried and then steamed Dried and then baked Fish flakes Pickled Smoked Other traditionally used and commonly practiced cooking styles Cooking Variations for Fish and Seafood: Cooked in soup Cooked as a separate dish Cooked in stew Cooked with grains (paella)

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Cooked with vegetables Cooked with sea vegetables Used as flavoring and seasoning in soup, vegetable, or other dishes Served with raw fresh salad Served as fish cake Other traditionally used and commonly prepared varieties Garnishes Used to Balance Fish and Seafood Dishes: Chopped scallions Lemon Grated daikon Orange Grated radish Fresh beefsteak (shiso) leaves Grated ginger root Green mustard paste Other traditionally used and Grated horseradish commonly consumed Shredded daikon garnishes Raw fresh salad Seasonings for Fish and Seafood: Sea salt Tamari soy sauce Miso Black peppercorns Red pepper Rice vinegar Sesame oil, corn oil, safflower oil, mustard seed oil, olive oil Mirin Umeboshi vinegar Tofu sauce seasoned with some of the above ingredients Kuzu sauce seasoned with some of the above ingredients Oil sauce seasoned with some of the above ingredients Other traditionally used and commonly consumed seasonings FR UIT: The standard macrobiotic way of eating includes occasional consumption of fruit, depending upon climate, season, personal need, and circumstances. All traditionally used and commonly consumed fruits growing in a temperate climate are included. The regular use of tropical fruits in a temperate climate is not recommended. Kinds of Fruit:

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Apples Plums Apricots Raisins Blackberries Raspberries Cantaloupe Strawberries Grapes Tangerines Grapefruit Watermelon Wild berries Honeydew melon Other fruits traditionally grown Lemons in a temperate climate Mulberries Oranges Persimmon Peaches Variety of Serving Styles for Fruit: Fresh and raw Fresh, raw, and soaked in lightly salted water Grated Boiled Baked Steamed Juice as a beverage or flavoring Preserves Spread on bread or other baked flour products As an ingredient in stuffing As a dessert As an ingredient and flavoring in kuzu or agar-agar gelatin Baked in bread Dried fruit as a snack, garnish, or dessert Pickled fruit Deep-fried fruit (in a batter) Served as a garnish Fermented beverages Other traditionally used and commonly consumed serving styles PICKLES: The standard macrobiotic way of eating recommends frequent use of pickles as a supplement to various main dishes and for the purpose of stimulating appetite and encouraging digestion.

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Some pickles are available in natural food stores, while many can be prepared at home. Some are ready in a few hours; others require more time—from a few days to a few seasons. Kinds of Food Often Used in Making Pickles: Anchovies Olives Apricots Onions Burdock root Pumpkin Broccoli Radishes, red and white Red cabbage Cabbage Scallions Carrots Squash Cauliflower Caviar Turnips Chinese cabbage Salmon Cucumbers Sardines Other traditionally used and Daikon commonly selected foods for Herring making pickles Leeks Lotus root Mustard greens Methods Used in Pickling: Brine pickles Bran pickles Miso pickles Pressed pickles Salt and water pickles Salt pickles Sauerkraut Takuan pickles (daikon pickled in rice bran and salt) Tamari soy sauce pickles Umeboshi pickles Other traditionally used and commonly practiced pickling methods NUTS: The standard macrobiotic way of eating can include occasional consumption of various kinds of nuts in the form of snacks, garnishes, or as an ingredient in desserts.

93 Kinds of Nuts: Almonds Pecans Chestnuts Pinenuts Filberts Small Spanish nuts Peanuts Walnuts Less Frequently Used Nuts: Brazil nuts Other traditionally used and Cashews commonly consumed nuts Macadamia nuts Variety of Serving Styles for Nuts : Roasted with sea salt Roasted without sea salt Roasted and sweetened with barley malt Roasted and sweetened with rice malt Roasted and seasoned with tamari soy sauce Ground into nut butter Shaved and served as a topping, garnish, or ingredient in other dishes Cooked in grain flour products, such as cookies, cakes, muffins, pastries, pies, and other desserts and breads Served with dried fruits as a snack Other traditionally used and commonly practiced serving methods SEEDS: The standard macrobiotic way of eating includes occasional consumption of seeds prepared in a variety of ways. Kinds of Seeds: Sunflower seeds Alfalfa seeds Umeboshi plum seeds Black sesame seeds White sesame seeds Plum seeds Other traditionally used and Poppy seeds Pumpkin seeds commonly consumed seeds Squash seeds Serving Styles for Seeds: As Condiments: Dried and ground

94 Roasted and ground Roasted and ground with sea salt With umeboshi powder and sea salt With miso As Snacks: Dried and served alone Roasted and served alone Baked with flour products such as cookies, crackers, breads, cakes, and other baked flour products As an ingredient in candies Other traditionally used and commonly consumed snacks As Garnishes—sprinkled on various dishes such as: Grains Fish and seafood Soups Fruit Vegetable dishes Desserts Beans Seasonings Commonly Used with Seeds: Sea salt Tamari soy sauce Miso Barley malt Rice malt Other traditionally used and commonly consumed seasonings SNACKS: The standard macrobiotic way of eating includes daily or occasional use of a variety of natural snacks consumed in moderate amounts. Kinds of Snacks: Grain Based Snacks: Cookies, crackers, wafers, pancakes, muffins, bread, puffed brown rice, barley, oats, millet, corn, popcorn Mochi Noodles and pasta Rice balls Rice cakes Homemade sushi Roasted grains

95 Other traditionally used and commonly consumed natural snacks Bean Based Snacks: Roasted beans Boiled beans Nut Based Snacks: Nuts roasted and seasoned with sea salt Nuts roasted and seasoned with tamari soy sauce Nuts roasted and seasoned with barley malt Nuts roasted and seasoned with rice malt Nuts used in cookies, crackers, and as an ingredient in other baked flour products CONDIMENTS: The standard macrobiotic way of eating includes a wide variety of condiments for daily, regular, or occasional use. They are sprinkled on or added in small amounts to food to adjust taste and nutritional value of food and to help stimulate appetite. Condiments are commonly used for grains, soups, vegetable dishes, bean dishes, and sometimes with desserts. Kinds of Condiments: Gomashio (roasted sesame seeds and sea salt) Sea vegetable powder Sea vegetable powder with roasted sesame seeds Tekka (condiment made from soybean miso, sesame oil, burdock, lotus root, carrots, and ginger root) Umeboshi plum (pickled plum) Umeboshi plum and raw scallions or onions Shio kombu (kombu cooked with tamari soy sauce and water) Chopped shiso leaves (pickled beefsteak plant leaves) Roasted shiso leaves Green nori Yellow mustard (used mainly for fish and seafood) Green mustard (used mainly for fish and seafood) Cooked miso with scallions or onions Cooked nori condiment Roasted sesame seeds Other traditionally used and commonly consumed condiments

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SEASONINGS: The standard macrobiotic way of eating includes regular and occasional use of a variety of seasonings in cooking and before serving. The seasonings are all vegetable quality and are naturally processed. These seasonings have been used traditionally throughout the world. The use of seasonings should be moderate and adequate for personal needs. Kinds of Seasonings: Unrefined sea salt Tamari soy sauce Miso Examples of miso: Rice miso Barley miso Soybean miso Sesame miso Other traditionally used and commonly consumed misos Rice vinegar Lemon juice Brown rice vinegar Tangerine juice Umeboshi vinegar Orange juice Sauerkraut brine Red pepper Barley malt Green mustard paste Rice malt Yellow mustard paste Grated ginger root Sesame oil Grated daikon Corn oil Grated radish Safflower oil Horseradish Mustard seed oil Umeboshi paste Olive oil Umeboshi plum Seasonings Used Occasionally: Mirin (fermented sweet brown rice sweetener) Amazake (fermented sweet brown rice beverage) Freshly ground black pepper Sake lees (residue in making sake) Sake (fermented rice wine) Other natural seasonings which have been traditionally used and commonly consumed

97 GARNISHES: The standard macrobiotic way of eating emphasizes balance of qualities, tastes, nutritional factors, and energetic harmony. For that purpose, garnishes are used in small amounts to balance some dishes, especially for the purpose of creating easier digestion. Kinds of Garnishes: Grated daikon—used mainly as a garnish for the following: Fish and seafood Mochi Buckwheat noodles and pasta Natto Tempeh Grated radish—used mainly as a garnish for the following: Same as above Grated horseradish—used mainly as a garnish for the following: Same as above Chopped scallions—used mainly as a garnish for the following: Noodle and pasta dishes Fish and seafood Natto Tempeh T h e following: Grated ginger Freshly ground pepper Green mustard paste Lemon pieces may be used mainly as a garnish for: Soup Noodle and pasta dishes Fish and seafood The following: Red pepper Freshly ground pepper Green mustard paste may be used mainly as a garnish for: Soup Noodle and pasta dishes Fish and seafood

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Natto Tempeh DESSERTS: T h e standard macrobiotic way of eating includes frequent use of a variety of desserts usually served at the end of the main meal. Kinds of Desserts: Azuki beans sweetened with barley malt or rice malt Azuki beans cooked with chestnuts Azuki beans cooked with squash Kuzu sweetened with barley malt, rice malt, fresh fruit, or dried fruit Agar-agar cooked with barley malt, rice malt, fresh fruit, or dried fruit Cooked fruit Dried fruit Fruit pies including apple, peach, strawberry, berry, and other temperate climate fruits Fruit crunch including apple, peach, strawberry, berry, and other temperate climate fruits Grain desserts sweetened with dried fruits, barley malt, rice malt, amazake, and fresh fruits Examples of grain desserts: couscous cake, Indian pudding, rice pudding, and other similar naturally sweetened desserts Baked flour desserts such as cookies, cakes, pies, muffins, breads, and others prepared with natural sweeteners including fruits and grain sweeteners BEVERAGES: The standard macrobiotic way of eating includes a variety of beverages for daily, regular, or occasional consumption. The amount of beverage intake varies according to individual needs and climate change. Beverages comfortably satisfy the desire for liquid in terms of kind, volume, and frequency of intake. Kinds of Beverages: Bancha twig tea Bancha stem tea Roasted rice with bancha twig tea

99 Roasted barley with bancha twig tea Kombu tea Spring water ioo percent cereal grain coffee Amazake Dandelion tea Lotus root tea Soybean milk Burdock root tea Mu tea Other traditionally used and commonly consumed nonstimulating, nonaromatic natural herb teas (made from seeds, leaves, stems, bark, or roots) Alcoholic beverages: Sake (fermented rice wine)—more naturally fermented quality Beer of various kinds—more naturally fermented quality Wines of various kinds—more naturally fermented quality Other grain and fruit-based weak alcoholic beverages that have been fermented naturally Fruit juice: Apple juice Grape juice Apricot juice Cider Vegetable juice: Carrot juice Celery juice Juice from leafy green vegetables Beet juice Barley green juice Other juices made from vegetables that have been traditionally grown in a temperate climate ADDITIONAL FOODS: In some instances, such as occasional requirement for nutritional balance or special social events, the standard macrobiotic way of eating can be temporarily modified to

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include some other foods such as salmon, tuna, other red-meat, blueskinned, and fatty fish, organic fertilized fowl's eggs, caviar and other fish eggs, white-meat poultry, skim cow's milk or goat's milk, traditionally fermented cheese and yogurt, unrefined honey, maple syrup, and beet sugar. These modifications are made according to individual requirements and necessity; though within the usual standard macrobiotic way of eating, these foods are not regularly or commonly required to maintain health and well-being. THE MANNER OF EATING: To establish well-being, biotic eating includes the following daily practices:

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1) Eat regularly. Two to three meals a day can be consumed. In the case of vigorous physical labor, the frequency of meals can be increased to four times a day. 2) Include grain or grain products at every meal. Grain and grain products can represent 50 percent, more or less, of the daily intake of food. 3) Variety in the selection and preparation of food, proper combinations, and the correct way of cooking food are essential. 4) Cooking is to be done with a peaceful mind, with care and concern for those who will eat the food. 5) Snacks are to be taken only in moderate amounts. They should not replace a regular meal. 6) Beverages can be consumed comfortably as one desires. 7) Refrain from eating before sleeping, preferably three hours, except in unusual circumstances. 8) Chew very well. Chew each mouthful until it is liquid. 9) T h e volume of food can vary depending upon each individual's needs. 10) Eat with the spirit of gratitude and appreciation for people, society, nature, and the universe.

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Macrobiotic Cooking Macrobiotic cooking is actually very simple once the basic techniques have been mastered. Before learning the basics, however, it is easy to make mistakes. Recipes and cookbooks are of course helpful, but the best way to learn is to participate in cooking classes. In this way, one can actually see how the foods are prepared and can taste them. Dinners—which many Macrobiotics International centers sponsor on a weekly basis—are also helpful, as they offer the chance to see and taste a balanced meal and to talk with other people about their experiences with macrobiotics. The Kushi Institute also has a staff of qualified cooking instructors who are available to visit institutions such as prisons or hospitals to present classes in macrobiotic cooking, or to guide the cooking staff in institutions in the preparation of macrobiotic meals. Please contact the Kushi Institute in Boston for information. The present crisis of biological degeneration is directly related to the decline of cooking. The preparation of food is basic to our ability to survive and to be healthy on this earth. It is essential for everyone to know the vital importance of selecting the highest quality foods and practicing proper cooking for health and happiness.

Suggestions for a Healthy Life Together with eating well, there are a number of commonsense practices that we recommend for a healthier and more natural way of life. Practices such as keeping physically active and using natural cooking utensils, fabrics, and building materials in the home were once common. When people lived more closely to nature and ate a more balanced, natural diet, cancer, heart disease, and mental disturbances were far less common than now. With each generation, we have gotten further and further from our roots in nature and have experienced a corresponding decline in vitality and a rise in chronic illnesses. The suggestions presented below complement a balanced, natural diet

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and can serve to guide everyone toward more satisfying and harmonious living. • Live each day happily without being preoccupied with health, and keep mentally and physically active. • Greet everyone and everything with gratitude, particularly offering thanks before and after each meal. • Try to retire before midnight and get up early in the morning. • Avoid wearing synthetic clothing or woolen articles directly against the skin. Wear cotton garments instead. Avoid excessive metallic or plastic accessories and keep such ornaments simple and graceful. • If strength permits, go outdoors in simple clothing. Keep every corner of the home or living space in good order. • Maintain an active correspondence—extending best wishes to parents, children, brothers and sisters, relatives, teachers, and friends. • Avoid taking long hot baths or showers unless one has been consuming too much salt or animal food. • Every morning or every night before retiring, scrub the entire body with a hot, damp towel until the circulation becomes active. If this is not convenient, at least scrub the hands, feet, fingers, and toes. • Avoid chemically perfumed cosmetics, soaps, and shampoos. Brush teeth with natural preparations or sea salt. • Keep as physically active as possible, including regular daily exercise. Exercise includes scrubbing floors, cleaning windows, washing clothes, gardening, and so on. One may also participate in systematic exercise programs such as yoga, martial arts, aerobics, and sports. • Avoid or minimize watching television, especially color TV, as it exposes the body to unnatural radiation. Try not to watch TV during meals. • Avoid using electric devices, such as heating pads, electric blankets, portable radios with earphones, and the like, next to the body. Avoid the use of microwave ovens. • Include many large green plants in the living area to freshen and enrich the oxygen content.

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• Switch from electric to gas cooking at the earliest convenience.

Case Histories Today, very few people have peaceful minds. Because the modern diet is so extreme, many people have the tendency toward either schizophrenia or paranoia. However, these tendencies are reversible through a change in daily diet and way of life, as the following cases illustrate. Recently, I met a businessman whose schizophrenic daughter had been confined in a mental institution in Boston. She was 23 years old and had been in mental hospitals for several years. When her parents came to see me, they both started to cry. They asked if macrobiotics could possibly help her. As it was, she faced the possibility of spending her whole life in a mental hospital. I asked to see her, and two days later, they brought her to see me. She came in with a bottle of cola, and while we talked, she would occasionally take a sip from it. I told her parents that this was the cause of her problem. Of course, together with soft drinks, other extreme foods were also contributing. I recommended that they start gradually changing her diet toward macrobiotics. Because she had consumed a large volume of sugar and soft drinks for so many years, it was necessary to use a more gradual approach, taking several months to make the transition. Her parents followed my recommendation. For the first two months they took food to her in the hospital, and then were able to cook for her in a private apartment. After several months, she became completely normal. Three months later she got a job. A year later she was managing a store and had become very happy. In another case, a 28-year-old man was paranoid and fearful of everything. He felt as if he was always being threatened. His father was a very successful businessman, and was very worried about him. His parents had separated many years earlier. Finally, the father asked for my help. After talking with him, I arranged for the son to stay for a while in a macrobiotic student house in Boston. The son became much better once he moved in and started to eat well.

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However, after several weeks he began sneaking out to eat pizza and hot dogs. He started having the same problems again. After several days of good eating, his condition became more relaxed, and he started to become more normal. After a week of eating well, he went out and binged again, after which his old symptoms returned. It took three to four years for him to recover and become completely normal. This frequent binging caused his recovery to be slow, and his experience highlighted the need for a macrobiotic rehabilitation center. After six months to a year, many of the people in such a facility would become normal. It would be unnecessary for people to spend their whole lives in a mental institution. Many people in mental hospitals take medication every day for years and even decades. These cases are very unfortunate, because there is an easier way to solve these problems. The same is true for crime and other types of uncontrollable behavior. These problems are often the result of depression, schizophrenia, paranoia, or combinations of these. If people with these conditions begin to eat according to macrobiotic principles, antisocial behavior will diminish and their minds will become more peaceful and harmonious. Instead of offering a cure for their conditions, however, we label them criminals and punish them. They are confined in prison and are fed hamburger, steak, candy, coffee loaded with sugar, spices, and soft drinks. Naturally, their thoughts and behavior continue in the same pattern. Macrobiotics offers a way to escape from this cycle. The stories in this book tell of prisoners from different parts of the world who took responsibility for their health and behavior and changed toward a new life. The macrobiotic approach offers new hope for the seemingly unsolvable problems of crime and mental illness. The stories that follow, for example, show that recovery from schizophrenia and other mental disorders is possible by changing daily diet and way of life. These stories were published over the last several years in the East West Journal.

Triumph Over Schizophrenia by David Briscoe (reprinted from East West Journal, January, 1983)

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I hated life on that February day in 1972 when upon returning to my Manhattan, Kansas, apartment I found, outside the door, a stack of cookbooks left to me by a friend. I haven't seen her since, but her simple act of kindness, her gentle gift of used cookbooks, saved my life. Among the cookbooks was Zen Macrobiotic Cooking. When I saw it there along with the half dozen vegetarian cookbooks, I thought: "How strange." I knew for sure I was in no shape to become a Zen monk let alone one sitting in a sterile kitchen laboratory meditating on the microbiological aspects of food. However, fortunately during those days the stranger something seemed, the more I was drawn to it. So I ignored the "normal" vegetarian books and sat down with the macrobiotic book and read. How odd it all seemed to me then, lonely and desperate, on that bitter winter night reading about brown rice, buckwheat, azuki beans, yin-yang, and a peaceful healthy life. Ah, yes, a healthy life. For me, at that time, whenever I read about a normal productive life it seemed like a dream, something foreign and far away. It was, I thought, as inaccessible to me as time to a dying man. My life was a mess. It would have been hard to imagine one more unbearably shy than I. Who could have guessed that behind my calm exterior there was such a cutting and constant heartache ? The longing for companionship was always intense, and my fear of opening up to others made the days dark and the hours grind by. Sometimes I would wander the streets for hours, my mind submerged in Thorazine, the tranquilizer I had been taking for years. Late at night I would walk the streets of Manhattan and imagine that behind the lighted and curtained windows there were friends and lovers I would never know. Sometimes my mind went wild and I would hide for days not knowing who or where I was. No one understood why I was this way, not the psychiatrists, or my parents who suffered so much abuse from me. I was a lazy and unambitious college student, frittering away my days, too frightened by life to learn anything. On one of those sad and drifting days, I happened to wander into the local health food store. I saw on a corner shelf a little bottle of Chico San tamari soy sauce, its label faded from many months of sit-

io6 ting in the sunlight. I remembered reading about tamari in the macrobiotic cookbook, so I bought the bottle and a small bag of brown rice. That night I cooked my first macrobiotic dinner. I'll never forget the rice, a pathetic patch of undercooked kernels drowning in a brown bog of tamari. I thought, "This is good?" The food tasted terrible, but strangely, after that dinner, I became fascinated by macrobiotics and continued to experiment with the limited variety of available macrobiotic foods. It was there, in that bleak basement apartment on a rusty two-burner hot plate, that I began the education that would turn my life around. At the time I didn't know of the incredible healing qualities of macrobiotics, but I would learn. I soon became bored with undercooked rice and tamari, however, and I returned to my regular food. In May of 1972 I returned to my parents' home in Kansas City. Bored, depressed, groggy with Thorazine, I sat in my room looking at my future like a blind man at a silent movie. At night I wrote and rewrote suicide notes, and planned over and over how to do myself in. Luckily I never put the plans into action. One day in June while glancing through the newspaper I noticed, to my surprise, an ad for a local macrobiotic cooking class. Uncharacteristically, I called and registered for it. When I arrived at the location where the first class was to be held, I found myself overwhelmed with anxiety. I got back in my car and left, but a voice inside said, "Get back there! You must do it!" So I returned. Patricia Atkins was an excellent teacher on that first day of class, explaining everything so carefully. What she said about food and health made sense. On that day I was served a delicious macrobiotic meal, the result of the cooking class. Sitting there with the class members, I felt very strange. It was the kind of moment that comes only once in life. I thought, "This is what will change me. I don't know why, but I have found it." I had never felt that way before. In that moment I knew that simple and delicious food would be the key to my recovery. I hadn't been looking for any kind of cure, I wasn't a dabbler in health food routines, I was simply there at a cooking class and the keys to my recovery were given to me without asking. Over the years I have learned many lessons about macrobiotics, and I made many mistakes at first. I tried to quit the Thorazine im-

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mediately, but I couldn't. The body needs time to adjust to a new way of eating, especially if one has been taking strong medication for a long time. I learned to eat a balanced diet of whole grains, vegetables, beans, fish, sea vegetables, and fruit. This helped my body to adjust, and after one year I was able to completely stop the Thorazine. Along with showing me the need for good food, macrobiotics has brought me to an understanding of the spirit of life. I have been shown how to express my thanks and the importance of this expression everyday. I have learned to pray. And for all who suffer from frustrating and confusing states of mind I pray every day. T h e P e t e r H a r r i s Story by Tom Monte (reprinted from East West Journal, September, 1980) In a Boston restaurant, Peter Harris is sipping bancha tea and talking about his former bout with mental illness. It was nine years ago that the 28-year-old Boston artist manifested symptoms of schizophrenia and was institutionalized for six months. Now fully recovered, he talks about mental illness with the hard, crisp insight of one who has been to hell and back: he knows the landscape. "Mental illness," he says, "is like cancer: its a life growing inside your head that is alien to your own life. It's constantly throwing up images which you have no control of. And every day this life is growing, constantly spreading to other parts of your existence." And like cancer, Harris considered his own greedy pet a part of life despite its being a source of discomfort. It was after graduation from high school that he started taking drugs: "I took lots of drugs," he says. " L S D , mescaline, marijuana. Ironically, attempting to resolve conflict in this way actually increased it," he recalls now. As his relationships with others began to degenerate, Peter began to feel a powerful sense of alienation, the feeling that he was separating from the rest of humanity. Looking back, he notes that he was becoming more in tune with the vibrational world, the world of images, than he was with the material world; however, the images were chaotic, and still he was taking the drugs. "I realize now that I was going toward biological degeneration," he says. When the two attendants in white coats came for him, Harris didn't

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fight them. He went with the flow; a voice from deep inside was telling him to surrender and everything would be all right. Once in the hospital, he withdrew inside himself. Other than periodic injections of Stelazine, a major tranquilizer, he received no medication while in the hospital. Just after graduating from high school, Harris had read a book about macrobiotics. The information stuck with him and now, in the hospital, after the doctors had offered him the opportunity to cook for himself, he began eating brown rice, vegetables, beans, and sea vegetables. His mother brought him the necessary staples, and often she cooked a macrobiotic meal for her son. "Slowly, I started to feel better," says Harris. "I began to feel stronger, more willing to be a part of the outside world." It wasn't long after he had started macrobiotics that Harris began to let down the walls that he had constructed around him for protection from what seemed like an ever-intruding world. After six months in the hospital he left and didn't go back. For the past nine years, grains and vegetables have been his principal foods. Today Harris is married and a father. He made peace with his parents and many of his friends a long time ago. From a medical point of view, Harris has been cured of schizophrenia for years. However, "there's really no absolute level of mental health," he says. "You just go about taking on bigger challenges in life."

Recovering Mental Health Together with a naturally balanced diet, the recovery of mental health requires that we regain deep insight and spiritual consciousness. Let us examine the dimensions of consciousness so as to understand this more clearly. Our day to day thinking consists largely of more superficial thoughts, dreams, and images. Our ongoing internal dialogue often includes thoughts such as, " H e said such and such and so I'll answer in a certain way," or "I am working at the office," or "I am watching T V , " and so on. However, our consciousness includes more than just superficial, day to day concerns. Below this level of consciousness, there is darkness, or unconsciousness. Then, below this is a deeper consciousness, or dream state.

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Here are the understanding, dreams, and images that each of us has as a human being, and not as an office worker, student, or a housewife. This consciousness is deeper than day to day, or surface consciousness, and often appears during times of crisis. If, for example, someone is told they have a terminal illness, and they face a life or death, or "to be or not to be" situation, then a deeper mind starts to emerge. From deep inside a person in this situation will start to think, "What shall I do? Now I don't care about my office work or other superficial things. What shall I do as a human being?" This consciousness also tells us, as human beings, what kind of food to eat, how to behave toward parents, how to approach friends, and how to love and care for others. Beyond more superficial differences in nationality, religion, race, or occupation, we all have this basic consciousness as human beings on this planet. Below basic human consciousness is again darkness, or unconsciousness, but if we go deeper, we reach another level of consciousness, which is the consciousness of the universe. On that level, life and death are no longer a problem, as we know that we are part of the whole universe, and are constantly changing. We also know our life on earth is only temporary, and that we have existed from the beginningless beginning of the universe and will continue until the endless end of the universe. We are aware of the endless cycle of life and of our place within it. Human life on this planet is only a small part of this larger picture. We may refer to this awareness as "universal consciousness." Here one sees the eternal laws that govern the universe, beyond time and space. Questions such as, "How does everything change?" or "How do opposites attract?" appear and are resolved as one comes to know the order of the universe. Furthermore, deeper inside, there is again darkness. And very deep inside, there is emptiness or nothingness, like a blue sky with no clouds. And then clouds appear and disappear, sometimes one, and sometimes several. These clouds are like our images, imagination, or dreams, and the blue sky is nothingness. On a blank white paper, we can paint anything we want; the white color being a nonimage. Deep inside, even the universe disappears, all phenomena disappear, even the concept of infinity disappears. Now we can see why problems such as crime, mental illness, AIDS,

no and other degenerative sickness remain unsolved. Today, we tend to deal only with our immediate social reality, or with day to day physical or mental concerns. We often do not deal with the universe at all. So when we act as a lawyer, a doctor, a school teacher, a wife or husband, or a teenager, we do not act as a human being living in the universe. However, day to day concerns are small and changeable when compared to our life as a human being on earth. We cannot solve problems such as AIDS, cancer, crime, and mental illness if we stay at the superficial level only. When we approach these or other problems, we must use our genuine human consciousness. From there we can see how to act as a human being, for example, by eating along the lines of the standard macrobiotic diet, or by respecting parents, loving and caring for children, and developing a spirit of brother- and sisterhood toward all people. These considerations can guide our daily lives and point the way toward a solution for individual and social problems. When we view life from a broader perspective, many things will appear strange, such as the modern practice of eating highly chemicalized foods. Avoiding foods that are heavily chemicalized or irradiated is a matter of common sense. Because for thousands of generations our ancestors did not expose their foods to potentially toxic chemicals. Meanwhile, if food irradiation becomes widespread, what will the result be? Radiation is extremely yin. If we eat grains, beans, vegetables, or other foods that have been irradiated, we will eventually lose the ability to produce offspring. Foods that are exposed to radiation stop growing. There is no more life in them, and it is as if they have been frozen. Another result will be a drastic reduction in immune ability that will cause A I D S and similar conditions to spread more rapidly. The irradiation of food will bring humanity closer to extinction. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed many people at once, and radiation caused many of the survivors to develop leukemia and other forms of cancer. Leukemia results from an increase in the number of white blood cells. An increase in white blood cells means that yin is excessive, in this case, as a result of exposure to radiation. Some people may think food irradiation will preserve food longer and make it easier to transport foods and keep them fresh. However, these considerations are superficial in comparison to the effects of

radiation on human health. We must see beyond short term considerations and act out of concern for humanity. Intuition is the key to save the human race. Intuition does not mean day to day consciousness or learned knowledge, which often obscure deeper awareness. Everyone must reflect deeply in order to awaken intuition. Many people are too caught up in daily life to realize they are living in a delusional world. Some continue their entire lives without waking up. Modern humanity must wake up, break free from its delusions, and begin the journey of self discovery. The first step in recovering intuition is to eat macrobiotically. In ancient times, many people, including spiritual leaders, knew the importance of proper food in health and human development. Confucius ate a macrobiotically balanced diet, and so did Lao Tzu and Moses. The prophets of Israel ate foods such as dark bread, barley, chickpeas, and vegetables, and never imagined forty-eight flavors of ice cream. Buddha never drank diet cola, nor did early Christians eat frozen pizza. These and other spiritually developed people ate whole grains and vegetables, and that tradition has continued until recently. Even today, Taoist temples in China serve macrobiotic vegetarian meals. The cooking at traditional Buddhist temples in Japan is still called "cuisine for spiritual development." It includes brown rice and other whole grains, miso soup, fresh garden vegetables, and other whole natural foods. Meat, dairy products, sugar, and refined foods are strictly avoided. The second step toward recovering intuition is to reflect on how you wish to spend the remaining years of your life. Ask yourself why are you here. You may be a photographer, a lawyer, or a doctor, but did you come to this earth for that purpose ? Real life may not be like that at all. To be healthy, free, and happy, see your life as a manifestation of the infinite universe. We need to clearly know whether we are living in a delusional world or as real human beings. This self knowledge is essential to save humanity in these critical times. If we live with lower consciousness, we face the possibility of extinction within ten or twenty years. We can survive only if we awaken our higher consciousness. The solution to our modern crisis is actually simple, and can be found in balanced, natural eating, and the spirit of gratitude and appreciation for the

112 universe, nature, and other people. Life as a real human being begins with these practices. Those who know and apply these basic truths can escape from AIDS, mental illness, cancer, and other degenerative conditions, and survive to build a healthy and peaceful world.

Transforming Our View of Life There are two ways to view life. One way, which is common today, is based on egocentric thinking, in which we see ourselves as the center of the universe. This view leads to the illusion that we can change nature or the environment. For example, if a virus appears, we blame it as the cause of sickness and think the answer is to destroy it. We view sickness as something separate from us and try to destroy the symptoms. When any type of problem arises, we think it is caused by something outside of ourselves. We always assume that we are good and everything else is bad. If we develop cancer, AIDS, mental problems, or some other sickness, we blame nature, viruses, our upbringing or environment. This outlook causes us to continually build fortresses to protect ourselves, so we create massive defense programs in the form of medical and insurance systems, armies, police, and other protective measures. Even central heating is a defense against the climate, and marriage partners are now defending themselves with legal contracts. We must constantly assume a defensive posture when we see our environment as hostile. In this view, enemies are everywhere, and our way of life becomes a constant battle. When children enter school, they are taught that life is the struggle for survival, and this way of thinking governs society. Modern education teaches us to compete in order to win. So we struggle to get the highest income, the best position, and build the most impregnable fortress. Of course, in order to secure the best weapons for defense, sacrifices are required. So, at present, 70 to 80 million animals are killed every year as a part of medical research to find the most potent medicine, or most powerful injection for defending health. An egocentric world view is the cause of all our modern problems,

3 including war, crime, and biological degeneration. This view has prevailed for many centuries, actually from the time of Greece, and especially during the last several hundred years. In the twentieth century, it has conquered the whole world. There is, however, another way of life. It is not based on an egocentric view, in fapt, quite the opposite. In reality, the whole universe is our origin. We exist within nature, and are a part of its changing order. Health, peace, and freedom come from adapting to the changing universe, and in living in harmony with nature. This way of life is based on faith in the order of the universe, or in religious terms, faith in God, and does not require struggle. Harmony is the underlying principle of this way of life. From an egocentric point of view, we see sickness as an enemy, and think we are its victims. Yet, there is no sickness as such in the universe at large. Sickness results from our ignorance and egocentricity, and from the abuse of our free will. If we continue to apply egocentric thinking in fields such as health technology, politics, and economics, as we are now doing, humanity faces the possibility of extinction. A revolution in consciousness is needed for human survival. We must awaken from egocentric thinking and discover who we are. Macrobiotics is the way of life guided by this more universal view. It is not, as is commonly thought, one among other "alternative" dietary approaches. It is the way of eating that mankind has practiced for thousands of generations on this planet. If we ignore its principles, we risk the loss of our human status, including our health and happiness. Macrobiotics cannot be compared to other dietary approaches. Our ancestors developed culture and civilization as a result of eating whole grains, beans, organic vegetables, and other natural foods for thousands of years. Therefore, macrobiotic educators are not diet therapists. The goal of macrobiotic education is to recover the human life we forgot, including our lost way of eating. Macrobiotic dietary guidelines accord with thousands of years of dietary tradition. They are very flexible, and can be modified freely according to climate, weather, and personal needs. For example, the macrobiotic diet is not against meat eating. Meat is not recommended as a main food in a temperate, or four season climate. However, animal food is more necessary as we move further north to colder climates,

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such as those where the Eskimo live. The traditional diets of these and other far Northern peoples included a larger volume of animal food, and were macrobiotic in the sense of being in harmony with their more extreme environment. People who live high in the mountains need to eat differently than those on the plains or in valleys. People who live by the sea need to cook and combine their foods differently than those living inland. Adjustments such as these are what macrobiotic eating is all about. In high school, we may have learned that our human ancestors were hunter-gatherers; killing animals and eating them every day. However, this is not so. Recent archeological discoveries have revealed that for the most part, our ancestors were not hunters. They hunted only for survival, in emergencies or in unusual circumstances. While hunting, if an animal runs away, the whole day may be spent chasing it just to get food. And if our ancestors continually ate plenty of saturated fat and cholesterol, they would have died out long ago because of heart disease. Of course, those in very cold climates, where grains and vegetables did not grow, were forced to hunt. But that was not very widespread. The majority of people lived in more temperate zones where grains and vegetables were plentiful. The diet of early man is also revealed in the structure of our teeth. The teeth of lions, tigers, and other carnivorous animals are sharply pointed for efficiently tearing animal flesh. But human teeth are not like those of Dracula. We have 32 teeth, 20 of which—the molars and premolars—are grinding machines. (The word "molar" is a Latin word for "millstone.") They are made for crushing grains, beans, seeds, and tough vegetable fibers. T h e front eight teeth are vegetable cutters (the word "incisor" means "to cut into"). Only the four canines are somewhat pointed. This means that human beings evolved on a mixed diet of approximately one part animal food to seven parts vegetable food. This overall pattern protected humanity from degenerative sickness for countless generations. It was only after we veered from that pattern, and began eating plenty of meat, sugar, and chemicalized foods—foods of which our ancestors could never have dreamed of—that heart disease, cancer, mental illness, and other degenerative conditions became pandemic.

5 Macrobiotics is a way of life for all humanity. For thousands of years, our ancestors in Europe, Asia, Africa, and other parts of the world practiced a similar way of eating. Since we are a part of nature, we need to adapt to the changing rhythm of the seasons, including changes in climate and temperature. When the weather becomes cold, we naturally desire warm, strongly cooked foods. During the hot summer, we seek more fresh, lightly cooked foods, including salads. On sunny, dry days, we drink more, and desire fewer liquids when the weather is damp. These adjustments are intuitive: they do not require an understanding of theory. Everyone has native intuition, and this is at the root of the macrobiotic way of life. But in modern life, our environment and diet have become highly artificial, and our intuition has become dull. Therefore, everyone must start at the beginning, learning how to cook, how to chew, and how to adapt to the environment. At the same time, macrobiotics teaches the importance of taking responsibility for our lives. As we have seen, daily food is a major factor in behavior, influencing it either positively or negatively. However, this does not mean that food can be used as an excuse. Foods do not commit certain actions, people do. We are the ones who select daily foods and must take responsibility for the outcome of those choices. Whether we become sick or healthy, peaceful or disturbed, or well adjusted or antisocial is up to each person. Taking responsibility for our life, our health, and our actions is the first step toward natural happiness.

A Crime-Free World The problem of crime is only one of countless manifestations of the order of the universe. Only when we know the true cause of crime can we develop solutions. Numerous complementary tendencies can be found in criminal behavior. For example, some crimes are cool and rational, and involve study and planning, while others are impassioned or emotional. Some crimes involve violence, while others deal with property or money.

