3rd January 2010

Macrobiotic Lifestyle - Macrobiotic Cooking - The Anti-Cancer Food

Christine Finnegan introduced me to macrobiotic cooking.  She is in her second round of breast cancer, and now ovarian cancer.  In her online journals, I noted that she ended every single entry with think pink, pay it forward, and eat more kale.  I wondered what was the significance of kale?

Simultaneously, when my daughter started having some issues last summer, my integrated care pediatrician recommended kale, spinach and more water over laxatives, the latter of which were prescribed by her then pediatrician.   Kale and spinach totally does the trick for my little girl, so I’d been purchasing it anyway for her.

I then learned about macrobiotic cooking, from Chris Finnegan.  Macro meals include leafy collard greens or things I normally would avoid with a ten-foot pole.  My form of greenery is spinach or salads, but collard greens, YUCKERs!  Well, that was until I learned of the anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits.  I learned how to cook it so it actually tastes great.

I started to pick up some books from Whole Foods about macrobiotic cooking, although you can get them cheaper at Amazon.com (see link/image below).

I’ve cooked many meals since using kale (best at Whole Foods - Kroger’s is usually curly, leafy kale whereas Whole Foods has the dark green flatter kale, which is much easier to cut and cook).  Whole Foods usually has three or four varieties of kale, and they are usually very pretty compared to what you see at mainstream grocery stores.

For macrobiotic cooking, you need a pressure cooker.  I picked up a deluxe rice cooker at Lowe’ and am getting a pressure cooker.  I have purchased and eaten more brown rice in the past two months than I have probably in years.

Some of the macrobiotic ingredients are hard to find, but many you can get at Whole Foods, or even online such as:

1) Tamari and Shoyu Soy Sauce

2)  Sesame oil

3) Dark leafy kale - flat over curly green kale

4) Shiitake mushrooms

5) brown rice

6) tofu

7) carrots

8) ginger

9) nori (seaweed like they roll sushi in)

10) wakame (have yet to find this at Whole Foods, but you can buy online or at Japanese market I imagine)

11) white fish - cod, wild caught (Whole Foods) and sustainable scallops, wild caught

I now cook kale and brown rice on a near-daily basis.  If I am cooking for you, or you are coming over, you’re likely to get kale, sorry folks.  ;-)  I cooked a meal for some friends of mine the other night, and they loved it.  In fact, my friend called me last night to say that her boyfriend is obsessed about this fish recipe.  They cleaned the serving dish clean, so that was a good sign.  These people love nachos, so I figured it was even a better sign.

Other books I am reading about this way of living:

1) Macrobiotics for Dummies

2) Nature’s Cancer Fighting Foods - about acidity (caffeine, sugar, alcohol) in our diet, versus alkalinity (kale, sea vegetables)

Of course, to give up caffeine or Starbucks, is hard to do.  It’s not so much the coffee, it’s the routine of going through the drive-thru on the way to work.  But seeing cancer’s affect on Chris Finnegan, and knowing others with cancer, and hoping to avoid it myself, makes me want to cut back on caffeine and have a less acidic lifestyle.

So far, my favorite macro meal has included, which I also fixed for Christine:

1) Sesame oil in pan - enough to almost cover the bottom - saute one medium onion, sliced shiitake mushrooms (about one container) and kale (slice dark kale diagonally - about 2/3 bunch of fresh) and some sea salt to season.  After this is cooked down, add just a tsp of barley miso (Whole Foods) or however much you want.  This has a very strong flavor, so start light and add as you want, after you add the rice.

2) Steam brown rice in rice steamer or pressure cooker, then add cooked rice in with already cooked vegetable mix.  Personally, I think the flavors of these ingredients all compliment one another.

3) Marinate white fish, cod, or scallops in Tamari Soy Sauce & Ginger for 30 minutes - bake for about 30-40 minutes depending on size of fish (try to get Wild Caught, which is expensive but available at Whole Foods)

4) Prefer to remove fish from soy ginger sauce and place with veggie, rice dish, which has some of its own sauce.  Soy sauce, ginger mix is a bit strong, so you may choose to opt out of using the sauce from the baked fish mixture. IF you can’t find Tamari soy sauce at your local grocery store, Kroger, then I have once substituted Annie Chung’s Tamari Sesame Dressing, which is gluten free, but is likely less healthy than soy/ginger mix.  It does not recommend commercial soy sauces in the macrobiotic diet.  Use only Tamari or Shoyu sauce brand.