Traditional vs. Modern Science

A dear friend of mine sent me the article below written by Carlo Guglielmo, dedicated student of the a yin-yang philosophy for more than 35 years. The article is great and talk about a lot of the issues that I struggled with in the past such as the dilemma of eating meat or not and some issues that I'm dealing with today, such as the complexity of studying nutrition in a scientific institution. I'll leave the vegetarian dilemma for another post because the text turned out to be very long since I have a lot to talk about it. But I can talk a little about the dilemma in school!!!

I have a lot of healthy discussions in the classrooms because I try support and defend the alternative approaches for nutrition with my modest knowledge in macrobiotic and ayurveda, but I fail. I usually hear from professors that these traditional medicines are based on anecdotal knowledge and can't be supported scientifically. Unfortunately, for the modern nutrition community, every argument must be based on scientific studies. So I usually ask myself what about Darwin who created the theory of evolution based solely on observation? That theory would have been considered anecdotal if wasn't its publication and acceptance in the scientific community. So why can't we start open the eyes to the traditional medicines and study their principles? That answer is easy, the big health industry (health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and many doctors) won't allow it. Keeping people sick is too far more profitable than accepting a healthy life-style.

So the same way that I became more flexible to accept some scientific facts, I beg for the medical community to also accept or at least respect thee traditional knowledge. Because the way that modern society is acting today is not sustainable and will collapse sooner than later. 

YIN-YANG, SCIENCE AND "MACROBIOTIC" CANCER BY CARLO GUGLIELMO                   

                           

              This article focuses on the possibility of a dialogue between the macrobiotic yin-yang unifying principle and the modern scientific method, and on what we can learn from the scientific data with regard to the recent problem of several macrobiotic friends who developed cancer.

Some macrobiotic friends and teachers seem to believe that macrobiotics should not rely on science, but only on yin-yang, which they consider a firmer foundation for managing health problems.

However, it could be said that modern macrobiotics, since its origins, has included western science in its approach. George Ohsawa himself interpreted, in a renewed way, the traditional yin-yang principle, disentangling it from the body of the traditional Chinese medicine and culture in order to open a dialogue with western science.

Ohsawa took this courageous and hazardous step because he felt that this method had to be rescued from the superstition into which it had fallen along the centuries. All the insights on chemistry and physics reported in Ohsawa's books are there to demonstrate the importance of modern science as an unavoidable reference point for Ohsawa himself.

In the later years, the macrobiotic community has not really deepened this subject. Instead, the use of science by the macrobiotic community has ended up being rather instrumental - for example reporting only the medical data supporting our views on health and forgetting the controversial ones - and it does not show a true attitude to learning what is worthwhile from the scientific community.

Weak and strong points

Actually, the scientific method and community have their strong and weak points as everything and everyone else in this world. Among the strong points is that a theory has to be verified by facts or experiments, in order to be shared by the scientific community. The facts themselves, or the results of experiments, have to be independently confirmed by a number of different researchers, using accepted instruments and methods. The use of mathematics, and the possibility to address the same issue from many different approaches, add even more solidity to the data retrieved.

Of course, we all know that among the weak points there are the attempts to study a phenomena by isolating it from its environment (this is true for in vitro studies, or for the studies addressing a single nutrient among the multitude present in any food, and so on). Moreover, some phenomena cannot be properly managed or measured with the current instruments, and so they are often dismissed as not worthy of scientific inquiry. And everybody knows too well the limits of analytical thinking to speak about that here.

But saying that science has its limits is not saying that it is useless, only that we should not rely on that as blindly as it is commonly done today. If we say that science often changes its view about a subject, and so we cannot rely on it, we say something trivial. Science has to be in constant change, in order to stay in touch with new experiences of the reality.

If we say that its answers are incomplete and partial, and that this is a good reason for not taking them into consideration, this is even more trivial, because the goal of science is not giving the final answers but only the most probable ones. And while it is true that scientific data is often influenced by commercial, personal, or ideological factors, this is true for everything that human beings do, including what happens in the macrobiotic community, and this must be taken into consideration in drawing our personal conclusions about any subject.

Yin-Yang and Dogma

The strength of our yin-yang method stands in its ability to show, in its holistic attitude, the relationships between facts often considered separated from each other. This can really help give indications for exploring and possibly solving many different problems. Moreover, yin-yang helps in seeing things in motion and transformation, so keeps pace with an ever changing reality.

