Makropedia.com

Social & Planetary Health      

 

Chewing

Thorough chewing benefits mind, body, and spirit. In a review of chewing and its effects, including many scientific and medical studies and personal accounts, two macrobiotic teachers and counselors conclude that proper chewing (approximately 50 or more times per mouthful) contributes to health at many levels:

 

     • Proper Digestion Chewing protects against hunger, starvation, and disease and is essential for proper digestion; contributes to health and vitality, and prolongs life. It charges the food, activating the entire organism

     • Improves Taste of Food Chewing improves the sensory qualities of food. It makes grains sweeter to the taste, stimulates the appetite, and contributes to greater awareness of texture, smell, and aroma

     • Stabilizes the Emotions Chewing helps stabilize the emotions and by slowing down consumption and improving taste contributes to the aesthetic enjoyment of the meal

     • Calms the Mind Chewing calms the mind, strengthens the intellect, and contributes to greater clarity, insight, and understanding

     • Reduces Food Waste Chewing contributes to greater harmony within the family, in society, and with the environment, including better communication with others, increased awareness of earth and sky, and less use of energy and waste of food (including packaging materials, transport, and disposal)

     • Enhances Spiritual Awareness Chewing contributes to spiritual awareness, including deeper knowledge of the order of nature and the universe, stronger intuition, and discovery of one’s dream in life

     • Contributes to Universal Consciousness Chewing contributes to universal awareness, including the free play of consciousness on all levels and oneness with all of life

 

In addition to examining the physiology of digestion, the study describes the traditional use of saliva for healing, especially by Jesus and Mohammad.[i]

 

Exercise and Fitness

Exercise, fitness, and physical activity are an important dimension of daily health. Eating a balanced, grain-centered diet can also translated into winning on the ball field.

 

• Macrobiotic Japanese Baseball Team Wins Championship

In 1983, a Japanese professional baseball team climbed from last to first place by switching to a macrobiotic diet. After taking over the last place Seibu Lions in October, 1981, manager Tatsuro Hirooka initiated a dietary experiment. Restricting the players’ intake of meat, sugar, and white rice, he encouraged them to eat brown rice, tofu, vegetables, and soybean products. He told the players that animal food increases an athlete’s susceptibility to injuries. Conversely, natural foods, they were  told, protect the body from sprains and dislocations and keep the mind clear and focused. During the 1982 season, the Lions were ridiculed by their archrivals, the Nippon Ham Fighters, a team sponsored by a major meat company. However, the Lions defeated the Ham-Fighters for the Pacific League crown and continued to the Japan World Series and beat the Chunichi Dragons. The Lions won the championship again the following year as well.[ii]

 

Arts and Culture

Many singers, dancers, and movie stars have observed a macrobiotic way or employed macrobiotic chefs, including Gloria Swanson, Maurice Cunningham, Madonna, Sting, Anne Teresa de Keeermacher, Demi Moore, Pamela Anderson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alicia Silverstone, Fiona Apple, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, and John Travolta. As singer John Denver enthused, “On a macrobiotic diet, I had all the energy in the world, clear-headed and singing like a bird! I loved it, I felt great!” In addition to a healthy glow, improved vitality, a trimmer physique, and greater flexibility, some performers also use macrobiotic principles:

 

    • Composer John Cage John Cage whom Time hailed as “the puckish composer, audacious theoretician, stylish writer, subtle graphic artist, macrobiotic guru and fearless mushroom hunter . . . the impish personification of the 20th century avant-garde” used the I Ching and Far Eastern principles to compose music. His colleague dancer Maurice Cunningham was also macrobiotic.[iii]

    • Artist Rod House Rod House, one of Michio Kushi’s earliest students, taught at the New England College of Art, and was on the original faculty of the Kushi Institute. His paintings have been exhibited throughout New England.

    • Painter and Sculptor Patricia Price Patricia Price, an English artist and painter, taught art at the Kushi Institute and sculpted a large Jizo Bodhisattva.

    • Dancer and Choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmacher Founder, director, and choreographer of Rosas Dance Company in Brussels, Anne Teresa uses yin and yang, the five transformations, and other macrobiotic principles in her compositions. Her company performs worldwide, e.g., staging spiral dances at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, and her dance school has a macrobiotic dining room.

 

Social Health

 

• Ancient Food Pattern

Since the time of Darwin and the introduction of evolutionary theory, scientists believed that meat eating was largely responsible for the development of human prowess, intellect, and ingenuity. Over the last generation, a revolution in anthropology, archaeology, and other social sciences has led to an emerging view that ancient hominins were not primarily hunters, but gatherers, and that plant-based foods largely shaped and influenced our unique human qualities.

