A Macrobiotic Perspective on Cancer

[Marlenewatsontara]

Marlene Watson-Tara
Macrobiotic Counsellor/Health Education/International Author & Cooking Teacher
http://www.marlenewatsontara.com

Cancer – A Macrobiotic Perspective

Though the earliest cases of cancer go back thousands of years, it remained a rare disorder until the 20th century. The sharp rise in cancer incidence and mortality parallels the spread of the modern way of eating, high in saturated fat, cholesterol, sugar, salt and highly processed foods. It also coincides with the introduction of canned, bottled, and frozen foods, chemical agriculture, microwave cooking, fast foods, irradiated foods, and genetically altered foods and the ready availability of foods from radically different climates and environments at the local supermarket.

Health reformers and pioneer researches linked cancer with diet back in the early 1800s. However, modern medicine generally ignored this connection until the 1980s when the U.S. government, the major scientific and medical organizations, and private cancer foundations issued the first dietary guidelines.

Since then the modern way of eating has been linked with virtually every major form of cancer. While admitting the role of diet in the origin and development of many malignancies, the medical profession continues to treat cancer largely with chemotherapy, radiation, hormone therapy or surgery. These methods sometimes can eliminate symptoms but do not address the origin of the disease, which is underlying dietary and environment imbalance. Cancer is primarily a disease of dietary excess.

With the rise of alternative and complementary medicine, many physicians and health care professionals have adopted an integrated approach,

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combining nutrition, visualization and lifestyle changes with conventional therapies. Over the last generation, thousands of people have followed a macrobiotic way of eating to prevent or relieve cancer, including many terminal cases.

Researchers at Tulane University, the University of Minnesota, the National Tumour Institute of Milan, Italy, and elsewhere have documented the efficacy of this approach. The National Cancer Institute was so impressed with individual recovery cases that it approved clinical trials of the macrobiotic approach. For a comprehensive overview of this subject please see the books The Cancer prevention Diet and The Macrobiotic Approach to Cancer by Michio Kushi. I would also recommend you read The China Study by Dr. Colin T. Campbell (reveiwed under another post on this site) and a copy of my own book ‘Macrobiotics for all Seasons’ which has over 200 recipes, medicinal teas and home remedies and five educational chapters.

A healthy person can deal with a limited amount of excess nutrients or toxic materials consumed in his or her daily food. This imbalance can be naturally eliminated through sweating, urination, bowel movement, perspiration or daily activity that burns off excess metabolic energy. However, if the person continues to take in too much excess, the body resorts to abnormal measures of discharge, including colds, fever, skin rashes, and other symptoms. Such sickness is a natural adjustment, the result of the body maintaining natural balance.

However, in modern society, these symptoms are commonly suppressed by over-the-counter medications, prescription drugs, and other artificial methods that separate people from the natural workings of their own bodies. If minor ailments are treated in this symptomatic way, discharge begins to be directed inwardly rather than externally. Fatty-acid deposits and chronic mucus begin to gather in the form of kidney stones, breast or ovarian cysts, prostate enlargement, vaginal discharge and other internal disorders. These can be considered precancerous conditions.

In this state, the body is still able to localize the excess and toxins ingested. By gathering the superfluous material in local areas, the remainder of the body is maintained in a relatively clean condition and can function smoothly. Localization of excess is a natural healing mechanism, preventing the body from completely breaking down. However, the modern view regards these manifestations as invasive enemies that have to be removed or destroyed.

As long as excessive nutrients and energy from daily food continue to accumulate and exceed the body’s normal or abnormal discharge capacity, they will continue to be stored inside the body. These storage areas gradually grow and develop into tumours. They then reach their limit, they spread and overflow into new storage areas (metastasize).

As long as the person continues to eat animal protein, saturated fat, dietary cholesterol, simple sugars, refined salt, chemicals and other dietary extremes, excess will continue to gather, accumulate and spread in order to continue normal living functions. If tumours did not isolate this excess it would spread through the bloodstream and entire body, resulting in the total collapse of vital functions and death by toxaemia.

Cancer is the last stage of a long process. It is the body’s healthy effort to isolate extreme foods and toxins consumed and accumulated through years and years of eating the artificial modern diet and living in an unnatural environment.

The entire process can often be reversed naturally. Through proper food, including special dishes, drinks and sometimes compresses and other home remedies, the tumour or malignancy can often be discharged gently and peacefully without the need for drugs, chemicals or surgery that can weaken the body and interfere with its natural healing ability. In some cases, however, medical attention, including chemotherapy, radiation, hormone treatment, or surgery, may be necessary and can be combined with the macrobiotic approach.