However, it is not easy to apply yin-yang well, even after many years of practice, nor do our macrobiotic schools teach that in depth. Moreover, this method gives always rather approximate answers to our quests, that must be constantly checked and refined through our practice. In the worst cases, it is possible to fall into superficiality or dogma, especially when we don't take care to check the reality of our intuitions in our practice, and we are satisfied with their likelihood or their consistency with our "principles". But a theory can be consistent with our principles, and still be false or at least not proved at all.

There are yin-yang theories about terrestrial axis shifts or solar system births that have been taught for years in the macrobiotic community without any concern to check their reality on the basis of the available facts. What's worse, the same is true also for some macrobiotic theories regarding health issues, among which is the one regarding cancer.

The development of cancer through different phases, from accumulation to adegeneration and/or discharge, has not ever been adequately put under scrutiny and evaluated. It just makes sense, but that's not enough, and a few cases of cancer within the macrobiotic community, obviously regarding people that did not show any deposit, urgently ask for a wider approach to this issue.

In all these cases, what were wonderful and very inspirational insights, that had to be checked in the spirit of "non credo" in order to become reliable theories, became "truths" devoid of any possibility for further evolution or refinement. This is not due to a negative attitude from some macrobiotic teachers, but it is an inherent risk of this method itself, of which we need to be conscious.

Intuition, intellect and science

Exchange and communication between science and yin-yang can offer a real possibility, for both, to come in closer contact with the reality. Historically, the scientific method developed exactly in trying to avoid the pitfalls of dogma, and we should be grateful to the thousands of persons which helped in creating it. Even if an overuse of technology (derived by science, but not properly science in itself) is presently fuelling our journey to disaster, the scientific method still stays as an extraordinary realization of the human spirit.

Of course every method with which we explore the reality has its limits, because everything that we can reach with our senses or with our intellect has limits. But this is also true for any formulation of an "absolute principle", because the "real thing" cannot be grasped by the intellect but only experienced by a part of us that goes beyond intellect itself. Every formulation of the truth is by definition incomplete, as we all know well that it is only the finger pointing to the moon.

Firmly standing on this realization, we can still use both intuition and intellect in order to orient ourselves. We must use both - not only intuition but also intellect - because very often what we label as "intuition" is not coming from the real source, and so can be very misleading.

The use of our intellect, both through yin-yang and scientific thinking, help us to stay in balance along our way to reawakening our intuitive ability, our supreme judgement. Different from what happens with scientific thinking, it is true that the "intellectual" use of yin-yang may in due time help us to realize a non-intellectual, or intuitive, contact with the reality. It just may help, although it does not automatically do that.

If we agree on these premises, and appreciate the importance of including data from science in our reflections about the macrobiotic way of eating, and the cancer problem in particular, there are a few things that I believe can be of interest for us all. I will shortly introduce them in the following pages, while a few introductory references are given at the end of this article, for whoever wishes to go deeper into this subject.

The Vitamin B12 and Animal Food Issue

Both nutritionists and macrobiotic teachers did not recognize until very recent times the central role of Vitamin B12 in health. We used to think that there was a B12 insufficiency only when signs of anemia were present. Now it is becoming clear that even a mild insufficiency, with the usual blood tests still in the norm, can already create problems.

When B12 is not sufficient, a substance called homocysteine rises in the blood, and high levels of homocysteine are associated with a higher risk for cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and cancer. Several studies involving both vegetarians and macrobiotic people demonstrate that, from this point of view, these groups fare worse than omnivores, showing higher levels of homocysteine in the blood.

Probably, macrobiotic people fare even worse that vegetarians with regard to this issue, also the situation of vegans not taking B12 supplements is still worse. So, if for other risk factors we are on a safer stand than omnivores, under this point of view we don't do well at all. Probably this situation can influence in particular our risk to develop cancer and osteoporosis, as vegetarian and macrobiotic people present, for the rest, very low risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

This seems proven by the data showing that vegetarians, and semi-vegetarians as we are, die far less from cardiovascular disease than omnivores, but there seems to be no difference with regards cancer.

For osteoporosis we are probably at the limits of the risk, if our intake of calcium and proteins is only marginally adequate for a long time - and this is probably the case for not so few macro friends - or even at risk if the intake is not adequate, which could be true for a larger number of friends than we think. With regards cancer, which is the main subject of this article, the facts of life are showing us that we are not immune at all.

