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Myth: The macrobiotic diet, a common dietary alternative, can cure cancer.
Answer: The various cultures present in the United States are filled with contradictions when it comes to nutrition. Americans are bombarded with fast food franchises and restaurants serving larger and larger portions of mass produced food. However, at the same time, media outlets and infomercials report on the obesity crisis in America and countless diet plans, precooked health food programs, or dietary supplements are offered from a variety of sources. More nutrition information has become available to the average consumer through product labeling and the internet and, as these factors continue to interplay with one another, interest in the connection between nutrition and disease increases.
Macrobiotic Diet
A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics) is a dietary approach that involves eating grains as a staple food supplemented with other foodstuffs such as vegetables and beans and avoiding the use of processed or refined foods (see Figure 1). The macrobiotic diet was first introduced in the 18th century by German physician Christoph Hufeland and the belief that a macrobiotic diet could cure cancer was popularized in the mid-1960s by George Ohsawa, a Japanese prophet, philosopher, and lecturer, and established in the United States by Michio Kushi, a student of Ohsawa (American Cancer Society [ACS], 1972, 1993; Kushi et al., 2001). Based on the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang-the belief that there are two opposing yet complementary aspects to all things in the world-Ohsawa believed that people who adhered to the macrobiotic diet would have a long life free from illness, have renewed energy, and have improved memory and thought processes. Ohsawa said "No illness is more simple to cure than cancer through a return to the most elementary and natural eating and drinking diet" (ACS, 1972, p. 373).
Ohsawa's macrobiotic diet included 10 progressively restrictive stages with the 10th stage being a diet of only water and brown rice. However, by the late 1960s, severe complications arose in individuals who were following Ohsawa's diet regimen. A statement from the American Medical Association's Council on Foods and Nutrition documented cases of scurvy, anemia, hyperproteinemia, hypocalcaemia, emaciation and malnutrition, starvation, renal failure, and even death (ACS, 1993).
The macrobiotic diet was denounced by the Council on Foods and...