Atlanta Macrobiotics

Warren Kramer internationally-known Senior Macrobiotic Counselor will be in Atlanta July 15-20, 2009. Teacher for the Kushi Institute, Strengthening Health Institute, the Macrobiotic Cruise, and New England Macrobiotic Center, Warren brings a wealth of knowledge gained from the eleven years he served as Michio Kushi’s private assistant, as well as over 25 years counseling throughout the world.

In Atlanta Warren will be giving private consultations, macrobiotic cooking classes, and evening  lectures in the Dunwoody area. Attend all events & have a private consultation, and you will receive 15% savings on lecture and cookings classes Thursday through Sunday.

Please contact Marsha Rueff to reserve consultation time with Warren and your choice of venues  at marsharueff@mac.com .

Phone contact: 678 . 643 . 5662 or 770 . 396 . 9413.

For Warren’s bio please visit www.macrobioticsnewengland.com

Saturday afternoon, July 18, please join us for a macrobiotic cooking class, Wrap it Up! Awesome Sandwiches & Wraps! July 18, 1-4 pm The Rueff Home, 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338

Everyone adores sandwiches, and Warren has his favorites, so do we all. Get ready to sample some new varieties, and discover this wonderful new repertoire to delight your palate as well as everyone in your world! Perfect for summer, and quick for taking food-on-the-go! A great idea for travel too. Slip your favorite wrap into a wax paper bag, and this in turn into a plastic one – look at Whole Foods for the non-petroleum plastic baggies as well as the wax paper ones too! And you are well on your way! Especially great for overseas flights.

Why else are sandwiches and wraps great to learn in a macrobiotic cooking class? Two simple words: cravings and satisfying! That’s right, even following a macrobiotic diet we experience cravings for foods, and having a sandwich or wrap alternative proves very satisfying, and just nips that craving in the bud.

And they don’t have to be loaded with mayonnaise, ketchup and bright yellow mustard. You will learn so many variations on this theme as this class opens lotsa possibilities for you. Get ready for a whole new take on your macrobiotic diet! And you’ll still get to enjoy homemade pickles and Santa Barbara olives! Perhaps this new quality is even better than you ever imagined! Yes, Warren will be teaching everybody’s favorite fun food!

Right after we’ve finished tasting the goodies of this fun macrobiotic cooking class Warren’s lecture, How to Discharge Sweets & Dairy applying the 5 Transformations will absolutely astound you! A perfect afternoon!

Doesn’t everyone take their copy of the newest macrobiotic diet book to their cardiologist’s visit? Or do you just take the coumadin they suggest, and be done with it?

Last month once again my husband and I were ever so grateful for our knowledge and 17 year-long practice of following the macrobiotic diet and lifestyle. Fred had open-heart surgery June, 1992 – actually on our anniversary, and we promised each other we would find a way to avoid multilple surgeries the education nurses at St. Joseph Hospital said likely occur within the next 5 years. Our research led us to Dean Ornish’s program, and then the Macrobiotic Diet, which we learned Dean actually followed himself. With eating a macrobiotic diet, Fred was only on medication 6 months following the initial surgery, which was quite an accomplishment. Why? Because the medication usually recommended following heart surgery actually weakens the heart, contributing to additional surgeries.

Fred experienced two instances of TIA during the last year – and never mentioned it to me – but casually told our opthamologist who adamantly urged see your cardiologist immediately. The initial cardiologist’s sonogram showed mitral valve regurgitation for which he strongly recommended Coumadin. So picture this: we‘re sitting in the office of a leading Atlanta cardiologist, who is respectful of our  following the macrobiotic diet and lifestyle. And we are very grateful for his expertise, listening skill and kindness to fully explain Fred’s condition. But he is actually apologizing that Coumadin is the best he has to offer because of the harmful side effects. And because of the danger of its usage, he explains they actually have a person in the office designated to monitoring patients on coumadin. He then ushered in perky Miss Coumadin Girl, and left the office.

