BOTH SIDES NOW 

With the equinox on the 21st March, we see the natural cycle of balance and order within the cosmos at play. On this date, light and dark are in perfect balance.

Immediately at that point, in the Southern Hemisphere the hours of darkness will lengthen, reaching its’ fullest length at the solstice in June, after which it concedes dominance to the light once again, and vice versa in the Northern Hemisphere. The equinox is the tipping point. In essence, it’s all a balancing act as the energetic forces move between opposite poles and we see this expressed in the entirety of life on the earth plane. Day into night, breath in and out, heat into cold, summers outward and upwards expansiveness descends and contracts into the still earth in winter as just some examples.

In essence, it’s all a balancing act as the energetic forces move between opposite poles and we see this expressed in the entirety of life on the earth plane. 

Day into night, breath in and out, heat into cold, summers outward and upwards expansiveness descends and contracts into the still earth in winter as just some examples.

I’d love to explore the notion of balance a little more with you from a Macrobiotic position because ultimately that is what it’s all about. Meaning the 'art of longevity’, Macrobiotics as a paradigm for wholesome and healthy living was introduced to the western world by a Japanese man known as George Ohsawa in the late 1940s and 50s.

Essentially macrobiotics is a striving to live all aspects of a life in balance. George’s disciple Michio Kushi, considered food the most important aspect of all, as it is food that informs all we are and are able to be.

Macrobiotically, the opposing energetic poles are expressed as the earthbound energy, contractive force known as ‘yang’ (warming) and the heaven bound, expansive force known as yin (cooling). Keeping ourselves balanced in all aspects of our life is the goal and this is most commonly achieved with the food we eat, though lifestyle is equally important. Food can be classified on many levels but for our purposes here, I’m going to focus primarily on its expansiveness or contractiveness.

At the yin end of the spectrum (expansive and cooling), we have drugs, alcohol, fruit juices, refined sugar, then lessening towards tropical fruits. Unrefined sugar is less so, but still expansive.

At the yang end of the spectrum (contractive and warming), we see salt, eggs, then lessening towards cheese and meats.

Eating foods that are well-balanced, neither too yin or yang is the goal. Notably, these include grains, (especially brown rice), bitter greens, sea vegetables, pumpkins, sweet potato, roots, nuts and beans. We can also use cooking techniques to effect a foods yin-ess or yang-ness, for example baking a carrot will make it more yang (and warming) as the moisture is pulled out by the dry heat of the oven, condensing them. When they are boiled, steam produced by the boiling water expands upwards and outwards, giving the carrot a more yin (and cooling) energy.   

We can also use foods to counterbalance an extreme state (yin or yang) with it’s opposite. One example of this is the use of umeboshi plums. Pickled in salt, these plums (actually apricots) are highly contractive or yang. 

They are commonly used for expansive states (hangovers, too much sweetness and sugar or fatigue as just some examples). A lick of umeboshi is a common afternoon pick-me-up or part of a hangover cure. Personally, I crave miso soup after a bit too much cake and believe it’s why in Australia vegemite (salt, contractive) is often craved after a bout of gastro (all that expansive vomiting).

A good way to demonstrate balance is to imagine a see-saw. If we sit closer to the middle, balance is maintained. As we move progressively to the extremes, we must balance it out in the same area of extremity on the other side to stop the see-saw from tipping.

The standard western diet of highly refined and processed foods (thus highly expansive) sits on the very tip of one side of our see-saw. We could call it an unbalanced diet. 

Very salty foods and animal protein are often craved with such eating but this makes sense when we consider that salt being extremely contractive sits at the very tip on the other side of the see-saw. If we eat a diet very high in animal protein, we veer again to the very tip of the other end of the see-saw, often craving sweetness to balance this out. 

I use the concepts of yin and yang a lot when developing flavour in cooking, and I will be going into this in depth in the upcoming Foundation Class, Flavour.

Ultimately, it is important to remember that all edible whole and real foods provided by nature (both contractive and expansive, cooling and heating or acid and alkaline) have a place. It’s all about balance.

Ideally, we aim for the middle but eat further towards the outer limits in smaller amounts. It’s why I love to say, sweetness is not a dirty word and indeed even a little bit of white sugar within the context of a whole and balanced diet, is not the end of the world. But it also tells you why it’s not such a great idea consuming lots of expansive tropical foods in the dead of winter. A cold smoothie, with coconut milk, frozen tropical fruits such as mango or dragon fruits, coconut palm sugar or syrup is far too expansive and cooling. They are perfectly designed to open you up, help you sweat and cool down in a hot humid climate and perfect to eat if you are in that kind of weather, either living or visiting. Not so perfect in the middle of winter. In essence, there is a time, place and a season for every edible real and whole food. It is why Locality and Seasonality are core wholefood principles, and why we explore these deeply Get Organised. ∎