Macrobiotic diet
| Alternative medicine | |
|---|---|
| Claims | Health effects from a diet avoiding refined foods and most animal products. Specific effects on cancer |
| Related fields | Diet |
| Original proponents | Sagen Ishizuka |
| Subsequent proponents | George Ohsawa Michio Kushi William Dufty Edward Esko |
A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics) is an unconventional restrictive diet based on ideas about types of food drawn from Zen Buddhism. The diet tries to balance the supposed yin and yang elements of food and cookware. Major principles of macrobiotic diets are to reduce animal products, eat locally grown foods that are in season, and consume meals in moderation.
There is no high-quality clinical evidence that a macrobiotic diet is helpful for people with cancer or other diseases, and it may be harmful. Neither the American Cancer Society nor Cancer Research UK recommends adopting the diet. Deaths have been reported from malnutrition on strict macrobiotic diets.