Perky Miss Coumadin Girl has a name – but I forgot it! She was so all about Coumadin, that for Fred and I she just may have been named Miss Coumadin Girl, or Miss Coumadin Cheerleader or the whole cheerleading squad. How could she be so exuberant about this drug while admitting it’s in rat poison? She proceeded telling us how Fred could not eat most green vegetables – staples on a macrobiotic diet – casually listing Coumadin’s adverse side effects on the liver, the kidneys, sleep and lack of energy. Green vegetables of course benefit all these organs, and contribute calcium. We voted for the greens!

I stopped her flat saying Fred is not taking Coumadin. What she blurted, he has no choice. Yes, I think he does. We’ll find the macrobiotic diet recommendation instead. We courteously thanked her and promised to be in touch, and Miss Coumadin Cheerleader slumped from the room as if her team had lost the world championships. Once again we were so grateful for every macrobiotic cooking class and lecture, summer conference and study to which we’ve been privileged. And all our macrobiotic teachers, for their research and shared knowledge which gave us the information to make this important choice.

On the drive home we called & updated our Macrobiotic Diet Senior Counselor, Warren Kramer. Warren said okay, this is do-able; take the Macrobiotic Diet Heart Drink daily for 3 weeks. It’s on page 470 in Michio Kushi and Alex Jack’s most recent book, Macrobiotic Path to Total Health.

Now one wonderful thing about these Macrobiotic Diet Home Remedies is you usually already have your kitchen set up to follow a macrobiotic diet. So, you already own the ingredients. And there is no huge expense to heal yourself, whereas some of the new medications are over the top. And the best part, and this is most important to all of us, there are no adverse side effects. Instead, the whole body benefits. Because truly everything, every organ has a connection within our body. And that is exactly what happened to my dear Fred.

So guess what the ingredients of this heart drink are? Just 5 ingredients from your fridge and pantry:

• Daikon tops & other hard leafy greens ( exactly what coumadin doesn’t allow!) 2 parts
• Dried shiitake mushroom (what Fred uses as a blood thinner instead of coumadin) 1 part
• Corn or corn product, as corn grits – 1 part
• Cabbage – 1 part
• Wakame (a sea vegetable, high in minerals) 1 part
• Water 4-5 times as much, cook 20 minutes, strain & drink.
• Note: one part is the size of 1 dried shiitake mushroom, which measures 1 Tablespoon

And that’s it folks! So, we are scheduled to revisit this esteemed cardiologist in 6 months, but already we have seen some dramatic changes that a macrobiotic counselor would notice using oriental diagnosis to examine the facial features. The nose shows the condition of the heart. And here’s what we notice about Fred’s nose: it looks smaller, and has more definition, as if someone has pinched the bridge of his nose. Could that signal the mitral valves have come together, and are not regurgitating as much as before?

Also, Fred had a space between his two front top teeth. Dentists have always said leave it alone because any change would create too much movement. I noticed the other day, 3 weeks after this drink the space was eliminated. The gap closed overnight. No way I thought. I looked at my book on Chinese meridians and saw at the very top point way up under the lip is a point for the Heart Governor, so maybe this too shows the valves are closing up.

I called Warren, and told him, and teased him about now doing orthodontia work. He laughed, and said it’s very possible. Hmmmm, macrobiotic diet side effects. Sure beats the worrisome list of the ones Miss Coumadin offered.

In 1992 I had a triple bypass operation after one large heart attack, and 34 smaller ones at the hospital following medication to stop that big one. This left me very weak and I decided then and there to do all I could to heal myself. Most importantly, change the life style that had brought on this life-threatening crisis. And eliminate taking medications which eventually weaken the heart and other organs.

First I enrolled in St. Joseph Hospital’s cardiac rehab program, which continued at a great health club. In a matter of 2 months I became amazingly fit. Marsha had discovered Dr. Ornish’s book “How To Reverse Heart Disease Without Surgery and we followed the diet he recommended for 6 months, attending his November seminar in Berkeley.