 

• Present Day Hunter-Gatherers Eat Mostly Plants

Contemporary hunter-gather societies such as the Son and Kalahari bushmen in Africa consume the vast majority of their food in the form of foraged plants, fruits, and nuts and only small amounts, 10-20%, in the form of animal food.[iv]

 

• Evidence of Plant-Based Diets Doesn’t Survive Well

The archaeological evidence [for plant-eating] is especially weak, as many organic materials, especially plants, do not survive well, and are therefore invisible in the archaeological record,” the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported in 2002. Artifacts, such as stone tools which are likely to be used for hunting and animal bones with evidence of human processing and butchering do indicate that hunting did occur at many times in the past, but it is impossible to judge the frequency.”[v]

 

• Cooking Made Us Human

In Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham hypothesized that the mastery of fire for cooking spurred the development of early humans, not meat-eating. Cooking, in his view, made more calories from existing, largely plant quality foods, available and improved metabolism, leading to the development of larger brains. Cooking also facilitated warmth, leading to the loss of body hair and the ability to run faster without overheating. Wrangham suggests it also allowed early hominins to develop more peaceful personalities, develop new social structures around the hearth, and bring the sexes closer together. Raw food, he contends, does not supply enough caloric energy and is unsustainable and can cause up to half the women to cease menstruation. Cooking increases the net energy gain by 30%.[vi]  As humans evolved from the monkey and primate state, they discovered cycles of change, found ways to store food, and learned to cook. As a result of his investigations, Wrangham became vegetarian.

 

• Wild Grasses as Principal Food

In the early twenty-first century, evidence started to emerge that ate wild grasses, the prototype of grains, as principal food. At the University of Colorado Boulder researchers reported: “High tech tests on tooth enamel by researchers indicate that prior to about 4 million year ago, Africa’s hominids were eating essentially chimpanzee style, dining on fruits and some leaves,” explained anthropology professor Matt Sponheimer, lead author of the 2013 study. “A new look at the diets of ancient African hominids shows a ‘game change’ occurred about 3.5 million years ago when some members added grasses or sedges (a family of rushes including water chestnut) to their menus.”[vii] “It is quite possible that these changes in diet were an important step in becoming human,” he concluded.

 

• Lucy, Mother of Humankind, a Vegetarian

For nearly 2 million years, the primary hominin ancestors in Africa, was largely vegetarian. Australopithecus anamensis, a hominid that lived in East Africa more than 4 millions years ago, was herbivorous. Lucy, often referred to as the Eve or mother of the human race, lived about a million years later. Her skeletal remains, found in East Africa, classify her as Australopithecus afarensis. She was vegetarian, eating grasses and leaves, as well as fruit, nuts, seeds, and tubers.[viii]

 

• Homo Sapiens Harvested Wild Grains

Stone tools recently found in East Africa, the cradle of humanity, showed that people were processing sorghum 100,000 years ago. In Ngalue, a cave in Mozambique, researchers discovered an assortment of seventy stone tools in a layer of sediment deposited on the cave floor 42,000 to 105,000 years ago. Although the tools cannot be dated precisely, those in the deepest strata appear to be at least 100,000 years old. About 80% of the tools, including scrapers, grinders, points, flakes, and drills, had ample starchy residue, archaeologists told .[ix] Eighty-nine percent of the starches came from sorghum, a cereal grain that still constitutes a main staple in many parts of Africa. The rest came from the African wine palm, the false banana, pigeon peas, wild oranges, and the African potato. The evidence suggests that people living in Ngalue routinely brought starchy plants, especially sorghum, to their cave where it was made into porridge and baked in the form of flat bread.

 

• Prehistoric European Bakeries

In multiple European sites, including present-day Moravia, Italy, and Russia, evidence has surfaced of ancient grain harvesting, cooking, and processing dating to about 25,000 to 30,000 years ago, a Stone Age era renowned for its elegant Ice Age cave paintings. For example, mammoth hunters in Dolni Vestonice, an Upper Paleolithic site in Moravia, had sickle blades and grinding stones. Researchers speculate that they harvested edible seeds of wild grasses, the common reed, bog bean, water nut, and arctic berries.[x] Remains of plant food preserved by a hearth at Dolni Vestonice II dating to from 27,000 to 24,000 years ago contained a seed, tissues from roots and tubers, possible acorn mush, and wood charcoal. In the Black Sea region, archaeologists unearthed thousands of small blades made of flint and hafted with bitumen into bone handles to harvest wild grasses and cane. As Dr Revedin of the Italian Institute of Prehistory and Early History in Florence concluded: “The discovery of grain and plant residues on grinding stones at the three sites suggests plant-based food processing, and possibly flour production, was common and widespread across Europe at least 30,000 years ago.”[xi] 

