The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics: A Philosophy for achieving a Radiant Mind and a Fabulous Body

by Jessica Porter

A modern girl’s guide to the secrets of eating for health, beauty, and peace of mind. "Part Joan Rivers, part Mahatma Gandhi, Jessica Porter makes macrobiotics meaningful, hilarious, and totally life-changing."

Simon Doonan, creative director, Barneys New York and author of Wacky Chicks

Heralded by New York magazine as one of the city’s most popular diets, macrobiotics has become the latest trend in dieting, thanks to high-profile supporters like Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Speaking to the generation of young women looking to extend their healthy lifestyles beyond yoga and Pilates, macrobiotic chef and instructor Jessica Porter offers fresh, contemporary, and accessible insight into one of the world’s most popular diets that is based on century’s old principles. She explains that through the right balance of food, women can find balance in every aspect of their lives—improved health, weight loss, or fulfilling relationships.

The effects of eating a macrobiotic diet can extend beyond basic health to weight loss, beauty, better sex, and peace of mind. Cooking tips and recipes are combined with Jessica’s no-nonsense philosophy and witty anecdotes to create a lifestyle book that will inspire women to hit the kitchen with an understanding of how to strengthen their mind and body through food.

Genres: Health, Food, Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Cooking, Audiobook, Adult

289 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2004

About the author

Various authors
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Lora Abrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so excellent, that I was eager to meet Jessica Porter in person, when the opportunity presented itself (herself). She is a brilliant spiritualist, in that she is flowing fully with Spirit and high comedy - what a powerful, refreshing combination to find in a "cookbook." This is far more than that, though.

Jessica offers potent insights into the energetics of macrobiotics -- to advise us about a "philosophy for achieving a radiant mind and fabulous body." She describes the goal of her book well in her preface: "This book is about freedom and food. I believe that what you put in your mouth has a direct impact on your freedom -- physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. We can eat in ways that repress our life force, making us into passive automatons within our culture. Or we can eat to be free, connected, and responding to the larger natural world that created us, and continues to create us. The more we eat natural foods and understand the laws of the universe, the more our spirits play freely within it."

In the introduction, she further explains: "Macrobiotics is not just about food. In this book, you will study what we are called the Twelve Laws of Change of the Infinite Universe, all of which help us to see how the basic forces of the universe work. It is by aligning with the universe, or "God," that we feel peace and happiness; we can hook up with this power through prayer, meditation, fellowship, and service. In macrobiotics, it is understood that the more we eat natural, energized foods, the more we can sense our intuition, which is our direct line to the universe. In this book, I have created exercises to strengthen your 'inner compass' and help you sense your relationship to the bigger picture.

"You don't have to follow the diet flawlessly in order to experience the benefits; I certainly don't. While your diet may never be perfect, your relationship to the universe can feel perfectly satisfying every moment. And happily, the more you hook up with the Infinite Universe in your way, the more your body will actually gravitate toward whole foods."

Wisdom flows through this book, cover to cover. I highly recommend.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am someone who is generally prone to jump on health food bandwagons, I practically eat a vegan diet as it is. But this woman is nuts. Wacko. For instance, the idea that celery "balances" carrots because one grows skyward, and the other earthward ... and that, well, "macro people generally don't eat potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant, because they leech vitamins from your system" (not an exact quote but that was the idea). Macrobiotics looks to me like a constructed, fictionalized justification for what would be a vegan, traditional Japanese diet - and I currently enjoy traditional Japanese dishes with sea vegetables & such - it's the bullshit about chewing each mouthful 100 times, that I can't buy. Wacko.

[Lilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately I tend to read about someone else living macrobiotically while sipping a cinnamon dolce latte (which has all sorts of faux sugars and dairy products, the enemy of aformentioned book). I do like her tone and her honesty about how this isn't an easy lifestyle to just become overnight. And I now love brown rice and it's only been a few weeks.

**

I can't remember if I ever read every single line in here, but I think I did (or skimmed enough to just throw this on the 'read' shelf). I keep going back to it to review. And brown rice is still yummy.

[Usha · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is an easy read about macrobiotics, which can be quite complicated. jessica porter humorously discusses integrating macrobiotics into your life style, not just practicing it on your plate. i would often bounce back and forth between finding the author compelling and annoying as her voice is sometimes too strong.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. It is flaky and spiritual and I can see why some people think there is too much of the yin/yang stuff, but the thing is, that is what macrobiotics is all about. This is not a book for people who are just looking for another weight loss diet. You have to be interested in nourishing the whole body/mind.

[ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm mixed on this book. I've been interested in learning more about macrobiotic eating and it was certainly an interesting book on the topic. I can only assume that the information from a macrobiotic standpoint was accurate,as well as from a yin/yang stand point. I didn't expect to learn more about yin and yang from the book, but I do appreciate the primer as someone that studies a Chinese based martial art. And it broke everything down into easy absorb-able chunks.

The reason I couldn't give this a higher rating is that some of the logic and information in the book is not based on facts, but more on folk beliefs or just the kind of things people believe because they don't really research things too well. And some of the information may have some basis, but is just not well explained. For example, I can buy that perhaps a microwave is doing things to our food that might not be quite right, it does cook very differently and probably emits more electromagnetic energy than a toaster that could be interfering with our bodies in weird ways; but don't make a metaphor that eating microwaved food is bad because its the same as microwaving yourself because I can tell you I wouldn't want to be toasted, pressure cooked, or boiled over a gas stove either.

As far as GMO foods, there are perhaps cases to be made about them as being suspect, but don't pretend the foods that aren't strictly what we call "GMO" are also not modified by humans. Organic rice, organic vegetables, organic fruits - they've all been tampered with by man through cross breeding and domesticating - so not quite "straight from nature". Also, GMO foods have been tested, more than most other foods. It's possibly not enough testing - but don't claim they are untested. It makes the entire argument against them fall flat.