March, 1993 we met up in Florida with Senior Macrobiotic Counselor, Lino Stanchich, attended his lecture which rang so true to me. I had my private consultation with him the next day, and decided to follow the macrobiotic diet he recommended specifically modified to heal myself completely. Marsha took macrobiotic cooking classes, and within 2 months on the program a test at cardiac rehab showed my fat content was the lowest they had ever measured. Down to 8% – equal to that of an athlete.

The Macrobiotic Diet I have found is very empowering. It’s a diet of energetics. Proper cooking style and selection of foods attuned me to my real dietary needs. Initially it was Marsha doing most of the cooking. She truly improved her cooking skills by studying at the Kushi Institute, and initially I assisted her as the macro dishwasher. But in time and assisting with Macrobiotic cooking teachers we brought to our home since 1993, such as Wendy Esko and Warren Kramer, I became quite comfortable with preparing Macrobiotic cuisine. Ready to doing my own exploits.

As my health improved, business travel took me to the New York area 4-5 days, almost weekly. Cooking breakfast and lunch each morning at the hotel, I was able to keep the menu Ed Esko suggested for my macrobiotic recommendations. I even developed a program which I called Macro on the Go – a class I taught 3 years at The Kushi Summer Conference. I introduced myself saying, I’m not a macrobiotic counselor, or teacher – I’m just a traveling business man. We even sold travel kits and demo’ed my suitcase set-up full of cookers, pots and utensils! My classes were always popular, and many folks said this helped them immensely.

Recently I have been assisting Marsha more intensely the last couple of years in our Macrobiotic Cooking Service. We prepare 2 macrobiotic meals-to-go daily Monday through Saturday for our clients. And have fun doing this together. In the beginning Marsha’s high standards kept her correcting me often. But that’s why I love her. And I prefer being part of everything being top knotch for our guests.

Now I am proud to say my specialty is Kinpira Soup. And for those of you knowing this dish, that’s a lot of precise matchstick cutting. My Swiss background embraces this cuisine beautifully with exacting knife-manship! Marsha adores my Miso soup best; she says my sweetness gets into the soup, and if we ever made it the exactly the same, mine would be sweeter than hers.

Maybe that’s part of the fun in our macrobiotic kitchen. It’s more than a dish, more than a diet. It’s the romance. That’s the ticket. Marsha always says our kitchen is really a dance floor that just happens to have a stove in the middle of it. And it’s not unusual we find ourselves dancing at some point in the meal preparation.

You’re in the dentist chair and your dentist starts asking do you have a heart condition or any implant surgery, and if you say yes, they will only proceed if you have taken antibiotics – or they may give you a high dosage of antibiotics right then so as not to lose chair time. What to do if you prefer avoiding pharmaceutical medicines and their side effects?

On a Macrobiotic Diet it’s so easy! Three simple, magical words: ume sho kuzu! What’s that? A very soothing drink, easily made, in about 7 minutes. Three ingredients plus water: umeboshi plum, shoyu – a special soy sauce, and kuzu – the harvested root of the kudzu plant.

And the added benefit: it’s very soothing for your nerve endings, so you are more relaxed for that probing needle, good for the gums – which reflect the condition of our intestines. So we always take this drink before any dental cleansing or other appointments. It just eases our comfort level with the additional probing and vibrational sensations of the cleansing tools and uncomfortable pressure of x-ray filming.

I love teaching this drink in my macrobiotic cooking classes because it is helpful for so many health conditions. The recipe as found in Michio Kushi and Alex Jack’s book, The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health, page 505-506:

• Just dissolve 1 teaspoon of kuzu in 1 cup cold spring or filtered water.
• Bring to a boil, stirring continually to avoid lumping.
• Add one-third umeboshi plum
• Once the water becomes transparent, add 6 drops shoyu.

Drink while hot. Enjoy this drink daily two days before your appoinment, and the day of your appointment. If your dentist procedure involved novacaine, carbocaine or other numbing medication, use this drink the following two days.