I suggest you research some of the success stories of those who have had a complete recovery from cancer by adopting a macrobiotic diet and lifestyle.(Start with some of the personal stories on this site)

The rise of cancer in the modern world has accompanied the change from a way of eating based on organic and natural-quality food to chemically grown and artificially processed food.

White flour, white rice, and other refined or polished grains replaced whole grains. Beef, pork, chicken, eggs, cheese, and other animal products high in protein and fat became the centre of the modern way of eating. Canned, bottled and frozen vegetables and fruits replaced fresh produce. Tropical foods, oils, spices, and other items from radically different climates and environments became available all year round. Many local and regional foods disappeared with the influx of mass-produced, artificially aged and preserved foods. Hardy heirloom and open-pollinated varieties of seed gave way to new hybrid and genetically modified strains. All of these trends have contributed to the rise of cancer.

Through the blood, the lymph, and other bodily fluids, excessive protein, fat, sugar, and other nutrients from high-energy foods enter the cells and tissues of the body. Eventually, the cells storage capacity reaches a limit and the cells start to divide. Rapidly increasing cell division creates health hazards.

Within each of the trillions of cells in your body resides a core called the nucleus that houses the key to life – a twisted molecule of deoxyribonucleic acid – DNA. It’s the DNA molecule that holds the instructions, or genes, that govern the cells’ reproduction process. Various things can cause mutations. Normally mutated cells die, but sometimes they divide at a rapid, controlled rate, eventually forming a mass of altered tissue called a malignant tumour or cancer.

Proper nutrition staves off cancer in two ways.

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First, by providing your body the raw materials it needs to maintain optimal health and second, by guarding against obesity. Targeted nutrition can go beyond merely helping you fit comfortably into a height-weight chart -- instead nutritional protection may actually prevent cellular damage and bolster your immune system in its fight against foreign invaders that can trigger cancer's onset.

From a macrobiotic perspective cancer develops in different locations in the body according to the person’s constitution and condition, the energetic quality of the overall way of eating, and the relative influence of specific foods and combination of foods.

Excessive intake of meat, eggs, poultry, cheese, fish, seafood and other animal foods, as well as too much hard baked flour products, salt, and other contractive foods, tends to gather and accumulate downward and deep in the body, leading to tumours in the colon, rectum, prostate, ovary, liver, pancreas, bone and inner regions of the brain. These include the harder types of tumours, including most carcinomas.

Excessive intake of sugar and other concentrated sweeteners; refined or polished grains, oil and dressings, milk, ice cream and other light dairy products, fruits and juices, raw foods, foods of tropical origin such as potatoes, tomatoes, and bananas, spices, stimulants, alcohol, drugs, and other expansive substances tends to gather and accumulate upward and in the peripheral parts of the body, leading to malignancies in the breast, skin, upper part of the stomach, out, oesophagus, lymphatic system, outer regions of the brain and blood (leukaemia). These include the softer types of tumours, including most sarcomas.

Excessive intake of both extreme yang and yin foods causes excess to be localized in the more central regions, organs, or systems of the body, leading to tumours in the lung, kidney, bladder, uterus, and spleen, lower part of the stomach, tongue and intermediate regions of the skin (melanoma).

So, an array of environmental and lifestyle factors may contribute to the development of cancer. In most cases, these are not the primary cause, but may contribute to an overall decline in natural immune function, reduce the ability to discharge excess, and accelerate the spread of tumour growth. These include many over the counter medications, prescription drugs, and treatments, exposure to x rays, mammograms, CT scans, MRIs and other invasive medical procedures, industrial chemicals, pollutants, and pesticides, exposure to artificial electromagnetic radiation from computers, cell phones, and other electronics equipment, exposure to nuclear energy or fallout, microwave cooking and use of tobacco.

A lack of physical activity, sedentary jobs, mental and psychological stress, and other lifestyle factors can weaken the body, inhibit discharge of excess and contribute to the development of disease.
A wholegrain plant based diet as designed for you by your Macrobiotic Counsellor with special home remedy teas and compresses to strengthen the immune system that can help you aid in recovery is recommended. Cooking classes are available to guide you on the path to renewed health.

I hope you find this information helpful. It's truly wonderful to see clients recover from many forms of cancer,

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my own family included as I guide them through all of the above.

Marlene x