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So-called "victimless crimes" such as pornography or possession of drugs, contrast with those that are directed toward others. Certain crimes are sexually motivated, while others are not, and drugs or alcohol may or may not be involved in a particular crime. Committing a crime involves several complementary stages; for example, the planning and the carrying out of the crime, the crime itself, and the escape or cover-up. There is also a complementary distinction between professional and amateur crime, as well as between juvenile and adult offenders. Of course, there is a huge complementary/ antagonistic relationship between people who commit crimes and the entire system of police, courts, and corrections. Every crime has a slightly different cause. However, in general, the most fundamental causes of crime are a daily diet and way of life removed from the natural order. In macrobiotic thinking, difficulties offer opportunities for growth and development. Meeting the challenge of crime can lead to a deeper awareness of human nature and the proper way of life for everyone. The stories that follow introduce a new view of crime, corrections, and rehabilitation. They open the door to new possibilities for solving these problems. Included are stories of prisoners such as Antonio Areal, Neil Scott, and others who were determined to change themselves into healthy and productive individuals through macrobiotics. We also present reports of research such as that conducted by Frank Kern and associates at Tidewater Detention Home, showing that dramatic improvements in behavior can be achieved through dietary change in the direction of macrobiotics, as well as a report on the breakthrough research conducted at the Shattuck Hospital in Boston on the use of macrobiotics in the possible rehabilitation of chronic mental patients. We also discuss the ongoing work of the Kushi Foundation Prison Project, including the untiring efforts of people such as Frank Salvati to bring information about macrobiotics and a natural way of life to people in prison, as well as the ongoing macrobiotic educational program at Powhatan State Prison in Virginia. There are two broad approaches to reducing the problem of crime in society. One involves providing proper dietary and way of life education for as many people as possible in society at large. Special programs could include cooking classes, lectures and support groups

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presented in high crime areas, for example, in the inner cities. Since young people are involved in much of the crime in America, education about a balanced, natural diet can begin in elementary and high schools. This would contribute greatly to reducing rates of drug and alcohol abuse, and juvenile delinquency. Ideally, public funds could be made available for these and other community education projects. The results in lower crime rates and family and social stability would be well worth the investment. Macrobiotic principles can also be adapted by social workers, family counselors, drug and alcohol abuse clinics, and other professional counselors to maximize the results of their work. The other approach involves providing macrobiotic education, along with high quality natural food, in institutions such as prisons, juvenile detention homes, mental institutions, and hospitals. T h e story of Linho prison in Portugal offers one example of the positive results that projects such as these can bring. When I visited Linho, where a group of prisoners had begun the macrobiotic diet, I was deeply touched and impressed with their enthusiasm, energy, and spirit. When I lecture to a new audience, I am often asked many questions about personal health. However, at Linho, I was refreshed by the prisoners' challenging questions of a spiritual and philosophical nature. My wife, Aveline, who accompanied me on the visit, later told the East West Journal: "Before I went to Linho, I was a little scared, as I have never been inside a prison. I thought we would be there a short time, just to say hello. But once there, everyone was so eager to study, asking questions with shining eyes, we couldn't leave. When I saw them, I thought, 'here are healthy people,' and that made me very happy. They never asked about their individual conditions." Macrobiotic teachers who have lectured at prisons have had similar impressions. In many cases, prisoners must cope with enormous difficulties just to secure natural food. Cooking also presents many problems. In the beginning, the Portuguese prisoners had to make do without having knives to cut their vegetables. The macrobiotic prisoners in Denmark had no access to a kitchen and so had to devise recipes that could be prepared in their cells without cooking. Out of the original group of macrobiotic prisoners at Linho, all have now been released. One, Antonio Areal, or To Ze, as he is known

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to his friends, later came to Boston to study at the Kushi Institute. He is like his companions in his desire to deepen his understanding of macrobiotics and make a constructive contribution to society. After graduation from three levels of Institute study, To Ze participated in macrobiotic seminars throughout New England, and helped establish a macrobiotic center in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a coastal community with many people of Portuguese descent. To Ze presented cooking classes and lectures for the Portuguese community, and was interviewed on radio and in the newspapers. Many people began macrobiotics and received the benefit of improved health and well being as the result of his dedication. Upon returning to Portugal, To Ze resumed his activities with the macrobiotic center in Lisbon. He and his companions are now actively involved in such things as food processing, teaching, and counseling. They are all making constructive contributions to society. Prisoners are often much healthier physically than people who have degenerative diseases. They tend to have an excess of vitality, rather than a lack of it. They may have committed violent or illegal acts, but many have the spirit of adventure and inventiveness, and express positive and creative ideas. In the future, prisons can become places of education. Prosecutors can change their role to one of guidance, and judges can serve as philosophers or educators. People in prison can be encouraged in two ways through education: first, they need inspiration and guidance in developing an understanding of cosmology and human life. Their sense of social solidarity will be nurtured through this understanding. Secondly, they require biological and biochemical improvement, from which psychological improvement will follow. To accomplish this, prisons and similar institutions need to serve carefully prepared, delicious meals. In adopting a macrobiotic diet based upon whole grains and vegetables, in combination with regular educational programs, most prisoners will arrive at physical health, psychological soundness, and spiritual wholeness. Of course, different prisoners have different physical and mental conditions, some worse than others. General imbalance comes from an excessive consumption of sugar, alcohol, drugs, and animal food. Intellectual crimes involving premeditation often result from excessive

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consumption of meat, eggs, and other animal foods, together with fruit juice, soft drinks, and stimulants such as caffeine. Sexual crimes often follow overconsumption of animal food, and other fatty and greasy foods, including dairy, together with stimulants and sugar. In each case, specific dietary adjustments are required to meet the needs of each prisoner. The story of Linho, and the other profiles presented in this book, are examples of what macrobiotic practice can accomplish. From these experiences, we can envision the possibility of reforming the entire legal system, of changing the practice of restriction and punishment to one of compassion, guidance, and understanding—a giant step in the direction of a healthy and peaceful world.

A p p e n d i x :

A Nutritional Overview of the Macrobiotic Diet Prepared for the House Subcommittee on Health and Long Term Care of the Congress of the United States, presented by Macrobiotics International, December 19, 1983

In order to determine whether the macrobiotic diet is nutritionally adequate and can promote health and well-being, it is necessary to understand this diet, not only as it is described in books, but more importantly as it is practiced. The Standard Macrobiotic Diet approximates usual macrobiotic eating patterns and is based upon principles fundamental to the macrobiotic way of life. Therefore, it can serve as a reference with which to examine criticisms and claims about the diet. It is important to realize that while the Standard Macrobiotic Diet is often described in fixed terms, it encompasses a wide range of eating patterns, varying in order to create balance with one's environment and physical and mental conditions. Thus, it is no more rigid than any other set of guidelines or standards describing an ideal or norm; in fact, since it embodies the principles of change and balance, it is perhaps less rigid than many. With this in mind, the Standard Macrobiotic Diet can form the basis of the discussion presented here. The general guidelines, from which the Standard Macrobiotic Diet has been designed, are used as a framework with which each individual should approach the macrobiotic way of eating. As a basic plan for human nutrition, these dietary guidelines, also, are no more arbitrary or inflexible than the "four basic food groups." The guidelines follow:

121 1. Each meal should consist primarily of vegetable-quality food. 2. The principal foods around which meals are designed should be whole cereal grains, supplemented with legumes (beans). 3. Vegetables should be selected in harmony with the seasons and the environment, and generally should be cooked. 4. Sea vegetables are another important food used on a daily basis. 5. Fruit and nuts should also be chosen with seasonal and environmental considerations, preferring those in season and growing in a climate similar to that in which one lives. 6. Vegetable-quality oils and unrefined sea salt should be among the primary seasonings. 7. Beverages, spices and herbs should be used only if grown in a climate similar to that in which one lives. To summarize the underlying principles, note the emphasis on whole cereal grains which underscores the importance of consuming foods which are as unrefined and unprocessed as possible. Also emphasized is the central role of vegetable-quality over animal-quality foods.

The Nutritional Adequacy of the Standard Macrobiotic Diet The major source of criticism of the macrobiotic diet is based on case studies of purportedly macrobiotic persons who have developed malnutrition of one sort or another. When determining the nutritional adequacy of a diet, the standards most often used in the United States are the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA), published by the National Academy of Sciences, while internationally the recommendations put forth by the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Health Organization (FAO/ WHO) are used. Both of these standards will be referred to when describing the Standard Macrobiotic Diet and its nutritional adequacy. We are using the RDA and the FAO/WHO standards as reference intakes even though they have purposely been set high. The National

122 Academy of Science's explanation that the " R D A should not be confused with requirements" and, " R D A are estimated to exceed the requirements of most individuals, and thereby ensure that the needs of nearly all are met" applies equally well to the FAO/WHO standards for most of the world's population. Based on the fallacy that the macrobiotic diet is an all-brown-rice diet, some nutritionists have criticized the diet for being deficient in protein, vitamins A, B12, and C, and other essential nutrients. These criticisms would in fact be valid for an all-brown-rice diet; however, applied to the Standard Macrobiotic Diet, they are not applicable, since that is not what the Standard Macrobiotic Diet is. In addressing the accusations of nutritional inadequacy of the Standard Macrobiotic Diet, we deal with two questions: 1. How much of a given nutrient is required ? 2. Does the Standard Macrobiotic Diet provide at least that amount? Protein: It is a common misconception that predominantly vegetarian diets (such as the Standard Macrobiotic Diet) are protein deficient. This view arises from the belief that animal foods are synonymous with protein in the diet. In the "four food groups," the "protein" group emphasizes meat, poultry, and fish, and only begrudgingly acknowledges peanut butter and beans as sources. While this idea is common, it is not necessarily correct. Indeed, the perception that vegetarian diets are deficient in protein ignores the fact that Americans often consume amounts of protein that are more than twice the RDA for protein. The RDAs state that the allowance for protein intake is approximately 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. For an average (65 kilogram) male, this means 52 grams per day, and for an average (55 kilogram) female, this would be 44 grams. This figure provides two safety measures: one to adjust for the variations in protein quality (relative amounts of the various essential amino acids), and the usual increase to cover the range of requirements encountered among different individuals. Thus, in terms of the RDA, protein quality and completeness are generally root issues for most diets.

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Figures comparable to the RDAs for daily recommended intakes of protein as established by the FAO/WHO are 37 grams for an adult man, and 29 grams for an adult woman. In addition, the FAO/WHO provides an alternative standard, which is that diets should contain at least 7 percent of calories as protein. It is interesting to note the difference between the RDAs and the FAO/WHOs standards, and wonder about the possible reasons why they differ. Regardless of which standard is used, the Standard Macrobiotic Diet provides a protein-sufficient diet. It is a truism that virtually all diets of "mixed foods," whether or not vegetarian will provide 10 to 14 percent of calories as protein, exceeding the standard put forth by FAO/WHO. Even an all-brown-rice diet would provide approximately 8 percent of calories as protein. Obviously if such a diet were complemented with beans and vegetables, protein intake would not be a concern. The absolute amount of protein eaten by persons consuming a Standard Macrobiotic Diet depends of course, upon the amount of food eaten. An analysis of the protein intake of diets as recorded by persons eating a normal macrobiotic diet of three meals per day demonstrated that this was indeed the case, and that protein deficiency was not a problem. Even with a relatively limited caloric intake of around 1,600 calories per day, the amount of protein eaten will approximate or exceed both the RDAs and the FAO/WHO standards.

Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid): Vitamin C deficiency was the first nutritional concern expressed by the medical profession about the macrobiotic diet. This view, born out of the mistaken notion that macrobiotics is an all-brown-rice diet, has clung with such tenacity that even in 1980, a professor addressing a graduate-level nutrition class made the statement that "all macrobiotics get scurvy." Apparently, a misunderstanding of the nature of the macrobiotic diet even persists among many health-care educators. Generally speaking, fruit and leafy green vegetables provide most of the vitamin C in any diet. Broccoli, cauliflower, and watercress are some of the many vitamin C-rich foods commonly included in the Standard Macrobiotic Diet. In fact, only a relatively small portion, for example half a cup of kale, or lightly cooked vegetables, approaches

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or exceeds the FAO/WHO standards (30 milligrams per day) and the RDA (60 milligrams per day) for vitamin C. Clearly, the Standard Macrobiotic Diet, which includes many other sources of vitamin C, is not deficient in this nutrient. On the contrary, calculated intakes of vitamin C from diet records of macrobiotic eaters generally exceed the recommended allowances by 50 to 100 percent. Riboflavin (Vitamin B2): Riboflavin is another nutrient erroneously considered lacking in a macrobiotic diet. This concern stems from the fact that almost 40 percent of the riboflavin in most American diets comes from dairy food—rarely consumed on a macrobiotic diet. Some researchers have asserted that riboflavin may be inadequate in macrobiotic diets. Leafy green vegetables such as kale and mustard greens contain as much riboflavin per average serving as dairy food. Whole grains and beans are also good sources of riboflavin. Adequacy of riboflavin intake is determined in terms of the total number of calories consumed, since the standard is given as 0.57 milligrams per 1,000 calories. The seemingly inadequate riboflavin intake calculated from the dietary records of macrobiotic persons was, in fact, adequate. The relatively lower riboflavin intake observed among macrobiotic people compared to the absolute amount suggested in the RDA is a reflection of the lower caloric intakes of macrobiotic people relative to the caloric intake suggested in the RDAs. In fact, riboflavin is so ubiquitous in foods that frank riboflavin deficiency has not easily been detected in free-living populations. Indeed, it is unclear what the consequences of consuming inadequate riboflavin might be. In any case, riboflavin intake on a Standard Macrobiotic Diet easily meets the RDA and FAO/WHO standards as expressed in milligrams per 1,000 calories. Vitamin B12: Protein and vitamin B12 are the nutrients most often perceived as being deficient in any predominantly vegetarian diet. As such, the macrobiotic diet has been criticized for lacking vitamin B12. This opinion ignores some basic aspects of vitamin B12 nutriture. It is commonly taught and believed that animal food products are the only dietary sources of vitamin B12. In fact, it is a required nutrient

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for virtually all animals. There are, however, many species of animals that live entirely on vegetable-quality food. How is it that such vegetarian animal species have enough vitamin B12 for their physiological needs ? Although cows are a major portion of typical American diets, and are considered to be good sources of vitamin B12 for humans, they only eat vegetable-quality food. What is the source of their vitamin B12? The missing link is fundamental to the understanding of what constitutes a good dietary source of vitamin B12. In fact, virtually all the vitamin B12 available is originally synthesized by microorganisms such as bacteria or mold. Cows get their vitamin B12 from bacteria residing in their gastrointestinal tract. Interestingly, other animals (including humans) may have substantial portions of their vitamin B12 requirement met through contamination of their food by bacteria, as when dirty food is eaten. While the gastrointestinal bacteria in humans only supplies negligible amounts of vitamin B12, foods which contain B12 producing microorganisms provide adequate amounts of vitamin B12. The Standard Macrobiotic Diet does include several foods in this category. Some of these foods have microorganisms attached to them in their natural state, as is the case for sea vegetables; others may have them as a result of fermentation. Primary examples of fermented foods in the macrobiotic diet are the soybean products miso, natto, and tempeh, traditional foods in the Far East. Because of the extremely small requirements for vitamin B12 (the RDA and FAO/WHO standards are three and two micrograms, respectively, for adults), these food sources evidently are adequate nutritionally. Aside from including these sources of vitamin' B12, the Standard Macrobiotic Diet does not prohibit the intake of animal foods. Because vitamin B12 may be stored in the liver, consumption of fish from time to time is all one needs to more than meet daily needs for vitamin B12. Vitamin A (Retinol and Beta-Carotene): Because of the lack of vitamin A in brown rice, some nutritionists believe that a macrobiotic diet is lacking in this vitamin. The Standard Macrobiotic Diet easily meets recommended intake for this nutrient, the consumption of which has been identified as an aid in the prevention and treatment of cancer. People eating macrobiotically regularly consume vegetables with a

126 high beta-carotene content. These include leafy green vegetables, as well as yellowish-orange vegetables such as carrots or winter squash. It is probably the case that beta-carotene intake on a macrobiotic diet is greater than that on a typical American diet. T h e RDA for vitamin A is 1,000 micrograms of retinol, 6,000 micrograms of beta-carotene, or some combination of the two. Similarly, the FAO/WHO standard is 750 micrograms of retinol or its equivalent in beta-carotene. This amount is contained in one small carrot, or in two thirds of a cup of cooked kale. Vitamin D: The only group for which vitamin D deficiency might be a problem is rapidly-growing children. For adolescents and adults, more than enough vitamin D for metabolic needs is synthesized within the body through the action of ultraviolet rays shining on the skin. There have been scattered cases in which children whose parents considered themselves to be eating macrobiotically, developed overt signs of vitamin D deficiency. Such problems do not occur when one keeps in mind the important macrobiotic principle of eating a wide variety of foods. These parents seem to have neglected to include plenty of fresh vegetables; furthermore, there was an overuse of salt and salty condiments. To correct a case of severe vitamin D deficiency, it would be necessary to complement the diet of the growing child with a good source of this nutrient, such as cod or other fish liver oils, until the proper dietary patterns are established. A number of such cases also occurred following long periods of minimal exposure to the sun, a condition easily enough remedied by taking children outside on a regular basis. In no case where the macrobiotic diet has been flexible and accurately applied has there been a report of rickets, a condition caused by a lack of vitamin D. Calcium: One reason for the idea that calcium intake may be a problem on the macrobiotic diet is the notion that dietary calcium must come from dairy foods. This belief is largely a cultural phenomenon, unique to the United States and a few other industrialized countries. With few exceptions throughout the rest of the world, dairy food is rarely consumed in the quantities thought necessary by most Ameri-

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cans. Oddly, osteoporosis, the disease often regarded as being due primarily to calcium deficiency, is relatively common in industrialized nations, and occurs less frequently in the Third World, where dairy foods are not widely consumed. The Standard Macrobiotic Diet in fact includes several good sources of calcium such as sea vegetables, leafy green vegetables, beans, and nuts. Tofu is another good source of calcium. Average calcium intake on the macrobiotic diet is in the range considered adequate by the FAO/WHO (400 to 500 milligrams per day). Because whole grains and vegetables make up a major portion of the Standard Macrobiotic Diet, concern has been expressed about the binding of calcium by phytates or oxalates contained in some of these foods (refining of food removes these compounds, apparently making more calcium available for use by the body). Although experimentally this inhibition of calcium absorption by phytates has been demonstrated, it is the general view of nutritionists that "the importance of phytic acid (phytates) as an anti-calcifying factor in human nutrition has not been established." Iron: To maintain good quality blood, adequate stores of iron are needed for the formation of red blood cells. Because animal food is commonly perceived to be the best source of dietary iron, the macrobiotic diet has been criticized for potentially leading to the development of iron-deficiency anemia. In fact, about as much dietary iron in the American diet is provided by grain, fruit, or vegetables as by meat. The American diet is low in iron compared to diets worldwide; anemia may indeed be the most widespread nutritional deficiency disease in the United States. T h e reason for this relative deficiency in American diets is the highly refined nature of the diet. The Standard Macrobiotic Diet includes as one of its principles the consumption of foods in as whole and unrefined a state as possible. Thus, since refining of grain removes much of its iron, any one food in the macrobiotic diet, compared to its counterpart in the U.S. diet, probably contains as much or more iron. Also, most of the sea vegetables included in the macrobiotic diet are particularly rich sources of iron.

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128 It is evident that for most people on a macrobiotic diet, iron intake is not a problem. Possible exceptions to this are pregnant and lactating women, who have an increased iron need because of the growing fetus or newborn. In these cases, to insure adequate iron intake, adjustment of the Standard Macrobiotic Diet is made to include a larger proportion of sea vegetables and other iron-rich foods, and emphasis is placed on the use of cast-iron cookware. Summary: The basis for much of the criticism of the macrobiotic diet has been the misconception that it is a brown-rice-only diet. The Standard Macrobiotic Diet, when examined for its nutritional adequacy, is clearly an acceptable diet by any standard. As long as the principles of macrobiotics are applied in choosing one's diet, nutritional deficiencies will not be a problem. In fact, if we define "good nutrition" to include not just the avoidance of deficiency diseases, but also the promotion of good health, malnutrition ("bad nutrition") probably occurs much less frequently in people eating a Standard Macrobiotic Diet than in those who eat a typical American diet. The reasons for this are more fully explained in the following section.

The Macrobiotic Approach to the Prevention of Degenerative Diseases The typical American way of eating overemphasizes the intake of fat (and to a certain extent protein), compromising the intake of complex carbohydrates. By one estimate, this dietary pattern results in the consumption of 42 percent of its calories as fat. Forty-six percent is carbohydrates—almost half of this is sugar, with the balance consumed as refined flour and cereal products and canned or frozen fruits and vegetables. Lastly, the source of almost two-thirds of the protein intake on this diet is animal. This diet is not based upon sound principles of nutritional science,

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nor is it based upon the concurrent biological development of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Rather, it is a product of economic forces over the past two or three centuries. More than at any other time in history, the health costs for persons consuming this diet are astronomical. Worldwide, these costs can currently be measured in billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives every year. Obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and a myriad of other degenerative illnesses can also be attributed to this dietary pattern which is followed by the vast majority of people in the United States and other industrialized countries in the Western Hemisphere. Further, emerging Third World nations are unfortunately embracing modern dietary habits with the recent introduction of fast foods in Asia and the importation of baby formulas and other highly processed foods to South American and African nations. Suggestions for a change of direction, as well as an outline of the health costs of the dietary pattern described, are presented in the document, Dietary Goals for the United States, published in 1977 by the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs of the United States Senate. These suggestions have been reiterated and supported by a number of other publications, most recently in the National Academy of Sciences Report, Diet, Nutrition and Cancer, published in June of 1982.

The Standard Macrobiotic Diet The Standard Macrobiotic Diet is based in good part on traditional eating patterns. Yet, it is increasingly clear that its introduction anticipated the scientific findings reported in the above-mentioned and other publications. As such, the Standard Macrobiotic Diet may hold the greatest potential for the prevention of the degenerative diseases plaguing us today. The suggestions for dietary change in the two publications, Dietary Goals for the United States, and Diet, Nutrition and Cancer, strikingly point to the role the Standard Macrobiotic Diet can play as a practical

guide for changing the eating patterns of people in the United States and other industrialized countries. In looking at these suggestions, remember they are aimed at people eating the standard American diet, characterized by high animal-food and sugar consumption, low consumption of cereal grains, and an abundance of highly processed and refined foods. "Dietary Goals" lists seven suggestions, essentially increasing consumption of complex carbohydrates and fiber, while decreasing consumption of sugar, fats, and salt. The suggestions are: 1.

Increase consumption of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. 2. Decrease consumption of refined and other processed sugars and foods high in such sugars. 3. Decrease consumption of foods high in total fat, and partially replace saturated fats, whether obtained from animal or vegetable sources, with polyunsaturated fats. 4. Decrease consumption of animal fat, and choose meats, poultry, and fish which will reduce saturated fat intake. 5. Except for young children, substitute low-fat and non-fat milk for whole milk, and low-fat dairy products for high-fat dairy products. 6. Decrease consumption of butterfat, eggs, and other high cholesterol sources. 7. Decrease consumption of salt and foods high in salt content. For practically every one of these points, the Standard Macrobiotic Diet embodies the logical result of moving in the direction suggested. Since the Standard Macrobiotic Diet is centered around whole cereal grains and vegetables, the first suggestion is satisfied. Regarding the second, there is virtually no consumption of refined or processed sugars in the macrobiotic diet. "Sugars" come instead from the consumption of vegetables, fruit, and the occasional use of grain or concentrated syrups. Foods which are high in fat include animal foods such as beef, dairy food, and pork, none of which are customarily eaten on the Macrobiotic Diet, satisfying suggestion number three. The primary sources of fat

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in the Standard Macrobiotic Diet are whole grains and beans, and vegetable oils such as sesame, corn, or safflower oil used in sauteing. These fat sources are predominantly polyunsaturated and their normal use results in considerably lower consumption than found in a typical American diet. When animal food is consumed, the preferred form is fish, which generally contains less fat, especially saturated fat, than other animal foods (suggestion number four). Animal foods are the sole source of dietary cholesterol, and since the Standard Macrobiotic Diet generally has little animal food, it is consequently very low in cholesterol, implementing suggestion number six. The recommendations outlined in Diet, Nutrition and Cancer also point in the general direction of the Standard Macrobiotic Diet. A brief summary of the Interim Dietary Guidelines set forth in this publication, "consistent with good nutrition and likely to reduce the risk of cancer" follows: 1. The consumption of both saturated and unsaturated fats should be reduced in the average U.S. diet. 2. It is important to include fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in the daily diet. Various components of these foods including some vitamins and other substances, have been shown to be of potential benefit in the prevention of cancer. However, the importance of these components does not justify the use of supplements to increase their intake. Because of unknown and potentially toxic effects of supplements, this recommendation applies to foods as sources of nutrients—not to dietary supplements of individual nutrients. 3. The consumption of salt-cured, salt-pickled, or smoked foods should be minimized. 4. Alcoholic beverages should be consumed in moderation, if they are consumed at all. Two other recommendations concerning additives as potential carcinogens and mutagens were also given by the Committee on Diet, Nutrition and Cancer. These are aimed primarily at research scientists, the food industry, and the government.

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Again, the centerpiece of these four guidelines, in terms of their practical daily application, is the importance of including whole grains, vegetables, and fruits in the diet, along with decreased fat intake. Adoption of this dietary pattern increases consumption of those dietary factors (fiber, vitamins A, C, and E, indoles, selenium, and so on.), that may protect against the formation of cancer. Of particular note is the warning against relying on supplements to increase the intake of some of the dietary factors that may act in the prevention of cancer. A comparison of the Standard Macrobiotic Diet with these guidelines once again highlights the uncanny degree of agreement between the two. The emphasis on whole grains and vegetables, and the decrease in fat intake can be seen to be strikingly unified as the guiding principles for the prevention of cancer and other degenerative illnesses. Thus the Standard Macrobiotic Diet offers a practical example of a diet which is optimal for degenerative disease prevention. This potential has not only been supported by the U.S. Dietary Goals and the National Academy of Science's Report on Cancer, but has also been demonstrated. Surveys emphasizing the role of diet in altering the physiological risk factors for cardiovascular disease have been conducted by medical researchers on people consuming a macrobiotic diet. Two risks factors have been raised: blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels. These are considered risk factors for heart disease (the higher the levels, the greater the probability of developing heart disease). It has been unequivocally demonstrated that blood cholesterol levels of people on a macrobiotic diet (averaging less than 50 milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood) are much lower than those of people consuming an American diet (averaging more than 200 milligrams per deciliter), even after taking into account other factors that influence cholesterol levels. Similarly, people on a macrobiotic diet have much lower blood pressures (averaging 106/60) than would be expected in the general U.S. population. Since these trends appear to continue throughout life, it is highly probable that very few people eating a macrobiotic diet will develop heart disease. The potential for relief of heart disease, cancer, and other degenerative diseases with the Standard Macrobiotic Diet or some variation of it also appears viable. The role of a diet like the macrobiotic diet in

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the instance of heart disease is supported by other scientific research and there are documented case histories of people who have recovered from cancers of one type or another while eating according to macrobiotic principles. One example in which a dietary approach to a degenerative illness has evolved toward the adoption of the Standard Macrobiotic Diet is in the management of diabetes. Fifty years ago, common practice in the treatment of diabetes emphasized a diet very low in carbohydrate (15 percent of calories) and extremely high in fat, based on the belief that carbohydrate intake aggravated the disease. Even fifteen years ago, diabetic diets were customarily lower in carbohydrate and higher in fat than the already high-fat American diet. Then, in 1971, the Committee on Food and Nutrition of the American Diabetes Association stated that "there no longer appears to be any need to restrict disproportionately the intake of carbohydrates in the diet of most diabetic patients." The committee went on to say, " T h e average proportion of calories consumed as carbohydrate in the U.S. population as a whole approximates to 45 percent; this proportion or even higher appears to be acceptable for the usual diabetic patient as well." The American Diabetes Association updated its recommendations most recently in 1979, stating that "carbohydrate intake should usually account for 50 to 60 percent of total energy intake, (with) glucose and glucose-containing disaccharides (sucrose, lactose) . . . restricted." In addition, they added that "whenever acceptable to the patient, natural foods containing unrefined carbohydrates, which are low in fiber, (and) dietary sources of fat that are high in saturated fatty acids and foods containing cholesterol should be restricted." Clearly, these dietary recommendations for the treatment of diabetics not only are similar to the United States Senate's "Dietary Goals," but are pointing toward the Standard Macrobiotic Diet, with their emphasis on unrefined carbohydrates, such as in whole grains and vegetables, and limitation of sugar and foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol, such as meat and dairy products.

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Conclusion Again, because the scrutiny, and criticism of macrobiotics revolve around the nutritional adequacy or inadequacy of the diet, little or no consideration has been given to the whole of the macrobiotic philosophy. Nevertheless, it is probably only a matter of time before it is generally recognized that the Standard Macrobiotic Diet or a diet similar to it is invaluable in the relief of and overall approach to degenerative illness. Now is the time to resolve and leave behind the doubts in the minds of health, medical, and civic leaders, and proceed to the essential task of educating the general public as to the true nature of good health.

2. A Nutritional Approach to Mental Health by Tom Monte (reprinted from East West Journal) America is a nation of declining mental health. The problems of mental illness in this country are far deeper than official government statistics would indicate or than most mental health professionals would have you believe. Moreover, conventional medicine's treatments for mental illness are frequently unsatisfactory. At the same time, holistic approaches and several scientific studies have demonstrated that the best way to treat mental illness is to approach the mind and body as one. After studying the relationship between diet and behavior for over a decade, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology now maintain that a high carbohydrate diet plays an important role in relieving depression, improving sleep, and lowering blood pressure. Moreover, across the country, scientists, psychiatrists, and probation officers have discovered that a diet consisting of high quantities of sugar, refined flour, artificial additives, and caffeine gives rise to such mental disorders as depression, hyperactivity, aggression, and violent behavior. Dr. Jerome Frank, professor emeritus of psychiatry at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, defines mental health as "a sense that life has meaning, a feeling of personal security, the capacity to utilize opportunities for enjoyment and to accept and surmount the inevitable suffering life brings." Frank goes on to say that mental health includes the capacity to establish and maintain mutually supportive relationships with others and to adapt successfully to change without fear. The problem with society today is that an ever increasing number of us cannot be termed mentally healthy. T h e symptoms of this decline in mental health are all too apparent within the United States. A major crime, including murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, is performed every thirty seconds. In the past 25 years, there has been a six-fold increase in arrests of children under the age of 15 suspected of committing violent crime, including murder and . rape. Meanwhile,

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suicide among the young has risen dramatically—the number nearly tripling in the last 20 years. Indeed, some of our most basic institutions are showing signs of deep degeneration. Since 1970, the divorce rate has tripled, while the percentage of children living with only one parent has more than doubled. Several years ago, Time magazine reported in a cover story that the U.S. public school system was proving itself to be incapable of educating American youth. Clearly, intellectual achievement is declining. In recent years, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores have plummeted; the average combined verbal and math scores dropped nearly 100 points from 1967 to 1980. Nevertheless, teachers maintain that students are today getting 15 percent more A's and B's than students 15 years ago but actually know less. It's no coincidence that as test scores have dropped, the hours children spend watching television have risen dramatically. Today, children watch an average of 3.4 hours of television each day. In an example of bitter irony that often characterizes modern life, former high school students are now suing their alma maters because, after graduating from high school with good grades, they are incapable of filling out job applications. These suits are a good example of how unwilling many people are to accept responsibility even for their own lives. It is also characteristic of a bureaucratic state in which the words, "that's not my job," seem to be ringing in everyone's ears and mouths. Clearly, postwar abundance has been a Faustian bargain, for while we are able to throw billions of dollars at our social ills, the problems of our society seem to get bigger rather than more manageable. A good example of this is the area of mental health, for while the number of dollars spent each year attempting to treat mental health has risen considerably, so too has the number of mentally disturbed people, as discussed in Chapter 1. " T h e world is in the midst of a rising pandemic of mental disorders and associated chronic diseases and disabling conditions," wrote John Hopkins scientist Dr. Morton Kramer recently. " T h e prevalence of mental disorders . . . is rising at an alarming rate." Though the cities have generally been regarded as the playgrounds of the mentally disturbed, recent research indicates that the rural

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areas may be degenerating just as rapidly. "Rural communities tend to be characterized by the higher than average rates of psychiatric disorders, particularly depression, by severe intergeneration conflicts," and other mental disorders, according to a Presidential Commission on Mental Health. Many people believe that there are no answers to life's problems. In 1978, almost 30,000 men and women committed suicide in the United States. Although the rate of suicide has been climbing steadily in the general public, the most alarming trend is among those between the ages of 20 and 24. According to Dr. Calvin J. Frederick, chief of emergency health and disaster assistance at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), between the years 1955 and 1975, the suicide rate for men and women in that age group went from 5.6 to 16.5 per 100,000 people in the United States. Suicide occurs most often among the affluent and particularly in affluent nations, according to Dr. Frederick. Moreover, at least twothirds of those who commit suicide are suffering from depression. Thus, it appears that an increasing number of young people are feeling depressed, alienated from society, and overcome with an unshakable feeling of hopelessness and doom. These feelings among the young, as well as many other social ills, are being blamed on the breakdown of the nuclear family. The family is in a state of collapse. There are more than one million divorces each year, with 12 million children under the age of eighteen living with one parent. Between i960 and 1975, there were more than 750,000 runaway children. Such a schism has developed between parent and child that children are now divorcing their own parents. This division has resulted in the unprecedented breakdown of traditional values which are normally passed on from one generation to the next. Moreover, the emotional support and nourishing that a family normally provides its members has been, for many, tragically eliminated from the experience. Little wonder, therefore, that the social and political fabric of the modern world is showing dangerous signs of coming apart. In their book, Behind Closed Doors: Violence in the American Family (Anchor Press; 1980), researchers Murray A. Straus, Richard J. Gelles, and Suzanne Steinmetz present a shocking picture of violence within

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the family. " T h e American family and the American home are perhaps as or more violent than any other single American institution or setting (with the exception of the military, and only then in time of war)," the authors assert. After interviewing 2,143 families, Straus and company concluded that a person runs the greatest risk of assault, physical injury, and even murder in their own homes by members of their own families. T h e official crime statistics that estimate two million women and children battered each year is a gross underestimate of the facts, according to the authors. Most family violence goes unreported, because most police, neighbors, and even the family members themselves believe that what happens behind one's door is one's own business and not subject to the laws of the community. Still, research presented in Behind Closed Doors throws new light on what is certainly one of the greatest problems America faces today. Some other findings: • Virtually every home in America is the scene of some family violence at least once a year; • a member of about one out of three couples has committed a violent act against their spouse; • one out of eight couples admitted to committing a violent act against their spouse which could have caused serious injury; • two-thirds of all parents surveyed said they slap or spank their children each year; • 80 percent of those under thirty years of age said they viewed hitting their children as good, normal, and necessary; • less than two-thirds of those over 50 years of age, however, said they felt spanking a child was good or necessary. This last finding is particularly interesting, since it shows that older adults are less inclined to see hitting and spanking children as necessary or beneficial. Straus and company also found that even among the young, those who were parents—as opposed to those young couples who did not yet have children—believed less in hitting their children than the rest of those surveyed. Still, more children under the age of five died from blows delivered

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by their parents than from tuberculosis, whooping cough, polio, measles, diabetes, rheumatic fever, and appendicitis combined, Newsweek magazine reported in 1968. These and other startling facts have prompted many people to take a hard look at mental health within society. The assessments have not been encouraging.