Since this drink is considered the Macrobiotic Antibiotic we can answer yes to the above questions with confidence of protection, and knowing as well, there are no adverse side effects of our choice of this macrobiotic diet version of an antibiotic. In fact, since it’s good for so many conditions, we always feel better after taking it.

*Top quality ingredients can be ordered from Natural Import Company at 800 . 324 . 1878

• 89500 Sakurazawa Shoyu 5 oz.
• 89333 Mitoku Umeboshi Plum 6 oz
• 89408 Mitoku Kuzu 3 oz

For more information on the benefits of Ume Sho Kuzu, please check our website:  www.atlantamacrobiotics.com

Who would ever think you can get a workout cooking? Well, you just better believe it! Welcome to my kitchen, designed for cooking our macrobiotic diet! I could call it the macro gym! Just the iron skillet alone weighs about 5 – 6 pounds, so who needs weights when you’re pumping these babies in the morning? Expert that I am for frying tofu – a favorite for our take-out lunches, and I’m flexing those biceps pretty strongly!

Just this week I’ve been preparing carrot daikon drink, a special cleanser for the intestines after having a bit too much bread on the Cote ‘d’ Azure last week. Using this ceramic grater and doubling the ¹/4 cup carrot and ¹/2 cup daikon for my wife and I, got me thinking about this physical workout! I was sweatin’ like at the Club! Couldn’t believe it!

And what about lifting the Le Creuset cookware we  enjoy, or the Brazil on My Mind cookware like used in the Babylonian days? That sandstone is pretty hefty stuff, and we only the have the smallest size!

Ever made Gomashio? You’re stirring the surigochi around the suribachi! I mean, you’ve gotta enjoy a strong arm to crush everyone one of those sesame seeds like Aveline Kushi answered, when she was asked in a macrobiotic cooking class: How many seeds do I need to crush? I wish I could have seen the lady’s face when Aveline softly said, All of them my dear, just all of them.

Tonight I just prepared the Natto. Stirring that little container of fermented beans with a pair of cooking chopstix for 100 counts! I gotta tell you, I was ready to stop at 25. But no, I kept going and going! It’s the sticky part the stirring creates that benefits you when eating natto, and we were going to get our money’s worth! What a treat! Here’s the macrobiotic diet recipe for natto: just add mustard, chopped scallions and a bit of shoyu, and bingo, you’ve got some dish! And muscle tone to prove it.

Now Koi Koku is the kicker! You’ve gotta put on your favorite music and get ready for a stint in the kitchen to do this dish. We made it just about 2 months ago to correct a lack of B-12. It’s a strong dish, and we’ve made it before for our clients, because it takes lots of energy and strength to matchstick 3 1/2 or more pounds of burdock! You see, the amount of burdock is the same weight as the carp – and it’s almost impossible to find a carp less than 3 1/2 pounds. Ours was 5 pounds cut up, so you do the math. That cutting took 2 of us 1 1/2 hours. 

And what about washing these heave-ho pots! Our Le Creuset wok – for example – is one big hunk of steel and solid enamel – gotta be 8-9 pounds! Initially I used to call myself the Chief Macrobiotic Dishwasher, and I was feelin’ my muscles everytime Marsha called – Fred, please help me out here. Even though she tried to keep up with the dishes, & pots and pans, there would be a sink full. I have become very efficient in that department, and developed more arm strength in the doing. Now I’ve graduated to sous chef and can tell you there is plenty muscle activity in all  this specific chopping, dicing, slicing, matchsticking, and chunky cutting. And you know, even the shopping is a body builder! Lugging those bags! We buy the apple juice in these huge gallon containers and we always buy a few at a time.

So, just hope to have whetted your appetite for a great adventure in macrobiotic diet, and macro-muscle making in the process. I mean to say the food is the greatest we’ve ever enjoyed, and it certainly puts us in the direction of health as our macrobiotic counselor, Warren Kramer often says. Isn’t it great to think we can muscle tone at the same time we’re eating right! So let’s keep on kitchen pumpin’! 