As active Vitamin B12 is only present in animal foods, and not in miso, seaweeds, tempeh or other commonly eaten foods, the homocysteine issue raises the problem of our attitude toward animal food. We always associated it with disease, ecological imbalance and poor spiritual development, and this is true if the quantities that we consume are high and the quality is poor.

But human beings need some animal foods, and always did eat them in the past if only available. So we need to discover the right quantity for our present / modern needs, and the best way to prepare it. Maybe we just need more fish, but probably eggs and poultry are also ok, in lower amounts, and even red meat if our conditions of life are very demanding, as doing physical labour daily in the cold.

Epigenetic Theory of Cancer

Recently, a whole new avenue has opened in cancer research. While until a few years ago it was believed that cancer starts with changes in the genes, it is now becoming clear that the first step is represented by modifications that influence the way in which the normal genes are expressed. These modifications, of which only a few are at present sufficiently known, are influenced by diet.

This comes as a great confirmation of our ideas about food and cancer, also because the influence of diet clearly extends to the foetal development, broadly confirming our theories about how the constitution forms. However, it must be noted that one important factor in this game is, again, vitamin B12. When this vitamin is taken in inadequate amounts, modifications in both the genes' structure and the way they are expressed arise. So this nutrient comes again in focus with regard to the cancer issue.

Fish and Oils

Speaking of fish, it is very clear that the standard recommendations to consume this food one or two times a week, preferably white meat fish, are correct only for a short time, and only if used to cleanse deposits and create a better yin-yang balance. After this cleansing and rebalancing period, fat fish becomes more important, as it is the best source of omega-3 fats.

Before going on, please let me say that the omega-3 issue is a good example of how carefully we should consider the scientific data. Only applying our yin-yang methods, we could have not understood this issue properly, and it has been necessary to use the scientific approach for that. The same is true for the homocysteine issue, by the way, so we need to be humble and open.

Probably many macro people still take omega-6 in too high an amount compared to omega-3. The improper use of oil, and the fats included in many ready to eat foods and sweets, can create this problem. It is becoming increasingly clear that an excess of omega-6 raises the risk for cardiovascular disease and cancer, and negatively influences the immune responses.

Since the most useful omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are also present in naturally raised meats and free-range eggs, not only in fish, this seems to be, again, a problem with the proper use of animal food.

Vitamin D and Physical Activity

Fatty fish is important for another nutrient that it is more and more considered essential to health, i.e. Vitamin D. It is now clear that its role goes far beyond that of calcium and the bones, this nutrient is instrumental in cancer and degenerative diseases prevention. A very recent analysis of all the studies done on this subject has showed that the importance of vitamin D for the prevention of cancer is so strong that, if an adequate amount could be taken with food or be produced by our skin under the action of the sun, probably half of the most common cancers could be prevented.

Now, everybody living in northern latitudes has problems with vitamin D, as we live too little outside in the sun and too much indoors, so this is not true for macro people only. However, fatty fish is one of the very few foods that contain good levels of vitamin D, so reducing it too much in favour of white fish cannot be a long time strategy.

Apart from getting this nutrient from the food we eat, it is clear that we should do our best to stay outdoors and take some sun, as this is a more central necessity for the human being than any specific food. Human beings adapted to eat a great variety of different foods during their evolutionary and historical time, but sun is the same on the whole earth and has always been necessary for everybody. Our focus on the importance of food should not make us blind to other basic necessities for us as human beings.

As with vitamin D, physical activity is also a basic necessity. We have often said that, but we rarely make it a way of living. The most important fact to consider, with regard to this issue, is that if we have too little physical activity it is very difficult to widen the diet as we would need, in order to include more vitamin B12 and D rich foods. If we eat more animal foods while doing little activity outdoors, we easily end in creating an imbalance. But the problem stays in the too little activity outdoors, not in the animal food, and we should encourage people to pay attention to this issue.

Also, it can be difficult to increase the quantity of animal food if we eat too many whole grains. Grains should be reduced when we increase our consumption of animal foods, while vegetables and fruits should be augmented.

Sweeteners

The last point that I wish to consider here regards the use of sweeteners. After many years of resistance, the scientific community is now becoming aware that our macrobiotic attitude toward refined sugars is correct. Humans are clearly not adapted to consume refined sugars. We have known for a long while that we can eat a moderate amount of simple sugars, provided that they are part of a natural food as a fruit, since they are combined with other nutrients that balance them, and not in a refined form.

