Articles

Standard Diet and Healing Diet

Foods to Eliminate While On Healing Macrobiotic Diet

Healing Macrobiotic Diet-Transition and Discharge Phase

General Suggestions

Methods of Cooking and Food Preparation

Setting Up Your Macrobiotic Kitchen

You Must Have "Good Blood Quality" For Best Health

Common Mistakes In Beginning Macrobiotic Practise

Condiment Guidelines/ Use of Leftovers and Reheating Foods

Maintaining Macrobiotic Practise While Travelling

Transition and Discharge

What's Wrong With Soft Drinks?

Sugar

Dairy Products

Fats

Salt

Caffiene

What's Wrong with Soft Drinks?
(Why Soft Drinks Will Shorten Your Life)



- “Not counting the myriad fruit-flavored beverages such as Kool-Aid, Tang, and Hi-C [which also have sugar, corn syrup, etc.], 21 percent of the sugar in the American diet comes from soft drinks! That’s more than just an unhealthy consumption of empty calories. It is a dangerous overload of caffeine and potentially hazardous, nutrient-depleting additives.”

- “The average 12-ounce cola has 150 calories and over an ounce (7 teaspoons) of refined sugar; a 12-ounce un-cola has 7-1/2 teaspoons of sugar.”

- “Sugar so upsets the body chemistry that it doesn’t matter what else you put in your mouth; neither healthful food nor junk food will digest properly... as long as sugar is eaten, nutrients will be unavailable to the body.” )

- “Soft drinks contain large amounts of phosphorus, which can throw off the body’s calcium/phosphorus ratio... decreasing calcium as well as reducing your body’s ability to use it.”

- “For anyone over 40, soft drinks can be especially hazardous because the kidneys are less able to excrete excess phosphorus, causing depletion of vital calcium.”

- “Researchers have found that ingesting sugar increases the rate at which we excrete calcium... [thus the body must pull] it from the bones and tissues because that is the only place it is stored in the body.”

- “When refined sugar enters the stomach, it causes what is know as a ‘sugar reaction’, whereby the stomach is temporarily paralyzed. As little as _ teaspoon of refined sugar can cause this... “[Besides depleting our mineral balance, refined sugar increases the storage of fatty acid in the heatt and kidneys.]

“The growing consumption of refined sugar in modern nations can be seen in the increasing incidence of such degenerative diseases as heatt disease... Refined sugar also directly affects our thinking abilites, through the destruction of the intestinal bacteria which are responsible for the creation of B-Vitamins necessary for the synthesis of glutamic acid which is directly involved in the mental activities carried on in the brain. A lack of this component can result in a lack of memory and ability to think clearly.”

- “Sugar can cause ... micronutrients to change radically, throwing the blood chemistry out of homeostasis. Some micronutrients to change radically, throwing the blood chemistry out of homeostasis. Some minerals increase, some decrease, and delicate ratios are disturbed. In healthy people the minerals come back into relationship soon; in sick people the minerals stay out of relationship for hours, and sometimes they do not come back at all.”

- “Sodas may contain – but are not required to disclose – such ingredients as ethyl alcohol, sodium alginate (possibly hazardous for pregnant women), bromated vegetable oil (found harmful to vital organs of animals and considered a health risk to heavy consumers of beverages containing it), and caffeine.”