 

Food and Agriculture

The introduction of genetically engineered foods in the 1990s fundamentally altered the human food supply. The Sacramento Valley in northern California is the site of most of the organic brown rice production in the United States. In 2000, Monsanto announced plans to introduce GMO rice in the region, a step that would almost certainly have resulted in the contamination of organic rice and the main staple in the macrobiotic community. Macrobiotic teachers Alex Jack, Edward Esko, Bettina Zumdick, and their associates formed Amberwaves, a grassroots network to educate the public about the potential dangers of genetically engineered crops. The campaign included a petition that garnered tens of thousands of signatures, concerts known as Amberfests, workshops and lectures, books and articles, and meetings with the California Rice Commission, FDA, EPA, and members of Congress. In the end, Monsanto was defeated, and GMO rice was never commercialized in the United States or elsewhere in the world.  Amberwaves also helped prevented Monsanto from introducing GMO wheat.[xii]

 

• GMO Foods Imperil Natural Evolution

In a review of more than 100 scientific and medical studies on genetically engineered seeds, crops, and foods, an Amberwaves researcher concluded that GMOs pose a serious threat to continued natural biological and spiritual evolution. “Even before genetic engineering was developed, an estimated 97 percent of all native species of grains, beans, vegetables, and fruits in America disappeared in the 20th century, driven to extinction by  monoculture,  hybrid seeds, jet transportation, and modern economies of scale . . . It will take dramatic concerted action to protect freedom of choice, end the war on nature, and ensure the health of American and the planet as a whole.”[xiii]

 

• GMO Rice Harmful to Human Health

LibertyLink Rice, the first GMO rice developed in America, was grown experimentally in Texas in 2001. Amberwaves commissioned Joe Cummins, a Canadian geneticist who has written more than 200 research papers, to prepare a scientific report on LibertyLink Rice and its possible effects on human health and the environment. LL Rice is spliced with a gene that is resistant to glufosinate, an extremely toxic herbicide. In his study, Cummins reported that LibertyLink Rice would probably result in major adverse health effects to consumers and farmers, as well as reduced yields and the contamination of other plants.

     “Glufosinate is a herbicide that kills almost everything green; it is used extensively with genetically engineered crops including corn, canola, and soybeans,” he explained. “The herbicide resistant crops were approved by the Canadian and United States governments, even though there was clear evidence that the herbicide caused birth defects in experimental animals. The chemical acts by causing premature cell death in the immature brain by a process called apotosis. It also prevents development of glutamate channels in the brain, thus disrupting cellular communication. The birth defects observed in animals included brain defects leading to behavioral changes. Cleft lip and skeletal defects or kidney and urethra injury were observed in treated newborn. The herbicide also caused miscarriage and reduced conception in treated mothers. Exposure of male farm workers caused birth defects in their children.”

     As a result of a public campaign against GMO foods and the contamination of much of the nation’s corn crop by an unapproved variety of modified corn, Aventis destroyed all 5 million pounds of LL Rice grown in Texas. Since then, there has been no commercialization of GMO rice.[xiv]

 

Crime and Violence

Food affects mood as well as physical health. Macrobiotic food has figured prominently in several prison projects and helped reduce crime and violence.

 

• Sugar Linked to Violent Behavior

Frank Kern, assistant director at Tidewater Detention Center in Chesapeake, Virginia, a state facility for juvenile offenders, initiated a double-blind dietary study. In 1979, Kern, a graduate of the Kushi Institute, arranged an experiment in which sugar was taken out of the meals and snacks of 24 inmates. Researchers found that the youngsters on the modified diet exhibited a 45 percent lower incidence of formal disciplinary actions and antisocial behavior than the control group. Follow-up studies showed that after limiting sugar there was an 82 percent reduction in assaults, 77 percent reduction in thefts, 65 percent reduction in horseplay, and 55 percent reduction in not obeying orders. The researchers also found that “the people most likely to show improvement were those who had committed violent acts on the outside.” The findings appeared in

 