Although in recent years the number of people treated for mental illness as inpatients has leveled off, the number treated as outpatients is soaring off the charts. Source: Fig. 18

National Institute of M e n t a l Health

Persons t r e a t e d f o r m e n t a l i l l n e s s i n t h e U n i t e d States, 1955-1975

In his book, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; 1973), Erich Fromm points out that in the seventeenth century many of the attitudes held in contempt—greed and ambition, for example—are "today not contemptuous but laudable." Fromm writes that "a sick individual finds himself at home with other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this type of pathology." The most common forms of mental illness today are schizophrenia and depression. Schizophrenia is a "grab-bag term to describe a number of disorders," says Dr. Michael Lesser, a psychiatrist practic-

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ing in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. " T h e classical definition of schizophrenia is a splitting apart of the personality." This definition is further refined into four symptoms: ambivalence, in which the person is immobilized by indecision; giving inappropriate responses to a given situation ("You might say to a person that their sister just died, and they'd crack up laughing," says Lesser); loosening of associations, in which the person censures random bits of his or her speech, thus reducing the language to gibberish; and autism, or withdrawal from the world around him or her. These are the extreme forms of a sickness that now besets modern society. According to Fromm, schizophrenia should be thought of as on a continuum, with the extreme symptoms at one end and the absence of symptoms on the other. "On this continuum innumerable shadings can be located," writes Fromm. And along that continuum, Fromm maintains, most of us who live in the modern, industrialized world can be found, suffering to one degree or another from this insidious and pernicious mental disorder. Fromm says that modern people, who live in a highly industrialized and technologically advanced society, have become "marketing characters" for whom "everything is transformed into a commodity —not only things, but the person himself, his physical energy, his skills, his knowledge, his opinions, his feelings, even his smiles." This character type, Fromm points out, "is a historically new phenomenon because it is the product of a fully developed capitalism that is centered around the market—the commodity market, the labor market, and the personality market—and whose principle it is to make a profit by favorable exchange." In a society such as this, there is a diminishing interest in "people, nature, and living creatures, together with the increasing attraction of mechanical, non-alive, artifacts . . . , " says Fromm. Men today, he points out, often feel tender toward, and are more interested in, their automobiles than their wives. They are proud of their car; they cherish it; they wash it (even many of those who could pay to have this job done), and in some countries many give it a loving nickname . . . . To be sure a car is not a sexual object—but it is an object of love; life without a car seems to some more intolerable than life without a woman." In this perverse relationship with inanimate objects, modern men

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—and women, too—have lost their essential link with life around them. Our modern society finds no trouble contemplating nuclear war, killing of individuals or masses of people, destroying the environment, or denying others simple human dignity. In short, the nonliving has more value than the living. Fromm illustrates the point by showing that a bomber pilot registers little or no emotion when he releases weapons which will surely kill hundreds of thousands of men and women. The bomber pilot's lack of emotion is not considered aberrant but rather the norm. His divorce from humanity is so complete that he feels nothing for the people he is killing. In the same way, all of our other emotions are diminished. "Sexuality becomes a technical skill (the 'love machine')," writes Fromm. "Feelings are flattened and sometimes substituted for by sentimentality; joy, the expression of intense aliveness, is replaced by 'fun' or excitement; and whatever love and tenderness man has is directed toward machines and gadgets." " T h e world becomes the sum of lifeless artifacts," writes Fromm. "From synthetic food to synthetic organs, the whole man becomes part of the total machinery that he controls and is simultaneously controlled by." Schizophrenia is therefore not a disease isolated to a handful of today's population, but the dominant characteristic of a modern society, the product of a culture that dehumanizes as it heads relentlessly toward what it calls "progress." The disease first manifests itself as a break with the family and the loss of traditional values. T h e next break comes between individuals and society, in which one views the world in such a way that people, the society at large, and nature are objects to be conquered rather than lived with in harmony. This, of course, is the basic dualism of our society. A holistic view of anything is thought of as contrary to science. Such a mentality can readily be seen in approaches that insist on treating behavioral problems as sicknesses solely of the head; it !s as if the body and brain were living apart from one another. Thus, when someone comes seeking treatment for psychological problems, they are often provided with counseling, drugs, and even electroconvulsive shock treatment. More than five years ago, the Senate Finance Committee held hear-

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ings to determine if the psychiatric profession could produce some hard evidence that many of its psychotherapies were actually effective in treating the mentally disturbed. T h e final decision in a nutshell: some therapies seem to work and some don't and in many instances it's hard to tell which are which. Under such uncertain conditions, psychiatrists are leaving themselves open to malpractice suits, which are now being filed by disgruntled patients. Moreover, many critics of psychiatry are coming from within the profession itself. Dr. Fulton Torrey, a psychiatrist practicing at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D. C., says, " T h e psychiatrist has been expendable; he is left standing between the people who have problems in living and those who have brain damage, holding an empty bag." Faced with this lack of hard evidence that psychoanalysis is an effective treatment, psychiatrists usually resort to drug therapy. Drugs have become so much a way of life today that there is scarcely a medicine chest or refrigerator in the country that doesn't have some kind of mood-altering medication or beverage within. Drugs are prescribed so freely and often that people have accepted them as wonders of modern technology, a necessary part of the modern world. "Drugs do not cure the sickness," says Lesser. "What they do is to provide a chemical straitjacket, so that the person is kept quiet while suffering with their mental illness." In his book, Confessions of a Medical Heretic (Contemporary Books; 1979), Dr. Robert Mendelsohn points out that the tranquilizer Valium is used to treat symptoms of anxiety, fatigue, depression, acute hyperexcited states, tremors, hallucinations, and increased muscle spasticity. Moreover, Mendelsohn points out that today most people who take drugs are taking more than one kind. One drug may have harmful side effects to one organ six percent of the time, while the second drug may present dangers to an organ three percent of the time. "If you're taking enough drugs, the danger can easily add up to more than 100 percent. You're virtually assured of suffering some toxic effect!" There are more ominous side effects to taking such medications, however. In 1977, Lesser told the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs that if tranquilizers are taken for too long and in too large a dose, the result is often the onset of tardive dyskinesia, a disease that attacks the central nervous system and causes a shaking

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tremor throughout the person's body. Lesser stated that the disease occurs in over 30 percent of those who take tranquilizers regularly and is usually permanent. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), about eight million Americans admit to currently taking tranquilizers or say they have taken them in the past. Ten million people say they have taken sedatives, while 13 million people say they have taken, or are currently on, stimulants. It is the schizophrenia of the modern technocrat that allows electroconvulsive shock treatment to be administered to human beings. Today the shock is usually set at 125 to 130 volts, enough to burn away part of the patient's brain. In his introduction to The History of Shock Treatment (Leonard Roy Frank; 1978), Dr. Lee Colman writes that "Electroshock works by damaging the brain. Proponents insist that this damage is negligible and transient—a contention that is disputed by many who have been subjected to this procedure. Furthermore, its advocates want to see this damage as a "side effect." In fact, the changes one sees when electroshock is administered are completely consistent with any acute brain injury, such as a blow to the head with a hammer." Coleman points out that this is exactly the purpose of shock treatment; to daze, confuse, disorient the person so thoroughly that he or she cannot remember what their original problems were. Electroshock kills memory. Many of those who have been shocked have reported permanent loss of memory, while virtually all the others say they have suffered at least temporary amnesia. Although lobotomy has been mostly abandoned in the United States, psychosurgery—removing or destroying brain tissue in patients-—is still being performed. Estimates of the number of psychosurgery operations performed in the United States range from 300 to 1,000 yearly. Electroconvulsive shock and psychosurgery are examples of a mentality that sees only symptoms taken to the extreme. Such a mentality maintains that if something isn't working quite right, cut it out or burn it out. Causes are irrelevant. Although conventional psychotherapy may have dropped in popularity, the growing need in people for answers to psychological prob-

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lems was still going unmet. Out of this need sprang the human potential movement. Jungian analyst Dr. V. V. Alexander, who practices psychiatry in London, believes that the popularity of the human potential movement is based on its ability to provide support and acceptance to the present generation of people who failed to receive basic psychological nurturing as infants because their mothers were out working. The breakdown of the family began in the seventeenth century with the Industrial Revolution that uprooted people from their ancestral lands to make them wage-earning units in a mobile marketplace and which has now destroyed the primary link between mother and child. According to Mendelsohn, the seeds of mental illness are planted at birth. Mendelsohn says that a child's first experience with life beyond the womb is often harsh, insensitive, and psychologically damaging. Mendelsohn goes on to say that some modern methods for delivering babies even cause brain damage. " T h e recipe for mental illness begins during prenatal life," states Mendelsohn. " T h e first thing you do is feed the pregnant woman poor nutrition and plenty of medicines. This will result in a premature baby. There are lots of premature babies born these days and they have a higher incidence of mental illness later in life." At the time of delivery, mothers are often sedated, which Mendelsohn says also renders the child unconscious and often results in brain damage to the infant as well. " T h e next step is when the baby is born, wash it down with hexac'hloraphene soap," notes Mendelsohn. " T h i s poisons the baby's skin and also causes brain damage." This, too, is a common practice in some hospitals. After the baby is born, it has been common practice over the past three decades to feed the child cow's milk formula, which among many other things has 200 times as much lead in it as mother's milk, according to Mendelsohn. Increased blood levels of lead has been associated with a host of mental disorders, including various types of criminal behavior. Moreover, mother's milk has vital nutrients that aid in the development of the child's brain and in its ability to metabolize cholesterol, as well as many other important constituents necessary in the healthy development of the child.

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Finally, hospitals continue to take the baby away from its mother after delivery and confine him or her to a maternity ward. The psychological ramifications of this are, of course, incalculable. Social scientists also maintain that one of the reasons for various mental troubles today is the increase in the amount of stress in today's world. "Unquestionably, there is more stress in today's society than ever before," says Dr. Saul Miller, a psychologist at Mississippi State University. "Today the mind has to process more bits of information per second than it's ever had to deal with." Miller points out that one need only drive a car down any thoroughfare in the nation to note the pervasive number of signs, flashing lights, images, slogans, sounds, and people the mind must deal with in any single instant. According to Miller, the bombardment of this mass communication has the biological effect of stimulating the adrenal glands to secrete more insulin, resulting in an increase in tension. " T h e person is suddenly in a flight or fight condition," says Miller. The key factor in handling stress is the health of the individual. The healthy person has no problem processing stimuli; the unhealthy person, however, can easily break down under the torrent of information blasted at him or her. Unfortunately, modern society, particularly the United States, is witnessing the rapid increase of many degenerative illnesses. Cardiovascular disease is the country's number one killer, claiming the lives of almost one million Americans. Cancer—still increasing in the number afflicted each year—follows heart disease, killing 400,000 United States citizens. Other degenerative diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, remain elusive targets for modern medicine. The increase in these and other illnesses has been linked to the American diet, which has undergone dramatic changes since the turn of the century. Today, each American annually eats more than 160 pounds of red meat, more than 135 pounds of sugar, and drinks about 300 twelveounce cans of soda pop. In the early 1900s, almost 40 percent of our total calories came from grains, vegetables, and fruits; today, only 20 percent of calories come from these sources, and most often those grains are refined—stripped of their natural nutrients and fiber. In

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much the same way, vegetables are now frozen or canned, the fruit eaten out of season and outside its natural climate. In 1910, Americans ate under two pounds of ice cream a year; by 1975, that figure had risen to almost eight pounds of commercial ice cream per person. On top of that, ice milk went from 1.2 pounds per person in 1950 to 7.8 pounds by 1975. Today, the average American eats more than 12 pounds of margarine and over four pounds of butter each year. T h e Food and Drug Administration can't calculate the number of pounds of artificial colors, flavorings, preservatives, and other additives Americans take in from their daily food supply. Such a huge body of evidence has emerged linking diet to degenerative illnesses—including heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and others—that in 1979 the Surgeon General stated that in order to reduce the chances of such diseases, Americans should cut back on the amount of red meat they eat, as well as other forms of animal fat, cholesterol, salt, and sugar. In addition, the Surgeon General urged Americans to increase their intake of complex carbohydrates, including whole grains, fruits and vegetables, as well as fish and poultry. Not surprisingly, scientists are now saying that the food one eats has a direct bearing on how one behaves. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr. John Fernstrom, Dr. Richard Wurtman, and several other scientists have discovered that the availability of certain nutrients in the food one eats has the ability to affect the way the brain works. In an article published in Nutrition Action magazine, Fernstrom wrote: " I t is becoming increasingly clear that brain chemistry and function can be influenced by a single meal. That is, in well-nourished individuals consuming normal amounts of food, short-term changes in food composition can rapidly affect brain function." According to Fernstrom, complex carbohydrates, found in whole grains and vegetables, have the ability to increase the brain's uptake of the amino acid tryptophan. Studies have shown that tryptophan aids in relief of pain and in lowering blood pressure. Tryptophan has also been shown to improve sleep and plays an important role in improving the mood of people who are depressed. In order for tryptophan to be taken up by the brain, it must pass from the blood into the brain via a special transport system that also

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carries other amino acids into the brain. Because all these amino acids enter the brain by the same system, they compete with one another for entry. A meal made up of carbohydrates, according to the scientists, increases the amount of amino acids, including tryptophan, in the blood only in moderate amounts. However, most of this tryptophan gets into the brain because a carbohydrate meal does not increase the amount of competing amino acids. Thus, relatively more tryptophan gets on the transport system and into the brain. On the other hand, a meal consisting of animal protein, steak, for example, increases blood tryptophan levels dramatically; however, it also increases the number of competing amino acids in the blood, thus forcing tryptophan to compete with many other amino acids for uptake by the brain. T h e result is that in a high protein meal, lower levels of tryptophan actually make it to the brain. Fernstrom suggests that this "growing body of information now points to new clinically useful applications of tryptophan and thus also for the use of specific meals that would increase tryptophan l e v e l s . . . ." Fernstrom goes on to say that the meals which promote the uptake of tryptophan by the brain could play a role in the treatment of depression. Such meals would be high in complex carbohydrates and low in animal protein, i.e., the traditional, rather than the modern, diet of humanity. In addition, physicians, scientists, and probation officers are now saying that hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is the cause of many forms of mental disorders, including depression, lethargy, severe mood swings, angry and violent behavior, and even nervous tension. These researchers maintain that hypoglycemia is largely due to the vast amounts of refined white sugar people eat today. When the body takes in sugar (sucrose), the pancreas secretes insulin to maintain a balanced level of blood sugar (glucose). However, too much sugar over time results in the overreaction of the pancreas, causing it to secrete excessive amounts of insulin, thus bringing about a severe drop in blood sugar. This drop in blood sugar levels is what is responsible for the various symptoms, according to physicians. Many other constituents in today's diet have been indicted as responsible for causing adverse changes in one's behavior. Fifteen years

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ago, Dr. Benjamin Feingold discovered that artificial colors, flavors, various preservatives, and aspirin-like substances called salicylates (found in tomatoes, oranges, peaches, grapes, raisins, and a number of other fruits) cause hyperactivity in children. Feingold developed a diet, which is made up of foods free of artificial colors, additives, preservatives, and salicylates, which he wrote about in his national bestselling book, Why Your Child is Hyperactive (1975). The book became a huge success and provided Feingold with an ardent following. Today the Feingold Association, which is a nationwide group of parents of hyperactive children, has more than 50,000 members. Like the issue of hypoglycemia, the Feingold diet is highly controversial, with some studies proving support for Feingold's claims, while others show no evidence that such a diet reduces hyperactive symptoms. Nevertheless, many thousands of parents across the country claim that the Feingold diet has cured their children of hyperactivity. At Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Dr. Michael Lesser has been treating patients—including those suffering from schizophrenia and depression—with diet. "I can almost say as a truism that the better the diet, the better the person's mental health," says Lesser. "Everything you put in your mouth is going to affect your mind and body. . .. A good diet helps preserve sanity; a poor diet helps lose sanity." Irrespective of the particular problems in their lives, nearly all the patients Lesser sees take in high quantities of caffeine, refined white sugar, artificial additives (colors, flavors, and preservatives); also, most smoke an excessive number of cigarettes, usually eat little else but canned vegetables and fast foods, and take some prescription or recreational drug. Lesser's treatment is to immediately take his patients off such foods, "especially off all addictions," he says. He replaces these foods with items such as fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, and protein from vegetable or animal sources. Even by making these relatively modest changes, Lesser and his patients see substantial improvements in behavior. "I get excellent results," says Lesser. " I n order to treat mental illness, you've got to treat the whole person. Really, the mind is just a myth; there is consciousness—that's what the mind is. And when

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you change the internal chemistry of the body, you're changing the mind as well." In Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, probation officer Barbara Reed has been treating ex-convicts with diet for more than ten years. More than 20 years ago, Reed said she was suffering from hypoglycemia; after reading a book on the subject, she stopped eating white sugar and refined grain products. The hypoglycemia disappeared. After feeling vastly improved by making this small change in her diet, Reed began grains and vegetables, and strike from their diets completely all refined sugar and flour products. In her testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs in 1977, Reed maintained that upon examining 318 probationers, 252 were found to have serious dietary deficiencies. Reed got the group to reduce or eliminate red meat, eat more whole grains and vegetables, and strike from their diets completely all refined sugar and flour products. Two and a half years after Reed had changed the probationers' diets, not one who stuck with the program was in trouble with the law, she told the Select Committee. In a follow-up interview with East West Journal, Reed stated that more than 1,000 ex-offenders have gone through her dietary program and of those who remained on the diet, 89 percent have not been rearrested over the past five years. Alexander Schauss, director of the Institute for Biosocial Research in Tacoma, Washington, has been one of this country's leading proponents of using diet to treat and rehabilitate convicted criminals. In his book, Diet, Crime and Delinquency (Parker House; 1980), Schauss reports on a study done at the Morris County Jail Rehabilitation Center in New Jersey in which an eight-week diet program was established for inmates. After improving the diets of the inmates—which had been composed of junk foods—the results of the study were: a reduction of inmates' voluntary sugar intake; improvement in morale, mood, and self-motivation; and improvements in previously measured impaired perceptions. As a result, the research team recommended that all prisoners in jails nationwide be given nutritional education, Particularly to treat low blood sugar.

Schauss also writes about the work of Dr. Clifford E. Simonsen, a criminologist at the University of Washington, who compared the dietary patterns of 30 chronic juvenile offenders with a similar group of children from a local school district who were suffering from behavioral disorders but had never been in trouble with the law. The major difference in diets was that the juvenile offenders drank an average of 64 ounces of milk a day, while the nonoffending children drank 30 ounces of milk per day. Schauss also reports on similar studies in which the dietary patterns of delinquent girls were compared with those of nondelinquent girls. The major dietary difference between the two female groups was that the women offenders consumed nearly twice as much milk per day as the nonoffenders. Writes Schauss: " I n some situations, eliminating milk from the diet can result in dramatic improvements in behavior, especially in hyperactive children." By eating synthetic foods, humankind has cut itself off from nature, for food is our basic, direct link with the environment. When this essential link is broken, it's no wonder that we feel estranged from nature. Thus, mental disorders are simply another effect or symptom of humanity's underlying sickness, dualism. The cause of this sickness is in eating an imbalanced diet, and separating ourselves from nature. In order to rid ourselves of this deep schizophrenia, our society must go back to eating foods of the earth, unadulterated by additives, refining, freezing, excessive packaging, and the bombardment of microwaves. The road back to mental health can begin with our next meal.

3. Profiles Virginia's Pioneering Prison Project by

Angelo John Lewis (Reprinted f r o m East West Journal)

It seems hard to believe that a simple experiment in such a small institution could stir up so much fuss. But it was here in the Tidewater Detention Home, a minimum security juvenile facility near Chesapeake Bay, that one of the first of what were later to be called "sugar studies" was conducted. The premise was simple: remove sugar from the diets of juvenile offenders and, if research tying overconsumption of sugar to antisocial behavior held merit, a behavioral change for the better would be observed. Although the research methodology of Stephen J. Schoenthaler's study of dietary changes at the Tidewater Detention Home was later challenged, the findings had front page impact. Schoenthaler reported a 45 percent decline in formal disciplinary actions for twenty-four boys during three months of the sugar-reduced diet. T h e boys, ages twelve to eighteen, were incarcerated for a range of offenses that included alcohol and narcotic violations, disorderly conduct, and larceny and burglary. During the length of the study, the boys and all but key staff were kept unaware of the true reasons for the food substitutions and were told it was a cost-saving measure. Additional results of the double-blind study showed an 80 percent decrease of boytantls consy in serious trouble and a"55 percent drop in misbehavior among boys whos witched from the regular institutional diet to the low sugar diet. If the 1981 experiment's premise was simple, its fallout was immense. Overnight, the national networks picked up on the story. Some fifty letters a week arrived inquiring about the research, mostly from correctional facilities in other states. Shoenthaler was asked to conduct studies in other institutions. The results, using much larger populations and improved methodology, followed the same pattern. Juvenile

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institutions throughout the country began establishing their own diet reforms. A New York assemblyman even drafted legislation aimed at improving prison diets. There was feedback of the negative kind as well. Understandably itchy about the implications of the Tidewater research, sugar industry spokespersons wrote editorials claiming that sugar was a nutritious food and that no links between sugar and ill health had been proven. Dietitians informed the Tidewater staff that they "weren't qualified" to implement dietary changes. Researchers attacked Shoenthaler's work, saying he hadn't shown that the reduced incidence in antisocial behavior was due solely to sugar. An A.C.L.U. attorney, perhaps harkening to the horror stories of involuntary experiments on prisoners during the '60s and '70s, threatened to sue the Tidewater staff if their charges' diets were unduly restricted. Time has a way of settling all things and the four years since the brouhaha over the sugar study have brought calm to Tidewater. "We're getting back to normal around here," the detention home's project director Frank Kern said on a recent morning. The highlight of the day for me was the consumption of a nutritious lunch prepared under the watchful hand of the "less secure" facilities' Japanese cook, Kazuko Dearinger. The noontime fare included tempura flounder and green beans, and fried brown rice with vegetables, and iced tea. "You can't take sugar away from kids all at once," Dearinger said, while molding bits of watermelon into round balls. Sometimes, she adopts the strategy of "tricking" kids by substituting raisins or fruit juices for sweetener. Later, I watched Richard Berry, a soft-spoken special education teacher, teach a class on nutrition. "What happens when you put sugar in your gas tank?" he asks while sliding his hand down an imaginary decline. "That's the same thing that happens when you put it in your body." Later, I asked one of the students if the class serves to force him to cut his intake of sugar. "They can't force me," he answered with youthful frankness. "I can just go over to the canteen and get all I want." The child's response underscores something Kern told me earlier. "People get very upset when you start talking about changing children's diets," he said. For this reason, dietary compliance is voluntary at

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Tidewater. Children are educated on the importance of diet when they enter into the program; sugar is not provided as a condiment; fresh foods are favored over processed ones. In short, the approach is low key. "Diet is just one spoke on the wheel," he says. Kern is excited about receiving a recent grant that enabled the facility to purchase a state-of-the-art stove to be used to train juveniles in whole foods culinary arts. He also points out that some twenty to thirty years ago, most of Virginia's penitentiaries grew a good portion of their own food, but since then much of its food services have been contracted to outsiders. Kern sees a possible prison industry program that would be labor intensive, teach inmates useful skills, involve expertise and investment on the part of the private sector, and enable penal institutions to reduce food costs.

Macrobiotics in a Danish Prison by Ivan Pedro Shiffer

I was born and raised in Brazil. Although I had heard about macrobiotics, I was not able to practice it correctly. Instead, I became involved with drugs, and, in 1984, was arrested in Denmark. Following my arrest, I self-reflected and decided to change. I wanted to practice macrobiotics and improve myself as much as possible. One of the problems I faced was that the prison diet had been planned by a doctor. The prison offered a variety of diets—standard, vegetarian, Kosher, Muslim, diabetic, and special diets for people without teeth. The doctor was highly regarded as being capable of designing diets that would cover everyone's daily needs. But as in prisons everywhere, the food served in Danish prisons is typical institutional food. From a macrobiotic point of view it was generally unsuitable. Although it was possible to survive for a short time eating it—or even for a long time by selecting a limited variety of foods— I wanted to eat a wider, more balanced macrobiotic diet. In the beginning, I discovered that the oat flakes served in the morning were edible, and that salty rye bread, which comes in three forms

iS4 (whole grain, broken grain, and rye flour) could also be eaten in small amounts. Not only was it salty, but, as I later discovered, it also contained commercial fat, which is not written on the label, but can be felt the next day in the form of a gassy discharge. I was able to buy Swedish crisp bread, or "Wasa," which is simply rye, water, and salt. All of the other breakfast items: cheese, milk, marmalade, and white bread I managed to avoid. The vegetarian meal served at lunch and dinner usually consisted of over-cooked or canned vegetables with a meat substitute made from textured soybeans. These meat substitutes were questionable; they often included sugar, poor quality fats, and preservatives. Confronted with this situation, the only alternative was to act resolutely for change. Several of my friends and I had hoped to use our time in prison as a positive experience that would help us regain health, memory, sound judgment, strength, and many of the things we had lost through the use of drugs and through our disorderly lifestyle. As my mind started clearing up, I realized how far away I had gotten

Fig. 19

Ivan Pedro Shiffer with whole grain buckwheat pancakes prepared in the prison kitchen.

iS5 from a natural way of life. Finally, the chance to practice macrobiotics came when Tue Gertsen and Barbara Berger of the macrobiotic center in Copenhagen answered my letter asking for help. They offered to support and help us in any way possible. Anne-Marie Wibollt, a cooking teacher at the center who had studied in Boston, would help us get the foods we would need. We had no idea then of the difficulties we would encounter. First, we thought that in a country with such an advanced prison system, we would simply have to explain what we wanted and it would be arranged. So we asked, we explained, but nothing happened. We thought we had not explained well enough, so we tried again. Once more, no response from the prison. We were taken almost daily to police headquarters for questioning, so we had a chance to explain our problem to the police and lawyers. We received assurances that in a short time it would be solved. It was during that period that I was kept in isolation. I started a hunger strike to call attention to our request for natural food. Again I received assurances that a solution would be reached soon, but as it

Fig. 20

Preparing dinner in the kitchen facilities provided by the prison.

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was near Christmas, the office of the prison director was closed, so the soonest we could hope for a solution was not until after the New Year. However, time went by and no changes were made. Every three weeks we were taken to court and the problem was discussed in front of the judge, who was positive that we would get our food items. I began another hunger strike, this time for 12 days. Then the vice director of the prison, a very intelligent and understanding woman named Laila Dahl, took the matter into her hands and convinced me to stop fasting. She was confident that a solution would be reached in a couple of months. Until then, I could choose one item which she would arrange to be sold in the prison shop. As we had no place to cook or warm up food, after much consideration, I decided to order an organic grain mix known as muesli. Muesli is made from oat, barley, wheat, and rice flakes, whole buckwheat, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, and raisins. T h e fact that it was packed in airtight bags helped reassure the administration that it was safe to allow inside the prison. They were concerned because drugs were being continually smuggled in. With the promise that I would start receiving muesli in several weeks, the first step had been reached.

Fig. 21

Macrobiotic staples allowed in the prison by authorities in Denmark.

157 Meanwhile, Anne-Marie was helping us from the outside. She went to the department of the ministry of justice in charge of prison administration in Denmark. She brought the products we were asking for to the people who had been appointed to take care of the matter. She explained what it was all about, and received promises that they would look into it. From inside, we were continuously writing letters to every possible authority in the country, hoping to make ourselves understood. The fact that macrobiotics was not so well known in Denmark, and the dietary habits of people in general traditionally relied on milk products, meat, and rye bread, made it difficult for them to see the reason for all the fuss. The prison diet was carefully planned by a doctor of "Rigs hospitalet" (the main hospital in Copenhagen), and this made it difficult for someone to take the responsibility for allowing us to depart from it. If anything went wrong, who would then be responsible? As they say here, the "hot potato" was being tossed back and forth and no solution was reached. But as we were hard headed and had decided to use the opportunity of isolation and imprisonment to find the freedom that we could not enjoy in liberty, we were ready for any consequences in order to be allowed to eat the foods recommended in macrobiotic philosophy. The judge and the investigating police started to understand how determined we were, and became supportive. They arranged a court meeting, summoning the director of the prison to analyze the problem from a legal point of view, and if possible, to work out a solution. This gave us hope and energy; our voices were starting to be heard and taken seriously. The macrobiotic trial had started. The people who participated in the court meeting included the judge; the vice director of Copenhagen prisons, Mrs. Laila Dahl; the police, represented by Mr. Frode Olsen; the prosecutor; lawyers; and representatives of the three main newspapers in Denmark. The vice inspector insisted that the prison could not allow such a diet, because security measures prevented any changes in food regulations. Mr. Olsen then spoke, guaranteeing that the police would take responsibility in getting the items we needed, searching them for drugs or weapons, and delivering them to the prison. In this way, the prison

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administration would not have to worry about security. However, this was not acceptable to the vice director, who felt that it would interfere with the work of the prison guards. If necessary, they would check the food themselves, but special regulations would not allow this. In conclusion, the judge said he had no power to decide on internal affairs of the prison, but hoped that the prison would solve the problem and allow us to have our food. So we were back to square one, but the fight was far from over. Anne-Marie then decided to ask a friend of hers, who is a journalist, to write an article in one of the main daily newspapers to call attention to our situation. The article was written and it did help. After nearly six months of anxiety and hope, it was a very positive thing. On the day I was released from solitary, I met with several other prisoners who showed me the article. By then, Mr. Frode Olsen had decided to do everything he could to help us, and had contacted Mr. Bjorn Elmquist, a man who works with prison conditions in countries where human rights are not respected. He was also a former journalist and lately had become a deputy in the "Folketinget" or Danish parliament. He took an interest in our case, and pleaded with the Minister of Justice, Mr. Erik Ninn Hansen, for help in resolving our plight. It did not take long then (only a few weeks) before a smiling Laila Dahl visited me and said that an order had arrived from the Minister, stating that we be allowed to buy the items we needed. I was allowed to select eight products which the prison would carry, and the prison would begin including brown rice as a regular item on the vegetarian menu, which at that time was being chosen by 126 people. I selected millet, lentils, miso, sea vegetables, tahini, Lima bio muesli, carrot juice, and cabbage for the store. The vice director was happy about our victory: she was deeply committed to seeing us get the items. T h e director had been the one who had opposed our request without considering what it was all about. Anne-Marie suggested recipes so we could prepare our food without having access to a kitchen. Later I was allowed to work in the kitchen, also thanks to Laila Dahl, who definitely sympathized with our ideas. Marie was even allowed to visit us once a week with delicious, well cooked macrobiotic meals.

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We now had the courage to face what was ahead. The trial came and I was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, which, with luck, can be reduced to about five years. Since then I have been transferred to a state prison on an island called Nyborg. I had to start all over. The whole process began again, with explanations, letters, and hunger strikes. It seemed like I had been transferred to another country. The order from the Minister of Justice had no power here. So I asked our friend in parliament, Mr. Bjorn Elmquist, to intercede. We asked our friend in the police department, Mr. Frode Olsen, who probably has heard more about macrobiotics than any other policeman in the world, to contact Mr. Elmquist. In less than a month, a new older came from the Minister exempting me from the usual prison food, and allowing me to buy everything I needed with my working money. The prison offered to provide me with two kilos of Lima muesli a week for free. The cost to the prison is about 56 kronen, or about five dollars a week, so I became the most inexpensive prisoner in the entire Danish prison system to feed. By now I was as happy as any man could be. I was also allowed to get a pressure cooker and a mill for grinding grains. Fortunately we have our own kitchen and can cook for ourselves. There are now three of us practicing macrobiotics. One of the other macrobiotic prisoners, Jackie Wuth, had to go through a similar process. It took seven months of letter writing and hunger strikes to prove that he really wanted to change his diet and way of life. People are imprisoned to hopefully change for the better. If someone decides to practice a philosophy that promotes changes in his body and mind, the system can block all his efforts. Those who are practicing macrobiotics inside Danish prisons have made a decision coming from the heart. We are thankful to everyone who helped us achieve true freedom before the time imposed by the judge is up. We hope some day to join in the fantastic project that is now being created to bring macrobiotics to people behind bars. We want to join as living proof that nothing better could happen to people who are imprisoned. We are now at Nyborg stats faengsel, P.O. Box 55, 5800 Nyborg, Denmark. We invite readers to write to us about anything. Meanwhile chew, chew, chew; a bright new world is behind it.

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The Neil Scott Story: Sentenced to Life by David Brisson (Reprinted with permission of t h e Boston Herald)

Neil Scott looked out of the airplane window at the Boston skyline like it was some kind of promised land. For the last six years—ever since doctors on the prison ward at a Texas hospital had told him he would die of cancer of the colon within 90 days—it had been people living in Boston whose letters of advice and support had sustained him. Now, as his flight touched down, he was about to meet these guides to his new life. But Scott was scared. Sure, he'd beaten his cancer, and his drinking. He'd even survived nine years in Texas' most hellish jail, Huntsville Prison. And now he was free. Trouble was, freedom didn't feel quite right. There were strange new decisions to be made. Choices inmates can only dream about: where to go, what to do, how long to stay. And others even less tangible, like what to say, how to act, and who to be. Indeed, for Scott the world was much different than the one he left behind on April 2, 1975, the day he, Claude Brown, and Harry Bader set out to rob the First National Bank of Cushing, Texas. What Brown had not told his pal, however, was that he had robbed the same bank twice within the past three months. Also unknown to Scott was the fact that a bank employee had died of a heart attack as a result of the second robbery, and that Brown's picture was plastered on every post office wall in Texas. Scott commandeered their lone gun—he didn't want anyone to get hurt and he didn't trust Brown's judgment in a crisis—and led the way into the lobby. By the time Cushing's sheriff John Lightfoot chanced upon the scene, Brown had already emptied the bank's four registers and was heading for the vault. Bader, who was supposed to be standing guard by the door, had fallen asleep from too much booze. And Scott, just as scared as the hostages, threw his Colt. 45 at the lawman's feet and

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prepared to surrender. But as other policemen poured into the lobby and handcuffed Brown and Bader, somehow Scott was overlooked. He ran out the front door, jumped into his car and made his getaway with the police in pursuit. For five miles they chased him before he was forced to stop by a police roadblock. But instead of storming the car, the police poured round after round of bullets into it for nearly two minutes. They only stopped once Sheriff Lightfoot arrived. He pulled Scott from the car—bloodied by glass and bits of metal but not seriously wounded—and read him his rights. A week later, Brown, Scott, and Bader pleaded guilty to "aggravated robbery" and were each sentenced to life in prison. Scott, whose theft of a lawnmower and prior conviction on two counts of first-degree robbery had landed him 45 months in California and Oregon prisons, was eligible for parole in 1987, or 1985 with "good time." The next day, the would-be bank robbers headed for Huntsville Prison, home of the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC). With 32,000 inmates at the time, it was the largest state-run penal system in the land. It was also the toughest. Conditions in the T D C were so bad that in 1980 a federal court found it guilty of abuses ranging from housing to health care. Countless rapes, unprovoked assaults, and unbearable overcrowding—situations cited by inmate David Ruiz, who filed the suit, and other witnesses—so angered federal judge William Wayne Justice that he termed it "impossible" in his 206-page opinion "to convey the pernicious conditions and pain and degredation which ordinary inmates suffer within the T D C prison walls." It was "cruel and unusual punishment," he concluded, if not at its worst, very close to it. Yet for Neil Scott life at Huntsville his first few years were his best. By day, he tended the T D C ' s multi-million-dollar bus-repair facility as bookkeeper. At night he worked on a writ of habeas corpus he hoped would win him a new trial and a lighter sentence. Often, Scott reflected on the many jobs he'd had; from bar owner to bartender to bookmaker and salesman. He looked back over his 45 years and saw the maids and butlers who waited on him as a child at home in Seattle. He recalled the death of his father—a prosperous dentist and insurance businessman—in 1936, and his mother's fall to cancer six years later. There was the awful boarding school his guardian

162 sent him to when he was 14; the honorable discharge from the Navy in 1952; the $250,000 inheritance blown on liquor and gambling by the time he was 21; and his three wives, all of whom he took to the altar while drunk. Despite his life-long drinking, health had never posed a problem for Scott. Through the years, he knew few colds and no major illness. He ate little meat and practically no sweets. If anything, he had more energy than he could use. But as 1977 dawned, he began to lose strength. His back ached. There was a steady throb and a clicking sound "like a busy signal on the telephone," he recalls. "Nothing was working right and I couldn't move my bowels." Gradually, his condition worsened. By March, he had trouble moving. Sitting hurt. He couldn't keep up with his work, and he was losing weight. Enemas relieved a bit of the pressure, but the pain kept coming. By September he was incontinent, but T D C medical staffers, tired of his complaints, accused Scott of malingering. One incredulous doctor even scribbled "turkey" on his file. Fourteen months later, in November 1978, Scott was too weak to walk and barely able to lift himself out of bed. T D C doctors sent him to Galveston's John Sealy Hospital for tests, where within six hours physicians diagnosed probable cancer. Three days later, surgeons spent nine hours removing what they could of it from his colon, the walls of his stomach, and his lower back. After the operation, the chief surgeon told Neil he'd be lucky to live three months. With his prison term and poor prognosis, it might have been easier for Neil Scott to give up on life. But the cancer filled him with purpose he never knew as a free man. Relying upon a litany of "medical facts" his mother—a Seventh Day Adventist—had taught him as a child, he drew a connection between diet and recovery. First, to soften the ill effects of chemotherapy he drank "huge amounts" of water and juices. Then, three days after surgery, with his scars still fresh, he suspended all pain medication. Three weeks later, he gave up all meat, poultry, and dairy products. And to the chagrin of his doctors, he started getting better. Back at Huntsville Unit Hospital just before Christmas, Scott intensified the battle to save his life. The key was to find the right weapons; and since neither T D C doctors nor those at John Sealy

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Hospital seemed to have them, he began to look elsewhere. Among the volumes of cancer literature he scoured in early 1979, Ann Cinquina's Cancer News Journal cemented his belief in a dietary approach. I m mediately he began taking advantage of every available nutrient in the facility. Cancer might still have the upper hand, he thought, but his forces were growing and his delight came from learning how to use them. He took up yoga, and began practicing visualization and imagery techniques he'd read about. " T h e white cells are horsemen on white steeds carrying carrot spears and asparagus clubs," he wrote. "They ride roughshod over sickly cancer cells whose feet are mired in peanut butter and do not stand a chance." Instead of dying in 90 days as predicted, Neil Scott became T D C ' s first cancer patient in 17 years to outlive his prognosis. In March 1980, he stopped all chemotherapy, without having lost a blade of hair or known a moment of nausea. Then in June, Scott learned his cancer had gone into remission. But in the fall in 1980, Scott's good fortune began to wane. T h e T D C farms, which supplied the fresh vegetables that fueled him, were forced to cut back on production. Furthermore, T D C refused to buy any food specially for cancer patients or to allow inmates any "outside" food. In September, fearing for his life, Scott petitioned then-Governor William Clements for a medical reprieve, with provisional parole for medical reasons. Although sympathetic, the governor turned him down. Scott had no better luck the following May with the chairman of the Texas Board of Paroles and Pardons, Ruben Torres. "I would advise you to keep the Board informed should your condition worsen, and at that time reapply for a medical reprieve," wrote Torres. With his cancer active again by April 1981, Scott's despair led him to broaden his contacts beyond Huntsville Prison's walls. Barred from the telephone by T D C regulations and bereft of an attorney, he turned to the mail as his only lifeline to the world outside. In May and June, he sent a letter describing his plight to scores of magazines. Nowhere was it received with more concern that at the East West Journal, a small alternative-lifestyles national magazine published in Brookline.