However, in natural food stores plenty of sweeteners are sold, alone or included in sweets. Some of them are extremely refined, as agave syrup - which consists essentially of fructose, a bad choice of itself - or even "organic" plain sugar, but even the best ones such as fermented grain malts should be eaten with moderation.

It could be said that standard macrobiotics recommends consuming these kind of foods in great moderation, but the fact is that many people need them and eat them. This is due to the fact that they eat too little good quality fats and animal proteins, which are the real yin that they deserve, and they try to substitute them with sweets.

(Please refer to"Some reflections about the macrobiotic way of eating")

So it is useless to say that certain foods should be consumed in moderation, if you advise a diet that makes people crave these same foods. As I said at the beginning, principles must be checked through practice. If practice does not confirm them, either the principles are not true, or their application is wrong.

Many scientific studies underscore the role of the foods that cause a high insulinemic response in the body which is the origin of cancer, cardiovascular and degenerative diseases. Maybe the consumption of high insulinemic foods like sweets made of flour, fats and sweeteners, do not create many problems if the diet as a whole is low in calories and fats as the macrobiotic one.

However, it still remains a source of imbalance and, when other conditions are poor, maybe it can aggravate them. The situation is even worse for the sweetened beverages, such as rice or soy drinks, and others, as it seems clear that consuming simple sugars in beverages is even worse than doing it in foods.

Standard Diet and Macrobiotic Way of Eating

If we want to take into consideration this scientific data and make good use of them in our practice, we should say openly that the standard macrobiotic diet is a specific diet focused on cleansing and rebalancing the body, to be adopted for a limited period of time. After that, the normal macrobiotic diet should often include moderate amounts of animal foods, especially fish but also eggs and poultry or other white meats, provided that their quality is good and their preparation is balanced. It is our urgent task to explore the traditional cuisine and to apply our yin-yang understanding in order to discover the most appropriate ways and recipes for consuming animal foods.

Compared with the stricter period on a standard macrobiotic diet, in our daily macrobiotic eating we need to increase the consumption of vegetables and fruits, and reduce the amount of whole grains that we eat.

Olive or sesame oil should be the most commonly used fat condiments, to be used far more liberally than during the cleansing period. Other oils should be minimized.

Sweets and sweetened beverages, even if organic and of good quality, should be minimized too. Maybe they are good for children, but if an adult craves these items often he is probably lacking good quality fats and proteins, and this usually comes from eating too much whole grains and too little oil, vegetables, animal foods and fruits. Fruits are our natural dessert.

The Jing Issue

Traditional Chinese medicine states that we are born endowed with a certain amount of Jing, or primal generative energy. Stress and desires make this energy diminish and ultimately finish, at which point the person dies. More than fifteen years ago I started practicing qigong and to work daily on this issue, and now I feel that this theory is a great gift from the Chinese tradition. We macrobiotic people should become very aware of it.

Many macro people did eat in a too strict way for a too long time, consuming an inadequate amount of animal foods, vitamin B12 and D, maybe coupling this with an imbalance of omega-3 and 6 fats. However, due to our ability to make balance using yin-yang, we didn't notice it. What may seem paradoxical, but it is nevertheless true, is that we may usually stay well and be energetic, since our food is rather well balanced in yin-yang terms and since we usually avoid unnatural foods, but this does not mean that we are really in good health.

In many cases this condition, after a long time, seems to carry to a depletion of Jing: people become too skinny and superficially clean, but lacking precious reserves. Maybe, at this point, degenerative diseases can occur because of stress, pollution, or according to individual genetic weakness, or for the sheer lack of some essential nutrients.

If you take a good look around, many macro friends seem to be clean but too frail. Maybe they have cured themselves of several ailments and they seem superficially to be in balance, but you can feel that something is lacking. And for sure many friends who suffered cancer did not have big deposits in the body: it is more likely that they developed their problem because of something lacking than something in excess. Our theory on cancer must be revised and widened in order to include the possibility that the lack of essential nutrients, as B12 and D, can create the conditions for its development.

Please note that both B12 and D vitamins are very yang. Vitamin B12 is essential for the reconstitution of DNA at each cellular division, so it operates at the very core of our physical body. The fact that these vitamins are present only in animal foods should make us think. We can be very yang because of a clean diet rich in whole grains and free form sugar and soft drinks, but we can still lack some essential yang factors.