• Portuguese Prisoners Go Macrobiotic

In 1979 several inmates at the Central Prison in Linho, a maximum security facility, outside of Lisbon, Portugal, began eating a macrobiotic diet and attending lectures on Oriental philosophy and medicine. Soon 30 prisoners had become macrobiotic, including Toze Areal, the leader of a bank robber gang, and prison officials allowed them to use a large kitchen where they cooked and ate together several times a week. As a result of attitude and behavioral changes, most of the prisoners attending classes received commutations and were released early. “[T]here is a great difference in them, especially in those who have left the prison,” Senhor Alfonso, a prison administrator, noted, commenting on the macrobiotic group. “It is not easy to describe—for one thing I can say that now they take more initiative. Actually, there is no problem here with anyone who is macrobiotic; this way of life enjoys a very good reputation. I believe the food and the outside stimulus both helped. The food can change people.” Areal went on to study at the Kushi Institute, marry and have a large family, and start a company that made tofu and tempeh.[xvi]

 

• GMOs Linked to Sexual Decline and School Violence

In a review of scientific and medical studies on GMOs, Alex Jack concluded that genetic engineering is contributing to abnormal sexual development, increased problems with conception, diminished sexual desire and performance, sex reversals and altered sex ratios, sterility, and other reproductive ills. He also examined the energetic effects of eating food produced from strains of GMO seeds developed with a gene gun–a pistol shooting modified .22 and .45 bullets coated with genetic material into the plant—and correlated the introduction of GMO foods with the increase of violence in society, especially among children and the dramatic increase in shootings and other violent incidents in schools.[xvii]

 

Peace and Social Justice

The Far Eastern word for peace is wa and is made up of two characters, or ideograms, for “grain” and “mouth.” By eating a balanced whole grain diet, humans become calm and peaceful, see clearly, and exercise sound judgment. The Prophet Isaiah’s dictum to turn swords into plowshares points at the same truth:   peace comes from cultivating grains and eating in a plant-based way. Macrobiotic initiatives in the Middle East, South America, and other regions have helped reduce religious, ethnic, and class tensions and restore balance and harmony.

 

• Macrobiotic Food Unifies Warring Religions in Lebanon

Susana Sarué left the Sorbonne in Paris where she was completing her doctorate in nutrition to travel to the Middle East and used macrobiotic food and principles to help restore peace between warring Christians and Moslems in Beirut, as well as Palestinian refugees caught in the fighting, and Israeli soldiers and officials. She learned that there used to be a whole grain bread in Lebanon called Wise Bread because it gave wisdom, or nourishment, but for many years the bread had been made entirely with white flour. This flat bread composed about two-thirds of the daily diet. With donations, she and other macrobiotic practitioners opened a small bakery and brought the bread to the homes of many families who had a lot of children and who didn’t have any work. Gradually people learned how to make the bread themselves. Later, a natural foods cooperative was set up and made grains, beans, miso, soy sauce, and other healthy foods available. In East Beirut, Miriam Nour, a prominent journalist, began to work in the villages and eventually became the leading macrobiotic teacher after Susana returned home. “Other countries—America, France—send us donations: canned food, sugar, white flour, margarine,” Nour observed. “And they send us free medication. It’s a vicious circle—the food is eaten, the people get sick, they go to hospitals, they take the medications. The food is eaten, the people become more aggressive, angry, and warlike. And the people who send this junk food and medication, the synthetic clothing, also send the bombs. It is also they who say they want to make peace. But the war itself wants to fight because there is war in our hearts and minds.” Nour went on to host the leading TV talk show in the Middle East and introduced macrobiotics to millions of people, including the leaders of many Islamic countries.[xviii]

 

• Sugarcane Workers Gain Reforms after Dietary Change

In Virareka, a small village in Colombia, a sugarcane plantation had displaced local farms and fields. Over the years, large amounts of chemicals were applied to the cane, which came to displace all other crops. Deserts replaced green fields of grains and vegetables. Almost all the food eaten locally was brought in and consisted mainly of white flour, sugar, dairy food, meat, and other highly processed foods. Nutritionist Susana Sarué, a native of Latin America, returned to Colombia in the 1970s and developed a whole range of foods made from natural ingredients. She introduced a variety of cutlets, burgers, and other “meats” with a soya base, offered the people soy milk instead of dairy, and made an ice cream from sorghum and soya. The children’s condition began to improve quickly. They became more alert and intelligent in school and less famished. They no longer had large stomachs. They also became more active. A health food bar was opened and managed by the local people. One day, the men of the village went on strike, and the bosses at the sugar plantation refused their demands, reasoning that they would starve after the third day and return to work. But the strikers, subsisting on local grains and beans and soy products, continued for two weeks, and the company was forced to give in and raise their wages.[xix]

 