164 The East West Journal believed that cancer was caused by diet and attitude. To then-editor Alex Jack and prison correspondent Frank Salvati, the dreaded disease was the body's natural response to abysmal conditions created by its occupant. Therefore, if one could acquire balanced food and balanced thought, the cancer could disappear as naturally as it came. This philosophy, known as macrobiotics, taught that each food, as well as lifestyle habits, contained expansive and contractive properties, known as yin and yang. T h u s each cancer, depending upon its cause, had to be approached individually. Given the nature of Scott's cancer, as they deduced it, Salvati and Jack made specific dietary recommendations. To his exercise regimen they added Taoist yoga, which was designed to strengthen his organs. And to augment his knowledge, they sent him back issues of the magazine, plus books by Michio Kushi, the magazine's founder, and George Ohsawa, Kushi's teacher. Within weeks, Neil Scott had embraced the macrobiotic message; finding no words "to express my gratitude or define the change in my personal outlook. I am so overwhelmingly impressed with the macrobiotic way," he wrote Salvati in August. "Were I to commit another crime, I would be better off dead." Meanwhile, with T D C "unable" to supply whole grains, Scott fed off Bran Flakes, Wheat Chex, and white rice. But as he ate, he looked beyond the additives in his fare to the golden fields and lush green earth from which they came. Gradually, as he read, wrote, and ate, he came to view cancer as a consequence of his former way of life. No longer the nemesis from without, he now saw it as the enemy within; the offspring of a life of crime and inner rust. Yet despite Scott's new outlook, an abdominal scan in December 1982 revealed a tumor massing in his liver. Again he turned down chemotherapy. But he was losing weight and was too weak to work. Doubts about making due with his T D C diet led to fears that his battle was lost. Back in Boston, Alex Jack and Frank Salvati were worried. Either Neil was discharging deadly toxins enroute to recovery, in accordance with macrobiotic theories, or he was dying. On March 7, Jack dispat-

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ched a writer to investigate; but when he arrived in Texas, T D C officials not only refused him access to Scott, but they would not even discuss the case. T h e writer returned to Boston without Scott ever having known he was there. Then, in mid-April, Scott wrote that he was feeling better. The latest tests on his liver and blood showed no trace of cancer and his energy had returned. For the next two years, Neil Scott continued his campaign against T D C treatment of cancer patients. Unable to meet with the news media in person, he used pen and postage stamp to tell of dying inmates being forced to polish brass or sweep floors. And he continued his correspondence with Frank Salvati and Alex Jack, as well as 150 other inmates, cancer patients, and friends from America and Australia. Refusing physical labor, Scott again met the wrath of the T D C . He was placed in Four Building, the dowdy quarters where inmates wait for reassignment. There, exposed to a series of cellmates stricken with tuberculosis, he contracted the disease and was hospitalized for three weeks. " I t amounts to slow legal murder," he lamented in a letter. Shortly after Scott's recovery and return to Four Building, the Texas State Legislature passed a bill adding "good time" to inmates with no disciplinary infractions. Scott learned his parole eligibility date might be moved up from 1985 to 1984. On March 7, 1984, a month from the ninth anniversary of the Cushing bank job, Neil Scott walked out of Huntsville Prison a free man. He had walked from other prisons at other times only to return in shackles. But now, at age 56, his plan was to give back to those left behind some of what others have given to him. Arriving in Boston after several months with friends on a North Dakota farm, Neil Scott was greeted by the macrobiotic community as a hero. Scott's triumph was a credit to their cause. Here, in the flesh, was the man whose life they had helped save and whose freedom they had in part secured. Lecturing at macrobiotic study houses, at the East West Journal, at prison reform meetings, and even at a local college, Scott scored high marks with his peers. He got involved in a prison project designed to set up an inmate correspondence center and a halfway house. And there was talk of a nationwide speaking tour.

166 But for Scott, living on a small pension from Social Security and the Navy each month wasn't enough. The macrobiotic community, for all its good karma, had little cash to cover his efforts. By November, Scott was under considerable stress. And by Christmas, torn between making enough money to survive and carrying forth the message that had saved him, he began to look for part-time jobs to pay his way. Then in January, with his morale continuing to slide, Japan Publications offered Scott a book contract to tell his story. To Scott, it was like the reprieve he'd never gotten in Texas. "All I've wanted to do in Boston and throughout the country is to express what I have learned from experience and pass it on to fellow cancer patients and prisoners," he says. "Maybe I can help. Maybe I cannot. But at least I will not do any harm." Of that Neil Scott is sure. Neil Scott is the author of Eating with Angels, Japan Publications, 1986.

Powhatan: The Story of Chuck Fai-Goon by Eric Zutrau Powhatan (American Indian for "meeting on a hill") is a small dot on the map of central Virginia. T h e town's size belies the activity of the department of corrections there, where 1,400 men and women occupy a walled prison that bears the same name. On July 10, 1984, the gates of Powhatan prison opened to accept one more who would do time at Virginia's "state farm." For Powhatan's new resident, Chuck Fai-Goon, the passing of the distinctive red clay of Virginia under his feet and an unconfined panorama of the surrounding countryside were just a part of his transfer trip from the Federal Prison in Texas. The fleeting moments of freedom did not fill Chuck with anxiety, even though it could be as long as six years before parole. Still, Chuck was not troubled by the continuation of his sentence. Even the guards who had accompanied him from Texas thought there was something different about him. Chuck, surrounded by two guards,

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drew closer to the front gate of the prison, not unlike two giant bookends keeping a single piece of paper in place. The guards' massive size dwarfed Chuck's 140 pound frame but not his irrepressible spirit. Stepping lightly, almost silently, as the red clay turned to the asphalt of the outer yard and finally into the tiled floors of the secure prison, Chuck had practiced not dragging his feet or hanging his head despite having already spent two years behind bars. Steel gates slammed shut behind him, hardly punctuating the seemingly incessant clatter of pots and pans from the nearby kitchen, and the monotonous din of radios and TVs in the background. For Chuck, the busy process of transfer did not disturb his thoughts, and other than the mandatory conversations he had to have in order to collect his prize for the day—a high security suite with a long term meal plan and some occasional room service—he had just one other conversation with the only friend he had at Powhatan at the moment: himself. "What is possible here?" he asked himself. "What is the opportunity even in this situation ?" Chuck repeated these questions to himself as if he were silently reciting a mantra, the confluence of all the prison elements prompting him to further clarity. The sensory overload of a maximum security prison could undo anyone's cool. How could the thin "doctor of traditional oriental medicine" turn the tables on his circumstances? The noisier and more chaotic it got as he traveled toward the belly of the prison, the more resourceful his thoughts became, and the more quietude and calm he seemed to exhibit. To make balance and harmonize with one's environment or with one's antagonist can be a formidable task at the high-school prom, not to mention in a large walled prison. To do this at Powhatan, Chuck would have to draw heavily on his background; his twenty years training and teaching of Tai Chi Chuan (a traditional martial art) and his study of traditional Chinese philosophy. Macrobiotics was his most recent discovery, adding to his already wide range of experiences. With at least the courage of a door to door salesman on a "cold call," Chuck began to share his experience with others. His years as a gang leader in the Wah Ching of New York's Chinatown, and a stretch in a tough Texas prison made him no stranger to what to expect.

168 Not throwing away the need to be cool and guarded in the prison environment, Chuck downplayed being "streetwise." Given any chance, Chuck would always help others. To other prisoners, his concern was a refreshing change from the usual attitude encountered in prison. This more than piqued the interest of inmates and guards alike, and the nature of Chuck's initiation shifted as a result. T h e jeers of other prisoners, the stoic demands of the guards, the standard rites of passage and the unofficial tests of a newcomer's mettle and resilience were replaced by curiosity and respect. Now inmates would gather in small groups and listen intently to Chuck speak about the principles of balance through the macrobiotic diet. T h e group grew in numbers. It was fueled by Chuck's tenacity and will. His certainty and sense of purpose made his broken English seem as tight as a bow that shot bull's-eye arrows. Chuck had won the outright respect of all those who knew him. During his 1982 stint in the Texas prison, he wrote, "Right now we have about 35 members in our macrobiotic study group and another 75 on the waiting list." In the same letter to East West correspondent Frank Salvati, he wrote of his success with prison administrators: " T h e macrobiotic information will help me in the classes I teach with full permission from the associate warden. From macrobiotics I have learned to understand the value of life, happiness, and love. I'm very grateful for all your help in sending me the literature and magazines." Choosing more wisely from the mess hall menu, and procuring specially ordered items from the canteen, the men noticed immediate changes. "I can't believe how much better I feel (about myself)," wrote one inmate. "This really works, cutting out fatty meats, sugar, white flour, and chemicals. I feel 1,000 percent better; I've never felt this good in my life," said another. Another wrote: " I ' m glad I came to prison or I would have never found out about macrobiotics." Reflecting on their experiences, the men began to see how they were responsible for their own well-being. Many saw how a lack of well-being had influenced their actions. Chuck told his students: "Look at your study of macrobiotics as

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an opportunity. Leave blame and self-judgmental attitudes behind. Correct yourselves with biological transformation through macrobiotic principles and practices. In turn you will create a new being. By harmonizing the imbalances in your body through proper eating and exercise, you will harmonize the imbalances around you, becoming master and creator of your own life instead of a blind and punished victim." The members of the study group were no doubt excited. There were few who did not see the advantages of applying a grain-based diet and other macrobiotic practices in their lives. The top power-lifter in the state prison system, Howard Robinson, joined the group. He became Chuck's student and close associate, and together they continued to encourage others at Powhatan. In a letter to Frank Salvati, Chuck wrote of the progress of his group: " T h e energy that is being produced by this group is very positive. This is having a good effect not only on the members of the group, but on those around us as well. The practice of the arts is secondary at this stage to the feeling of brotherhood, thereby making all of us a little better in the process. Prison affords us time to study and practice, and an opportunity to do it with a great deal of intensity. We tend to look at this place more as a temple than the prison it may be. The experience that we are sharing will follow us when we leave, making us better for having shared in it." Communicating with someone outside the prison proved to be a lifeline for the group. It encouraged them in all the work they were doing. Though they studied and practiced without seeking acknowledgment, the progress they made in developing themselves could have been like the proverbial "tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it." Would the tree make a sound? Would their accomplishments be the same without encouragement from the outside? Their correspondence with Frank Salvati provided a vital link with the outside and reinforced their vision and enthusiasm. With the support of Frank Salvati, the group went to work creating a new and bigger dream. They knew they could reach others around them. This was apparent from the growing number of people who were interested in their activities. For Chuck and the others, macrobiotics had become one of the most

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powerful agents for change in their lives. It would have been counter to their own progress not to have shared it with others. They agreed that everyone should have the opportunity to practice this way of life. With this perspective, they set to work on a new task. Within a matter of weeks, the signatures of over 600 prisoners were gathered, all of whom were willing to try the "dietary practices for health recommended by macrobiotics." Even guards and other prison employees signed up for the new program. One after another, the mileposts in their journey were reached. Mileposts turned to milestones when assistant warden Tom Parlett turned to macrobiotics for health reasons. Parlett stated that the exemplary changes he saw in the core group affected his decision to make a change in diet. Parlett observed that the men were happier, had better attitudes, and handled themselves better. They were able to work together and help each other. Working with the prison administration, a proposal was drafted by a joint program committee in July, 1985, for the development of a health food program. In just one year after Chuck's arrival, Powhatan prison was moving toward the goal of "economically providing a simpler diet which includes higher proportions of wholesome foods such as grains, beans, fresh fruits and vegetables . . . a transition to traditional and natural nutrition." T h e changes that led to this program were initiated when Chuck asked assistant warden Parlett if a macrobiotic diet could be provided in the prison. Parlett then called Frank Kern, assistant director of The Tidewater Juvenile Detention Home in Chesapeake, Virginia, for more information on the diet. Kern had had positive results at Tidewater with a "whole foods" program. He was more than happy to participate in introducing natural food at Powhatan. Meanwhile, the inmates were petitioning the administration to provide diets that would comply with their different religious and philosophical beliefs. If the prison could address the dietary needs of these different religions, the inmates would be satisfied. The administration agreed to comply, but could only supply one diet, as more than one alternative diet (i.e. Kosher, Muslim, Vegan, etc.) would be

X7I highly expensive. The macrobiotic diet was the one that would meet all the inmates religious requirements. Morever, it was the diet of choice both for the inmates who knew of its all-around health promoting value, and to the prison administrators who knew of its cost effectiveness and potentially rehabilitative qualities. A local macrobiotic organization would provide an on-site volunteer to initiate a complete series of educational seminars. The goal would be to improve overall health through changes in diet and lifestyle. Roy Steevensz, a teacher of macrobiotics and founder of the Cornerstone Coalition (a nonprofit organization committed to prison reform through education), began lecturing on a regular basis. Eventually Roy and the group, now led by Howard Robinson, created the Food for Freedom Foundation. One of its activities was a macrobiotic banquet held at Powhatan in July, 1986. Hundreds of inmates and scores of administrative personel attended the event. Thirteen months after induction into Powhatan, Chuck was granted parole. Coming to Boston, he established the Quincy Health Care Medical Associates of Greater Boston, a holistic health center combining traditional and modern approaches. He is now working actively with the center. Tom Parlett, now acting warden of Powhatan, continues to work for the changes that were started by Chuck and others both inside and out of Powhatan. Of his prison experiences and his continuing work with inmates across the country, Chuck says, "This is the end of one story (at Powhatan), but the beginning of a much bigger one, there, and for all other prisons." One gets the sense that big things are going to happen at Powhatan and other prisons when he says that.

Macrobiotic Encounters at Powhatan by L. Xenovia Zarinah

My transformation began at a place called " T h e Little House on the Prairie," or the North Housing Unit (NHU), located right behind the

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Powhatan Correctional Center (PCC). I was the Unit Supply Clerk at N H U . While at work issuing supplies one evening in September, 1983, the officer brought over an oriental gentleman. Immediately I knew that the teacher had arrived. Later on that evening, I sauntered over to the new oriental's area in the dorm. We got acquainted. In a short while I learned that he was a Tai Chi Chuan instructor and into something called macrobiotics, which I had never heard of. Quickly I found out that it was something that had to do with getting and remaining in good physical, mental, and spiritual health. So this oriental—Chuck Fai-Goon—began teaching me Tai Chi Chuan, and about the different aspects of macrobiotics—the great way of life. I drew up a proposal and together we petitioned the prison administration to form a religious organization. From that effort our study group at N H U was born. We had to organize something formal and recognizable by the administration, because after he began teaching me, other prisoners became interested, too. We also planned to have different people come in and give lectures, seminars, and talks. These plans were formulated because it wasn't just me he was teaching. As we talked to many of the other convicts about the unifying principle, a lot of them wanted to come and investigate and/or join our group. It wasn't very long before we had a sizeable group of students. Shortly, following the actual formation of the group, I began giving talks during a portion of the classes and then I began instructing some of the time. The prison administration didn't know what to make of our group. Initially, they thought that Chuck and I were trying to form a coup to overthrow the administration of the unit. So they transferred Chuck to the main institution—PCC. They thought that the class would disband, but by that time I had learned enough to completely take over the classes. All the while, I was trying to keep up correspondence with Frank Salvati of the Kushi Foundation Prison Project and Murray Snyder of the macrobiotic center in Joppa, Maryland. They, along with many others, were very instrumental in fostering my endless transformation along the great path of life. With Chuck and these marvelous friends to help keep me centered, I continued to blossom macrobiotically. Frank at the Kushi Foundation Prison Project was an extremely im-

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portant vehicle toward my transformation. Frank and Chuck are the two sure enough brothers who stuck with me. So, it was while I was physically confined in prison that I began studying macrobiotics via the various course books, mostly books written by Mr. Michio Kushi. Also, I had xerox copies of other relevant material Frank sent to me, and Frank's in-depth letters—all of which I still have. Whenever it was time for me to go up for parole, I'd apply for a scholarship to the Kushi Institute. For two years in a row I did this. The third time I went up for parole, I didn't apply for the scholarship. I was always cautiously conscious not to set myself up for a let down if I happened not to make parole. On the third time up I just didn't apply. After two years of being involved in the Prison Project, I finally made parole. So I immediately applied after finding out I had "made paper"—parole. Almost as soon as I actually got released, I applied to attend Virginia State University (VSU). The paperwork for VSU came through first. I began the second semester on the third of January, 1986. On the twelth of January, the scholarship was issued for me to attend the Kushi Institute, in Brookline. So I decided to complete the semester at VSU while preparing to move to Massachusetts, in the fall of 1986. On several occasions I was offered invitations to attend macrobiotic seminars and summer camps. But I humbly declined while I kept my head in the books at VSU. Thomas Cahn, my parole officer, is very pleased with my having achieved my short range goals in Virginia. So he allowed me to transfer my parole to Boston. It's been a very long time coming, but I ' m finally going to school at the Kushi Institute. None of my transformation to this point has been easy, although it may sound as if it has been. There have been and are many obstacles in and along my path. I hope and pray that with macrobiotics, I will be able to make balance and realize the dream of a peaceful and healthy life.

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Freedom Food by Glenn Small (Reprinted with permission of the Richmond News Leader) When Robert King entered the Powhatan Correctional Center a few years ago to begin serving a 28-year term for burglary, he was a 275pound former athlete addicted to cocaine. Since that time, King has eaten his way back to health. He says he freed himself of drug dependency and 50 pounds by following a better diet. King also has earned 53 college credits from J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College—-and maintained an A average—while in prison. " I t all begins and ends with my diet," said King. Today, when King sits down for supper, he will be celebrating his progress while encouraging about 150 other inmates to strive for a better diet. The "Food for Freedom Banquet" at Powhatan is aimed at introducing macrobiotics—defined as a way of prolonging life through a special diet—to prisoners, their family, and friends, as well as prison officials. About 400 people in all are expected to attend the S6-a-person meal, which will begin at 6 P.M. People who follow the macrobiotic way stop eating red meat and dairy products, while increasing their intake of whole grains, beans, vegetables, fruits, and some fish. "One of the results of eating good food is your body is cleaner," said Roy Steevensz, a macrobiotic counselor and organizer of today's banquet at Powhatan. "You become more confident. You become less fearful. It is more difficult for people to make you mad. You are in control," Steevensz said. Steevensz, a wiry 52-year-old native Indonesian who started the East West Macrobiotic restaurant in Hollywood, California, 15 years ago, came to Virginia two years ago. For the past six months, Steevensz has been going to Powhatan to teach about a dozen prisoners the macrobiotic diet and lifestyle. Assistant Warden Tom Parlett said he has seen results.

i7S "We've tried many other types of rehabilitation, and it hasn't worked," said Parlett. "So why not try this? The 10 or 12 inmates I've worked with are really excited. Their whole attitutes have changed." One inmate, in fact, persuaded Parlett to try a macrobiotic diet. "I was a meat eater," Parlett said. "I mean I love it. But I seldom eat meat now, maybe twice a month. Yes, I feel better." Parlett had read about macrobiotics and said, "it makes a lot of sense." The macrobiotic way is actually the way mankind has lived for millions of years, according to Steevensz. Man's diet was historically dominated by whole grains. However, in the past 80 years, people switched more toward red meats and processed foods, said Steevensz. "All the modern foods, including modern medicine, are not timeproven enough. So, they are still experimental," he said. Eating processed, salted, canned, and microwaved foods cause a host of illnesses, including cancer and hypertension, Steevensz says. The harm of these experimental "junk foods" has been documented, he said. Steevensz advocates a diet of 50 percent grains, 15 percent beans, 25 percent land vegetables and about 5 percent sea vegetables. The menu at Powhatan today includes miso soup, made from cultured soybeans; brown rice; millet, the staple grain of Africa; polenta, or corn mush baked into cakes; tofu stew; fish teriyaki\ stir-fried vegetables; salad; and kukicha tea. Pear crunch and ice cream made without sugar or dairy products will be the dessert, Steevensz said. King and Howard Robinson, 32, another inmate at Powhatan, are convinced the macrobiotic way can do a lot of good in Virginia's prisons. "Everybody who eats with us or around us has no problems," King said. "There is no aggression. . . . People who eat right think right. Believe me." Steevensz's hope is to have more people made aware of the macrobiotic diet, so they will have a choice, he said. "When we change our way of eating . . . we can begin reviving the human potential," he said.

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The Powhatan Banquet by Denise Bennett On a humid Saturday night this past July, I was dancing in the dining hall of the Powhatan Correctional Facility to the music of a very hot all-inmate band. We had just finished a delicious macrobiotic meal and when the band cut loose with James Brown's "Living in America," the dance floor was flooded. The energy was high and positively charged; a combination of good food, good music, and love. The occasion that brought all these elements together was the "Food for Freedom" banquet which introduced macrobiotic food to inmates, their guests, and prison officials. It was the culmination of efforts made by a small group of inmates who have been studying macrobiotics for the past year with Roy Steevensz, a senior teacher, to share what they have learnt with other inmates and loved ones on "the outside." About 425 people were present at the banquet which was sponsored by the Kushi Foundation Prison Project, a prison outreach group, and donations from individuals and* health related businesses. A team of experienced macrobiotic cooks headed by T o m Iglehart of the Prison

Fig. 22

Inmates in Linho's Cadeia Central de Lisboa listen to a lecture on t h e benefits of a wholegrain diet.

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Project prepared the meal which included miso soup, tofu stew, fish, salad, brown rice, and peach crisp. In addition to music and dancing, the program for the evening also featured brief speeches by members of the Kushi Foundation and testimonials by former inmates Neil F. Scott and Chuck Fai-Goon, who both changed their lives through macrobiotics. In speaking of change, the banquet has proven to be a catalyzing experience in my own life. My husband Jim and I were invited to the banquet as a result of our work with Roy Steevensz. For the past year we helped Roy serve a macrobiotic brunch on Sundays in Richmond, Virginia, and edited some writing done by him and several of the inmates who studied with him. Roy has been a great source of inspiration to us in our study of macrobiotics. He is truly dedicated to the cause of freedom for all that may be found in understanding the order of the universe. An example of how he has extended that understanding to the inmates is the way in which they have learned to balance their food. While having very little available to them in terms of the "standard macrobiotic diet," the group has learned to make choices in what they do have based on the principles of yin and yang. Physical food is not the only food that this applies to. Robert King, one of the macrobiotic study

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F o r m e r i n m a t e To Ze Areal, r e t u r n e d to L i n h o for a visit, a n d i n m a t e Jose J o a q u i m were once known as "two of the worst prisoners in Portugal."

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group, reported to the Richmond Leader in an article about the banquet that he had shed 50 excess pounds and freed himself of a drug addiction through his practice of macrobiotics. He went on to say, "Everyone who eats with us or around us has no problems . . . there's no aggression. People who eat right, think right. Believe me." Ultimately it is hoped that the study program that helped Robert and the other inmates at Powhatan can be set up statewide in the Virginia Corrections Program and that macrobiotic food becomes part of the prison diet. The banquet was a step toward that goal. My own experience of the banquet existed on several levels. On a purely sensorial level, we had a great time. The food and the music were wonderful. My husband and I are professional musicians (pianist and singer respectively), so we don't often get the chance to go out for

Fig. 24

Lazaro Fernandes credits the macrobiotic diet with "changing my outlook on life."

Fig. 25

After his release f r o m Linho, Joao Geado began work in the U n i m a v e kitchen.

179 dinner and dancing on a Saturday night. On a social level we met many nice people both among the special guests invited from "the outside" and among the inmates. We talked with the musicians in the band, and although the spheres we perform in are quite different, we still found we had much in common. We even sat in on a number with them. It was so important to experience that feeling of commonality; through it the evening came to exist on a spiritual plane as well. One man told me that the macrobiotic study program and the banquet were so great because they made him feel that there were people on "the outside" who really cared. It made me feel good to hear that, but I must admit that initially my feelings about attending the banquet were a mixture of excitement and apprehension. I had never been to a prison or even near one, and I was curious. Also present

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was the childish desire to shock or be different. The reactions of friends and relatives when I told them where we were going Saturday night ranged from a frightened "Oh really" to "I wouldn't get anywhere near a prison." At first I could feel superior to those people for having those reactions, but in truth their feelings mirrored my own. Another man I talked to had been in prison for ten years for armed robbery. He had been studying with Roy, and while he realized that the food he had eaten had certainly affected his behavior, he told me that he accepted full responsibility for his actions. Furthermore, he was very grateful to have been caught; it had prevented him from really hurting someone and had given him the opportunity to learn so much. To meet someone who so embodied the macrobiotic spirit was truly uplifting. To be sure there were some small problems with the evening: some food was wasted because the portions were too big. Things got started late so the band started to play while people were still eating; not very conducive to peaceful chewing. Overall for me though and for others, there was an energy generated that evening that carried through until the next morning and in fact has carried me to study at the Kushi Institute. I hope to take the knowledge and experience I gain here and use it to further the work just being started in the prison system right now. I'm not sure in what capacity I will proceed; whether through teaching, writing, or even cooking in a prison, but I am sure of the enormous potential for transformation there. What has a front has a back in this exciting ever changing world and today's prisoners will be tomorrow's leaders.

Teaching Macrobiotics at Powhatan by Murray Snyder

About two years ago I was asked to visit several inmates at Virginia's Powhatan State Prison and talk about macrobiotics. The previous year I had corresponded with two inmates who received my name through a subscription to the East West Journal. We

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wrote each other and talked about their efforts to practice macrobiotics in prison. A pen pal relationship developed. Chuck Fai-Goon, the leader of the macrobiotic group, asked me to visit the prison and I was happy to do so. He made the necessary requests and after a while he was given permission to invite me to visit as an outside speaker. So on a cool, gray fall day, Dave Fleagle, who at that time worked at the macrobiotic center, and I drove the five hours from Baltimore to the Richmond area. Upon arriving at the prison, we were met by the macrobiotic group's supervisor who apprised us of all rules and regulations. After filling out a number of forms, we were informed that if we were taken prisoner the prison would not negotiate. Dave and I looked at each other and I asked just what we were getting into. The official said it was standard policy to inform us of the prison's position and asked if we were afraid. We laughed hesitantly, said "no," then signed the forms while joking about imaginary scenarios. The group I addressed was in the North Housing Unit, a minimum security wing of the main prison. The men had been together for a few months, doing Tai-Chi exercises, discussing macrobiotics and trying as best they could to eat well. Because they were out of the mainstream of prison activities, some prison officials were skeptical of their interests. Martial arts were disallowed because it could be used against the guards. But the group led by Chuck Fai-Goon and Xenovia Zarinah persevered in their interests, practicing their exercises and dietary regime daily. We went through the prison into the unit where Dave and I were introduced to the guards and taken to the room where the group met. We were greeted by Chuck and nine other men, mostly young, sitting m a semicircle. We shook hands and introduced ourselves. We brought them books and magazines to read. (I had previously sent them literature, as had others, so they were fairly knowledgeable about macrobiotic practices.) First, I sat down and asked each one, "Why are you here?" One by one they replied they were in prison for robbery, assault and battery, murder, forgery, and so on. While listening to their brief stories, I began to sense where they were coming from and why they were

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interested in macrobiotics, diet, and spiritual training. They admitted their actions were wrong and they wanted to change. These young men—black, white, and oriental—from different backgrounds but together in prison, were opening up to real change. I was immediately impressed. I talked with them about macrobiotic philosophy, yin-yang and its applications to diet, healing, and the spirit of macrobiotics. They asked questions on various topics and for the next three hours we talked about many things. They were open and willing and eager to learn, to hear different perspectives. I never met a more open and eager group. Again I began to feel that a unique thing was happening at Powhatan. Each man asked me to evaluate his condition and give him some advice. At first I was hesitant. If I told the men things about their health for which they could do nothing because of the circumstances, they could become depressed. So I decided to point out one thing about themselves that they could change. I went around the room saying, "You are eating too much sugar," and I showed them the signs, or "You are consuming too much milk and dairy products," and I pointed out how they could recognize that. Each man gained insights into his health and what could be done about it. They were all eager to know and to understand. After looking over the prison diet, Dave and I were just amazed at how the men tried to eat well. They had so little to work with. They were primarily vegetarian. The prison food was poor—high in refined carbohydrates and animal fats, plus overcooked, oversalted, and overseasoned vegetables. The macrobiotic group tried to make do with whole wheat bread, peanut butter, vegetables, fish, some fruits, and rice cakes which they got from the commissary. I gave the men some hints about their diet and suggested ways they might be able to get more natural foods into the commissary. I agreed to call local area people to see if they could take good food to them on Sundays, and left phone numbers for the commissary to call about ordering more natural foods. I suggested other people to contact and promised to call Frank Kern who was active in securing quality foods and in positive rehabilitation at other Virginia prisons. The men were elated with the opening possibilities. Near the end of our time together, we sat in a circle while

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I showed them a deep-breathing method and we sat in silent meditation for a few minutes. The room was quiet, still, and at peace. Before leaving, I mentioned that most people begin macrobiotics because of health problems and they start with the diet. "You, with no access to the food, began with the philosophy and spirit," I said, "and if you persist in this, when you begin to eat good food, it will be so much easier for you." I admired their tenacity and commitment. We hugged one another before Dave and I were escorted out. Walking through the prison, I felt very high and energized and wished all the prisoners could begin to change like those I had just left. These ten men moved me a great deal, and I visited with the group again later. Chuck Fai-Goon mentioned how much they wanted to go to Boston to study at the Kushi Institute. I promised that if they needed help, they could call me. A short while after our visit, Chuck was released and some time after that, so was Xenovia. It was my pleasure to assist them with scholarships to the Kushi Institute, where both now study, as well as to the Mid-Atlantic Summer Camp. The efforts of these two men spurred more interest among the prisoners and today other prisoners along with some macrobiotic friends have initiated a macrobiotic program which includes the recent Food For Freedom banquet serving over 400 people, and classes for those prisoners interested in learning about the macrobiotic diet and philosophy. From my talks with these men, I realized that when one is pushed to the wall there are two ways to go. One either comes out fighting like an animal or he goes inside himself and comes out changed. It was at Powhatan that I saw great change taking place, and it reconfirmed the power each of us has within ourselves to fulfill our dreams and how macrobiotics can be used to affect physical and mental balance as well as social harmony.

4- The View from Corrections Food for Freedom b y T o m L . P a r l e t t (Corrections Facility Director A , P o w h a t a n Correctional Center, State F a r m , Virginia)

It is my pleasure to write my feelings on macrobiotics, or as we call it at Powhatan Correctional Center, food for freedom. I had never heard the word macrobiotics until two years ago, when it was introduced to me by Chuck Fai-Goon and Howard Robinson. Chuck gave me a small booklet on the subject, which I read and then put aside. Shortly after this, Chuck was paroled and Howard Robinson more or less took over. He brought me several books, and Howard and I struck up a friendly relationship. Howard then introduced me to Frank Kern, who has been a real asset to us, along with Ray Collier and Roy Steevensz. Roy Steevensz has been a very faithful person in coming up to Powhatan to teach classes on macrobiotics and working very closely with the men. He averages two visits a week to Powhatan and has done a tremendous amount of work to promote macrobiotics. I began to change my own diet and now virtually eat no meat. I have started eating brown rice, fish, fruit salad, and wheat products. These foods have given me more endurance and have helped me in my most stressful job. We have tried many things in the forum of rehabilitation and they have basically failed. Why then not try something new. That is what we are trying to do here at Powhatan. On July 26, 1986, we had, as far as I know, the first Macrobiotic Banquet ever held in a prison in the United States. As a follow-up, Howard Robinson and Robert King asked the inmates who attended the banquet, as well as the other interested parties, the following three questions:

1. What do you think about the Macrobiotic Banquet being used as a sounding board to improve the food service at Powhatan Correctional Center ? All prisons ? 2. How did you like the banquet, and the people present? 3. What is your opinion of the food that was served? Some of the responses follow:

Paul X (Mullins) 1.

2.

3.

The food served would have to be prepared by a food service that takes pride in its work. The present employees look at kitchen work as being a "do-it-as-quick-as-you-can" proposition. To improve food service would take a change in the mind and heart of the food service personnel. The banquet was a "festival affair" and the atmosphere was joyous. People who attended seemed to be very energetic and very easy to mingle with, in relation to how "inhibited" outside guests usually act. The food served requires one to develop a taste for, after so many years of eating chemically treated, smoked, preserved, highly seasoned commercial foods. This transition is necessary for anyone trying to change over to natural foods, which can preserve life if the natural and proper foods are eaten in proper moderation.

Matthew X (Priester) 1.

2.

3.

I thought the banquet was a good idea, because it gave people from both communities (internal and external) a chance to participate. The same purpose would be served in all prisons. The banquet was nice; it just wasn't long enough. The people were a joy to be around and, with their pleasant attitude, I forgot where I was for a while. Anything that's new takes a while to get used to but, overall, the food was well prepared; and should be served on a trial basis at this prison.

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Tom Higgins 1.

2.

3.

I think the banquet was an excellent idea because it gave all concerned parties (prisoners as well as staff) the opportunity to work together on an idea whose time has come. In addition, it gave everyone involved the chance to work out problems related to this new way of cooking and eating. The banquet itself was a well run and enjoyable event. And the people were friendly and truly seemed concerned for everyone's welfare, not just one particular group. The food was entirely different but delicious. And the nutritional value of the food had to surpass what we normally eat by a wide margin. I favor changing to it on a regular basis.

Aazirn Sulaymann 1. 2. 3.

I feel the banquet was a good idea and should be implemented at all prisons. I enjoyed the banquet, and the people who attended were a joy to be around. The food was good and it's my hope that it will become a part of our regular diet at this prison.

Charlie Williamson 1.

2.

3.

I feel that one must understand what to eat, and that the macrobiotic diet is just that type of food needed to maintain health. The banquet was real good, because the purpose was to improve the quality of one's diet. The people were great but didn't understand the type of food being served. T h e food was well prepared, and the taste was great for those who like natural food with no added chemicals.

Allen Mayo 1. Macrobiotics is an enormous help to the people here at Powhatan Correction Center. The banquet held here brought that new life to P.C.C. through macrobiotics. 2. The people that provided and sponsored the banquet were very nice and have great concern for individual life no matter

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who or where one is. I really had a great time attending the banquet. The food was very good. Being a Rastafarian, the food coincides with my eating laws of natural foods and it would be good to have macrobiotic food served daily here for the people that eat for life and freedom.

Howard Robinson 1.

2.

3.

It's very important for everyone—not only myself—to see that there are people, such as the "Macrobiotic Community," who understand through cause and effect that such programs are needed. Eating from the tree of knowledge gives l i f e eating from desires is punishable by slow sickness and disease. The banquet held July 26, 1986, was the second I've attended since my incarceration, and it was the best. T h e guests moved my old spirit to heights, highs, and dreams I'll never forget. The food was very tasty and agreeable to the palate. Prisoners saw it being prepared without additives or germ-causing agents.

Robert King 1.

Food quality improvement at Powhatan Correctional Center (all prisons) is drastically needed. The macrobiotic way is the best approach ever, and the most practical in regard to human beings, their health, finances, and overall behavior. The banquet and its purpose is the very best first step ever taken towards improving the quality of life in any and all prisons. 2. The banquet was a beautiful gathering of people, all who were oblivious to differences, having a good time for a most worthy cause. The outside guests were fantastic, the most honest, sincere, and caring group of people that I have ever encountered in my life. 3. I helped prepare the food; my opinion of the food is that it was superb, nutritious, tasty, and healthy. It was the best meal ever served at Powhatan Correctional Center, maybe in any prison.

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K. Shifflett 1. 2.

3.

I think it is a wonderful idea. I think it will help inmates feel better, think better, and live longer. I thought the banquet was something too good for words. The people that came were very nice people. They made me want to go home so I could be among friendly people like them. To tell the truth, before I went into the banquet, I thought I would just drink coffee. But the smell of the food was wonderful so I tried it and I think it was the best meal I've had in five years.

Rikk Allen 1.

I personally feel that anything done to at least try to improve the food that we, as a whole, have to eat is a definite and positive move, and the banquet was such a move. Touche. 2. Though I helped all day long preparing each and every dish I did not attend the banquet itself. But I not only talked with our guests, I worked with them, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed myself abundantly. 3. Everyone has foods that they like and dislike. Kids hate vegetables that are good for them. I did not sample every dish. However, the ones I did sample I enjoyed. People should remember not to say they don't like something until they've tried it.

Jack Darden 1.

2. 3.

The Macrobiotic Banquet was a new experience for all of us. Macrobiotics is the art of prolonging life. Now any diet that can prolong life should be accepted anywhere in America. The banquet was excellent, and the people who attended the banquet were superb. Eating the well prepared food brought tears to my eyes to see what I had been missing all these years. A well balanced nutritious diet.

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On October 15, 1986, the general population was invited to participate in a Freedom for Food presentation by Roy Steevensz. Roy made a fruit salad and baked natural bread. About one hundred and fifty inmates attended. Roy feels it was even more successful than the banquet. We are going slow but we are making progress. Our biggest problem is getting cooperation from our Chief Dietitian of the Department of Corrections. Progress is slow, but we will not give up. The men here at Powhatan are becoming more interested in macrobiotics. If it means that man's life can change, then the inmates here can see the hope of a new life.

Evidence of Food-Health-Behavior Link Revealed in Prison Experiments by Donald Byrnes (Assistant District Attorney, Suffolk County, N e w York)

This monograph sets out some collected ideas which may well help improve the health (physical and mental) of our New York State prison population. Our prisoners are people who will each one day come out of prison and join our general population. How they fare in prison is crucial to our future. There is mounting evidence that improved prison nutrition causes a marked improvement in each prisoner's immediate and future life. We traditional Westerners, with our linear, left brain, analytical approach to life in general fall into the trap wherein opposites are antagonistic (i.e. good and evil, mind over matter, physical and spiritual). We tend to divide things. This results in the perception that those of us who commit crime and those of us who society designates to control crime are separate, like people from separate planets. Are we? John Donne, in one of his many essays, reminded us not to ask for whom the funeral bell tolls. When someone passess on, a little of each of us goes with him. If we agree, can we then doubt that a part of us, our humanity, is imprisoned in our local prison ?

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We can pause for a moment in our headlong mental perception of criminals as separate from us and try to perceive them as part of the same whole of humanity. We can begin that quantum leap in spirit whereby we break our arrogance habit. Yes, we are arrogant. We think in terms of us and them. And this division persists in our thought in spite of the fact that each of us knows in secret we possess that hubris or flaw of character which could easily make us a criminal. We think we are antagonistic to and separate from our criminals. We can, if we wish, realize that our oppositeness to criminals is complementary, and we balance each other in the large picture. Every crime has a victim. Before you rush on ahead and guess wrongly that I am working up to a proposal of general amnesty for all criminals—wait—I'm not. I only want to break us out of the habit of analyzing our problems in parts which can be eliminated with money. I seek the development of our intuition. I propose more right brain activity to balance the extreme of our present left brain frustration. Less "rationality" will enable us to enlist total brain power in our common goal to improve the Criminal Justice System. Let's look at our mental activity as the total balanced use of right and left brain capacities. Is there any doubt that it will require excellent physical health as well ? In this writing, I concentrate on our Penal System as " t h e " most chronic malady requiring immediate attention. I propose that we make an analogy. Let's consider that by now each of us has been touched by cancer. We have all felt the loss of someone close to that mysterious illness which defies remission or cure. Please read on. The analogy I propose is that our Criminal Justice System be looked at as a cancer patient. The cancer has spread into different areas of the body. Overcrowded prisons, clogged courtrooms, appeals swamping appellate courts. If we today were to be diagnosed as having cancer as thoroughly throughout our bodies as our criminal justice system, we would be ready for an alternative. We would not be satisfied with the prospect of a painful death in spite of treatment.