You’re on a macrobiotic diet and you just ordered a beer? You’re having sake? But I thought you were on a macrobiotic diet? Did I see you having some wine, and you claim to eat so pure? Now I’m not going to believe anything you say about food anymore. Do you hear comments like these? I just did, and from a close family member.

A standard macrobiotic diet includes whole grain, beans, selected vegetables, soups, sea vegetables, sometimes recommended fish, seeds, nuts and fruit. And each category has special preparations. So why add alcoholic beverages to this healthy lifestyle? Is this hypocritical?

Not when we consider the yin and yang of it all, and how the macrobiotic diet is based on energetics – not calories, carbs, or weight. But how eating this food makes us feel. What is our energy like. Relaxing in this fast pace world is challenging, so we intentionally include relaxing foods and beverages.

Fruit kantens, pureed soups, warm fruit cooked in kuzu relax; try some warm apple juice, warm carrot juice and feel yourself relax deeper inside than biting into a cold apple. Sliced apples cooked in little apple juice is far sweeter and more relaxing too.

Sometimes a little stronger yin is called for, and that bit of warm sake relaxes our core being, or a glass of wine at your favorite Italian restaurant. Or, you’re out with friends at a local seafood restaurant – relax, enjoy a local beer with fish and chips. Why local beer? It aligns you with your environment. In fact, Warren Kramer suggests ordering local beer balances the yang of traveling. And it gets you in the groove of wherever you visit.

And when you want a milder yin? Adding apple juice to your bancha tea is very relaxing, or rice syrup. You can dilute the apple juice with water if you are limiting your fruit intake.

Sometimes try this special remedy drink, Ame Kuzu, which can actually be made three ways. Each achieves a stronger level of yin. The mildest is with rice syrup, a little stronger version uses barley malt, and the most yin is with apple juice. Warm and sweet, it relaxes your mind, settling down after a busy day, or having too much on your mind, and insures a good night sleep. Sometimes it’s an effective muscle relaxer.

The Ame Kuzu recipe is found in The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health, by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack, page 446.

• Dilute 1 teaspoon kuzu in 1 cup cold water
• Stir constantly over a medium flame, until the milky white liquid becomes transparent.
• Add 1-2 Tablespoons Suzanne’s Genmai Brown Rice Syrup
• Bring to a gentle boil*, and drink warm. *kuzu must boil to be effective.
• Or, the following:
• Prepare the Barley Malt version the same as above.
• Substitute Apple juice instead of water, or you can dilute with half juice, half water.

Whether you are newly researching the Macrobiotic Diet for yourself or a friend or loved one, and your questions start piling up, where do you go for your important answers???

Some just aren’t in the Macrobiotic Diet books, even though your queries have probably come up time and again. Just email your question to and I will answer you promptly!

Every question is important, and let me assure you, I always say if I could succeed with this Macrobiotic Diet, everyone else can too! No one could have been more overwhelmed in the beginning than I. And I had to learn quickly to help my husband recover from heart disease. Most importantly though, I wanted to learn this well, and continue being on the leading edge of this ever evolving way of life.

So, where have I learned these answers, if they aren’t even in the macrobiotic diet books?

From classes with very special senior macrobiotic counselors, study at the Kushi Institute, and the six years I conducted the group consultations for Michio Kushi at the Kushi Summer Conferences. All invaluable information. And researching for my own classes. And in bringing Warren Kramer, senior macrobiotic counselor to our home 4 times yearly for 10+ years. Warren’s the why-man in Macroland! He tells us why about everything, and I adore having this information to share. Knowing why makes the macrobiotic diet so easy, common sense, and fun! And if your question is new for me, I’ll find you the answer, or the best contact for you to call. We’ll learn it together.

Besides, my teaching background is the clue for your success. When I taught literature my students never earned below an A? When they did, I just had them rewrite their papers, retake their exams, reread the book, and they learned they could succeed. During the process they came to love the literature they were reading, but mostly they came to like themselves through the process. And the best part, so many more of my students furthered their education at the college level than ever before in this particular community.