• Teaching Macrobiotics in War-Torn Syria

As the war in Syria spread, America and Russia initiated air strikes, and millions of refugees fled the country, Baydaa Laylaa, an elementary schoolteacher from Latakia, was busy giving macrobiotic cooking classes. Because of the war, the price of meat increased and people reduced their consumption. Because of sanctions, pharmacies are of­fering whole foods and herbal remedies instead of drugs. Sanctions have also reduced the availability of macrobiotic specialty foods. Fighting has dis­rupted organic farming, so vegetables have been in short supply. After marrying Hussain Muhammad, another graduate of the Kushi Institute in America, Baydaa moved to Kuwait with her husband, but the couple still returns to Syria periodically to teach and give health consultations. In the future, they would like to start an organic farm. “There is no organic farming now,” she noted. “Organic produce is imported, but it is expensive and the Ki energy is depleted. We also want to start a macrobiotic kitchen and introduce a healthier way of eating to children, parents, and the general public.”[xx]

 

• Trauma Teams Aid Children in Asia

Through Fortunate Blessings Foundation, Bill and Joan Spear, macrobiotic teachers in Litchfield, Connecticut, began an international relief program in 2004 to assist children who had been traumatized from natural disasters, war, torture, and other misfortune. After the initial emergency phase of a disaster, Second Response Trauma Teams, staffed  by  mental health professionals, travel to the impacted area to offer emotional support. During PLAYshops, participants directly engage in an experiential session on methodologies that employ body or somatic exercises to release repressed emotions. In recent years, trauma teams have assisted children in Sri Lanka and Indonesia following the great tsunami, as well as victims of the Nepalese earthquake and the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan.[xxi]

​

Planetary Health

The macrobiotic way of eating is beneficial for the planet as well as personal and social health. It helps protect the soil, air, water, and other natural resources from artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals. It respects the diversity of species and contributes to the flourishing of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. It reduces greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and mitigates climate change.  Conversely, the modern way of farming and eating is a main cause of global warming, climate change, and other environmental destruction.

 

Nutrient Decline

 

• Nutrients in Produce Decline 25 to 50 Percent

In an analysis of the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture food composition tables, macrobiotic researcher Alex Jack reported a sharp decline in minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients in many chemically grown common foods between 1997 and 1975 when the last comprehensive survey was published. A random sampling of twelve garden vegetables found that calcium levels declined on average 26.5 percent, vitamin A dropped 21.4 percent, and vitamin C fell 29.9 percent. Whole grains and beans also showed sharp fluctuations. The amount of calcium and iron in millet fell 60 percent and 55.7 percent, and thiamin and riboflavin declined 42.3 percent and 23.7 percent, but niacin rose 105.2 percent. Brown rice also showed mixed results, with slight decreases in calcium and riboflavin, and mild increases in iron, thiamine, and niacin. Overall, green leafy vegetables appeared to have lost the most nutrients, while root vegetables, beans, and grains lost the least. “Decline of the natural environment appears to be the major reason for the widespread loss of nutrients. . . . This suggests a steady deterioration in soil, air, and water quality, as well as reduced seed vitality, that is depleting minerals and other inorganic components of food,” the study concluded. Following an Open Letter to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture by the editors of , the USDA verified the accuracy of the study, and it was confirmed by other researchers.[xxii]


 

Global Warming

 

• Modern Diet Main Cause of Global Warming

Livestock’s Long Shadow, the landmark report of the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) concluded, the modern food pattern is the key to preventing global warming, climate change, and other environmental destruction. The study found that the cattle and other livestock industries are the single biggest contributor to global warming, “responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions measured by CO2 equivalent. This is a higher share than transport,” or 40 percent more than all the cars, trucks, buses, trains, and planes combined. The meat industry is “one of the . . . most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global,” including “problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.” Global meat and milk consumption is expected to double by 2050, further accelerating environmental destruction and global warming.[xxiii]

 

• Dietary Change Saves More CO2 Than Buying a Prius

A 2006 study by Gidon Eishel and Pamela Martin at the University of Chicago found that a vegetarian diet is more energy efficient than one containing meat. The authors gathered data from many sources, examining the amount of fossil fuel energy required to sustain several different diets. The vegetarian diet turned out to be the most energy efficient, followed by a poultry-based diet and the standard American diet high in red meat. The authors compared a Toyota Prius, which uses about a quarter as much as fuel as a Chevrolet Suburban SUV, to a plant-based diet, which uses roughly one-fourth as much energy as a diet rich in red meat. Changing from a diet rich in red meat to a plant-based diet cuts greenhouse gas emissions as much as shifting from a Suburban SUV to a Prius.[xxiv]

 

• Global Warming Alters Food Composition

Global warming is dramatically altering the nutritional value of foods worldwide. As a result of rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere, protein and nitrogen concentrations are down up to 25 percent in wheat, rice, and other major staples, mineral and trace element content have fallen 8 percent on average in 130 common crops, and carbohydrate has soared from 10 to 45 percent, according to the first ecological study of its kind. The dramatic increase in starch and sugar content may be the main cause of “hidden hunger” and the global obesity epidemic.