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Are we willing to try a change of the diet which gave us the cancer ? There is mounting evidence that less fat, dairy, and sugar, along with a return to more natural, unprocessed foods can bring us cleansing and restoration of health. I propose we try some alternative nourishment and dietary activity in our New York Penal System. These alternative forms of diet are not completely untried in our general population. They may be new to us who never leave the trees of our daily legal efforts to look back at the woods of our entire Criminal Justice System or our own personal health. I propose simply that our State Penal System investigate thoroughly the results of studies done recently in various prisons around the world. These prisons have introduced dietary and nutritional changes which conform to the December 1977 Dietary Goals for the United States, prepared by the United States Senate Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. Some of the prisons involved are: 1.

Powhatan Correctional Center, State Farm, Virginia State Prison Administration which is presently participating in a nutritional and educational project for the Virginia Department of Corrections. The project was approved for the following reasons. 1. 2. 3.

2.

Cost savings Long and short term health benefits The potential rehabilitative effects

Massachusetts Department of Corrections has sought advice from the Kushi Foundation Prison Project in establishing an A I D S remission unit for state prisoners which would use dietary therapy which university research is showing to be the most promising (and least risky) of all therapies under study. 3. Central Prison, Linhd, Portugal. (See article in East West Journal, July 1982.) 4. Cayahoga Falls Municipal Probation Department, 2310, 2nd Street, Cayahoga Falls, Ohio 44221.

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5.

Montgomery County Detention Center, Maryland, 1976. (Mentioned in the Senate Committee Report, page 52.)

When one stands far enough away and looks at our entire system as a living, working organism with a life of its own, one sees not health, but sickness and disease. I propose and challenge those in our system to explore especially the successes of the Virginia State Prison System and efforts there to bring a natural, whole grain and vegetable based nutrional program to their prison population. Initial results are encouraging. T h e prisoners like it, (some would object to it for just that reason), the correction personnel like it, and prison conditions become more peaceful. The costs of feeding the prison population goes down 30 percent and recidivism is reduced in direct proportion to the individual prisoner's maintenance of the diet and way of life when out of prison. The prisoner becomes as healthy as he wants to. When he begins to feel good he also feels good about himself. Self-esteem increases and if it can be maintained, his chances of returning to prison are reduced (see Cayahoga Falls, Ohio, probation project). I realize the risk I take in trying to get my friends in the system to even consider such an apparently whimsical approach to prison health, but wait; the best is yet to come. I challenge each of my friends to take charge of their own personal health rather than surrender it to others. Try eating some "peasant" food like our grandparents did. Try eating some grain (oat, barely, rice, wheat) or bean soup with vegetables, and some whole grain bread. Try real foods, which come full of life, rather than out of a can or box—popped, puffed, flaked and sugared. We can become healthy ourselves and by our example encourage others. My intuition suggests that just as buried in our strength lies a weakness, in our liability, our prison population, lies a strength and opportunity. That opportunity is hidden by mental and physical poor health. Freedom will come to us and our prisoners only when we both come to our full vigorous health potential. We can leave cancer, heart

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disease, diabetes, alcoholism, and AIDS behind us when we leave behind those foods which weaken and impair us—sugar, dairy, meat in the extreme, processed, preserved, and irradiated products. There is a revolution taking place. And none too soon. Our children will learn full health only at our kitchen tables. Only we can show them. If we eat the way we have been and become cancerous or subject to another modern malady, can we expect them to do otherwise? We can break the vicious circle of poor food, poor health, poor thought, more poor food. We have the information available. (See other chapters in this book.) Our children will not seek or take drugs or other substances, if they think of their bodies as sacred and worthy of care. We can show them only by example, not words. If we abuse our bodies by consumption of refined foods, junk food, sugared foods, and canned and preserved and colored foods, we are showing our children how to have little regard for their bodies and health. I hope this missive reaches you who labor in our courts, prisons, and precincts. There is the chance that these ideas of hope, change, and health will pass on to more than just my children. I want to encourage those individuals representing the forces regulating our prison system to consider something new. Let's look at our prison population as an asset rather than as a liability. That sure is an opposite point of view from that now held, isn't it? " T h a t ' s absurd! If I told anyone I was doing that they would laugh and I would be a fit subject for great ridicule," you might say. Risk it! Let them laugh! We are not the first state to do so. Attached articles and letters describing activities in prisons in other states and Portugal reveal that some few individuals have taken the risk and results are surprisingly encouraging. Please consider these ideas as a hope for bringing new physical and mental health and life to our prison population. This prison population may well show the rest of us just what a strong, clean diet, and regular exercise can do. Let's invite close medical supervision. We as professionals must take charge ourselves of our system. We

195 cannot devote our lives to it, and give over responsibilities for its health to others. It seems to me it is one of those rare opportunities to experiment with little or no downside risk. The cost is negligible, the participants are already in place, and trained counselors, teachers, and cooks are ready to help in any prison or prison system that is ready for something different. (For details, contact The Kushi Foundation Prison Project, 17 Station Street, P.O. Box 850, Brookline, Massachusetts 02147.) Although it may appear that I have just been an inveterate collector of articles about prison populations and the food-health-behavior relationship, I realize now I am just seeking answers and solutions to questions which haunt us all. " I n God We T r u s t . "

Overfed and Undernourished—The Importance of Diet in the Rehabilitative Process b y F r a n k J . K e r n (Assistant D i r e c t o r , T i d e w a t e r D e t e n t i o n H o m e s , Chesapeake, Virginia) Needless to say, one of the most striking developments in the criminal justice system (in particular the juvenile component) over the past 20 years has been the increasing rapidity and widening scope of change in theories, goals, and knowledge about crime and its prevention or control. Many competing biological, psychological, social, and cultural theories have emerged in the last two decades, yet none is sufficient to account for the demonstrated rate and forms of crime and delinquency today. The current numerical indictment includes over 12 million arrests of children for delinquent acts. Of these, more than 2,500,000 are formalized in the courts and criminal justice network. It might also be added that 85 percent of adult offenders were part of the juvenile justice system while growing up.

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Many ages ago, Dostoevski made a very sage, a very visionary statement. He said, " T h e degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." Predicated on this thinking, we are truly a malignantly sick and a dramatically uncivilized world society. Today's staggering statistics in criminal justice and mental health mirror the complete failure of the conglomerate of human service organizations throughout the United States and the world in general. Estimates of the cost of maintaining the criminal justice system range from 30 to 50 billion dollars per year. Add to this total the monetary damage caused by criminals and estimates approach 200 billion dollars per year. In 1971, Americans had the dubious distinction of becoming the first people on earth to consume processed foods for more than 50 percent of their diet. Over 4,000 additives can now be found in the American food supply, none of which have ever been tested thoroughly for their effects on our central nervous system. We have become a nation of coffee and soda pop drinkers, fast food consumers, and refined carbohydrate junkies, without regard to their disastrous consequences, particularly on our children. Less than 35 years ago, hyperactive children were a rarity. Today, the incidence of hyperactivity and learning disability is higher in the United States than in any other country in the world! Obviously, the contributing factors to crime, delinquent and antisocial behavior can be limitless. It is most unfortunate that the proverbial "medical model" portrait of crime and behavior still revolves around the concept of socioeconomics, family birth ranking, fixations, toilet training, and the entire spectrum of intrapsychic factors that innately and magically exist for all of us. Dr. William H. Lyle, Jr., former Chief Psychologist for the Federal Bureau of Prisons observes that . . . " T h e courts' limited familiarity with these issues is compounded by the fact that psychologists and psychiatrists tend to reject metabolic, in preference to psychodynamic explanations, more out of ignorance of metabolic issues, unfortunately, rather than good awareness of them." Fortunately, the back of this restrictive and pigeonholing attitude regarding behavior is that the conscientiousness of researchers is leading them into new arenas for answers. The expanse of contemporary research is now unearthing pragmatic alternatives.

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The blight of crime and mental health in America, as well as throughout the entire planet, is an incredibly misunderstood issue because it has become a maneuvered symbol of, and venting system for, public outcry and anger. It has become over the years, one of the most politicized social issues of the federal, state, and local campaign trails. The correctional and mental health systems are the only industries that succeed by their failures. Our prisons and mental health populations grow larger because the people crammed into our prisons and institutions come out worse, commit more crimes, return to prisons and institutions, and continue through the revolving door of social rehabilitation in an endless cycle of crime, institution . . . crime, institution. This is a system for the propagation of crime, not for the administration of justice and rehabilitation. It is a perverted caricature of help and social evolution. We are all double victims. We pay increased taxes to maintain these failing institutions and we also pay with our money, property, and lives as the objects of crime. In most states, 90 percent or more of prison expenditures are spent for custodial care in the form of guards, facilities, and new-wave prison technology. The leftovers are judiciously spent for counseling, job training, and education. Obviously, there has to be a better way, and there is. We have come to find out that sometimes the most obvious solution is the most obscure. Antisocial behavior and crime are similar in mental energies as sickness and disease are in the physical energies. They are analogous from the viewpoint that we are what we eat and that the mind and body are an inseparable entity. The importance of diet and nutrition in rehabilitation of any design is of paramount importance. This is tremendously critical when we understand just who commits crimes. Three out of four persons arrested for serious offenses are under 25 years of age, and most of these a re under 21 years of age. This statistic alone verifies that much of the so-called crime wave is the result of the postwar baby boom, a bulging of the social age groups most prone to violence and deviate behavior. When we couple this with the fact that this time warp was the pivot Point for the technological change and perversion of the American food supply, it is no small wonder that devitalized food and disastrous

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amounts of sugar are causal effects on unacceptable behavior patterns. It is in this context that we must become aware of the direct cause and effect of food and nutrition on the rehabilitative process. It is the events of the present that are crucial. T h e current research has enlightened as well as angered many of the mega food industries and their allies. T h e results are in and they continue to mount an irreversible attack on the stability of the quality of our food supply systems. What was once built on steel is now standing on sand. Dietary patterns and the quality of food can impact, improve, and lay the ground-work for curing not only physical maladies, but mental and criminal manifestations as well. The brain is the most chemically sensitive organ in the body. The fact that our food supply is outrageously over-chemicalized seems to establish a deductive logic that desperately needs to be investigated. Without first gounding our nervous systems through whole foods, primarily complex carbohydrates, the entire spectrum of rehabilitative processes at best, will be mediocre. It is our contention, that with whole foods as the first step, we will establish new and creative methods for the meaningfulness of holistic rehabilitation. Excerpted from Overfed and Undernourished—The Importance of Diet in the Rehabilitative Process (Paper by Frank J. Kern, Assistant Director, TDH, at the American Society of Criminology-Toronto, Canada 1982.)

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A View of Corrections by

Toni Atmore (Director of C o m m u n i t y Reintegration Programs, H a m p d e n C o u n t y Jail and H o u s e of Correction, Springfield, Massachusetts)

The corrections field is very concerned with the problem of overcrowding. And this is easily understandable since in Massachusetts alone, state and county correctional facilities were 155 percent over capacity in the latter part of 1986 (according to the Department of Corrections). In the midst of this overcrowding, correctional alternatives are being sought and the expansion of facilities is being pursued. While focusing outwardly on this challenge of handling growing inmate populations, I feel that we are missing an important dimension. This missing link is the need to look "inward" and to pay some attention to the quality of life within the prison setting. The key need we should address, and which we have neglected for a long time, is the health and dietary lifestyle of the inmates. Anyone working in corrections knows how important food is to the inmate. Due to the structure of the prison setting one of the few things an inmate looks forward to are mealtimes. But in this process of receiving meals and procuring snacks, a huge amount of sugar and refined and processed food is made available to the inmate with little to no alternative for healthier choices. This book has well documented that this type of diet has a direct link to behavior which can be aggressive and erratic. And one of the most frequent causes of problematic behavior within the correctional setting is fighting among inmates. The study at the Tidewater Detention Center in Virginia is mentioned elsewhere in this book. Imagine, simply taking sugar out of the diet cut the incidents of infraction in half, and substantial improvements not only occurred regarding types of antisocial behavior but also in frequency. Therefore, the offering of additional natural foods along macrobiotic lines to the prison population holds promise of significant behavioral

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improvements and also reduction and prevention of physical health problems (which are also rampant in our daily prison setting). AIDS is a disease that is causing great concern and even panic within many correctional settings and the Kushi Foundation, in collaboration with the Boston University School of Medicine, is having some significant positive results with its A I D S Project in New York City. Would inmates choose healthier food if they had the opportunity? The responsiveness of the prison population to the offering of natural whole foods is well documented at the correctional facility in Virginia. This project, which was implemented by the Kushi Foundation, not only proved to be feasible and popular, but also highly economical. The Kushi Foundation had the opportunity to present well researched material on the benefits of a whole foods diet within the institutional setting to criminal justice workers at the 1986 annual training conference of the Correctional Association of Massachusetts. Affiliated with the national American Correctional Association, the Correctional Association of Massachusetts (also known as CAM) is a key professional association for many criminal justice personnel. Offering an exciting workshop entitled, "Diet, Health and Nutrition Within the Correctional Setting," the Kushi Foundation addressed a topic that is so crucial to inmate behavior and well being, but yet has received little attention in the past in the corrections field. The participants at the conference received a wealth of information in a packet entitled, "Institutional Alternatives in Rehabilitation," which offered vital material on the methodology, economics, and benefits of implementing a natural whole foods program along macrobiotic principles in an institutional setting. Those of us in the correctional field can no longer afford not to support the change to a healthier diet and lifestyle for ourselves and for the inmates we work with. Degenerative diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease are rampant, and A I D S will be the cancer of the 21 st century. Our state and county correctional facilities are overflowing with men and women who possess a range of disorders of which blood sugar problems are epidemic. And on a daily basis we see problematic behavior which is made worse by the large consumption of sugar, additives, preservatives, and refined and processed foods.

201 So why do we continue to go around putting out fires only to have them pop up again and again ? Why not go right to the sources which are significantly contributing to starting the fires ? We in the criminal justice field can have a substantial impact on this problem and the problems of inmate health care, prevention of disease, and improvements in behavior by making available in a voluntary way a natural whole foods diet and the macrobiotic education which is the key to its success. Through macrobiotics we have one of the most powerful healing approaches known to humankind. Let us share this wealth of diet and lifestyle with those who are in dire need of it.

5. The Shattuck Model: Macrobiotics in an Institution by Tom Iglehart In human affairs there is probably no area more mysterious and frustrating than that of human behavior. The subject is usually identified as being restricted to health or sickness, when what we are more often talking about is sociability. We often fail to recognize, in trying to objectively evaluate ourselves or someone else, that we are asking ourselves the question " I s this person sociable, able to participate in society in a productive way that is satisfying to himself and others?" When symptoms are not acute and physical, it is perhaps the ultimate subjective and unscientific question. It also happens to represent the challenge we have faced throughout the ages in trying to live together as a civilization. Breakdowns in sociability are breakdowns in our families, our communities, and in our society as a whole: a fundamental threat to the ability of human beings—individually and collectively—to fulfill requirements of survival more fundamental than those of prosperity. Because we are so compelled to cope well with these breakdowns —and the fact that we most often try to do so with permanent scientific "solutions"—behavior and its stepchild "mental health" are fields of inquiry that have been dominated by primitive conjecture and experimentation, psuedo-scientific thinking, destructive medicines, and often cruel therapies. These have been offered, and accepted, out of what can only be called desperation. From the 17th century prisons for the insane (criminal or not) to the modern super-warehouses called mental health, corrections, and geriatric facilities, there is little—aside from minimal standards of physical decency—that can distinguish us from our superstitious ancestors. Today we appear to be blessed with the powerful combination of superstition and industrial/pharmaceutical technology. These together

204 allow us to seduce ourselves into thinking that something is being done to assuage human suffering when—as evidenced by the conditions under which we attempt "treatment" or "correction"—what our culture is still actually concerned with is containing a potential threat. This would be more beneficial and economical were it not confused by moralistic or scientific pretense, and made worse by ignorance of such pretense. The mental health field is one chapter of this age-old struggle which is exemplary of such a confusion. An invention of this century, it rests upon the very notion of an organ called the " m i n d " (as distinct from the brain): some sort of object within ourselves which can be dissected and corrected by the "mental health physician," a person who works on one's mind. This vocabulary is prima facie absurd. Yet, we have become bound by a language that has forced us to talk this way about ourselves, as we grasp for some expression of a mystery. What are the results of our past and current ways of thinking about this subject? • There are now 30 million people in the United States under some form of professional mental health care, up from 10 million in 1955• There are approximately 600,000 people in prisons in the United States, up from 330,000 in 1951, and a serious crime is committed here every 20 seconds. • Americans spend billions of dollars a year on drugs designed to suppress symptoms of mental and emotional disturbance. • Tens of thousands of Americans, declared "mentally incompetent" and yet not necessarily a threat to themselves or others, are incarcerated against their will for treatment. Now, public mental health facilities, unable to do much more than "nurse" these people, are being forced by public economics to release them onto the streets, with nothing but a prescription drug to protect themselves from the complexities of modern life. Ironically, many of these people are later re-declared as "homeless" and end up in shelters operated by the same institutions which captured, held them for years (even decades), and then released

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them in the first place, having rendered them almost permanently unsociable. There are few signs of change of the definitions which classify human beings as eligible for such nontreatment. The latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM III)—the sine qua non of "mental illness" symptom identification—lists some childhood disorders suitable for treatment as indicated by behaviors such as "often fails to finish things he or she starts," "often acts before thinking," "needs lots of supervision," and "running away from home." Your child, thanks to this kind of intellectual exercise, can now be said to have defective mental properties should he or she betray them in these ways. (The State of Virginia runs regular radio advertisements urging parents to look for similarly undesirable and common childhood behaviors in their offspring and, if they notice such problems, to call the state mental health office before doing anything else.) Under "antisocial personality disorder" for adults we see announced in DSM III: "too frequent job changes (e.g., three or more jobs in five years . . .)"; "two or more divorces and/or separations (whether legally married or not)"; and "lack of fixed address for a month or more." T h e authors attempt to make such indicators appear more exact by offering detailed instructions on how to string them together to make a multiple-choice "disorder" selection. When a profession produces supposedly medical distinctions such as these that are so obviously unmedical, it is not difficult to question the sincerity or the competence of those who so proudly publish them. Most importantly, the fact that a publication such as DSM III can go largely uncriticized is indicative not so much of its great value or of the intentions of its authors, but of the authority bordering on superstition with which we associate the word "medical." We forget, in the peculiar case of the "mental health profession," that the title "Doctor" is bestowed by people of certain beliefs upon those who profess the same beliefs. As such, we are not actually talking about a science, nor about a religion, but an intellectual discourse which has failed to fully utilize the benefit of either. The indignity, for a person or a society, of being evaluated by such

206 prejudices clothed as authentic science is enormously costly. It is costly in human terms which always translates into financial. No one who is declared, or even declares himself, as being unsociable—whether "criminal," "delinquent," "mentally ill," or "neurotic"—ever fully escapes the stigma. That person is permanently entered, or enters himself, into a predictable discourse about his worth and potential, a potential that becomes suddenly limited to the mediocre conclusion of "return to normalcy." Equally sudden is the implicit assumption that this is a lofty goal rarely achieved, and then only after great struggle. We have no more mastery of this aspect of living and working together than is allowed by the distinctions and the language we use to describe it. In this respect, we are cavemen pointing to a flickering television screen grunting "Fire!" Our entire achievement of the last century in behavior and mental health is that of making up names for a few colors of the uncomprehended pattern. The physical reality is that mental health and behavior have become housed in the institutional world: the mental hospitals, the prisons, the juvenile detention and the nursing homes. It is not possible to enter into even a personal discussion about the subject without dealing with the institutional question: how will such a place affect my own (or my family member's) well being? Certainly, millions of Americans undergo private therapy and avoid being actually institutionalized; but anyone who has considered seeking emotional, mental, or behavioral help for themselves, their family, or their community, inevitably encounters the institution in one way or another. T h e large-scale institution is the ultimate repository for what is called "antisocial" behavior: human beings in what appears to be a trouble of the spirit. And it is here that unarguable facts—such as the ever-increasing institutional populations—tell of our failure. In this tragic, sometimes bizarre, landscape of human suffering and folly, there is occasionally an opening which holds the promise for a truly humane intervention. This would be an intervention not only into the lives of those contained within the discourse called "mental illness," but a measurable intervention into the discourse itself. What is being manifested through the behaviors we call "mental illness ?" In the whole of the person, can we say there is some unnoticed

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biological trouble ? Where does the biological trouble begin, and where shall we say it ends? What is the "mental" trouble connected to the biological trouble, and is there any new way to talk about it? What lies beyond "mental?" The Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, a Massachusetts State Hospital located in Boston, was the site for such an opportunity in the summer of 1980. As a place for an innovative program, it also represented the opportunity to examine some aspects of the institutional question. What was revealed is important to institutional management, but not that alone. Few people relish the idea of going to a hospital; in fact most dread it as much as they dread the illness which requires them to go. The reasons are ample: a large, impersonal organization which appears (despite the efforts of the rapidly disappearing caring nurse) to have an absolute minimum of time to tend to individual needs; the presence of overwhelming and barely comprehensible technologies, in the forms of drugs, machines, and medical language; a tense and sterile environment, with unfamiliar sounds and odors; and, not the least of all, the food. The hospital world depends on at least minimal reputation in delivery of services worthy of trust. Consequently, it was shocked by two independent studies conducted in the 1970s by Doctors Charles Butterworth and George Blackburn which revealed that almost all patients enduring the average hospital stay leave that hospital actually more poorly nourished than when they went in. The studies took into account the stress of surgery and other treatments and found that this did not account for the nutritional deficiency in the patients. These studies were a serious blow on the count of nutritional quantities. As to quality, an additional source of health care embarrassment has been that every major government and scientific report of the last ten years has resoundingly emphasized the critical importance of a balanced, unrefined, vegetable-food-based diet for the certain prevention of over 500,000 deaths per year from cancer, heart disease, and a multitude of other illnesses. Hospitals do not offer a diet matching this description. Given the failure of hospitals and all other institutions to change their dietary practices, any person who asks himself the question "How will this place affect my own well-being?" has a

208 grim answer rolling toward him on the next hospital food tray. The government reports have actually made serious the old joke that if the operation doesn't kill you, the food will. The original source of this danger has been the inadequate nutritional principles derived from modern biology. Modern nutrition was invented using the most superficial speculations of how food turns into the living body and with many other important pieces to the puzzle still missing. It has been useful for the prevention and cure of diseases caused by particular extreme deficiencies in diet. We have been convinced by professional pretense for the last fifty years that the "Four Food Groups" (with its attendant vitamin, protein, carbohydrate, and mineral counts) was the entirety of food "knowledge" that mankind could count on for healthy living. In major announcements which exposed that fallacious claim, the 1977 Report of the U.S. Senate Select Committee On Nutrition and Human Needs, the U.S. Surgeon General's Report of 1979, and the 1982 report of the National Academy of Sciences (Diet, Nutrition and Cancer) virtually declared modern nutritional theory a failure by equating its uses of food as leading to at least 50 percent of our cancers and heart disease, and contributing to the rise of many other diseases. From societies on the other side of the world, which have utilized a different nutritional language with thousands of years more tradition than ours, came the perspective called macrobiotics. Deceptively poetic in expression and simple in application, macrobiotic nutritional theory and practice have been—in every significant area, since it was first taught here by Michio and Aveline Kushi more than thirty years ago—consistently light—years ahead of even the most fabulously funded American nutritional research. Its origins never pretended to be "scientific"; they have been more often called philosophical. But, in our scientific culture, it is not a silly accident (its usual dismissal by scientists) that the most rigorous governmental and medical examinations have found macrobiotic conclusions to be essentially correct. There is now much less difference between the recommendations offered by the latest U.S. government and American medical reports and macrobiotic recommendations, which makes the existing differences of the two perspectives even more worthy of examination. There will be no other way to separate fact from speculation in either.

209 What is just beginning today—more than thirty years after humanity began to benefit by the work of the Kushis, and ten years after scientific conclusions that matched the "unscientific" ones of macrobiotics —is a mutual inclusion of the two discourses in an authentic scientific inquiry. From either perspective, every institutional menu looks exactly the same: eggs, meat, sugar, white flour, chemicalized "diet" foods, dairy products, potatoes, and nearly 80 percent of it canned or frozen: all form and flavor with little life or rejuvenating substance. No whole grains, rarely any fresh vegetables or beans, and never anything grown without petrochemicals. There is certainly no dietary principle displayed that one could call superior to the "Four Food Group" mentality which has made us a nation of lifetime consumers of deadly food. I consult to institutions of varying sizes from time to time, and inevitably the client makes a point of providing me with a copy of their menu, apparently thinking that there might be some especially mystical insight I might have into the rotation—from week to week—of meat loaf to pot roast, apple pie to ice cream, chemicalized "whole wheat" bread to chemicalized "rye" bread. I thank them politely, check quickly for any startling innovations, and file the menus away. T h e client would consider this rude and arrogant, perhaps having not heard the first comment everyone in America makes about institutional (especially hospital) food: "It's awful; everything tastes the same." It has become a social and scientific fact that there is no more serious single institutional failure than in food. I distinguish this from "nutrition," the theoretical fulfillment of biological definitions which consistently result in theoretically appetizing meals prepared for abstract patients. If theory alone were the point, it would be a wonderful practice, with nutritionists and dietitians doing the job excellently, bringing it all to the tray within unbelievably miserly budgets and on a scale which would impress a general, which they do. As to it being food, healthful nourishment for the body (or the mind or spirit), that is another question; and it was a question which could not have been asked at a more appropriate place than the Shattuck Hospital. Because enough people there were open to the question, we had the opportunity to test the validity of macrobiotic uses of food for institutions in general, as well as—through clinical research—some

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of its possibilities for particular problems exclusive to the practice of mental health. The Shattuck was exemplary of nearly every comment I have made about institutions. It was built in the early 1950s with public tax money by a Navy admiral who designed it to withstand, from the second floor down, a direct nuclear strike on downtown Boston. It seems that long after the faces on Mount Rushmore have been worn away, the Shattuck Hospital will remain its own kind of monument. This twelvestory brick battleship overlooks Boston's largest, greenest, and leastused public park. But the two most compelling features of the Shattuck Hospital are in fact the people inside it: State employees and chronic (now called "long term") illness patients. Here, people with no other hope for their debilitating sickness come—some staying as long as thirty years—to be cared for by health professionals who every day perform the miracle of operating a 225-bed unit on less money every year, and do what they can for the widest variety of patients to be found in the institutional world: mental patients, geriatric patients, mental geriatric patients, AIDS, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, muscular dystrophy, obesity, pain and stress patients, and every single inmate of the State prison system who needs any kind of hospital care. It is in this same way, and in this same spirit, that the nation's first alcohol detoxification program was invented and developed at the Shattuck Hospital. Prior to that time, alcoholism was still talked about under the voodoo of morals and character. There, in the 1960s, alcoholism was looked at from a radically innovative point of view: as a question of the body and of individual attitude toward life. When this therapy was shown to be successful, it was given away to private enterprise, and the public to this day knows well of this emergency treatment. T h e Shattuck was deploying, in that summer of 1980, another health innovation, the likes of which are probably still not found within any other hospital in the country: the Pain and Stress Acupuncture Clinic, headed by author, acupuncturist, and humanitarian Ted Kaptchuk, where those with chronic pain still go for drug-free relief. The Pain and Stress clinic was recently featured in a special one-hour

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documentary about health innovations, broadcast over most of the world by the BBC. Little or none of this was known to us when we first visited the Shattuck and observed lunch being served: spaghetti and meat balls, and Jello with no whipped cream was the entire menu. We wondered "Is this what people want ? What chance do whole grains, beans, fresh vegetables, or dairy-free foods have here?" These questions were rendered less important by the facts before us: that institutions exemplify the kind of menu which has probably put more people in America on their backs with illness than any other single practice. And here was a public health hospital, representing the very issue that had brought us into that cafeteria in the first place: the rapidly declining health of humanity, which has characterized the end of this century as a biological holocaust. Superintendent of the Shattuck Hospital, Paul Schulman, and then Chief of Psychiatry, Dr. Jonathan Lieff, had been asking each other the institutional question on behalf of their patients and staff for some time. Schulman had brought his interest in "nonmedical" health promotion to the workplace, and Dr. Lieff had recommended he investigate alternative food approaches, especially macrobiotic, which could fulfill the health-promoting responsibilities of the Hospital. Having heard of these conversations, we requested a meeting with Dr. Lieff and Superintendent Schulman. My associate Eric Zutrau and I were armed for that meeting with a homemade, school-style display of grains and beans, some consulting experience with the Cambridge City Hospital benevolent association coffee shop (which had reopened with my and friend Jim Harris's "vegie-burger"-style menu), a generous letter of introduction from Michio Kushi, enormous hopes, and an appreciation for the unlikely. Our operating principle since that time has been: what is unlikely today may be commonplace tomorrow. In short, Paul Schulman looked at us, at the grains and beans, at his commitment to do something useful for the public health, and agreed that we would consult to the Shattuck Hospital to create a new line of food offerings. He also looked at his "03" (contract) account, saw there was no money there for several months, and asked if we

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wouldn't mind being State employees for the job. We took this personally for about five minutes, then we signed up. Signing up brought us into the office and world of a man I shall never forget, principally for his tough compassion for human beings and for never once forgetting that he is one himself. His name is Tom Kelly and, to my knowledge, he has to this day a poster made for him over his desk which says "You don't stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing." As Director of Foodservice (formally titled as one of two Head Dietitians), Tom has had enough opportunities for indignation to last thirty lifetimes. His completely forthright assistance in getting us started and keeping us going has remained an unequalled example to us of openness in the face of adversity. We began as part-time food service employees, using November and December as we needed, to assess the situation, and invent a program that had one broad and candid objective: to get as many people as possible in this building to eat macrobiotic-quality foods. We were there for that only and not a set idea of how that could happen. Doing whatever was necessary was the sole modus operandi for us and the many people who eventually came to participate. We knew that this invention had to be duplicable in any institution. It made no sense to commit our time or the public's money to producing esoteric experimentation or obscure curiosities. We were not in the realm of theory, with ideas as the currency of some future value. The circumstance planted us deeply in the realm of action, and the action was developing a daily institutional practice that would have an impact on the lives of the people we were literally there to serve. We also knew that we were dealing with a social, cultural issue. The food people eat is one of the most intimate aspects of their lives, with which they are faced more than three times a day. Most Americans enjoy almost unlimited quantity and variety—few p r e f e r e n c e s in our society are denied by the marketplace. We live in a time of freedom of food choice. Institutionalized people acquiesce to restrictions on this freedom no more than those on the "outside." Hospital patients—even the most incoherent and psychotic—voice their preferences loudly, sometimes

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as no more than a meal consumed in a minute or a plate thrown against a wall. Prison inmates invest a great deal of time and energy so that they may be fed as individuals, as is partly described in other sections of this book. Hospital kitchen employees often prepare dinner for all the patients with no two trays quite the same. Whether it takes place in the home or on a park bench, what we choose to eat, and our right to do so, is less frequently questioned than for whom we vote. The patients and the staff of the Shattuck Hospital were obviously no different, and they tolerated a narrow range of freedom of choice that was typical for institutions but apparently unpopular, perhaps even unbearable. We noticed that the cafeteria (which sold meals for 90 cents) had at most 60 patrons a day out of a staff of seven to eight hundred, and that the food vending machines groaned with overwork. How many paper bags carried by employees contained daily homemade lunches was anybody's guess. The patients were clearly the ones for our most imminent interest. The hospital existed for their benefit and they had only one source of food: the kitchen. But bringing to them new foods before (or at the same time as) the staff would have produced acute suspicion of management's intentions, at least until the staff had witnessed some possible benefit. Paul Schulman knew this well and knew that, in matters so personally sacred to people, time was the most vital ingredient. He proposed a five-day per week lunch program restricted to the staff until the concept—and the rest of its ingredients—were socially accepted. With staff support, the patients would have the best chance of truly enjoying some new alternatives. In this way, the first aspect of our job would be to present new foods for the staff in a manner which would speak to the distrust with which people greet something new that will be associated with one of their basic freedoms. Naturally we concluded that a barrage of educational materials, lectures, and other intellectual festivities was the answer. Sound advice came from Tom Kelly on this idea; it was to forget that shortcut. He had never seen anyone at the Shattuck attracted to preaching. A little reflection on this revealed what is perhaps most sacred to people and most sensitive: what they believe. The sacredness of what they eat is

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often no more than an indicator of the most sacrosanct of all—personal opinion. We were left with only cooking skills and presentation ingenuity to increase our odds for popularity with an apparently unfriendly audience. No convincing, no "enlightening," no persuasion, no statistics, no formulas. Just physical fact—food on the table—and personal experience would tell the tale. It was out of this, each day when the meal was ready and the patrons were waiting, that I would announce the serving hour to our crew as "showtime." It was a game, it seemed, with cards up everyone's sleeves. By the time Paul Schulman announced his imminent and unexpected departure from the Shattuck Hospital, we had situated ourselves in the Hospital kitchen, held a successful introductory buffet lunch for all the curious, found five more people to bring our macrobiotic crew to a total of seven, set the first week's menu, and drawn up our first order list. Paul had lived up to his self-described identity of "health entrepreneur" to us, and that such a person could not find a permanent place in the State public health system was absolutely demoralizing for us at the time. Without the authority of a fair referee, we anticipated the game becoming brutal. Before departing, however, he officially hired our requested personnel and sent out our first food order—providing a lifeboat, as it were, supplied with bread and water. In effect, we jumped in and started rowing as fast as we could. T h e first of hundreds of macrobiotic staff lunches was served on March 9, 1981. The last one was served three years later, throughout two more changes in the Hospital's top brass, and no two menus were quite the same. Two vital aspects of the program's workability came into question almost immediately: cost and popularity. William Goyette, Paul Schulman's successor, wasted no time in informing us that we had one month to show that our food costs were no more than the State norm. We also had two to three months to show that people were interested and eating the food. These were the minimal criteria before going on to other implications which he—a representative of tight institutional management with a good reputation for that—also questioned later. We had already estimated, by theoretical calculation, that the raw food cost could be competitive. Whole grains, beans, fresh vegetables, and all other foods of the macrobiotic profile are fundamentally efficient (and therefore inexpensive) sources of nutrients. This is one of the

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phenomenal two-fold advantages of macrobiotic-style eating that had brought us to the Shattuck in the first place: when we eat the grains and beans (instead of giving them to the pigs, cows, and chickens, and then eating the animal version) we eliminate the middleman, save money, and become healthier besides. The interesting, and skillful, part is making it delicious, especially within a culture that is fond of eating the middleman. In our first month of the program, we began collecting thorough data on cost, eventually showing an average 30 percent lower food cost than the quoted (but unverified) $1.08 per meal of the State norm. As to popularity, we were at first serving macrobiotic food from a separate, previously unused serving line. This was done to avoid appearances of encroachment. Staff were allowed either what became popularly known as the "nature" food only, or the regular American menu only. For workplace harmony, the separate line was an interesting temporary solution. As a way to promote alternative foods, it was a terrifically bad idea, and everyone was fortunate that it lasted one short month. The abrupt "either/or" nature of this arrangement served two minorities only of the institution: those that wanted only the typically American menu and those that wanted only macrobiotic, natural, or vegetarian-style meals. It left no "window of opportunity" open to the great majority who wanted to exercise a full spectrum of choice, to discover at their own pace and make their own decisions. It excluded those who were, in fact, our largest and therefore most interesting target group: employees who were open to new foods and an education about them, but were eating the standard fare because they were not ready to jump so large a chasm. Consequently, the patrons of our separate food serving line were an unimpressive percentage of the cafeteria as a whole at first. The regular American and the macrobiotic menus were offered after the first month on a different basis: literally side-by-side. Patrons in this way were now allowed to select items to create their own "diet": one type of soup, one type of entree, two types of vegetable, one type of dessert, from either menu, combined on their plate as they liked and so on. This simple rule became familiar to all customers very shortly. Within two months after starting this method of offering lunches, the cafeteria patronage doubled. A later survey showed that

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the great majority of this increased group were including macrobiotic food in their diet on an impressive scale. For the skill in making it appealing, we initially relied heavily on man/womanpower. This can be expensive when there is no readymade formula and procedure. We were inventing the procedure, which had to take into account the cultural, nutritional, and institutional management issues, making it predictable that such initial costs would be higher than for something known as ordinary. At first the labor expenditure to do this was approximately $100,000 per year. Within 20 months it was less than half that. Today, it would be even less by using training and policy procedures discovered at the Shattuck during the program and the cost would be offset by the food cost savings alone. It required a group of people serious about their work to develop something so practical. On that subject, one good fortune of starting the program in Boston was the availability of skilled, creative, and dedicated macrobiotic cooks who had the capacity to invent on a large scale. Allow me to mention now several people prominent in the new profession of whole-foods service: Debra Dewire, Mary Buscher, Rick Hochsprung, Kim Bright, Vicki Sanabria, Chris Ryan, Paul Marks, Michael Brandt, Sarah Umberger, Michael Vitti, and Eric Zutrau. These people, and others, formed at different times the core of the most ingenious team of people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. As this narrative continues, the reader may better be able to understand how this group won a kind of food service Olympics at the Shattuck. To this day, they can do good things with simple foods that are nearly unbelievable. In addition, they can do them on a institutional scale. They are the future of food service. The development of this team—and the technology we invented together—easily justified the investment of public money into their employment. Yet, the Superintendent still openly expressed his dissatisfaction with that and another issue even while continuing to support the program. He operated, like anyone, with certain assumptions. Part of the story of the emergence of the Shattuck model for the following three years—and which will be vital to the impact any institution has on the public health—-was some measure of openness about such assumptions. One of them involves the misuse of the word "cost," which has

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deteriorated into meaning "the cost for today only," and the fallacious assumption is that anyone who says the word "cost" is talking about truly saving money. This has created another assumption, which has brought about today's absolute deadlock in the improvement of institutional food. Institutions have sacred notions as do individuals, as did the Shattuck management. One of them is the practice of "one (narrow) menu for all": it is thought that the more limited the selection the cheaper the operation. This is true if you believe either: a) encouraging people to continue to eat food that is likely to eventually make them seriously ill or kill them, or b) operating a cafeteria in which no one eats out of lack of interest, can represent a smart use of money or a brilliant cost savings. Particularly in the last thirty years in this country—when commercial and institutional food service became industries obsessed with convenience and efficiency in order to better satisfy a society that takes its food completely for granted—today's penny has been saved at the expense of tomorrow's dollar. The billions of pennies saved has translated into the billions of dollars we now spend or waste at three levels: i) trying to stave off death by degenerative disease (with hyperexpensive treatments like chemotherapy and triple-bypass surgery); 2) dealing with a decreasing ability to work and be productive; and 3) coping with an increasing resignation about what the future holds for us in this respect. It has also created an ongoing and unhappy struggle between freedom of dietary choice and the food service budget. The Shattuck model cut through the extremes of the spectrum: it allowed the widest (and most healthful and socially acceptable) variety of choice by using an innovative standard operation. Within one serving line, the full spectrum of all-American institutional food (with its familiar meats and sugars) and appealing, tasty, and more rigorously healthful macrobiotic foods gave everyone the daily opportunity to adjust his or her diet somewhere between the old and the new. Individual choice was, in this way, used intelligently to encourage people toward a more healthful norm which became their own and changed as they and their preferences changed. Our surveys documented that the great majority of cafeteria patrons regularly had whole grains, or fresh vegetables, or beans, or dairy-free foods, or sea vegetables, or

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natural sugar-free desserts, or all of the above in their daily diets, and for most it was the first such personal innovation in their lifetime. Half of the sheer food quantity consumed by the staff from the serving line were macrobiotic dishes. The popularity of the macrobiotic food provided convincing evidence about the "one menu" assumption (again, related to the "cost" assumption). If there was neither a "one menu" restriction or promotional propaganda used to elicit such popularity, then why did people, many of them devoted to American foods in the extreme, begin—and continue—to eat this way? Why wasn't it necessary to " p u s h " (and annoy) people (some of whom had never even eaten in a Chinese restaurant in their lives) to eat what the perplexed often called " f u n n y " food? In any institutional system, something as trivial as a change in the brand of chicken can foment rebellion and anger of the first order. Where, then, were the giant committees, the highpriced consultants and psychology experts, the months and years of high level (and union and departmental and "all invited") meetings, and the bitter battles between the "health nuts" and the "status quo?" Indeed, where were the millions of dollars of public monies that would have otherwise been spent just researching and developing a onemenu plan for health promotion that might not even work ? They were all put aside in favor of operating on a truly less costly basis overall. This required a recognition of both individual dignity and the most predictable aspect of human behavior that one can name: people will ultimately do what they choose to do. As such, the Shattuck model represented a delightful change in the daily lives of those who worked there, instead of something that simply "happened" to them and in which they could have no active part. It was an invitation to something, made every day and made openly. All of Madison Avenue and Barnum & Bailey put together would not have been able to dress anything else up well enough to make use of the most driving force in the human being: exercising free will. Because we live in a time in which our biological foundation is eroding, those who feed others live up to their own professional potential by making the effort of extending such an invitation. And because we live in a time of freedom of food choice, the question that we must answer to is: "Which choices will make any difference ?"