So, how does this apply to Y-O-U, and your experience with the Macrobiotic Diet? Success! That’s the key, your success! Yep, if I could do this, and do it well, Y-O-U  C-A-N! Email where it’s all about you! And isn’t it fun to know you’re going to get an A in Macrobiotics!

You’ve sipped Green tea at the Chinese and Japanese restaurants, usually in the teeny cups they keep refilling over and over again. And this may or may not affect your sleep depending on your other intake of caffeine for that day. Yes, there is caffeine in this tea, although it’s less than coffee, but present. It’s from the leaf of the plant, and for those of you fortunate to have experienced Japanese Tea Serving you may have learned all about those special green leaves, and seen them crushed into the fine powders.

Well, on a Macrobiotic Diet there’s something even better than that! Bancha Twig Tea! And it has only miniscule caffeine – which means it’s there, but almost undetectable, especially the best Mitoku quality. And it’s helpful for so many conditions. I love covering all the benefits in my macrobiotic cooking classes. Here are a few for you to enjoy!

The loose twigs make a wonderful drink, and actually assists digestion. Just boil 5-7 minutes, to a light brown shade and enhanced aroma. Please enjoy in the morning, and I often take a thermos with me for the day when I’m away from home.

Need a more relaxing drink? Add a little apple juice, and voila, feel the tension melt away in your shoulder blades.

Feel the beginning of a headache coming? Add up to 6 drops shoyu (Macrobiotic Diet recommended soy sauce) to a drinking cup, and pour the tea over the shoyu. Now this is amazing. As the tea disperses the shoyu throughout the cup, guess what? When you drink this Sho Ban Tea, your blood is alkalined and the symptoms of the headache disperse and poof, vanishes! I keep a small bottle of shoyu at my desk, and have helped myself and other clients numerous times.

Do you sometimes get a sore throat or laryngitis? Gargle with salted bancha tea throughout the day, and you’ll nip it in the bud!

Travel with Bancha Twig Tea bags wherever you go! I had them at the beach years ago when I ran into a stingray, and guess what our Senior Macrobiotic Counselor Warren Kramer had me soak my foot in? Yep, Bancha Tea. It took the poison right out of my foot, so there I was the Marco Island Hilton hotel, foot in sink, soaking in bancha tea, while I sipped my Sho Ban for the trauma of the sting, and I was out dancing that very same night!

When dining out in restaurants here are guidelines to maintain a healthy macrobiotic diet. When you frequent restaurants you can fax this list ahead or call in advance, and simplify your ordering at the table. We cover this information more in depth in our macrobiotic cooking classes.

AVOID THESE FOODS

ENJOY THESE VEGETABLES

Seasonings: Olive oil, small amount garlic, sea salt

Note: ask for house rice in Japanese restaurants; the sushi rice has sugar in it. The sugar is in the vinegar already, and sometimes they add extra sugar. That’s the trick to get you to keep ordering sushi! So, what to do, in Japanese Restaurants just ask for House Rice! This has no sugar!

ENJOY THESE FISH STEAMED OR POACHED WITH VEGETABLES & LEMON

AVOID THESE FISH

ATLANTA RESTAURANTS

Serves 4-5

Benefits: Daikon strongly dissolves fat, oil and discharges animal products from past eating habits.

The root is especially helpful for the intestines and the tops cleanse our lungs! A perfect combination in healing our bodies, ‘specially since ancient Chinese medicine sees these two organs as a special pair! There are additional recipes we cover in our macrobiotic cooking classes. This recipe below is inspired by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack in Healing Foods

• 2 cup daikon root, diced
• 3-4 cups daikon tops, diced
• Pinch of si salt
• Shoyu to taste, 8-10 drops

1. Place daikon root in enamel cast iron pot, add water to cover.
2. Place tops over roots, lightly sprinkle with si salt.
3. Simmer 15 minutes.
4. Add shoyu 3 minutes.more.
5. Remove from pot and serve for a nice surprise, maybe your new favorite green veggie!