     Elevated CO2 levels have reduced the overall concentration of 25 important minerals, including calcium, iron, potassium, and zinc, in plants by an average of 8 percent. The reduction in the nutritional value of crops could have profound impacts on human health. A mineral-deficient diet can cause malnutrition, even if a person consumes adequate calories. This pattern of eating is common in developing countries because most people eat a limited number of staples. Diets low in minerals, especially iron and zinc, lead to reduced growth in childhood, to reduced natural immunity and protection from infection, and higher rates of maternal and child deaths and sickness.

     The study suggests that the altered nutrient profiles are contributing to the rise in obesity, as people eat too many high starch foods to begin with, and now as the earth warms these foods are increasing their proportion of simple sugars. Consumers also eat more to compensate for the lower mineral content in other foods. “The new evidence supports an emerging view that while obesity is quantified as an imbalance between energy inputs and expenditures, it could also be a form of malnutrition, where increased carbohydrate:protein and excessive carbohydrate consumption could be possible targets,” observed Irakli Loladze, a mathematical biologist and quantitative ecologist, at the University of Maryland University College.

     The study acknowledges that mineral declines in crops may be a consequence of the Green Revolution that relied on increased amounts of pesticides and artificial fertilizers that depleted the soil and altered mineral content.[xxv]

 

Electromagnetic Fields

The electronics and digital revolution has bathed the planet in artificial electromagnetic radiation from satellites, televisions, cell phones, computers, tablets, smart meters, and other devices known as the Internet of Things. The long-term effects on human health and the environment are unknown. However, short-term studies have linked cell phones to brain tumors and disruption of glucose metabolism. They also disrupt wildlife, including the navigation systems of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators that are crucial to the world food supply.

 

• Mobile Phones Disrupt Bees

Germany scientists reported that the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile phones and base stations can interfere with the bees' navigation systems, rendering them unable to find their way back to their hives. In an experiment conducted by researchers at Landau University, bees refused to return to a hive when a mobile phone was placed nearby. Although not conclusive, the experiment offers one possible explanation for the mysterious worldwide decline in the bee population known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Other factors, including pesticides, the varroa mite, viruses, genetically modified crops, and unusually cold winters, are also believed to contribute to the decline.[xxvi]

 

• Cell Phones Linked to Brain Tumors

In the most conclusive study to date linking non-ionizing cell phone radiation to brain cancer, research conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) reported in 2016 that rats exposed to RF (radio frequency) radiation had higher rates of glioma (a type of brain tumor), as well as malignant schwannoma (a very rare heart tumor) than unexposed rates. Radiation exposure showed a direct dose-response relationship. Otis W. Brawley, M.D., chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, stated: “The NTP report linking radiofrequency radiation (RFR) to two types of cancer marks a paradigm shift in our understanding of radiation and cancer risk.”[xxvii]

 

Energy and Transmutation

In 1959 French scientist Louis Kervran started publishing his discoveries in the field of biological transmutation—the synthesis of necessary, but unavailable, chemical elements out of simpler, available ones. He showed that in living biological systems sodium could change into potassium, manganese could be obtained from iron, silica from calcium, and phosphorus from sulfur. Macrobiotic educator George Ohsawa affirmed these findings, which flew in the face of conventional physics and chemistry. He had long taught that everything in the universe is subject to the law of change and that transmutation of elements at ordinary temperatures and pressures was possible. Critics dismissed this view as alchemy, contending that such transmutations could only occur under stellar or nuclear conditions. Michio Kushi assisted Ohsawa in several experiments verifying the process and went on to herald the discovery as the catalyst for a new industrial revolution.  He  predicted  that  it  would  eventually replace mining and its toll on human life and environmental destruction and make valuable resources commonly available for the betterment of society and a sustainable future.