219 As to the Superintendent's other, more private concerns, sagging organizational morale was already definitely costing money, an incalculable amount. Unhappy employees are relatively unproductive and take undue advantage of work-, sick-, and vacation-times. Add to this a work force burdened by authentic minor (or major) health problems —everything from daily energy slumps to moodiness to aches and pains to debilitating disease—and the institution is saddled with the employment, management, and doctor's bills of people less willing and less able to work. This is especially true of employment in state systems, which embrace the concerns and problems of the employee almost completely, in the forms of fringe benefits and job security. Mr. Goyette, I speculate, perceived a longer arm with which to embrace these concerns. Different foods could do more than just cheer everybody up: they could allow people the opportunity to escape a deep and costly resignation they might have about their physical condition, and witness a caring about that by the institution that occupied a large part of their waking lives. All of this added up to these enormous potentials for the staff population alone: 1)

Immediate improvement in morale, through a new employee perception that the management cared about their individual choices and preferences as well as their health. 2) Ongoing improvement in morale as staff health improved through an overall improved diet. 3) Enormous potential cost savings in improved job performance, reduced absenteeism from illness, and medical treatment made unnecessary by the prevention or alleviation of illnesses. 4) Permanency in all of the above improvements as staff, over time, learned about new foods and incorporated them into their lives outside of the hospital. 5) The potential for a reduced overall cost for the food service operation itself. For the first time, the true cost of food in its greater scope was being considered. For the first time, a large institution was asking

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"What does it take to truly feed people well by all criteria and, therefore, take better care of them?" T h e rest of this story and the data that follow are a summary of the three following years of practical experience in finding answers to this question at a state institution, how we further developed this into a food service technology for progressive double-blind research on diet and mental health, and the results of that research. Those of us of the macrobiotic kitchen had only a beginner's idea of how great an opportunity it would be to cut through many impasses blocking the integration of health promotion and dietary treatment in the institutional world. The opening of the "full spectrum" menu arrangement in the cafeteria indeed set off a social phenomenon that would be encouraging to anybody knowledgeable about diet and wondering about the prospects for the future health of Americans. Over the first year, the number of staff cafeteria patrons—60 per day at lunch prior to the program—often climbed to higher than 180. It was what most expected to happen only if the Ritz took over the food service. It was not canapes and caviar that brought such crowds. Every opportunity was used by our macrobiotic staff to serve food as well as their own stories of good health simultaneously. Similar stories and one-on-one education were traded among staff (some twenty of whom were already experienced with macrobiotic food) as the cafeteria conversation level, formerly almost nil, rose to a din. There was something new to talk about during lunch time: the food. Whether it was a nurse offering macrobiotic bites to skeptical friends, jokes and jabs about " f u n n y " food, or the stubborn silent finally asking " D o you think this could help me lose weight?," the staff was working it out on their own. When you are serving lunch to people every day for more than a year, you get to know their names and you remember what they like to eat. Paul Schulman had been right about the time factor: we became familiar with at least a dozen people who, for two years without missing a day, were sure to announce to us that they would never touch "that stuff" who would begin one day, without missing a beat, quietly (some sheepishly) asking for the grain and vegetable of the day in place of

221 their meat or potato. Some had been to their doctors and received stern warnings; perhaps others just lost their resolve when they were asked for the four hundredth time "Hey, won't you try some of this (millet casserole, or polenta, or green beans almondine)?" Even the program's worst enemies—those few who eventually began a petition (which failed) to end it—knew that the friendly invitation was always there and that their right to hold their noses was respected. In keeping with our own personal styles of cooking, we were easily able to change our menu daily, and keep people asking "I wonder what the nature food is today?" The variety of ingredients available in macrobiotic cooking is enormous by comparison to American food, and it is inherently a highly creative practice. We offered, over time, the entire range of dishes, from those most alien and exotic to Americans (sea vegetable salad, split pea aspic) to more familiar mock-ups (seitan or grain burgers with fresh-baked whole wheat buns, lasagna with tofu "cheese," macrobiotic Irish stew). Response allowed us to work on presentation and appearance and decide which items were least likely to make it onto institutional menus in this century. We puzzled over where we slipped up with tofu dishes, which became known to many as "toe food." Some of our newest and best customers —people who for the first time in their lives couldn't get enough rice, beans, fresh vegetables, and miso soup—swore off "toe food" as if it were the one thing we couldn't be trusted with. In the food business, once you lose them, it is hard to get them back. Tofu made a respectable comeback when one of our standard jokes became that of refusing to reveal if there were any on the menu. The macrobiotic kitchen crew and the more senior regular kitchen staff became increasingly comfortable with one another. I recall the first year being marked by a serious and widespread suspicion that our seven were secret "ringers" clandestinely hired on from a food service corporation to find a way to enact a "kitchen coup" in which everyone else would be fired or demoted without union problems. How to most efficiently and cooperatively use the spaces and equipment shared also became routine. T h e locus of the macrobiotic kitchen was in the exbakery—a very desirable prep room in which to work while thinking— and heavily supplemented by the other equipment in the main kitchen: pressure steamer banks, a second mixer, the sheer, and every pot and

222 pan we would need to complete a meal. In a back storeroom, rarely opened, was a cache of U S D A donated foods that became our surprise budget-stretcher with sacks of split peas, barley, pinto beans, and even commercially grown brown rice. In the last months of the program, it was often our only source of ingredients aside from fresh produce. The produce suppliers had been bringing a total of perhaps fifteen different items—the same ones with every delivery—to the Shattuck for many years. Our fresh vegetable requirements increased that to often over thirty. Boston supermarkets had already made it an "exotic" vegetable town, placing items like bok choy and daikon on the trading block in the giant wholesale New England Produce center and therefore surprisingly within our reach. Good ingredients like these, along with a skilled macrobiotic crew, were two odds that were in our favor throughout in keeping the interest high. Regional shortages of such produce would, however, have little impact on the acceptance of macrobiotic menus in other institutions. With the changes in Hospital administration that followed, each Superintendent, without explicitly saying so, found the program to be worth his support. T h e evidence was in the dining room—on the trays of the staff and in the expressions in their faces. We heard voluntary testimonials from both older and younger staff members of their six month, or one or two year inclusion of items from our menu in their diets, which they associated with feeling better generally, or having helped alleviate a particular problem. Unfortunately, our job was not officially to document these, but to keep up the good work. Inquiries began to come by mail and telephone into the Dietary office about the program: individuals seeking dietary therapy, staff members of other institutions from as far as California and the midwest, young dietitians and hospital health counselors in training, prisoners who were trying to begin a similar program in their prison. Most were asking: How did you do it ? How much does it cost ? How can I explain to others that it is healthy ? Can I visit the Hospital, or become a patient there ? I was familiar enough with politics to know that Congressmen consider one letter from a voter to represent the unspoken opinion of tens of thousands. Consequently, I deduced that we were not ahead of our time, nationally speaking. Perhaps we were even long overdue. How-

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ever it is said, we were producing something that was not trivial to the average person. As the public became more and more interested, and I sought the endorsement of the highest medical and nutritional authorities (which I eventually won) for the program's concept, we began to talk about what to call the program. When we would say it was a "macrobiotic" program to the average person, it sounded cult-like to many of them. I received an open letter of support from the head of a prominent school of nutrition only after I made it very clear to him that what we were doing was feeding people, not telling them what to think. I had guessed his concern: that his endorsement of this food as a leap forward for the public health would be publicly (and professionally) mistaken as an abondonment of science in favor of holism. What could we say about the program that would represent its tangible character and importance to the individual and to the institutional world, and which would allow it to be accepted and talked about without discussions comparing the pros and cons of the Cartesian and holistic models of the universe? It was a simple solution that served at the time: the "whole foods" program—a dietary concept that owed its origin to macrobiotic philosophy and the traditional food practices of that philosophy. As to the rest, the medical profession and the leading thinkers of our time would have to work it out. Perhaps the greatest innovation of the Shattuck Hospital macrobiotic whole foods program was not in the dining room. It was in the home, the boardroom, and the office, in fact anywhere that people are concerned with and talk about health and the quality of life. In that discussion, the limits of the institutional role have been permanently widened. It is now more than sheer speculation as to how an institution can provide both temporary crisis solutions as well as long term prevention; emergency interventions along with nurturing of the body's natural healing ability; the public institution as a stimulus for self-motivated health and living, rather than as only an uncertain refuge from illness and death. As the semblance of this success finally took shape, we were offered a second challenge: to see what this food could do for treatment of mental illness.

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Dr. Lieff had witnessed for a year that the program was becoming an everyday part of Hospital life and that the climate for innovative research with diet was at least minimally receptive. He requested that we join him in a research project that would be unprecedented in technique: putting one group of psycho-geriatic patients on a modified "macrobiotic" diet and keeping another group on their usual diet as a comparison. He also suggested that it be done "double-blind." This meant that almost the entire regular menu of the Hospital would have to be duplicated in appearance and flavor without ingredients from the regular menu. This would be necessary not only to hide the identity of the "test" group from a possibly biased staff who would evaluate them (and therefore produce medically credible results), but also to gain acceptance from one of the toughest groups of patients to feed in the Western Hemisphere. This was the group that already just as often put the food on the wall as in their stomachs. " N o problem" we said—and then counted the number of menu items that would have to be duplicated. It came to 187. In addition, we would have to increase our meal preparation from five meals a week to twenty-one, while continuing to serve the staff the same great food they had become accustomed to. And we would have to set up the patients trays and serve them so only we would know who were the recipients. An impassioned appeal to Hospital management for more kitchen staff was calmly declined. We would have to triple our work load without relief. We knew it was technically feasible, but didn't know how we were going to handle that kind of pressure, about which we could only be optimistic and think heroic thoughts. The controversy over this research concept required many meetings. Some staff of floors 5 and 6 North (the two floors the research patients were housed on) either hated the idea outright, or were concerned that the patients, many of them already borderline malnutrition cases, would literally waste away. Was there enough protein? What if it made them crazier? What would be the procedure if one—or all—of them stopped eating ? Who was going to take responsibility for "playing" with the lives of these elderly, some of whom had been institutionalized for as long as sixty years? Menu design and nutritional investigation of those menus (showing them to be quite safe) quelled

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the specific fears, and procedure for dealing with various emergencies was agreed. The other Head Dietitian in addition to Tom Kelly was Yvonne Matthews, whose knowledge of the ins and outs of patient feeding—particularly for this group—was a terrific map through a terrain packed with land mines. The double-blind research was to take place for eight weeks, considered to be the minimum necessary for evaluation. After that period, the food would be undisguised and the subject group would continue to receive primarily macrobiotic meals to see how they responded —physically and emotionally—to such a change. The subject patients were to be allowed chicken, eggs where necessary for consistency of appearance, and a small amount of butter per day. Coffee was allowed, since its removal—already associated with brain function in previous studies—might be credited for any improvements in patient behavior. The recipes used for this gigantic menu renovation are far too extensive to be fully published in this volume and are probably of little interest for general use. By way of general description: the meat became seitan; the mashed potatoes a millet-based puree; scrambled eggs became scrambled tofu; the sugary Boston cream pie became Rick Hochsprung's perfect macrobiotic duplicate; milk became an in-house soy/almond milk recipe for maximum protein; the intensely chemicalized "Ensure" liquid supplements for day-to-day noneaters became our own soy milk, oatmeal, sea vegetable and fruit milkshakes; the canned vegetables became fresh; the bread became our own fresh whole wheat; white rice (with gravy on top for the control group) became organic brown rice; sugared jelly became homemade apple jelly made in the steam kettle from scratch. French fries had to remain just plain french fries, as did the occasional baked potato. Given three more people on our crew, we would have duplicated those, too. This was also the group for whom practically no two trays were alike: some ate green beans, some didn't; some had their chicken whole, some needed it ground; some had plates of only pureed foods; some ate their napkin and therefore could not have one, and some were unpredictable with anything more dangerous than a plastic spoon. On the whole, this research program represented detail to an exquisite extreme.

226 A visit by Michio Kushi to the patient floors and his resulting diagnoses had allowed us some insight on which types of foods to try to emphasize for maximum benefit to the patients and their conditions. While we were not able to exercise full macrobiotic therapy, we were satisfied that the change in quality of diet for the group was profound enough to represent the possibilities of the dietary approach. For eight weeks, handmade duplicates of food that is usually prepared with high-tech machinery and a world of chemicals came rolling out of our side kitchen three times a day. Fourteen-hour work days and seven-day work weeks were common. There were logistical breakdowns every day: curve balls thrown by our unpredictable subjects and a few unfriendly 5 and 6 North staff members who didn't appreciate the interruption in their lives or those of the patients they were charged with. We became familiar with the names of each patient and their dietary eccentricities and wondered if, under such adverse conditions, we were having any beneficial impact on their lives. The only positive signs were comments by several nurses that—probably partly as a result of both subjects and controls getting only our own natural snacks on the off hours—patient constipation was disappearing, and there was much less work giving enemas. As to weight loss, there were early alarming signs that several of the subjects were losing weight. This, however, suddenly stopped, and a few patients actually began gaining. It was concluded that the early weight loss was that of chronically stuck intestinal waste, which is common for people who begin a macrobiotic diet. In the end, the food and the research were a success. No more than the average number of staff—guessing by chance—had correctly believed which patients were actual subjects for food change. The patients had eaten well, certainly no worse than their histories indicated, and there were medically significant greater improvements in the experimental group even while their study counterparts, who had stayed on their usual diet, psychiatrically declined in one significant area. This was cause for an exhausted celebration; after this period, not having to disguise macrobiotic food seemed, at first, like a vacation. For three more months, the subject group were kept on their new macrobiotic diet. The ability to identify "new diet" patients, however,

•

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gave anyone—nurses and nonpsychiatric M.D.s—with any say in patient care the chance to attribute a problem with a patient to the "new diet." As there was no post-study chain of command already set up, orders (apparently from various people with authority over the Dietary department) came week by week to give this patient or that back his old diet. It was a skeptic's free-for-all. When a majority of the subject group had been so placed back on the standard fare, and there was no policy otherwise forthcoming, the macrobiotic crew voted to call it a victory and go back to feeding only staff temporarily. At this point, the increased involvement of all the Dietitians and their assistants engendered their enthusiasm to integrate the whole foods into the regular patient menu. In the following months, 3-week cycle menus were proposed, kitchen, kitchen logistics worked out, and the means for maximum flexibility in allowing patients macrobiotic foods were clear and theoretically in place: transition to all fresh vegetables, pause, substitute whole grains for potatoes, pause, try macrobiotic lasagna, pause—each pause being a time to listen for complaints and problems and make any individual revisions for various patients. Yvonne Matthews headed up this initiative and encouraged us to work closely with her and all others to make it work. However, the budgetary restrictions of the Hospital, we were in effect told, were steadily making it impossible to do our job well. For example, the "hiring freeze," which was not in effect only when it was announced as such (which it never was) caused our crew of seven to shrink to three: each time someone moved on from the Shattuck program, we were not allowed to replace them. Purchasing of food ingredients became a process out of the eighteenth century, taking (without any warning) four months or more from day of request to day of delivery. We were told there was not enough money in the correct account. During the entire final four months of the program, the three of us made meals out of the following ingredients: U S D A corn meal, USDA barley, leftover miso, fish once in a great while, and fresh vegetables (these too now limited). We learned how to serve barley fifty-five different ways. To this day, the true source of this turn of events appears to have been little more than administrative indifference to the prospect of a permanent niche in the Hospital for health promotion From our

228 point of view, it was anathema to common sense. Meetings, memos, and reports (written through efforts only in the Dietary department), brought no relief for what amounted to nothing less than chronic overwork, severe boredom, and the immediate practical possibilities for ourselves and the program becoming steadily smaller. We could at best conclude that there were not enough people at the top convinced that the work was anything more than experimental, or that there was any conviction at all. T h e approving opinions offered by top management, over the course of an entire year, sounded hollow in the face of no action. We announced to management our intention to leave in two months should we not be offered at least a minimum standard of resources to work with instead of less and less. It was obvious to us that the menus we could produce under such conditions would eventually give whole foods a bad name to any further newcomers. I drew up a proposal requesting funding be set aside of $95,000 per year to maintain the program (which would include all labor and materials), with provisions for seeking outside funding for more detailed food service and medical research and development, accompanied by a letter from the Director of the National Cancer Institute stating that we had a "tremendous" research opportunity because the program was unique, could be tracked throughout other state instititions, and would certainly be a major contribution to epidemiology and the understanding of cancer prevention. For whatever reasons, intentional or not, nothing was done. By this time, my infant daughter deserved more attention and I was being asked by my wife a very good question: "What are you trying to prove?" One short meeting with my last macrobiotic associates in the Hospital kitchen, and we decided we had proven enough. The program ended when we resigned in February of 1984. Since that time, inquiries have continued to reach me from several corners of the globe asking for all the details. The Pain and Stress Clinic was seen on BBC around the world. The producer of that show was asked—just prior to the end of our tenure—what he thought was the most interesting thing about the Shattuck Hospital and he replied " T h e macrobiotic food program." Recently, I have had opportunities to appreciate the extent of the state institutional experience gained at

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the Shattuck while helping guide exploratory talks with Department of Public Health about designing a dietary program for A I D S patients. I have given consultations and passed on advice to other institutions, and have had the pleasure of leading the preparation of a macrobiotic banquet at a maximum security prison in Powhatan, Virginia. My work, and that of many others with whom I have had the fortune to be associated, has been very much about this: to this day, there is still no more serious single institutional failure than in food. It doesn't have to be that way.

The Shattuck Research (The complete article on this study, authored by Dr. Jonathan LiefF, is under consideration for medical journal publication. We are grateful to Dr. Lieff for his permission to publish the following study summary, prepared by the editors.) Study Results of Dietary Change in Shattuck Hospital Geropsychiatric Wards, 5 North and 6 North This study concept was designed, executed and evaluated by a team of the following people: Jonathan, D. Lieff, M.D., Director of Psychiatry, Lemuel Shattuck Hospital Mitlesh Garg, Ph.D., Neuropsychology, Tufts Medical School Ellen Langer, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology of Aging, Harvard University Ben Zion Chanowitz, Ph.D., Psychology of Aging, Harvard University Stuart Hartz, Ph.D., Biostatistics Department, Tufts Medical School Rene Spurber, Ph.D., Nutrition Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Steve Kaufman, (Ph.D. Candidate), Psychology

230 Mary Pat Taub, B. A. Miriam Washack, R. N., Lemuel Shattuck Hospital Yvonne Matthews, Dietitian, Lemuel Shattuck Hospital Thomas J. Kelly, Dietitian, Lemuel Shattuck Hospital Thomas J. Iglehart, Food Service Consultant, Lemuel Shattuck Hospital Eric Zutrau, Food Service Consultant, Lemuel Shattuck Hospital A double-blind study measuring the effects of a modified diet—excluding: milk products except butter; meat; processed foods; refined sugar; and synthetic food additives; and including: whole grains, legumes, fresh vegetables and fruits wherever possible—upon a group of geropsychiatric patients was performed at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in May and June of 1982. Patients' diagnoses inincluded psychosis, dementia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Behavioral and clinical assessments were made before and after the eightweek period during which the experimental group received the modified diet. ABSTRACT :

INTRODUCTION: This study procedure was designed to go beyond the limitations of dietary/nutritional research to date, which have either focused on the effects of specific biochemical agents within an experimental paradigm, or have focused on broad alterations in diet and the consequent effects on health and behavior within an epidemiological paradigm. To restrict variables in epidemiological and correlational studies, in which subjects are in the world at large and their dietary intake cannot be controlled and therefore the results cannot be regarded as definitive, the patient group and the study procedure were chosen in order to consider the efficacy of broad adjustments in diet upon mental disorders within an experimental paradigm. Broad adjustments in diet were considered because of the growing body of nondefinitive, anecdotal and popular literature on the subject of the effects of such adjustment for the general public, leading to a capturing of the public imagination as to their benefit, including benefits in mental health. Public health fact is consequently being confused with public health speculation, leading to contradictory

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assertions from proponents of " f a d " diets and representatives of conventional nutritional practices and certain food industries. Definitive studies to date upon the effects of nutrient variables and biochemical agents upon human physiology have been useful in the theoretical development of biology and nutrition, yet the narrow scope of such clinical observation simultaneously restricts their usefulness for the health of the general public or the progression of public health policy. They contribute vitally to our growing body of nutritional and biological knowledge but, being observations contributing to theory, are effectively removed from the domain of conclusively influencing the popular cultural practices of our populations or our public health institutions. In this study, total diet intake was under strict experimental control on two geropsychiatric wards, 5 North and 6 North, at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. The study team hypothesized that the use of a modified diet in this setting would result in behavioral and clinical improvements for these patients. However, the domain in which improvement might occur was not specified in the hypothesis due to the variables inherent in broad alterations in diet. An experimental group numbering 16 and a control group numbering 18 were assigned by a stratified randomization procedure that controlled for the factors of some patients' secondary diagnoses of hypertension, diabetes, and cardiopulmonary disease. The modified diet was served to the experimental group as a complete substitute for the institution's standard diet for a period of eight weeks. Meals for both groups were cooked and served so as to appear identical. All who came into contact with the subjects—with the exceptions of the statistician who assigned the patients to groups, the Head Dietitian dealing directly with patient meal management, and two members of the kitchen staff—were kept blind as to the group status of the subjects in order to prevent expectancy effects. (In fact, any expectancy effects for this study would have more likely produced evaluation results contrary to the hypothesis as many of the staff evaluating were very doubtful about the effects of the modified diet.) Evaluation of four aspects was performed: 1) staff guesses as to PROCEDURE:

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group status (i.e., which patients were on the modified diet and which were not), 2) patient cooperativeness rating, 3) patient irritability, and 4) patient manifest psychosis. Table 1 shows the responses of seven staff members when they were asked to guess the group status of each of the 34 subjects, and shows a pattern of correct and incorrect guesses which is not significantly different from a pattern that would be generated at random. These data indicate that staff members were unable to effectively distinguish experimental group subjects from control group subjects.

RESULTS :

Table 1

Seven Staff Members' Guesses About Group Status of All Subjects Correct Ward A Ward B

69

75

Incorrect 43 Si

Table 2 shows responses to a Nurse Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation (NOSIE-30) both before and after the eight-week experimental period by attendants. These results were subjected to Analysis of Variance Procedures (ANOVA). An ANOVA performed on these data indicate significant improvement in experimental group cooperativeness when compared to the control group. (Therapist's ratings of this aspect replicated the same pattern, but failed to achieve statistical significance.)

Table a

Attendants' Mean Ratings of Patient Co-operativeness* Experimental Before After

45 51

* Higher numbers signify greater co-operativeness

Control 57 48

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Table 3 and 4 respectively present attendants' and therapists' mean assessment of patient irritability, again in response to, and as a subscale of, the N O S I E (which was then subjected to the ANOVA) before and after the experimental period. In both tables, these statistical analyses indicate that experimental subjects were significantly less irritable than control subjects. In addition, they indicate that irritability increased for the control group while it decreased for the experimental group. (Nurses' ratings of irritability replicated this pattern but failed to achieve statistical significance.)

Table 3

Attendants' Mean Ratings of Patient Irritability* Experimental Before After

10.9 8.9

Control 8.6 12.7

• Lower numbers signify less irritability

Table 4

Therapists' Mean Ratings of Patient Irritability* Experimental Before After

10.38 7.8

Control 6.7 7-2

* Lower numbers signify less irritability

Tables 5 and 6 respectively present nurses' and therapists' mean assessment of patients' manifest psychosis, calculated in the same manner. The data here indicate in both evaluations that there was significantly greater improvement upon manifest psychosis among experimental subjects. (In this case, attendants' ratings of manifest psychosis replicated this pattern but failed to achieve statistical significance.)

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Table 5

Nurses' Mean Ratings of Patient Manifest Psychosis* Experimental Before After

7.3 7.0

Control 5-2 5-9

* Lower numbers signify less manifest psychosis

Table 6

Therapists' Mean Ratings of Patient Manifest Psychosis* Experimental Before After

6.4 5.2

Control 3-3 2-9

• Lower numbers signify less manifest psychosis

: These data show that the described change in total diet does have a significantly favorable effect on the health and behavior of geropsychiatric patients. This pilot study examined the effect of such broad change in diet, did not hypothesize any specific health or behavioral improvements and consequently relied on a group of broad assessment instruments that would indicate which factors might be affected by such a change. Therefore, the data indicating improvement in cooperativeness, irritability, and manifest psychosis will be regarded as suggestive. Further study using more refined assessment instruments and possibly focusing on different elements of the dietary factors may be reproducible in repeated experimentation, in which case there are implications both for clinical treatment of mental disorder, health care financing, and public health policy. DISCUSSION

6. Prisoner Correspondence and Projects by Frank Salvati

The Kushi Foundation Prisoner Correspondence Project began as an informal personal endeavor of this writer. I first started to correspond with prisoners in 1976, in response to an article in East West Journal that appealed to readers to write to prisoners who had written requesting a free subscription. The June 1976 issue of the Journal listed over two hundred prisoners who were receiving a free subscription. East West Journal is a Kushi Foundation magazine that publishes articles on macrobiotics, natural healing, natural lifestyles, diet, agriculture, spirituality, and the arts. The Journal started to print personal ads from prisoners seeking correspondence in 1976, and then instituted a Prisoner Pen Pals Correspondence section in 1979. I would write to these prisoners. Then in 1980 I met with the Director of the Foundation and offered to respond to any prisoner who wrote requesting information about macrobiotics. The Prisoner Correspondence Project evolved from this beginning. In 1982, while cooperating with the editor of East West Journal, Alex Jack, on behalf of a prisoner in Texas, Neil Scott, who had cancer and had written seeking help, the Foundation assumed responsibility for the administration of the Journal's Prisoner Subscription Program and the Prisoner Pen Pals Correspondence listing. The Journal's Prisoner Subscription Program is at the present time funded by donations received from readers who respond to appeals printed in the magazine. For every $9.00 received a free subscription *s given to a prisoner on the waiting list. At the time of this writing there are over 300 prisoners on the waiting list. However, these prisoners do receive a monthly copy of the Journal, from a selection

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of back issues that are donated by the magazine. This supplementary program was implemented in 1982 when the requests for free subscriptions from prisoners greatly increased, and the waiting list began to grow. The Prisoner Correspondence Project sends a back issue of the Journal to every prisoner on the waiting list, every month, until that prisoner has received a regular sponsored subscription. At the present time this writer estimates that monthly copies of the Journal are sent to over 600 prisoners, in about 70 correctional facilities all over the country. (This estimate includes both prisoners who are receiving regular subcription and those who are receiving a back issue.) In addition to sending the Journal to prisoners, the Correspondence Project also sends literature on such subjects as macrobiotics, natural healing, self-healing techniques (such as massage and Yoga), spiritual practices (such as Do-In), and related topics. Prisoners write to both the Journal and the Kushi Foundation requesting information and free literature. The Prisoner Correspondence Project responds to all of these requests. In addition to administering these programs, the Prisoner Correspondence Project also serves as a personal contact for prisoners who write to us seeking something other than free literature. We receive many letters from prisoners who are seeking dietary advice, have questions of a health nature, and also questions or requests on topics unrelated to "health." The Prisoner Correspondence Project tries to serve the needs of prisoners, whatever the need may be. We provide referrals to other prison projects and self-help organizations, and also refer prisoners to the macrobiotic center near their prison or home. This writer considers the personal correspondence activity of the Prison Project as especially important and worthy of note here. Having corresponded with prisoners for ten years now, I have come to realize how much individuals in prison need contact with the "free world." There are hundreds of people in prisons in this country who are seeking a better way to live. T h e increase in requests for free subscriptions to East West Journal and for literature, and also for personal correspondence, clearly indicates that there are a growing number of people in prisons in this country who are interested in health, natural foods, macrobiotics, and natural ways of living in harmony (and in

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peace). Correspondence that the Prison Project receives from prisoners clearly indicates that these individuals need and want help in order to overcome their problems, whether the problem be one of a specific disease or many other kinds of addictions, habits, and negative patterns of thinking and behavior. However, our brothers and sisters in prison need not just something to read or to help "rehabilitate" themselves, but the human contact with someone who provides something that is lacking in the prison environment. To illustrate my point here I will offer a quote from a recent letter from a prisoner who had this to say about his prison: "This place suffers from a lack of love and light." In essence, what the Prison Project is trying to do, with our mailing of literature and information, and with personal correspondence, is to send a little love and enlightenment into the darkness of our society's prisons. Hopefully this effort will serve to provide our brothers and sisters with the knowledge and encouragement that they need to help them with their "work" of self-transformation and quest for freedom, and to help them create a more healthful and peaceful life for themselves and for our global society. And if personal correspondence between this writer and prisoners is any indication, there are many individuals who have benefited from this experience in sharing. We have received many letters from prisoners reporting how they have experienced improvements in health and consciousness, thanks to the knowledge that we have shared with them and their putting it into practice.

Letters f r o m Prisoners The following are selected excerpts from letters received from prisoners over the past several years: 'These prisons wouldn't be full of people if they were healthy." J. Z., Texarkana, TX • • • I must tell you that you just don't realize how much that book I received about 'Sugar Blues' affected me and a couple of the guys

238 who read it also. As a result of'Sugar Blues' and the macrobiotic books, me, a 40-year-old black, and a 28-year-old white inmate friend, have both cut back drastically on sugar. And as for myself, I went three weeks without eating white flour, white rice, or animal flesh, and I feel a hundred times better." L. A., Jackson, NC "I eat macrobiotically because I can see and feel how healthful that diet is. Ain't cause I believe in the order of the universe—I know nothing about it, but because it makes sense to me—to eat naturally balanced food and feel healthful and strong." D. A., Marion, IL "I wish that there were other people of your caliber and understanding willing to help prisoners such as myself to a better way of life and health." E. B., Dannemora, NY " T h e beauty of macrobiotics is its practical application to living, as opposed to merely surviving, and without such efforts and work as your organization explores, confronts, and communicates through its resources, much of the true joy of life would, for many, be far less significantly illuminated. . . . " S. B., El Reno, OK ". . . Even though I am very spiritual, I just could not see the reason for my being here falsely. Then an inmate shared his East West Journal with me, over two years ago. Reading it started me thinking again. I remembered many of the teachings of my family, especially my grandfather while he was chief. And with the Ohsawa and Kushi books, teachings, etc., I have again come alive. . . . Thanks to the Spirit's guidance to you, I have been set back on the correct path." L. G., Angola, LA "Please allow me to reply to the story you sent from the East West Journal called 'Is America going crazy?' Believe me, just this little bit of reading had a very strong impact on me. See, I've tried drugs,

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drinking, crime. Just an all out nothing I have been. Yet now here you are bringing a reality to me that I feel like screaming out for. To better myself. Wow. All the things I've tried, and here you show me how I may truly become a better p e r s o n . . . . The story was really something. I went over it twice already. It's just so fantastic to be able to now understand what is wrong with me. All I can say is thank you very much for opening my eyes up. . . . Never before did I ever stop and look at myself and attempt to improve myself. You have helped me to realize a lot of things already about myself. And I am very grateful. You truly are a good friend, and I wish to say thank you very much. . . . " M. H., Immokalee, FL "I have begun a yoga routine and have started a study, a search, through the teachings of various religious teachers. I suppose I've sort of floundered around with some first steps on the path, but my goals no longer include cold cash, fast women and hard drugs. I see spiritual training as being of paramount importance at this point in my life. My knowledge and experience in this area is so limited that I can hardly discuss it intelligently. I just know that a change is necessary . . . my wish is to lead a healthy, balanced life and to find some way to be of service to the planet and those that share it with me. As you may know, these first steps can be painful and confusing . . . East West Journal has gone over well with other prisoners housed in this block. Because this is a primitive segregation unit and we have very little access to reading materials, we all route our books and magazines from cell to cell. As the issues find their way back to me, I find little notes scribbled on the papers praising your publication. Just thought you'd like to know that EWJ is getting good reviews here in the Adjustment Center of Wisconsin State Prison." W. M., Waupun, WI "I am writing you from the 'hole' here at Folsom State Prison . . . I just read your July (1983) issue that another convict had and I read it from cover to cover which I don't do even with 'Playboy'. . . . My wife gave me . . . a book on beginning yoga which has helped me reduce stress and find something of inner peace (I am a 'lifer') and I have since

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gotten interested in things that I once just shrugged off as just plain 'weird,' such as Zen Buddhism, Holistic Health, etc . . . . I no longer get severe headaches every day nor do I pace my cell as a caged animal. . . . Frank, it's a little hard to explain but I feel just a bit foolish at times for being the way I once was and for being so damned ignorant and biased towards some things I've needed in my life for a very long time now. . . . I feel I've joined the human race for the first time, does that sound strange? . . . " J. M., Folsom State Prison Represa, CA " M y classification officer asked me last week, what will I be doing if I am released on parole. I informed her of my dream to set up programs inside prisons in Oriental healing, such as Taoist yoga, Tai Chi, and Macrobiotic diet and principles (in New York City). . . . My goal is to help the many youths in New York City's Chinatown. I used to be a gang leader of the Wah-Ching, many years ago. This time I'd like to lead them back to tradition and to be proud of the once lowest crime community in the USA." Chuck Fai-Goon, prior to parole "I am, moreover, exceedingly grateful for the effort, time, and expense that you and Alex Jack are giving in providing me (as well as others here) with what I consider to be the most valuable information ever to come into my life. I wish that Mr. Kushi and his wife could come here to lecture—particularly to our dietitian. Something here, as in Portugal, would be beautiful. It fails my comprehension ability to understand why many people fail, or how they possibly could fail to employ the macrobiotic way once it has been presented. . . . I've found what I've wanted in life and will try, within my present limitations to put it in action here and also on the outside should I live to get there. I yet have a lot to learn, but with help from Boston, it will all come in time." Neil Scott, prior to parole "I am in receipt of your card, concerning my getting a regular subscription to the Journal. I cannot express how pleased I was to hear