Conclusion

It is interesting to note that the vegetarian community has been struggling, for a while to make its members realize the need for vitamin B12 (and recently also also Vit. D) supplementation. Our macrobiotic community is not in a better position with regard to this issue, but I am not aware that a similar effort is under way. Maybe, since the vegetarian "principles" are based on ethics, and not on a method (yin-yang) that it is supposed to replace the scientific one, they are more open to learn from others than what we are.

It is possible that, thanks to our broader approach to diet, we can avoid the use of supplements, but this is not certain. In any case, if this issue is not adequately addressed, we will never know that.

I believe that it is our duty to learn from what is happening to a few long time macrobiotic friends. We should not sleep on the good results we obtained with so many health problems. Please consider the possibility that, after having learned fairly well how to cleanse and rebalance ourselves, we must now learn how to create strong foundations and good quality reserves.

This I feel can be done by widening the standard macrobiotic diet in a conscious and balanced way, after the cleansing period is ended. We must learn to create a wider, lively balance, to which a little more animal food and outdoor activity can be important contributions.

Carl Guglielmo

Carl Guglielmo is dedicated to the study of the philosophy yin-yang and its applications since 1974.

In 1978 he participated in the foundation of the East-West Center in Turin. In 1982 he was recognized as a Associated Teacher from the Kushi Institute in Boston.

References:

THE VITAMIN B12/ Cyanocobalamin ISSUE

Some representatives of the vegetarian community have made an excellent informative work.

Please check:3 Vitamin B12: Are You Getting It? - http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/all

4 What Every Vegan Should Know about Vitamin B12 - http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/everyvegan/

Vitamin B12 Deficiency report http://www.aafp.org/afp/20030301/979.html

Other useful introductory articles are:

5 B12 deficiency more widespread than thought - http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/now/apr15/index.html

6 New thought about Vitamin B12 deficiency - http://www.nutrition.cornell.edu/nutritionworks/ane004.cfm

More technical studies:

7 Vitamin B-12 status, particularly holotranscobalamin II and methylmalonic acid concentrations, and hyperhomocysteinemia in vegetarians - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 78, No. 1, 131-136, July 2003

8 Total Homocysteine, Vitamin B12, and Total Antioxidant Status in Vegetarians - Clinical Chemistry. 2001;47:1094-1101

9 Vegetarianism and vitamin B-12 (cobalamin) deficiency - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 78, No. 1, 3-6, July 2003

10 Mortality in vegetarians and nonvegetarians: detailed findings from a collaborative analysis of 5 prospective studies - Am J Clin Nutr 1999;70(suppl):516S-24S.

ABOUT VITAMIN. D:

11 Sunlight and vitamin D for bone health and prevention of autoimmune diseases, cancers, and cardiovascular disease - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 80, No. 6, 1678S-1688S, December 200412 The Role of Vitamin D in Cancer Prevention

Am J Public Health, Dec 2005; doi:10.2105/AJPH.2004.045260

ABOUT HOMOCYSTEINE AND CANCER + OSTEOPOROSIS RISK:

13 Hyperhomocysteinemia is a risk factor for cancer and a new potential tumor marker - Clin Chim Acta 2002 Aug;322(1-2):21-8

14 Homocysteine Levels and the Risk of Osteoporotic Fracture - N Engl J Med 2004;350:2033-41.

15 Homocysteine as a Predictive Factor for Hip Fracture in Older Persons - N Engl J Med 2004; 351:1027-1030, Sep 2, 2004

A COUPLE OF REFERENCES FOR OMEGA-3 AND CANCER:

16 Dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids for the prevention of cancer: a review of potential mechanisms - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 79, No. 6, 935-945, June 2004

17 Dietary intake of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids and the risk of prostate cancer - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 80, No. 1, 204-216, July 2004

AN INTRODUCTION TO EPIGENETICS:

18 Epigenetic regulation of gene expression: how the genome integrates intrinsic and environmental signals - Nature Genetics 33, 245 - 254 (2003

19 Role of DNA Methylation in the Regulation of Cell Function: Autoimmunity, Aging and Cancer - J. Nutr. 132:2401S-2405S, 2002

20 Diet, Methyl Donors and DNA Methylation: Interactions between Dietary Folate, Methionine and Choline - J. Nutr. 132:2333S-2335S, 2002