 

• Saharan Workers Transmute Sodium to Potassium in Body

In 1959 French scientist Louis Kervran started  publishing his discoveries in the field of biological transmutation —the synthesis of necessary but unavailable chemical elements out of simpler, available ones. His interest in this field began when he studied workers in the Sahara desert, who excreted more sodium than they consumed. Tests showed a comparable amount of potassium was being taken. Kervran showed potassium was capable of being transmuted into sodium in the body. Developing  the  theories  of  George  Ohsawa that elements can be transmuted into one another peacefully without smashing the atom, Kervran went on to find that iron could be made from manganese, silica from calcium, and phosphorus from sulfur. Kervran’s experiments have wide industrial, scientific, and social applications. For example, biological transmutations could be applied to rendering harmless nuclear wastes, toxic spills, and other chronic environmental hazards.[xxviii]

 

• Changing Carbon into Iron

Seeking to replicate Kervran’s sodium to potassium experiment in the laboratory, George Ohsawa conducted a tabletop test in Tokyo in the early 1960s. Inserting positively and negatively charged electrodes into a vacuum tube, 2.3 mg of sodium combined with 1.6 mg of oxygen allowed to enter the tube and formed 3.9 mg of potassium. In another experiment, Ohsawa used a graphite crucible to transmute carbon into iron. He subsequently conducted other experiments until his death in 1966.[xxix]

 

• Pentagon Verifies Transmutation

U.S. military scientists tested the theory of biological transmutations and in 1978 verified the transmutation of matter from cell to cell and atom to atom. Surveying the works of Kervran and Ohsawa, researchers concluded “granted the existence of such transmutations (Na to Mg, K to Ca, and Mn to Fe), then a net surplus of energy was also produced. A proposed mechanism was described in which Mg adenosine triphosphate, located in the mitochondrion of the cell, played a double role as an energy producer. . . . The relatively available huge supplies of the elements which have been reported to have been transmuted and the probable large accompanying energy surplus indicate a new source of energy may be in the offing—one whose supply would be unlimited."[xxx]

 

• 20 Key Industrial Elements Created

Quantum Rabbit LLC, a small macrobiotic company based in Massachusetts, transmuted small amounts of elements in a series of experiments between 2005 and 2016. In carbon-arc studies based on the Ohsawa/ Kushi model, the QR team, consisting of Edward Esko, Alex Jack, and Woodward Johnson, produced from pure graphite (carbon) iron, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, scandium, titanium, cobalt, and nickel. Neodymium magnets showed the presence of magnetic activity, and an independent laboratory confirmed the presence of the metals in treated samples. A series of vacuum tube studies on noble gases fused helium plasma with oxygen to produce trace amounts of argon. In alkali metal vapor tests under vacuum, the QR team was able to produce potassium, copper, tin, germanium, and other elements. The QR researchers were able to produce potassium, palladium, strontium, silver, and gold. Results of more than a dozen studies were published in , a journal dedicated to clean new energy sources.[xxxi]

 

Light Pollution

 

• Dark Skies Vanishing

A new atlas of artificial night sky brightness shows that more than 80% of the world population and more than 99% of Americans, Europeans, and Japanese live under light-polluted skies.[xxxii] Researchers report that the Milky Way is not visible to 80% of Americans and 60% of Europeans. This also includes Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the Middle East, where warfare has artificially lit up the sky.

     Principal sources of light pollution are residential lights, streetlights, highway lights, motor vehicle headlights, sport stadium lights, electronic advertising billboards, shopping mall lights, park lights, airport lights, and offshore oil platforms.                            

     The artificial light around cities and extending into many rural areas has interfered with the migration of nocturnal birds because they cannot follow the moon and stars. Light pollution also disorients bats, moths, and other animals that come out at night, and millions are killed each year by flying into streetlights. The metabolism of turtles, snakes, salamanders, and frogs has also been altered, as well as many plants.

     Light pollution also affects humans, disrupting sleep, causing headaches, affecting sensory nerves, and contributing to depression. Alteration of circadian rhythms is further believed to increase the risk of obesity and diabetes. Some medical researchers suggest that artificial light, especially the blue component in white light at night, is carcinogenic.

     From a macrobiotic perspective, the Milky Way and other stars shape and influence biological and spiritual evolution. As an article in noted: “They constantly charge our mid and forebrains, eyes, chakras, meridians, and other systems, organs, and functions, especially if we eat whole cereal grains that have awns or small antennae that receive and concentrate this cosmic energy and vibration. This current of incoming spiral energy orients us to beauty, truth, peace, justice, freedom, and other universal ideals. With the eclipse of night, the consciousness of modern society is rapidly dimming. . . .By respecting the natural rhythms and cycles of nature, including day and night, humanity can pass safely through this time. We can recover the compass of yin and yang, apply it to problems of society, and create a naturally bright new era.”[xxxiii]

​

[i] Jack, Alex; Jack, Gale (2006). Chewing Made Easy: 42 Benefits, Tips, and Techniques. Macrobiotic Path.