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this. I have been receiving the back issues, and I have found them extremely helpful in bettering my life, at least now I can begin to escape the prisons of my own making, such as poor eating habits, and using drugs for illnesses, when all that needs to be done is to change one's lifestyle." R. C., Pittsburgh, PA "Thank you for making it possible for me to continue to receive the East West Journal. I first came into contact with EWJ several years ago through another prisoner. What initially sparked my attention was an article exploring the links between eating habits (especially junk foods) and aberrant behavior. "Of course, we all know that we are what we eat—literally—but I suppose that the accuracy of that statement had never established itself firmly in my mind. The Dan White murder case in San Francisco several years ago first raised my suspicions in this regard, but the way in which such theories were scoffed at the time quickly dispelled any concerns of my own that may have arisen. Thankfully, EWJ was to enter my consciousness in subsequent years and through articles appearing in the magazine, as well as material and references provided by the Kushi Foundation, the problem was not only eventually laid bare for me, but a solution was provided as well. "Perhaps for most people, this whole subject is quite controversial, with a variety of differing opinions. Certainly the Dan White case, as a result of the magnitude of his acts, provided a serious setback for the advancement of the idea that nutrition can and does play a very definite role in the behavior of many people—more so in some than in others. In my own investigations, I was often disturbed by the opinion of others that I was merely seeking excuses for prior behavior rather than explanations and a possible preventive regimen. Luckily I did persevere in my quest and while far from fully understanding all of the particulars of the topic, I have at least learned enough to have begun to benefit from practical application of that knowledge. "Assuredly, there are many causes that explain my current imprisonment, but with a pure body and clear mind I am more confident in my ability to deal with them now. Quite literally, my despair over a continuing future riding on the criminal justice merry-go-round has been

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transformed into the expectation of a whole new life. Of course, I have learned ever so much more from reading EWJ, but for now this one stands out with greatest importance. I owe it all to EWJ and people like yourself, who not only provided the spark, but sustained and engendered a part of me that was sadly previously lacking. "Once again I thank you for your concern; I only hope that some day I might find the means to repay your generosity." L. T . , Philadelphia, PA "Neil Scott couldn't have said it better when he said, 'I am overwhelmingly impressed with the macrobiotic way of life.' My temporary incarceration here at Ashland FCI could very well be the best thing that ever happened to me. It gives me the time and opportunity to study and practice this fantastic way of living. "I have eaten no beef or pork for a period of five months now. It was kind of weird at first because in my family, there has always been meat on the table. My grandparents are 85 years old and still kill hogs every year. I did, however, occasionally eat poultry and dairy products. This will cease as of today. "When I lived on the 'outside,' I very much lived in the fast lane. I consumed an enormous amount of alcohol and occasional drugs. I continuously overate. "Utilizing macrobiotic principles, I am proud to tell you that I have lost 11 pounds and already decreased my waist size by three inches. I feel absolutely great. I am more at peace with myself and with God than I have been in years. This is the kind of happiness that I previously tried to find through alcohol and drugs. When I discussed macrobiotics with a friend several months ago, he didn't tell me of the great psychological changes that would take place. (Probably because he knew I wouldn't have believed him.) My wife is overjoyed with her 'new husband!' We both feel as if we're in love all over again. She drives 225 miles and visits me twice per month, six hours per visit. "I am generating macrobiotic interests here at Ashland, among my fellow inmates. "However, upon my arrival here, I asked the Director of Food Service if I could obtain a meatless diet. He informed me that the US BOP (Bureau of Prisons) didn't recognize 'vegetarians.' Being totally

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new here and not adequately educated enough in macrobiotics, I did not pursue the matter at that particular time. In the meantime, I am somewhat fortunate that Ashland has a cafeteria style facility and offers somewhat of a salad bar. We have a new Associate Warden here who has a reputation for being fair to the inmates as far as their legitimate requests are concerned. It is my hope that by combining yours and my efforts we may educate him somewhat in the macrobiotic way of life and persuade him to initiate a nutritious diet line here at Ashland. "I may obtain any magazines and/or literature that you wish to send. However, they have a package policy that states that I must obtain a permit from the mail room if I am to receive a package in the mail. So, if you ever care to send a package, please send a postcard at least two days in advance so as I may obtain a permit. " T h e macrobiotic approach has absolutely changed my life . . . far to the better. I am at this stage, fairly ignorant of the extent of macrobiotic principles. I am only vaguely aware of some of the basic suggestions, such as what to—and what not to—eat. But even still, this alone has brought about a great transformation in the way I think and feel. I am more relaxed, more tolerant, less aggressive, and much more appreciative of what I do have to be thankful for." R. G., Ashland, KY

The Kushi Foundation Prison Project The Prison Project began as the correspondence work of Frank Salvati, as a vital lifeline to the resigned and even desperate. The response that he continues to send to the world of the prisoner speaks of a new way of living, an understanding of personal responsibility for everything in one's life, even sickness and health. We cannot live in harmony long with one another or be at peace with ourselves while avoiding any area of our health: physical, mental, or spiritual. We cannot hope to exist as a community of healthy individuals in the present or the future while ignoring the question, "What can I do to live fully as a human being among other human beings?" The prisoner is accountable; the warden is accountable; the Congressman and voter

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are accountable; we are all accountable: we are responsible for the consequences (to ourselves and others) of our actions. After five thousand letters from 47 states and five foreign countries, exchanging thousands of pieces of literature—including books, magazines, and resource lists—the Prison Project was formed to follow Frank Salvati's lead. There is no better place for any of us to learn more about crime than in our prisons. T h e focus of the Prison Project is in the prisons, to promote the better use of human (and institutional) resources for the end of a human suffering called crime. Accumulating scientific evidence verifies the existence of a strong connection between poor physical health and social breakdowns, including what is called antisocial behavior. Our premise here is that, whatever the circumstances, to begin a new life one must be healthy, strong and clear-minded. This condition is efficiently promoted by informing individuals of opportunities to choose a healthier personal lifestyle, particularly through diet. T h e Prison Project assists both inmates and institutions in creating such opportunities for change through health-promoting food programs (such as the macrobiotic food program at the Powhatan State Penitentiary in Virginia), in-house education and training for prisoners and staff, and direct informational assistance by mail to inmates interested in choosing a fundamental tool for self-development. The Prison Project brings another new message to prisoners and administrators alike: there is the potential for personal and social development, greater productivity, a sounder economy (including new business potentials), and improved family and community relations through the reviving of traditional lifestyle practices that are easy to learn and cost little or nothing to begin. Some examples are: the study, practice and teaching of Tai Chi—a remarkably useful, healthful and satisfying form of exercise movement; the development of prison and community industries in the natural foods field—such as our proposal for prison soyfoods industries; the practical use of the rising technology of natural agriculture—particularly in the redevelopment of prison farms; and the sponsoring of prison and community forums for inventing new solutions to old problems. Perhaps the prime example of such a solution is this: by promotion of the lifestyle practices we have

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described here (in prisons and outside of prisons) the annual toll of human suffering and death as well as the financial cost of degenerative illness could be cut in half—figures measured in hundreds of thousands of lives and tens of billions of dollars—and the end of world hunger would be greatly facilitated by more efficient use of our food production. The Prison Project has participated in producing such forums in local Massachusetts prisons—to create opportunities for both prisoners and community members to listen to one another and to look at new possibilities, such as those outlined above. The Project is enjoying the participation of ex-prisoners in this area, including Neil Scott and Chuck Fai-Goon. At the agency level, the Prison Project has aligned with the National Center for Innovations in Corrections in the development of foodoriented prison industries such as the soyfoods concept, which is now sponsored by the American Farm Federation. T h e participation in our work by the Department of Criminal Justice in Virginia has been vital to the beginning of the macrobiotic food program in the Powhatan State Penitentiary, which was sponsored by Frank Kern, Assistant Director of the Tidewater Detention Homes in Chesapeake. Frank Kern continues to work tirelessly with the Prison Project and corrections agencies around North America in initiating these and other breakthrough programs. In Massachusetts, Prison Project principals are acting as consultants to the Department of Corrections in establishing an A I D S remission unit for state prisoners which would use macrobiotic dietary therapy, which university research is showing to be the most promising (and least risky) of all therapies under study. In October, 1986, the Kushi Foundation participated in the annual conference of the Correctional Association of Massachusetts (CAM). The Kushi Foundation representatives Edward Esko, Tom Iglehart, Eric Zutrau, and Neil Scott presented information on macrobiotics and its application in prisons, hospitals, and other institutions. The Kushi Foundation also prepared a packet of literature and information on its activities for each conference participant. At the community level, the Prison Project is beginning to coordinate the formation of a network of community groups for those who wish to participate in practical innovations in corrections. Since many

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communities have prisons in them, and hardly any community can say that there are no inmates from that community planning to someday return, it is of practical concern to ordinary citizens that prisons play an effective role in ending the vicious cycle of crime and recidivism, as opposed to simply temporarily confining the criminal. Through such community action, new opportunities may be realized for the hand-in-hand cooperation of citizens, businesses, and government agencies and institutions to create rigorous prisoner and parolee support as they go from the prison world to the outside world. From this interchange, new understanding—and truly innovative action— may be developed regarding the functioning of government in relationship with a socially committed citizenry, and in the social implications of being, or having been, a prisoner. In this way, the Prison Project represents an effort to break down walls, not of prisons themselves, but those we imagine to be between us, and to produce immediately needed results for everyone concerned: for the prisoner, unprecedented opportunities for self-development; for the parolee, a broader range of social contact and work; for the citizen, a growing familiarity with his community as a whole and playing a more distinct part in his or her vision of it. By responding to and coordinating the concerns and actions of people around the nation, the Prison Project is endeavoring to bring forth more of the power in each one of us to perfect life together: to realize our greatest dreams of peace and freedom. In the sections that follow, we discuss possible projects the Kushi Foundation hopes to begin in the near future:

Macrobiotic Nutritional Programs:

The Project has successfully

supported the initiation of institutionally funded programs for dietary health promotion in the Virginia Departments of Juvenile Justice and Criminal Justice. These program concepts are at the leading edge of institutional technology for the prevention of chronic illnesses and the promotion of mental health and socially productive behavior. This form of nutritional intervention has been cited by Hippchen, et al, of the American Correctional Association in the Handbook On Correctional Classification (1978) as being an essential component of inmate treatment and successful reentry. In accordance with the macrobiotic thesis for rehabilitation (which

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is supported by the current body of knowledge on nutrition and behavior), the establishment of health-promoting prison dietary programs is perhaps most fundamental to long-term success in reducing recidivism. These programs are intended to provide inmates with alternatives in diet in the prison setting, which they will be encouraged to choose of their own volition by background educational programs. The condition of free choice is not only more effective in establishing long-term physical and mental health gains (through improved "food behaviors") and obviating group inmate resistance (since nothing is taken away), it also allows for the ongoing development of optimally appropriate menus to maximize authentic and lasting participation. Research by the Virginia Department of Corrections has also revealed that the foods promoted at their Powhatan program (following

Prison Project recommendations) are consistent with every religious canon observed by the entire inmate spectrum, a major consideration in their decision to begin the program due to the possible consequent resolution of related inmate litigation now before the courts, and costing perhaps millions of dollars annually in court time nationwide. Study Groups: Individual study for personal development is enhanced by group study in three ways: 1) The sharing of information and insight in a language appropriate and possibly more useful to the individuals (appropriate to their "semantic program," as referred to by Hippchen, et al. as being essential to rehabilitative efforts); 2) Stimulating creative initiative for actual practice; and 3) Increasing the sense of self-esteem of the individual. The Kushi Foundation has encouraged and materially supported the formation of study groups in prison, both those operated entirely by inmates and those including the instruction of macrobiotic teachers volunteering to provide in-house lectures. These study groups will continue to form as a result of Foundation support, and are essential to initiating the holistic rehabilitative process, especially of inmate awareness of the importance of sound diet

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in physical health. The study groups have been and will continue to be a key component in inmate transformation. Half-Way Houses: There are currently no half-way houses, or places of residence for paroled inmates during their reentry periods of up to two years, which are based upon rehabilitative principles in the areas of diet/lifestyle and daily practices for development of social awareness. Inmates reentering society are at two forms of risk, both of which are shared by all parolees: 1)

2)

Inability to maintain a coherent focus for self-development and productive living which may have begun in the prison environment. Inability to establish social support (including work) that will contribute to that focus and their successful reentry into society, and prevent their return to crime and prison.

The Kushi Foundation wishes to support the opening of half-way houses to continue the work that parolees began with the Prison Project (and other rehabilitative efforts). Included in the lifestyle and personal development resources of the half-way houses can be: 1) Diet optimally appropriate to physical and mental health, as determined by the resident parolees in accordance with macrobiotic dietary recommendations; 2) Community and in-house education resources (such as classes, consultations, and study groups) that will address the ongoing concerns of the parolees (including examinations of their "semantic programming" (Hippchen, et al.) which may have contributed to previous offenses). These comprise a continuation of elective study begun in prison; 3) Social contact with other community citizens sharing similar concerns with holistic health and human development; 4) Regular lectures, classes, and study groups on various aspects of macrobiotics, including cooking classes, self-health maintenance, and the development of a positive and constructive view of life.

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Scholarships: In concert with parolee support through half-way houses, the Foundation would like to promote continued education in lifestyle and personal development through scholarships. The first scholarships to be made available could include courses of study at the Kushi Institute in Boston, and at community-based regional affiliates of the Kushi Institute. Future scholarships could include vocational and higher-education training selected by parolees at institutions of their choice. Resource Handbook: The Foundation would like to produce a reference book for inmates summarizing both the services of the Prison Project and associated affiliates throughout the world and the services of other organizations which may support their comprehensive rehabilitation and reentry into society. Inmates would be able to use the Handbook to inquire about publications and services which might not have otherwise been available, and would find community support contacts to rely on after their release. Soyfoods Program: This program is to establish an agriculturally based prison industry which is consistent with the Project's thesis of health promotion. It was originated by the Prison Project, has received grant approval from the USDA, is now sponsored by the American Farm Federation, and is endorsed by the Center For Innovations In Corrections. This program also has judicial and legislative support in Virginia, as increasing numbers of correctional institutions are adopting cost-effective measures of rehabilitation. It provides inmates with a "work ethic" environment, the main principle for prison reformation of former Chief Justice Warren Burger's Task Force On Prison Reform. Soyfoods are an increasing ingredient in conventional "fast-food" technology as well as an extremely health-promoting aspect of a whole foods diet. They represent perhaps the most promising source of both economical and healthful protein available today. The U.S. stockpile of surplus soybeans is second only to corn. The development of the soyfoods market is contingent upon growing consumer acceptance. We may expect a phenomenal growth in the

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market through the end of the century as soyfoods become acculturated as an ordinary part of the American diet. They are also an essential part of the diet in progressive nutrition programs such as those promoted by the Kushi Foundation. The concept of prison industries has been prevalent in foreign prisons for decades (as early as 1780 in Japan) and has proven to be a cost-effective method of providing inmate job-skill training as well as a method of providing revenue for prison operation. T h e gradual establishment of soyfoods factories in prisons, which require relatively little capital investment and may derive their raw material at no cost from the USDA, would provide inmates with jobskills training which is increasingly marketable and would also be consistent with their training in personal dietary improvements. International Conferences: The president of the American Correctional Association recently praised the operation of Japanese prisons in an article in the AC A Journal. His praise was of both the methods and the results of the Japanese system. In accordance with promoting correctional and rehabilitative concepts that emphasize the comprehensive development of the inmate, such as the Japanese model, the Prison Project seeks to sponsor, in association with the ACA, a conference between American and Japanese correctional leaders which may lead to further initiation of macrobiotic rehabilitation programs in the United States. Following the substantial initiation of those conference arrangements, the Prison Project would like to begin preparing protocols for an International Conference of five nations to include innovative European perspectives and experience. Public Forums: The Foundation would like to sponsor public forums in key regional communities to stimulate public participation in its activities, establish regional offices of the Prison Project, and offer opportunities for action on any other community initiatives supportive of inmate rehabilitation. The forums would also increase Prison Project visibility to the general public, provide opportunities for fund-raising, and develop a member network. This growing national member network can com-

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prise the human resource base for active inmate support. Work in each group can then be defined by the member network of that community.

Sample Proposal for I n m a t e Nutrition and Training Purpose: The purpose of this project is to support Massachusetts Correctional Institution offender populations in optimum health maintenance through exposure to foods recognized by the U.S. Surgeon General and the National Academy of Science as being most conducive to long-term health promotion. Many of these foods are not now available in the correctional system. The potentially rehabilitative characteristics of this measure would be enhanced by the inclusion of concurrent related education and training for these same offenders at the incarceration, pre-release and release levels. The purpose of related education and training is to develop client self-reliance in personal health maintenance so as to optimize physical and mental vitality necessary for reentry.

Anticipated Results: • Food cost savings; • Improved client physical health, self-esteem, and attitude; • Reduced client dependence upon the institutional framework for rehabilitation and self-development; • Increased resocialization success rate. Synopsis: This proposal presents a program for food service transition and related education at M C I Framingham. The program includes offering alternative foods in the M C I Framingham cafeteria along with the current menu, adjustment of the food selection at the facility's canteen, and in-house education and training of inmates on the purpose and methods of successfully incorporating

252 such foods into personal lifestyle. Also included is volunteer postincarceration support—in pre-release and upon reentry into the community—for continued productive use of such in-house exposure. The program is recommended as a pilot project to facilitate ongoing examination of the concept in regard to Department-wide policy, through a comprehensive and separate evaluation program not included here. Also, with slight modification, similar programs could be established in other correctional institutions. Background/Need: The impact of nutrition upon physical and mental/behavioral well-being has undergone a nearly total reevaluation in the last twenty years, resulting in a broadly based recognition of need for the establishment of a national nutrition policy. Recommendations of the U.S. Senate Select Committee On Nutrition and Human Needs (1977), the U.S. Surgeon General (1979), and the National Academy of Sciences were given for the prevention of cancers (up to 60 percent), heart disease (up to 85 percent) and behavioral disorders (potential unknown) and many other chronic illnesses. In addition, research literature on the effects of nutrition upon mental activity (e.g., neurotransmitters) as well as administrative experience in the criminal justice field in California, Maryland, Virginia and Massachusetts (Department of Youth Services) strongly suggest the connection between deterioration of nutritional/biological health and the exacerbation of antisocial behavior. How such recommendations might be specifically and optimally applied—especially in the behavioral fields, where a great deal more research is required—is today developing on-site through independent administrative initiative. Therefore, while no "approved" model exists for any given field or type of institution, theoretical guidelines and some field experience are available to draw upon for safe experimental application. Each one of these initiatives is a contribution toward a future national nutrition policy for a healthy population. M C I Framingham (a women's prison) contains a population of mothers and potential mothers. A significant portion of them are or will be single heads of family, having the dual responsibilities of childraising and family income production. There is perhaps no other role in society for which there is less agreement or support. A woman (with

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or without children) must, upon reentry from incarceration, not only face a greater challenge in the job market as a result of her gender, but must also reorient her personal life toward a productive daily routine that is supported by optimum health, a positive attitude, and a strong self-esteem in order to overcome the stigma of the ex-offender. One way in which everyday nutrition at M C I Framingham alone may be seen to not contribute to such optimum health and self-esteem is the weight gain of between 20 to 40 pounds by most inmates between incarceration and release (this achieved, in most cases, during a 3month stay). A diet high in fatty foods and simple sugars combined with a sedentary lifestyle—in the home or the institution—contributes not only to this result, but also to more serious long-term health problems (particularly ovarian and breast) that present a major obstacle to leading a full and vital life. This medical phenomenon has been irrefutably established for the U.S. population in the reports mentioned above. The reduction or elimination of such physiological obstacles to the development of a positive attitude toward life and self-esteem (which is essential for self-motivation) would be a major contribution to the successful reentry of any inmate. That inmates of M C I Framingham inevitably represent a strong influence upon their community (beginning with their current or future roles in their families) makes their reentry success a crucial component to halting the cycle of crimeinstitution-crime in the community as a whole. In terms of psychological development, the experience of a selfchosen, self-motivated (nutritional) improvement in the quality of their lives could alone prove to be a very powerful vehicle for improved self-esteem. The multiple issues facing the criminal justice field justify the examination and application of innovative treatment modalities that offer little or no risk to the institutional status quo. Progressive nutrition policies fulfill this criterion as well as those of very promising efficacy in physiological and behavioral improvement, small initial capitalization, and a probability of direct overall savings in the long term.

254 METHODOLOGY

Background: In Massachusetts, perhaps the most significant application of this type was carried out at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital from 1980 to 1984 as a project created, implemented, and managed by the authors of this proposal. It included ongoing presentation of alternative foods to hospital staff on a daily basis, as well as experimental transition for psycho-geriatric patients involved in double-blind research evaluation. (The encouraging on-site results of this project are summarized earlier in this book.) T h e Shattuck project also brought forth issues and concerns to be addressed in the successful dietary transition of any client population. T h e central focus of these is clearly that of food as perhaps the most personal and individual aspect of daily life, and therefore also of institutional living. Stated practically, the indispensable value of individual participation through choice cannot be overestimated as a vehicle for bypassing individual or group resistance to dietary transition. Formal or informal education (on the need for and purpose of such transition) and training (in the preparation and use of such foods outside the institutional setting) are paramount to making appropriate, productive choices. In consideration of the above experience and issues, the following on-site program is proposed. Food Service: Food service application will involve the offering of a complete, primarily vegetarian menu in addition to the existing menu, allowing for client choice of items from both menus simultaneously within certain prestated restrictions of quantity. Also proposed is the replacement of certain highly processed, chemicalized and sugar-sweetened products with more whole, natural ingredients and the addition of more nutritious, less sugary snack-type foods which may be economically and efficiently produced in the prison kitchen. Experience with the Lemuel Shattuck project has demonstrated the workability of simultaneous snack and dual-menu food preparation and serving using existing equipment with the addition of three food service personnel prepared to train other personnel and/or inmate

255

labor attracted to the food service area. After the first year, these three additional staff members may be safely phased down to two, thereby allowing for ongoing rotation training of inmates without adding to the workload of existing staff. The advantages of addressing dietary transition through this program are: • Obviation of inmate objection to food service transition as consumption is by choice. • Self-determining pace of transition of the population as a whole. • Greatly extended range of transition toward healthier foods, which can vary in acceptability to various inmates. • Excellent flexibility in responding to inmate preferences thereby optimizing acceptance and final menu development. • Increased potential for food cost savings. Education and Training: Under the aegis of the M C I Framingham Office of Education, an ongoing group of 12 to 24 inmates can be recruited as volunteers to undertake educational workshops in the need for and purpose of personal dietary transition. These workshops can take place on a minimum basis of twice a month and can be designed to complete at the end of every three months, the length of stay for the majority of Framingham inmates. Efforts can be made to enroll at least four longer-term inmates in every cycle so that they may begin to form an informal exemplary "core-group" for the prison population as a whole. The Shattuck experience has shown that information and motivation shared at the social level in an institution plays a key role in the acceptance of alternative diet. Inmate training in the appropriate selection and preparation of foods for use in the home can be given in tandem to the theoretical education above, also on a twice monthly basis. This would involve some handson experience in the prison kitchen for family-scale alternative food preparation as well as institutional-scale for those interested in job skills development or simply a more thorough and varied knowledge of the uses of alternative foods. This implies that the core of inmate kitchen labor (rotating as inmates go to pre-release) for the food service program will be drawn from the education program participants.

256

Follow-Up Support: It is inevitable that even well-educated, motivated and well-trained clients would encounter obstacles to the maintenance of an improved lifestyle and dietary status in the pre-release and reentry environments. These obstacles may be simply described as minimal agreement or support, socially or in the availability of necessary resources. To counter such potential setbacks in long-term program efficacy, individual support is available from committed citizen volunteers, whose lifestyles reflect the same transition as offered in this program. This volunteer group, having similar interests, goals and social experiences in lifestyle alternatives, is available for further organization under the auspices of the M C I Framingham Office of Education or other appropriate vehicle, to serve the follow-up phase of this program. Client contact with such volunteers—whether on an intensive or casual basis, as needed—would help ensure client follow-through in the long term with knowledge and skills acquired at M C I Framingham, without the need for complex intradepartmental or interagency funding and/ or administrative initiative. Contact may consist—at the pre-release level—of a minimum of three volunteer visits to assigned clients to create a supportive personal relationship that would provide advice, encouragement, and leadership to the client in the process of reentry. Upon reentry into their communities, clients can have a minimum of three visits at their residences by the same volunteer acquainted at pre-release, who would at this stage also provide assistance in locating local sources of appropriate foods, informally educating the exoffender's family in nutritional awareness, and suggesting techniques for menu arrangement and food preparation to best suit the needs and preferences of individual home use. Clients at this time can have the option of requesting six further volunteer visits for the purpose of additional cooking and food selection instruction. After the volunteer visits, clients may have—for six months—a minimum of weekly telephone contact with the same volunteer for two purposes: 1) to provide ongoing support as above; and 2) for interviewing clients on their and their family's well-being, the results of which can be compiled by program administrators. The advantages of education, training and follow-up support include:

257 • Ensuring long-term improvement in client nutritional and health status; • Setting the context of self-reliance and self-improvement for the client population; • Training inmates in noticing self-motivated results in the improvement of their quality of life (health status), which might otherwise be unnoticed or attributed to luck or circumstance; and • Feedback to program administrators for future program development.

Recommended Reading

Books Aihara, Cornellia. The Do of Cooking. Chico, Calif.: George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation, 1972. . Macrobiotic Childcare. Oroville, Calif.: George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation, 1971. Aihara, Herman. Basic Macrobiotics. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1985. Benedict, Dirk. Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy. Van Nuys, Calif.: Newcastle, 1987. Brown, Virginia, with Susan Stayman. Macrobiotic Miracle: How a

Vermont Family Overcame Cancer. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1985.

Dietary Goals for the United States. Washington, D. C.: Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, U.S. Senate, 1977.

Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer. Washington, D. C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1982. Dufty, William. Sugar Blues. New York: Warner, 1975. Esko, Edward and Wendy. Macrobiotic Cooking for Everyone. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1980. Esko, Wendy. Introducing Macrobiotic Cooking. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1978. Fukuoka, Masanobu. The Natural Way of Farming. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1985. . The One-Straw Revolution. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press, 1978.

Healthy People: The Surgeon General's Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1979.

Heidenry, Carolyn. Making the Transition to a Macrobiotic Diet. Wayne, N.J.: Avery Publishing Group, 1987.

260

Hippocrates. Hippocratic Writings. Edited by G. E. R. Lloyd. Translated by J. Chadwick and W. N. Mann. New York: Penguin Books, 1978. I Ching or Book of Changes. Translated by Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baynes. Princeton: Bollingen Foundation, 1950.

Ineson, John. The Way of Life: Macrobiotics and the Spirit of Christianity. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1986. Jacobs, Barbara and Leonard. Cooking with Seitan. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1986.

Jacobson, Michael. The Changing American Diet. Washington, D. C.: Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1978.

Kaibara, Ekiken. Yojokun: Japanese Secrets of Good Health. Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1974. Kidder, Ralph D., and Edward F. Kelley. Choice for Survival: The Baby Boomer s Dilemma. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1987.

Kohler, Jean and Mary Alice. Healing Miracles from Macrobiotics. West Nyack, N. Y.: Parker, 1979.

Kotsch, Ronald. Macrobiotics: Yesterday and Today. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1985. Kushi, Aveline. How to Cook with Miso. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1978. . Lessons of Night and Day. Wayne, New Jersey: Avery Publishing Group, 1985.

. Macrobiotic Food and Cooking Series: Diabetes and Hypoglycemia; Allergies. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1985.

. Macrobiotic Food and Cooking Series: Obesity, Weight Loss, and Eating Disorders; Infertility and Reproductive Disorders. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1987.

Kushi, Aveline, with Alex Jack. Aveline Kushi's Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking. New York: Warner Books, 1985.

Kushi, Aveline and Michio. Macrobiotic Pregnancy and Care of the Newborn. Edited by Edward and Wendy Esko. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1984.

. Macrobiotic Child Care and Family Health. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1986.

261

Kushi, Aveline, and Wendy Esko. Macrobiotic Family Favorites. Tokyo and New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1987.

. The Changing Seasons Macrobiotic Cookbook. Wayne, N. J.: Avery Publishing Group, 1983. Kushi, Aveline, with Wendy Esko. The Macrobiotic Cancer Prevention Cookbook. Wayne, N. J.: Avery Publishing Group, 1987.

Kushi, Michio. The Book of D5-In: Exercise for Physical and Spiritual Development. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1979.

. The Book of Macrobiotics: The Universal Way of Health, Happiness and Peace. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1986 (rev. ed.).

. Cancer and Heart Disease: The Macrobiotic Approach to Degenerative Disorders. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1986 (rev. ed.). . The Era of Humanity. Brookline, Mass.: East West Journal, 1980.

. How to See Your Health: The Book of Oriental Diagnosis. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1980.

. Macrobiotic Health Education Series: Diabetes and Hypoglycemia; Allergies. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1985.

. Macrobiotic Health Education Series: Obesity, Weight Loss, and Eating Disorders; Infertility and Reproductive Disorders. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1987.

. Natural Healing through Macrobiotics. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1978.

. On the Greater View: Collected Thoughts on Macrobiotics and Humanity. Wayne, N. J . : Avery Publishing Group, 1985.

. Your Face Never Lies. Wayne, N. J.: Avery Publishing Group, 1983. Kushi, Michio, and Alex Jack. The Cancer Prevention Diet. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983.

. Diet for a Strong Heart. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. Kushi, Michio, with Alex Jack. One Peaceful World. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986. Kushi, Michio and Aveline. The Macrobiotic Diet. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1985.

262

Kushi, Michio, and the East West Foundation. The Macrobiotic Approach to Cancer. Wayne, N. J.: Avery Publishing Group, 1982. Kushi, Michio, with Stephen Blauer. The Macrobiotic Way. Wayne, N. J.: Avery Publishing Group, 1985.

Mendelsohn, Robert S., M. D. Confessions of a Medical Heretic. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1979. . Male Practice. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1980.

Nussbaum, Elaine. Recovery: From Cancer to Health through Macrobiotics. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1986.

Nutrition and Mental Health. Washington, D. C.: Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, U.S. Senate, 1977, 1980.

Ohsawa, George. Cancer and the Philosophy of the Far East. Oroville, Calif.: George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation, 1971 edition. . You Are All Sanpaku. Edited by William Dufty, New York: University Books, 1965. . Zen Macrobiotics. Los Angeles: Ohsawa Foundation, 1965.

Price, Western A., D. D. S. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Santa Monica, Calif.: Price-Pottenger Nutritional Foundation, 1945-

Sattilaro, Anthony, M. D., with Tom Monte. Recalled by Life: The

Story of My Recovery from Cancer. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1982. Schauss, Alexander. Diet, Crime, and Delinquency. Berkeley, Calif.: Parker House, 1980. Scott, Neil E., with Jean Farmer. Eating with Angels. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1986. Tara, William. Macrobiotics and Human Behavior. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1985.

Taylor, John F. The Hyperactive Child and the Family. New York: Japan Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1980. Yamamoto, Shizuko. Barefoot Shiatsu. Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1979.

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine. Translated by Ilza Veith, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1949.

263

Periodicals

East West Journal. Brookline, Mass. Macromuse. Washington, D. C. Nutrition Action. Washington, D. C. " T h e People's Doctor" by Robert S. Mendelsohn, M. D. and Marian Tompson, Evanston, 111.

Macrobiotic Resources

The Kushi Foundation in Boston and related educational centers in the United States, Canada, and around the world offer ongoing classes for the general public in macrobiotic cooking and traditional food preparation and natural processing. They also offer instruction in Oriental medicine, shiatsu massage, pregnancy and natural child care, yoga, meditation, science, culture and the arts, and world peace and world government activities. They also provide way of life guidance services with trained and certified consultants, make referrals to professional health care associates, and cooperate in research and food programs in hospitals, medical schools, prisons, drug rehabilitation clinics, nursing homes, and other institutions. In scores of other cities and communities, there are smaller learning centers, residential centers, and information centers offering some classes and services. Most of the foods mentioned in this book are available at natural foods stores, selected health food stores, and a growing number of supermarkets around the world. Macrobiotic specialty items are also available by mail order from various distributors and retailers. Please contact the Kushi Foundation in Boston or other national centers listed below for information on regional and local activities in your area, as well as whole foods outlets and mail order sources. The Kushi Foundation 17 Station Street Brookline, Mass. 02147 617-738-0045 For those who wish to study further, the Kushi Institute, an educational institution founded in Boston in 1979 with affiliates in London, Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Florence, offers full- and part-time instruc-

266 tion for individuals who wish to become trained and certified macrobiotic cooking instructors, teachers, and counselors. The Kushi Institute publishes a Worldwide Macrobiotic Directory every year listing Kushi Institute graduates and macrobiotic centers, friends, and businesses around the world. The Cook Instructor Service is an extension of the Kushi Institute and is comprised of specially qualified graduates of the Kushi Institute's advanced cooking program. These men and women are available to assist individuals and families in learning the basics of macrobiotic food preparation and home care in their home, and to guide hospitals, prisons, and other institutions in the preparation of whole natural foods. Kushi Institute and Cook Instructor Service 17 Station Street Brookline, Mass. 02147 617-738-0045 Ongoing developments are reported in the Kushi Foundation's periodicals, including the East West Journal, a monthly magazine begun in 1971 and now with an international readership of 200,000. The EWjf features regular articles on the macrobiotic approach to health and nutrition, as well as ecology, science, psychology, natural child care, and the arts. In each issue there is a macrobiotic cooking column and articles on traditional food cultivation and natural foods processing. East West Journal 17 Station St. Brookline, Mass. 02147 617-232-1000

Index

AC A Journal,

250

A . C . L . U . , 152 academy of sciences report, 129 acorn squash, 84 activating neurotransmitters, 65 activating transmitter, 44 addiction, 148 additives, as potential carcinogens, 131 in A m e r i c a n diet, 146 use of in A m e r i c a n diet, 196 use of in m o d e r n diet, 47 effect of in hyperactivity, 148 adolescence, 52 adrenal glands, 145 aerobics, 102 affective disorders, 57 agar-agar, 87 aggravated assault, increases in, 23 aggressiveness, 48 agriculture projects, in prison, 153 A I D S Project i n N e w Y o r k City,200 A I D S Related Complex, 26, 73 A I D S virus, 26, 38, 73 A I D S virus, genesis of, 38 A I D S viruses, potential number o f carriers in the U.S., 26 A I D S , 15, 26, 28, 73, 75, 109, 110, 112, 194, 200, 210 biological mechanism of, 73 dietary habits associated w i t h , 73 effect of on corrections, 200 future i m p l i c a t i o n o f , 26 in A m e r i c a , 26 in Central A f r i c a , 27 influence of m o d e r n civilization on, 75

potential number of acute cases i n the U.S., 26 potential number of carriers w o r l d w i d e , 27 potential number of cases w o r l d w i d e , 27 projected increases in, 26 relationship of d r u g use to, 52 spread o f , 26 view of, 38 alcohol abuse, 53, 61 relationship of to accidents, 69 relationship of to crime, 69 relationship of to suicide, 69 alcohol and d r u g law, v i o l a t i o n of,

18 alcohol detoxification, 210 alcohol, consumption of, 131 cravings f o r , 63 role of in schizophrenia, 69 use of in macrobiotics, 99 alcoholism, 18, 194, 210 cause of, 41 Alexander, V . V . , 144 alienation, 107 allergies, 52 relationship o f t o delinquent behavior, 71 to dairy products, 71 alternative dietary approach, 113 a l u m i n u m compounds, 70 A M A C o u n c i l o n Foods and Nutrition, 6 amateur crimes, 116

amazake, 96, 99 A m e r i c a n Association f o r the Advancement of Science, 77

268 American Cancer Association, 77 American Correctional Association, 200, 246, 250 American Diabetes Association, 77 American Diabetes Association, dietary recommendation of, 133 American diet, profile of, 145 American Farm Federation, 245, 249 American Heart Association, 77 American Humane Association, 17 American Medical Association, 6 American Psychiatric Association, 204 American Society for Clinical Nutrition, 77 American Society of Criminology, 198 amine neurotransmitters, 45 amino acids, 45, 122 amphetamines, 50 Analysis of Variance Procedures, 232 androgens, 45 anemia, 52 angel dust, 20 animal foods, effect of on behavior, 47 effect of on thinking, 72 effects of, 40 ratio of to vegetable food, 114 yin and yang classification of, 40 animal protein, 76 effect of on brain chemistry, 147 animals, use of in medical research, 112 annual crime index, 23 antibiotics, use of in cattle feed, 33 antidepressant drugs, 63 antidiuretic hormones, 69 anti-insulin, 58, 65 antisocial behavior, 61, 65 and sugar consumption, 64 recovery from, 104 antisocial personality disorder, 205 anxiety, 36, 39, 53, 59, 65, 106

macrobiotic view of, 65 arame, 87 ARC, 26, 28, 73 Areal, Antonio, 116, 117 arepas, 80 armed robbery, 180 arson, 18, 24 artificial foods, 31 ascorbic acid, 123 Ashland FCI, 242 aspirin, 49 assault, 17, 138, 181 asthma, 52 Atmore, Toni, 199 autism, 67 auto theft, 18 autonomic nervous system, 50 axon, 42 azuki beans, 86 B-cells, 42, 52 B-complex vitamins, 60 B-vitamins, role of in schizophrenia, 69 role of in thought process, 69 baby boom, relationship of to crime, 197 baked dessert, 98 baking, 95 balanced diet, effect of on behavior, 75 effect of on blood sugar levels, 75 effect of on substance abuse, 75 bancha stem tea, 98 barley, 79 barley malt, 96 barley miso, 96 barley tea, 99 basic human consciousness, 109 battery, 181 BBC, 210, 228 bean based snacks, 95 bean products, list of for regular use, 86 bean sprouts, 86 beans, cooking styles for, 86 cooking variations for, 87