[ii] “The Veggie Baseball Team,” Parade Magazine, April 15, 1984.

[iii] Walsh, Michael. “Sounds of Silence,” Time, June 24, 2001.

[iv] “Bushmen,” NationalGeographic.com, January 2000.

[v] Richards, M.P. “A Brief Review of the Archaeological Evidence for Palaeolithic and Neolithic Subsistence,” Eur J Clin Nutri 2002 Dec;56(12):1262-78.

[vi] Wrangham, Richard (2009). Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Basic Books 2009.

[vii] “Diet likely changed game for some hominids 3.5 million years ago,” ScienceDaily.com, June 13, 2013. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 3, 2013.

[viii] Ferran Estebaranz, et al. “Buccal dental microwear analyses support greater specialization in consumption of hard foodstuffs for Australopithecus anamensis.” Journal of Anthropological Sciences, 2012; 90: 1-24.

[ix] Mercader, Julio, “Mozambican Grass Seed Consumption During the Middle Stone Age,” Science 326:Dec. 18, 2009. www.sciencemag.org.

[x] Fairservis, Walter Ashlin (1975). The Threshold of Civilization: An Experiment in Prehistory. Charles Scribner’s Sons.

[xi] “The Stone Age baker: Cavemen 'ate bread, not just meat.’” Daily Mail Reporter, October 19, 2010.

[xii] Amberwaves Journal 2001-2017.

[xiii] Jack, Alex (2000). Imagine a World Without Monarch Butterflies: Awakening to the Hazards of Genetically Altered Foods, foreword by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich. One Peaceful World Press. ISBN 9781882984398.

[xiv] Cummins, Joseph (2001). “The First Independent Study of Genetically Engineered LibertyLink Rice,” www.amberwaves.org.

[xv] Schoenthaler, S., Ph.D. “The Effect of Sugar on the Treatment and Control of Antisocial Behavior,” International Journal of Biosocial Research 3(1):1-9, 1982.

[xvi] Seaker, Meg. “Fighting Crime with Diet: Report from a Portuguese Prison,” East West Journal, July, 1982, pp. 26-34.

[xvii] Jack, Alex (2002). Sex, Lies, and GMOs, Amberwaves Press.

[xviii] Kushi and Jack, One Peaceful World, pp. 28–31.

[xix] Kushi and Jack, One Peaceful World, pp. 38–39.

[xx] “Bringing Brown Rice and Peace to Syria,” Amberwaves Journal, Summer 2012.

[xxi] Kushi and Jack, One Peaceful World, pp. 75–77.

[xxii] Jack, Alex. “Nutrition Under Siege,” One Peaceful World Journal 34:1, 7–9, 1998.

[xxiii] Livestock’s Long Shadow, UN Food & Agricultural Organization, 2006.

[xxiv] Eishel, Gidon; Martin Pamela. “Study: vegan diets healthier for planet, people than meat diets,” Earth Interactions, April 2006.

[xxv] Loladze, I (2014). “Hidden shift of the ionome of plants exposed to elevated CO2 depletes minerals at the base of human nutrition.” elife. 2014 3:e02245 http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Irakli_Loladze

[xxvi] “Mobile Phones Could Lead to Bee Decline, The Ecologist, April 2007.

[xxvii] “Cell Phones,” National Toxicology Program, last modified Sep. 13, 2016, http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/results/areas/cellphones/. “Cell Phone Radiation Boos Cancer Rates in Animals; $25 Million NTP Study Finds Brain Tumors,” Microwave News, May 25, 2016. “ACS Responds to New Study Linking Cell Phone Radiation to Cancer,” American Cancer Society, May 2017, http://pressroomcancer.org/NTP2016.

[xxviii] Kervran, Louis C. (1972). Biological Transmutations, Swan House.

[xxix] Kushi, Michio; Esko, Edward (1994). The Philosopher’s Stone. One Peaceful World Press.

[xxx] Goldfein, Solomon. “Energy Development from Elemental Transmutations in Biological Systems,” Report 2247, Ft. Belvoir, Va.: U.S. Army Mobility Equipment Research and Development Command, 1978.

[xxxi] Esko, Edward; Jack, Alex (2011). Cool Fusion: A Quantum Solution to Peak Minerals, Nuclear Waste and Future Metal Shock. Amberwaves Press. ISBN 978-1477563724.

[xxxii] Falchi et al. The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness,” Sci. Adv.

2016;2.

[xxxiii] Jack, Alex. “A Dark Starless World,” Amberwaves Journal, Autumn 2016.