269 list of for regular use, 86 seasonings for, 86 use of garnishes for, 86 use of in macrobiotics, 86 use of in soup, 83 beefsteak plant, 95 behavior, influence of hormones on, 45 behavior and diet, 35, 46 behavior modification, 49 behavior modifying drugs, 53 behavioral disturbances, 67 behavioral problems, approach to, 141 behind closed doors: violence in the American family, 137 Beldekas, John, 29 Bell, John, 71 Berger, Barbara, 155 beta-carotene, 125 sources of in macrobiotic diet, 125 beverages, consumption of, 100 beverages, use of in macrobiotics, 98 BHA, 49 BHT, 49 biochemical improvement, 118 biological clocks, 57 biological degeneration, 26 biological degeneration, crisis of, 101 biosocial decline, 34 bipolar depression, 57 bipolar disorder, 230 births outside of marriage, 17 black sesame seeds, 93 black soybeans, 86 black turtle beans, 86 Blackburn, George, 207 black-eyed peas, 86 Bleuler, Eugen, 66 blood cells, yin and yang classification of, 42 blood cholesterol levels, 132 blood pressure, 132 blood quality, effect of drug on, 52 blood sugar disorders, 61 blood sugar, effect of on neuro-

transmitter production, 65 body care products, 102 body, energetic quality of, 37 body rigidity, 48 body scrubbing, 102 boiled salad, 85 boiling, 85 bok choy, 84 bone marrow, 52 Boston Commission for Safe Public Schools, 19 Boston Herald, 160 Boston University School of Medicine, 28, 200 brain, condition of in hyperactivity, 51 effect of drugs on, 51 motion centers of, 50 overstimulation on in schizophrenia, 68 brain chemistry, influence of diet on, 146 brain damage, 144 bran pickles, 92 bran products, use of in macrobiotics, 86 breakfast porridge, 81 breast cancer, 73 breast feeding, and natural immunity, 74 brine pickles, 92 Briscoe, David, 104 British Medical Journal, 6 broccoli, 84 Brown, Carolyn, 33 brown rice, 79 brown-rice diet, difference from standard macrobiotic diet, 122 brown rice vinegar, 96 buckwheat, 80 Buddha, 111 Buddhist temples, 111 bulgur, 79 burdock, 95 burdock root, 84 burdock root tea, 99 burglary, 18, 24, 151 buttercup squash, 84

270

Butterworth, Charles, 207 Byrnes, Donald, 190 cabbage, 84 caffeine, 148 calcium, F A O / W H O standard for, 127 calcium deficiency, 127 calcium depletion, 68 caloric intake, 123 C A M conference, macrobiotic presentation at, 200 cancer, 15, 24, 65, 73, 75, 101, 107, 112, 194, 200, 210 estimated incidence in the U.S., 38 increase in incidence of, 38 modern approach to, 38 cancer and diet, 38 Cancer News Journal, 163 cancer of the colon, 160 cancer prevention, 228 cancer prevention, dietary guidelines for, 77 cancer research, 38 canine teeth, use of in human diet, 114 canned foods, 31 car theft, 24 carbohydrate consumption, in American diet, 128 carcinogens, 131 cardiovascular disease, 145 risk factors for, 132 cardiovascular illness, 15 carrot tops, 84 carrots, 84 cast-iron cookware, 128 catecholamines, 44 cauliflower, 84 Cayahoga Falls Municipal Probation Department, 192 celery, 84 celery root, 84 Center for Innovations in Corrections, 249 centers for diesease control, 73 cereal grain coffee, 99

cerebral cortex, 72 changes in diet, social effects of, 33 Chanowitz, Ben Zion, 229 chapatis, 79 cheese consumption, and hypoglycemia, 64 chemcalized foods, 110 chemicals, effects of on hyperactivity, 49 use of in food supply, 33 chemotherapy, 38, 162, 164, 217 chewing, recommendations for, 100 chick-peas, 86 chicken consumption, and hypoglycemia, 64 Chico-san, 105 Chief Justice Warren Burger's Task Force On Prison Reform, 249 child abuse, relationship of hypoglycemia to, 60 childhood development, abnormalities in, 48 children, arrests of, 135 battered, 138 increase of among young people, 33 overly rapid development in, 48 slow development in, 48 Chinese cabbage, 84 Chinese philosophy, 167 chives, 84 chloraphene soap, 144 cholesterol, 64, 114 sources of, 130 chopped scallions, 97 chronic health problems, increase in among children, 34 chronic illnesses, rise in, 101 Chuck Fai-Goon, 166, 172, 177, 181, 183, 185, 240, 245 civilization, relationship of to degenerative disease, 75 clothing, guidelines for selecting, 102 cocaine, 22, 53, 55, 56, 174 cognitive overload, 68 collard greens, 84 Collier, Ray, 185 Colman, Lee, 143

271

colon cancer, 160 colostrum, 74 coltsfoot, 84 communication, problems with, 67 complex carbohydrates, 41, 59, 64, 75, 76 effect of on blood glucose, 59 influence of on brain chemistry, 146 condiments, list of for regular use, 95 use of in macrobiotics, 95 confessions of a medical heretic, 142 Confucius, 111 consciousness, levels of, 108 revolution in, 113 conservative approach, 72 control, loss of, 69 cooking, decline of, 101 cooking attitude, 100 cooking in prison, 117 corn, 80 corn oil, 96 corn on the cob, 80 cornerstone coalition, 171 Correctional Association of Massachusetts, 245 correctional system, failure of, 197 corrections, innovations in, 245 cosmic law, 9 counseling, 49 couscous, 79 cows, population of in the U.S., 31 cow's mifk formula, 144 cravings, for alcohol, 60 for sweets, 60 crime, 15, 18, 109 cause of, 10, 112 complimentary tendencies in, 115 cost of, 196 frequency of in U.S., 204 fundamental cause of, 116 increases in, 21 macrobiotic approach to, 104 metabolic causes of, 196 propagation of, 197 psychodynamic explanations of,

196 public perception of, 21 relationship of to mental illness, 104 crime, varieties of, 9 crime and diet, 35 crime index offenses, 1980 estimates, 23 crime rates, 1984-1985, 23 crimes reported to police, 23 criminal behavior, 10 criminal behavior in adults, 35 criminal justice system, 191 cost of, 196 cruel punishment, 161 cruelty, 48 cucumber, 84 daikon, 84 dairy consumption, effects of, 71 Dairy Council Digest, 6 dairy industry, 31 dairy products, effect of on hyperactivity, 49 Dan White murder case, 24f dandelion leaves, 84 dandelion roots, 84 dandelion tea, 99 Danish prison, macrobiotics in, 159 deep-frying, 85 defensiveness, 112 degeneration illness, increase of, 145 degenerative disease, rise of, 115 degenerative illnesses, 24 delinquent behavior, role of the family in, 18 delutions, 67 dementia, 230 dendrites, 42 Denmark, dietary habits in, 157 prison project in, 117 Department of Criminal Justice in Virginia, 245 Department of Microbiology at Boston University, 29 depression, 6, 7, 36, 37, 39, 45, 53, 57, 65, 73, 104, 230 bipolar form, 57

272

cyclic nature of, 57 dietary approach for, 64 dietary management of, 148 estimated incidence of, 58 increasing incidence of, 64 macrobiotic view of, 65 relationship of to blood sugar level, 58 relationship of to hypoglycemia, 58 relationship of to pancreas, 58 unipolar form, 57 DES, 33 dessert, list of for occasional use, 98 use of in macrobiotics, 98 destruction of property, 48 destructive behavior, 48 dexedrine, 49, 50 diabetes, 15, 24, 52, 129, 194, 210 management of, 133 diabetes and hypoglycemia, 58 diabetes diets, 133 Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders, 205 diet, adjustment of to weather conditions, 115 and blood sugar level, 59 crime and delinquency, 61, 70, 149 effect of on dreams, 71 effect of on social problems, 30 health and nutrition within the correctional setting, 200 in treatment of depression, 147 influence of on behavior, 47 influence of on hormones, 45 influence of on learning, 47 link to degenerative illness, 146 nutrition and cancer, 77, 129, 131, 208 seasonal adjustment of, 115 diet and behavior, 35, 46, 135 diet and cancer, 207 diet and chronic illness, 15 diet and depression, 59 diet and heart disease, 207 diet and mental health, 34 diet in prison, 153

diet therapists, 113 dietary change, in prison, 169 dietary education, 134 dietary extremes, effect of on immune system, 73 Dietary Goals for the United States, 34, 77, 192 dietary guidelines, for a temperate climate, 77 dietary iron, source of, 127 dietary modification, institutional experiment with, 62 dietary pattern, effect of on thinking, 72 individual variations in, 65 dietary supplement, 130 disaccharides, 59 disease, prevention of, 200 disorderly conduct, 151 divorce, 16 divorce, effect on children, 16 divorce, number of, 137 divorce note, 16 divorce rates, 34, 136 divorce statistics, 16 D M S III, 205 Do-In, 236 domestic violence, 17 Donne, John, 190 Don't Drink Your Milk, 71 dopamine, 44, 68 dopamine hypothesis, 68 Dostoevski, 196 dream state, 108 dreams, dietary cause of, 71 dried tofu, 86 drug abuse, 18, 20 cause of, 41 dietary program for, 55 prevention of, 194 drug and alcohol abuse, 15, 117 drug and alcohol abuse clinics, 117 drug dependency, 174 drug therapy, 49, 142 drug use, amount of time needed to recover from, 56 dietary guidelines for recovery from, 56

273

symptoms that occur during recovery from, 56 drugs, effects of, 55 drugs, effects of on immune response, 52 effect of on immune system, 73 effects of, 55 possession of, 116 psychological effects of, 52 side effects of, 50 toxic effects of, 55 use of in America, 142 use of in treating hyperactivity, 50 yin and yang classification of, 50 dualism, 141, 150 origin of, 36 dulse, 88 Dupree, James, 64 early man, diet of, 114 East West Journal, 10, 64, 104, 117, 135, 192, 235, 238, 239, 241, 266 eating, attitude toward, 100 manner of, 100 eating habits, 100 eating out, effect of on family, 73 increase in, 33 eating patterns, 20th century changes in, 31 eating, regular times for, 100 Eating with Angels, 166 education, of people in prison, 118 quality of, 19 ego-centeredness, 48 egocentric thinking, 112 egocentric world view, 112 egocentricity, as cause of sickness, 113 electric stove, 102 electric utensils, 102 electro-convulsive shock treatment, 141 electroshock, 143 emotional response, 67 endive, 84 endocrine system, yin and yang in

function of, 45 environmental toxins, 34 escarole, 84 Eskimo, 114 Esko, Edward, 10, 245 essential nutrients, 122 estrogen, 45 use of in cattle feed, 33 estrogen production, influence of diet on, 45 extraordinary groups: the sociology of unconventional lifestyles, 19 fabrics, selection of, 102 family, breakdown of, 144 family, decomposition of, 16 eating habits of, 73 family cooking, 73 family counseling, 55 family harmony, 73 family violence, 16, 137 FAO, 121 F A O / W H O , 121, 122 fast foods, advertising expenditures for, 33 development of, 31 fat, consumption of, 76 sources of in macrobiotic diet, 130 fat consumption, 31 in American diet, 128 fat diet, 231 fatigue, 142 FBI, 23 fear, 65 Fedral Bureau of Prisons, 196 Feingold, Benjamin, 49, 148 Feingold Association, 148 Feingold diet, 49 fermented foods, as sources of vitamin B12, 125 Fernstom, John, 146 fiber, 77 fish, cooking styles for, 89 cooking variations for, 89 list for occasional use, 88 use of garnishes for, 90 use of in fish dishes, 90

274

use of in macrobiotics, 88 use of in soup, 83 flight or fight, 145 flour, use of in desserts, 98 Folsom State Prison, 239 food, absorption of, 52 importance of to inmates, 200 role of in human development, 111 role of in spirituality, 111 yin and yang classification of, 40 Food and Agricultural Organization, 121 food and crime, 35 food choice, freedom of, 212 Food and Drug Administration, 146 food faddism, 6 Food for Freedom Banquet, 174 Food for Freedom Foundation, 171 Food for Freedom, 176, 183 food importance to inmates, 199 food irradiation, 110 effect on immune ability, 110 forgery, 181 four basic food groups, 120 four food groups, 122, 208, 209 Frank, Jerome, 135 Frederick, Calvin J., 137 Freedom for Food, 190 fresh tofu, 86 Fromm, Eric, 139 fruit, list for occasional use, 90 fruit juice, use of in macrobiotics, 99 serving styles for, 91 use in dessert, 98 use of in macrobiotics, 90 /«, 9 Galileo, 9 garbanzo beans, 86 Garg, Mitlesh, 229 garnishes, for beans, 96 list of for regular use, 97 use of in fish dishes, 90 use of in macrobiotics, 97 use of in soup, 84

gas cooking, 102 Gelles, Richard J., 137 generation gap, 72 Gertsen, Tue, 155 glucose tolerance test, 7 glucose, 133, 147 glucose-containing disaccharides, 133 glutamic acid, 69 glycine, 44 gomashio, 95 grains, percentage of in macrobiotics, 100 use in dessert, 98 use of in soup, 82 grain based snacks, 94 grain tea, 99 grated daikon, 96, 97 grated ginger root, 96 grated radish, 96, 97 great northern beans, 86 Greater Manchester Mental Health, 10 green beans, 84 green mustard paste, 96 green nori, 95 green peas, 85 half-way houses, 248 hallucination, 67, 142 hallucinogens, 21, 23 Hampden County Jail and House of Correction, 199 Handbook on Correctional Classification, 246 harmony with nature, 113 Harnish, Stephen, 8, 10 Harris, Peter, 107 Hartz, Stuart, 229 health, relationship of to mental condition, 38 health care, cost of, 129 health food, 106 Healthy People: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, 77 heart attacks, 65 heart disease, 15, 24, 64, 73, 101, 114, 194, 200, 210

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incidence of in America, 145 heart illness, 15 heroin, 21, 53, 56 estimated rate of, 21 herpes, 73, 75 estimated incidence of, 73 high crime areas, 117 higher consciousness, 111 hijiki, 88 Hiroshima, 110 Hokkaido pumpkin, 85 holistic rehabilitation, 198 homelessness, 204 hormone secretion, 52 hormones, effect of drug on, 52 effect of on behavior, 45 influence of diet on, 45 yin and yang classification of, 45 horseradish, 96, 97 hospital food, quality of, 207 House Subcommittee on Health and Long Term Care, 120 HTLV-3, 26 potential number of carriers in the U.S., 26 hubbard squash, 85 human law, 9 human potential movement, 144 human survival, 113 human teeth, structure of, 114 humanity, possible extinction of, 113 hunter-gatherers, 114 Huntsville Prison, 160, 161 hyperactive children, 148 hyperactivity, 35, 46, 73 current approaches to, 49 definition of, 47 dietary management of, 49, 148 dietary recommendations for, 54 Feingold approach to, 64 holistic approach to, 53 incidence of, 196 influence of diet on, 47 macrobiotic approach to, 53 role of family in, 53

symptoms of, 47 yin and yang and, 47 hyperkinetic children, 46 hypertension, 129, 146, 175 hypoglycemia, 7, 147, 149 and drug use, 63 cause of, 59 dietary approach for, 63, 64 effect of diet on, 59 extent of in the U.S., 63 incidence of among prisoners, 61 relationship of to atmospheric condition, 59 relationship of to behavioral disorders, 59 relationship of to daily cycle, 59 relationship of to mental disorders, 147 role of in schizophrenia, 68 symptoms of, 59 hypoglycemia and alcoholism, 63 iceberg lettuce, 85 Iglehart, Tom, 10, 176, 203, 230, 245 ignorance, as cause of sickness, 113 illegal drugs, traffic in, 20 imagery techniques, 163 immune ability, 110 immune deficiency, 42 immune parameters, 29 immune response, effect of drug on, 52 immune system, 73 incisors, use of in human diet, 114 Industrial Revolution, 31, 36, 144 infertility, 24, 51 extent of, 52 infinity, concept of, 109 inhalants, 21 inhibiting transmitter, 44 inhibition, lack of, 48 inmates, fighting among, 199 reference books for, 249 sugar addiction among, 61 inmate health care, 201

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inmate populations, growth of, 199 insecurity, 36, 59 Institute for Biosocial Research, 149 institutional alternatives in rehabilitation, 200 institutional diets, controlled studies of, 62 institutional food, 153 quality of, 207 institutional management, 207 insulin, 58, 65 intellectual crimes, dietary cause of, 118 International AIDS Conference, 28 International Life Science Institute, 6 intestinal flora, 52 intuition, 111, 115 intuition, recovery of, 111 Irish moss, 88 iron, sources of in macrobiotic diet, 127 iron-deficiency anemia, 127 irradiation, effects of on humanity, 110

Kaptchuk, Ted, 210 Kaufman, Steve, 230 Kelly, Thomas J., 212, 230 Kephart, William, 19 Kern, Frank, 61, 116, 182, 185, 195 kidney beans, 86 kids and cocaine, 21 King, Robert, 174, 177, 185, 188 kohlrabi, 84 kombu, 81, 88 kombu root, 87 kombu tea, 99 Kramer, Morton, 136 Kushi, Aveline, 208 Kushi, Lawrence, H., 11 Kushi, Michio, 164, 173, 208, 211, 226 Kushi Foundation, 10, 11, 200, 241, 265 Kushi Foundation Prison Project, 116, 176, 195, 243 Kushi Foundation Prisoner Correspondence Project, 235 Kushi Institute, 61, 101, 118, 180, 183, 249, 266 kuzu, use in dessert, 98

Jack, Alex, 11, 164, 235, 240 Jerusalem artichoke, 85 Jesus, 9 jinenjo, 85 John Hopkins University School of Medicine, 135 Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 5 Journal of the American Medical Association, 6 judges, future role of, 118 junk foods, 175 juvenile delinquency, 15, 18, 34, 35, 117 and sugar consumption, 62 juvenile institutions, dietary experiments in, 63 reduction of sugars in, 63

lactose intolerance, 71 lactose, 133 lambsquarter, 84 Lancet, 28 Langer, Ellen, 229 Lao Tzu, 111 larceny, 151 learning disabilities, 47 law, human, 9 natural, 9 laws of nature, 40 lead, relationship of to behavioral disorders, 71, 144 learning disability, incidence of, 196 leeks, 84 Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, 207, 229, 230 lentils, 86 Lesser, Michael, 140, 148 Letters from Prisoners, 237

kale, 84 Kaposi's sarcoma, 28, 74

277

leukemia, 52 Levy, Elinor, 29 Lewis, Angelo John, 151 Lisbon, macrobiotic center in, 118 Lieff, Jonathan, 229 life, modern view of, 36 view of, 112 lifestyle recommendations, 101 lima beans, 86 Linho, 119 Linho Prison, 117 macrobiotic education in, 117 liquid, intake of, 99 lobotomy, 143 Los Angeles County Probation Department, 63 lotus root, 84, 95 lotus root tea, 99 love machine, 141 low blood sugar, 7, 147 cause of, 59 LSD, 107 Lyle, William L., 196 lymphocyte number, 29 lymphocytes, 42 yin and yang classification of, 42 macrobiotic, 15 macrobiotic center in Copenhagen, 155 macrobiotic child care and family health, 49 macrobiotic cooking, 100 macrobiotic cooking, in prison, 158 macrobiotic diet, cost effectiveness of, 170 criticism of, 121, 128 fermented foods in, 125 nutritional overview of, 120 macrobiotic education, 15, 167 goal of, 113 in prison, 116, 201 macrobiotic educators, 113 macrobiotic food, in prison, 118 preparation in prison, 158 macrobiotic guidelines, modification of, 113

Macrobiotic International, 100, 120 macrobiotic philosophy, 182 macrobiotic rehabilitation, 250 macrobiotic rehabilitation center, need for, 104 macrobiotic spirit, 180 macrobiotic vegetarian meals, 111 macrobiotic-AIDS, ongoing study of, 29 macrobiotics, 208 criticism of, 134 difference between Zen macrobiotics and, 6 in Linho Prison, 117 lack of information about, 76 origin of, 208 spirit of, 182 use of in institutions, 76 macrobiotics, misunderstanding of, 76 magnesium, 69 major depressive illness, 58 malnutrition, 121 malpractice suits, 142 manganese, 69 mania, 57, 59 maniac depressive psychosis, 57 manic depression, 8 marijuana, 22, 53, 55, 56, 107 marriage, instability of, 16 marriage contracts, 112 martial arts, 102, 181 Massachusetts Correctional Institution, 251 Massachusetts Department of Corrections, 192 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 135, 146, 229 matter, present view of, 37 Matthews, Yvonne, 230 McGovern, George, 34 MCI Framingham, 251 meals, frequency of, 100 meat consumption, increase in, 31 meat eating, 113 meat substitutes, 154 medical and insurance system, 112 medical research, 112

278 medication, for mental disorders, 114 mekabu, 88 memory, loss of, 143 Mendelsohn, Robert, 142, 144 mental development, 35 mental disorders, incidence of, 39 mental disturbances, 101 mental health, approach to, 201 number of people needing care, 204 recovery of, 108 relationship of diet to, 34 within society at large, 140 mental hospitals, 104 mental illness, 15, 65, 75, 112 cause of, 39 cost of, 39 current approach to, 36 drug therapy for, 142 estimated incidence of, 35 macrobiotic approach to, 104 recovery from, 103, 107 seeds of, 144 mental institutions, number of people admitted to, 39 mental problems, 112 mental rigidity, 48 mescaline, 107 microwave ovens, 102 microwaved foods, 175 Mid-Atlantic Summer Camp, 183 midbrain, effect of drug on, 51 function of, 51 milk consumption, relationship of to behavior, 71 milk, allergy to, 71 as a source of lead, 144 consumption of in hyperactivity, 150 correlation of to juvenile delinquency, 150 Miller, Saul, 145 millet, 80 mineral deficiencies, in schizophrenia, 68 minerals, 76 role of in nervous system, 44

mirin, 85, 96 miso, 96 miso, examples of, 96 miso pickles, 92 mochi, 94 modern crisis, solution to, 111 modern diet, 65 modern family, breakdown of, 30 modern lifestyle, effects of on immunity, 74 effects of on mental health, 74 modern nutrition, 208 modern psychology, failure of, 39 molars, use of in human diet, 114 monosaccharides, 59 Monte, Tom, 107 Montgomery County Detention Center, 193 mood disorders, 57 mood swings, 147 Morris County Jail Rehabilitation Center, 149 Moses, 111 motivation, lack of, 67 motor functions, impairment of, 50 mu tea, 99 muesli, 156 muggings, 18 mung beans, 86 murder, 135, 138, 181 murder rates, 1984-1985, 23 mushrooms, 84 mustard, 95, 97 mutagens, 131 Nagasaki, 110 narcotic violations, 151 National Academy of Sciences, 77, 121, 122, 208, 251, 252 National Cancer Institute, 228 National Center for Innovations in Corrections, 245 National Institute for Education, 19 National Institute of Health, 58 National Institute of Mental Health, 35, 137, 143 National Institute on Drug Abuse, 21

279

national survey of drug abuse, 21 natto, 86 natural lifestyle, 101 natural immunity, 38 and breast feeding, 74 effect of drug on, 52 effects of colostrum on, 74 effects of tonsillectomy on, 74 weakening of, 52 natural law, 9 navy beans, 86 nekombu, 87 nervous system, condition of in hyperactivity, 51 nervous system, effect of drugs on, 50 yin and yang in functioning of, 44 nervous tension, 147 neurotransmitter, role of in behavior, 44 neurotransmitters, 6, 44, 65, 252 and depression, 65 in schizophrenia, 68 yin and yang classification of, 44 neurons, 43 functioning of, 43 yin and yang in structure of, 43 new wave thinking, 72 New York Center for Macrobiotics, 10 New York Penal System, 192 Newsweek, 20, 21, 139 nightmares, dietary causes of, 71 N I M H , 137, 143 noodles, 79, 80, 94 norepinephrine, 44, 45 nori, 87 nori condiment, 95 nuclear family, breakdown of, 137 nuclear testing, 33 Nurse Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation, 232 nut based snacks, 95 nutrition action, 146 nutrition and human health, 34 nutrition and mental health, 35

Nutrition Foundation, 6 nutrition research, 35 nuritional deficiency in the U.S., 127 nutritional management, 49 nutritional science, principles of, 128 nuts, kinds of, 93 serving styles for, 93 use of in macrobiotics, 92 oats, 80 obesity, 15, 129 Ohsawa, George, 164 OI, 8 oil sauteing, 85 okara, 86 olive oil, 96 onion, 84 operations, effects of on natural immunity, 74 opportunistic infections, 28 order of the universe, 40, 109, 115, 177 organic farming, 31 organs, effect of drugs on, 51 Oski, Frank A., 71 Osteoporosis, 127 outdoor activity, 101 Overfed and Undernourished—The Importance of Diet in the Rehabilitative Process, 198 oxalates, 127 paella, 81 pain and stress acupuncture clinic, 210 pain and stress clinic, 228 pancreas, 58, 63, 64, 65, 75 cancer of, 64 pancreatic hormones, 58 paranoia, 102, 104 dietary causes of, 66 recovery from, 103 paranoid schizophrenia, 67 dietary causes of, 67 yin and yang classification of, 67

275

Parlett, Tom, 170, 171, 175, 185 parsley, 84 pasta, 79, 80, 94 patty pan squash, 84 PCC, 171 pearl barley, 79 pellegra, 69 penicillin, 33 pepper, 97 persecution, delusion of, 67 pharmaceutical technology, 201 phobias, 39 physical activity, 102 physical assault, 17 pickled plum, 95 pickles, foods used in making, 92 use of in macrobiotics, 91 pickling, 85 pinto beans, 86 pneumocystic carinii pneumonia, 28 polyunsaturated fats, 130 pornography, 116 Position Paper of the American Dietetic Association on Diet and Criminal Behavior, 5 potassium, functioning of in nervous system, 44 poultry consumption, 31 Powhatan Correctional Center, 171, 174, 185 Powhatan State Penitentiary, 244, 245 Powhatan State Prison, 116 premature babies, 14 President's Commission on Organized Crime, 21 Presidential Commission on Mental Health, 137 pressed pickles, 92 prevention of degenerative sickness, macrobiotic approach to, 128 principal foods, 108 prison, diet in, 104 number of people in, 204 prison diet, 152, 153, 182 prison expenditures, 197 prison farms, 244 prison industry, 249

prison nutrition, 190 prison population, 18 prison population, costs of feeding, 193 Prison Project, 243 Prison Soyfoods Industries, 244, 250 Prisoner Correspondence Project, 235, 236 Prisoner Pen Pals Correspondence, 235 Prisoner Subscription Program, 235 prisoners, health of, 118 involuntary experiments on, 152 Prisoners, Letters from, 237 prisons, future role of, 118 probationers, dietary survey of, 149 processed food, consumption of, 196 effect of on natural immunity, 75 professional crimes, 116 property crime, 23 increases in, 23 prophets of Israel, 111 prosecutions, future role of, 118 protective measures, 112 protein, 41, 122 availability of in macrobiotic diet, 122 availability of in vegetarian diet, 122 F A O / W H O standards for, 123 R D A for, 122 protein consumption, in American diet, 128 protein deficiency, 123 protein quality, 122 provera, 46 psychiatric care, number of persons requiring, 39 psychiatric disorders, 137 psychiatric profession, 142 psychiatrists, number of, 39 psychoactive drugs, 50 psychoanalysis, 39, 142 psychologists, number of, 39 psychosis, 230 psychosurgery, incidence of, 143 psychotherapies, 142

puberty, 52 pumpkin seeds, 93 pumpkin, 84 punishment, 9, 119 Quincy Health Care Medical Associates of Greater Boston, 171 radiation, 110 as a cause of AIDS, 110 as cause of sterility, 110 yin and yang classification of, 110 radiation exposure, 33 radiation sickness, 110 radiotherapy, 38 radish, 84 rape, 135 1984-1985 increases in, 23 R D A , 121 recidivism, 193, 246 recommended dietary allowances, 121 red cabbage, 84 red pepper, 96 Reed, Barbara, 149 rehabilitation, current approach to, 10 importance of diet in, 197 macrobiotic thesis for, 246 Rehabilitation Center, Morristown, New Jersey, 61 remedial teaching programs, 55 reproductive ability, effect of drug on, 51 reproductive disorders, 26 responsibility for actions, 115 retinol, 125 sources of in macrobiotic diet, 125 riboflavin, availability of in macrobiotics, 124 F A O / W H O standard for, 124 R D A for, 124 sources of in modern diet, 124 riboflavin deficiency, 124 rice balls, 94 rice cakes, 94

rice malt, 96 rice miso, 96 rice tea, 99 rice vinegar, 96 rice wine, 96 Richmond News Leader, 174, 178 ricket, 126 ritalin, 50 side effects of, 53 roasted grains, 94 roasted sesame seeds, 95 robbery, 181 1984-1985 rates of, 23 Robinson, Howard, 169, 171, 175, 185, 188 romaine lettuce, 84 runaway children, 72, 137 rye, 80 safflower oil, 96 sak6, 96, 99 sake lees, 96 salad, 85 salicylates, 49, 148 salt, consumption of, 130 salt and water pickles, 92 Salvati, Frank, 116, 168, 169, 172, 235, 243 SAT, 34, 136 SAT, decline in scores of, 34 saturated fat, 64, 76, 114 sauerkraut, 92 scallion, 84 Schauss, Alexander, 61, 70 schizophrenia, 35, 65, 73, 75, 102, 104 definition of, 139 dietary causes of, 66 dietary management of, 148 external signs of, 68 recovery from, 107 recovery story of, 103 role of blood sugar in, 68 role of excessive sugar consumption in, 68 symptoms of, 66 yin and yang classification of, 66

282 Schoenthaler, Stephen, 62, 151 Scholastic Aptitude Test, 34, 136 schools, crime rates in, 19 violence in, 19 Schulman, Paul, 211 Scott, Neil, 116, 177, 235, 240, 245 scurvy, 123 sea moss, 88 sea salt, 96 sea vegetable powder, 95 with roasted sesame seeds, 95 sea vegetables, as sources of iron, 127 as sources of vitamin B12, 125 cooking styles for, 88 cooking variations for, 88 list of for regular use, 87 use of in macrobiotics, 87 use of in soup, 83 seafood, cooking styles for, 89 cooking varieties for, 89 list of for occasional use, 89 use of in macrobiotics, 88 seafood, use of in soup, 83 seasoning, use of in macrobiotics, 96 seasonings, for beans, 86 list of for occasional use, 96 use of in fish and seafood dishes, 90 used in soup, 83 seeds, serving styles for, 93 use of as condiments, 93 use of as garnishes, 94 use of as snacks, 94 use of in macrobiotics, 93 seeds seasoning for, 94 seitan, 79 selenium, 132 self-discovery, 111 self-knowledge, 111 self-reflection, 38 self-responsibility, 115 Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, 33, 34, 77, 129 serotonin, 45 serotonin system, 45

sesame miso, 96 sesame oil, 96 sexual crimes, 116 dietary cause of, 119 sexual maturation, 52 sexuality, 141 Shakespeare, 37 shampoo, use of, 102 Shattuck Research, 116 Shiffer, Ivan Pedro, 153 shiitake mushrooms, 84 shiso kombu, 95 shiso leaves, 95 shock therapy, 114 shock treatment, 143 sickness, approach to, 112 relationship of to mental condition, 38 Simonsen, Clifford E., 150 simple sugar, effect of on blood glucose, 59 simple sugars, 41, 59, 76 single parent families, 16 skin cancer, 73 skin disorders, 52 Small, Glenn, 174 snacking, recommendations for, 100 snacks, list of for regular use, 94 use of in macrobiotics, 94 snap beans, 84 Snyder, Murray, 172 soap, use of, 102 sociability, breakdown in, 201 social disharmony, 65 social problems, increase in, 30 social rehabilitation, approach to, 76 social solidarity, 118 social workers, 117 society, withdrawal from, 67 Socrates, 9 sodium, 69 sodium, functioning of in nervous system, 44 soup, beans used in, 83 garnishes for, 84 grains used in, 82 kind of, 81 sea vegetables used in, 83

283

seafood used in, 83 seasonings used in, 83 vegetables used in, 82 soybean milk, 99 soybean miso, 95, 96 soybeans, 86 special education, 49 spirit of adventure, 118 spiritual consciousness, 108 spiritual development, cuisine for, 111 split beans, 86 sports, 102 spouse abuse, 17 relationship of hypoglycemia to, 60 spring water, 99 Spurber, Rene, 229 squash seeds, 93 standard American diet, 130 standard macrobiotic diet, 76, 120 definition of, 120 differences from brown-rice diet, 122 flexibility of, 77 guidelines of, 120 nutritional adequacy of, 121 outline of, 77 purpose of, 77 use of additional foods in, 99 Star Wars, 72 steaming, 85 Steevensz, Roy, 171, 174, 176, 185 Steinmetz, Suzanne, 137 stelazine, 108 stimulant drugs, 50 Strauss, Murray A., 137 stress, 145 struggle for survival, 112 stubbornness, 48 Study Results of Dietary Change in Shattuck Hospital Geropsychiatric Wards 5, North and 6 North, 229 sucrose, 133, 147 sucrose, effect of on behavior, 62 sugar, consumption of in macrobiotic diet, 130 cravings for, 63

effect of on thinking, 72 influence of on behavior, 47 intake of by inmates, 199 source of in macrobiotic diet, 130 sugar addiction, among inmates, 61 Sugar Blues, 238 sugar cravings, cause of, 59 sugar consumption, 31 sugar industry, 152 sugar reduction, behavioral improvements resulting from, 62 experiments with, 62 sugars, effects of on behavior, 62 suicide, 19 incidence of, 58 increase in, 137 increase of among young people, 34 rate of among yound people, 19 relationship of to depression, 137 summer squash, 84 sunflower seeds, 93 surface consciousness, 109 Surgeon General, 146 survival, struggle for, 112 sushi, 94 sweet brown rice, 79 sweet brown rice beverage, 96 sweeteners, use in desserts, 98 synapse, 44 synthetic estrogen, 33, 45 synthetic foods, 141, 150 synthetic organs, 141 T-cells, 42, 52 T4/T8 ration, 29 tai chi chuan, 167, 244 tai chi exercises, 181 takuan pickles, 92 tamari soy sauce, 96 tamari soy sauce pickles, 92 Taoist temples, 111 Taoist yoga, 164 tardive dyskinesia, 143 Taub, Mary Pat, 230 Texas Department of Corrections, 161

2«4

TDC, 161 teen suicide, 19 teenage runaway, 72 tekka, 95 television, effects of, 33, 102 tempeh, 86 tension, 145 testosterone, 45, 52 influence of diet on, 45 influence of on behavior, 45 tetracycline, 33 Texas Board of Paroles and Pardons, 163 textured soybeans, 154 The Anatomy of Human Destructive™ ss, 139 The History of Shock Treatment, 143 the plague among us, 20 The Tempest, 37 theft, 24 cost of, 24 thorazine, 105, 106 thought disturbances, 67 thoughts, energetic quality of, 37 thyroidities, 7 Tidewater Detention Home, 61, 116, 195, 245 Tidewater Juvenile Detention Home, 170 Tidewater Research, 61, 116 Time, 17, 74 time and space, 109 tonsils, and natural immunity, 74 tooth care, 102 Torrey, Fulton, 142 toxic metals, relationship of to schizophrenia, 70 traditional values, loss of, 141 traffic accidents, 61 tranquilizers, 105, 142 triple-bypass surgery, 217 tropical fruits, effects of on natural immunity, 75 tryptophan, 146 Tufts Medical School, 229 turnip, 84 U.S. Department of Agriculture, 77

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 21, 39 U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, 208, 252 U.S. surgeon general, 77, 208, 251, 252 umeboshi paste, 96 umeboshi pickles, 92 umeboshi plum, 95, 96 umeboshi plum seeds, 93 undernutrition during pregnancy, 35 unipolar depression, 57 United States, crime rates in, 21 universal consciousness, 109 University of Minnesota School of Medicine, 28 University of Southern Mississippi, 62 unrefind carbohydrates, as part of diabetic diet, 133 unsaturated fat, 76 unusual punishment, 161 USBOP (Bureau of Prisons), 242 valium, 142 vandalism, 18 variety, importance of in diet, 100 vegetable dishes, seasonings for, 85 vegetable food, preference for, 121 ratio of to animal food, 114 yin and yang classification of, 40 vegetable juice, use of in macrobiotics, 99 vegetable quality protein, 76 vegetables, cooking styles for, 85 list of for regular use, 84 serving styles for, 86 use of in macrobiotics, 84 use of in soup, 82 victimless crimes, 116 violence, relationship of hypoglycemia to, 60 within the family, 137 violent behavior, 147 violent crimes, 23, 116, 135 Virginia Department of Corrections, 192

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Virginia Departments of Juvenile Justice and Criminal Justice, 246 Virginia State Prison System, 193 Virginia Wesleyan College, 62 virus, 112 visualization, 163 vitamin A, 125 F A O / W H O standard for, 126 R D A for, 126 sources of in macrobiotic diet, 125 vitamin B deficiencies, in schizophrenia, 69 vitamin B 2 F A O / W H O standard for, 124 R D A for, 124 vitamin B12, 124 F A O / W H O standard for, 125 producing microorganisms, 125 R D A for, 125 sources for, 124 vitamin C, 123 vitamin C deficiency, 123 vitamin D, 126 sources of, 126 vitamin industry, 31 vitamins, 76 vitamins A, B12, and C, 122 wakame, 81, 88 war, cause of, 112 Wasa, 154 Washack, Miriam, 230 water sauteing, 85 watercress, 84 waterless cooking, 85 wax beans, 84 white blood cells, 73 white sesame seeds, 93 WHO, 121

whole cereal grains, emphasis on, 121 whole dried beans, 86 whole grains, cooking styles for, 80 cooking varieties for, 81 list of, 79 percentage of in macrobiotic diet, 78, 79 whole wheat, 79 Why Your Child is Hyperactive, 148 Wilbollt, Anne-Marie, 155 wild rice, 79 winter melon, 84 Wisconsin State Prison, 239 women, leading causes of injury to, 17 World Health Organization, 121 Worldwide Macrobiotic Directory, 266

Wurtman, Richard, 146 Wuth, Jackie, 159 yang extremes, effect of on thinking, 65 yellow mustard paste, 96 yin and yang, 40 yin and yang in food, 40 principles of, 177 yin extremes, effect of on thinking, 65 yin-yang, 105 yoga, 102 Zarinah, L. Xenovia, 171, 181 Zen, 105 Zen macrobiotic cooking, 105 Zen macrobiotics, difference between macrobiotics and, 6 zinc, 69 Zutrau, Eric, 10, 211, 230, 245