I finally lost it was when, in the discussion of sex, she mentions a woman has no nerves and feeling after a few inches inside her vaginal canal. Granted, the 3D model of the clitoris was not yet created when this book was written. But as a woman, I an assure you I have feeling well into my uterus.

Anyway, I'd like to see a book about macrobiotic eating done with a bit more rigorous research on the basis for why it works for people. I get that it's as much a spiritual practice than a healthful one, but in the end, this book did not do a great job selling me on it.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I avoid fad diets. However, I've found some excellent healthy recipes from different health trends and never heard of this before. The cover is quite misleading (read the subtitle). It barely mentions cooking and focuses on a non-science-based philosophy of yin and yang that I simply couldn't get on board with. It was entertaining for a while, but ultimately a waste of time.

[Sarah Beam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly accessible and appealing introduction to the tenets of macrobiotic eating.

[Joann · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is terrible. The it merits two starts is because there are some interesting bits about discovering yin and yang in food and in life. However, the author takes a cringe-worthy, cis-normative, upper middle class, white and western centric voice which I find repulsive.

[raccoon reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a hold on this item so I'm returning it to the library tomorrow. I had plenty of time to finish it but couldn't bring myself to do it. There was a lot of spirituality talk about yin/yang and which foods are which and I just couldn't get into her way out way of describing how a carrots going to change your life. I think there is a lot I'd like to know about macrobiotics from a scientific perspective and I didn't know that it was like a religion, at least that's how she makes it sound. I get it- good food will change your life, but I don't think I want to spend hours chewing food and pondering over the yin and yang of my vegetables to get there. I may come back to the book and finish it (actually I know I will). I really wanted to know about macrobiotics and the nutritional or science angle. Not the religion angle of it. I didn't even know it had all this spiritual-the carrot is talking to me- the oats changed my life crap.

I would not recommend the audiobook to ANYONE. The author reads it herself and she's not very good. Her voice sounds fake and too slow and I can't stand it when readers do the "fake laugh" when reading (she does it alot). It always makes me want to turn off the cd or mp3 player. I think she should have invested in a good professional narrator who wasn't personally invested in it and wouldn't have over acted like the author is doing.

[Jen Madsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in a little over a day, coming to it with a very limited understanding of macrobiotics. I'm not sure what to think about the yin/yang aspects of food, but I love the concept of "non credo" the author repeatedly mentions. That is, don't believe what she says--try it and check your own inner compass. I've been trying to eat healthy for about two years now--lost 70 pounds in the process--and my diet has evolved over this time. I will consider adopting some macrobiotic habits and see what happens. Perhaps a year from now I'll have gone stark, raving macro, or maybe I'll just be eating more whole grains and fewer whole grain "products." We'll see. What I really like about this book is the author's candor and willingness to show her own "weaknesses" or digressions from macro eating. She shows how a macrobiotic diet can be practiced by actual human beings and emphasizes freedom to eat what whe choose and to live with the consequences of those choices. I can't quibble with that.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I definitely agree with the author that certain foods can influence the harmony, energy, and feel of our bodies. This book was very informative regarding the world of macrobiotic eating, but I got a bit tired of reading about the yin/yang philosophies; maybe it's because I don't focus enough on that aspect of my Asian culture!

Overall, changing one's lifestyle to fit the requirements of pure foods can be challenging. It's hard to find all the necessary ingredients (tempeh? seitan?) and to spend time soaking grains for hours before meals!

I have long followed some of the rules and guidelines outlined in this book, such as avoiding fast food and excessive intake of refined sugars, but I don't know about giving up all the chicken and milk in my diet.

Still, I would recommend checking out this book for its valuable insight on the way food can affect moods and our sense of well-being.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't get a chance to finish this book. I am studying Macrobiotics because my mother-in-law has cancer and is using this strict diet to shrink the tumor and live a healthier life. She was already a vegan, so I wasn't sure how much healthier she could hope to be. It's been over a month and she is feeling very well and confident that this new lifestyle will free her from any future worries of cancer.

What I liked about this book was its lightheartedness. The author knows how to make fun of herself and is fully aware of how people view this yin yang organic hippie approach to food. It was really easy to understand and interesting to see how someone living a modern life can resist the urge to eat fast food, which I dine on way too much. I got through most of the text, the last half was recipes. Some of them looked pretty good, but I'll eat anything :)

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is something to be said for this fad, I think, given the fact that there is so little food in our food today, and so much toxic sludge. If you want an introduction to macrobiotics, I would recommend this book. If nothing else, it educated me about many different foods I had never even heard of. It was fun going to Whole Foods afterward and spotting things I otherwise would not have noticed. Kale is yummy! I'm looking forward to trying out some of the recipes. The author is pretty funny, and I like the spiritual lessons herein, the explanations of yin and yang with regard to food and more. I would never be able to go whole hog with this (no way I'm giving up dairy), but feeling very yang this morning...maybe I'll go eat a carrot top, hold the carrot.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Macrobiotics is pretty substantial all on it's own, but this book breaks it down in easy to understand terms. I think this is the best macrobiotics book on the market today. It discusses the ying and yang in foods, methods of cooking and use of different ingredients. It also provides many recipes, which are pretty easy to make. The author is a macrobiotic chef and she says "looking good is feeling good". I agree, and even if you aren't 100% macrobiotic (like me) you can still relate to this book and use the advice and recipes she has to offer.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was good, but I was more interested in the basics and rules of macrobiotics, not so much the spiritual wisdom behind it. I know it's hard to really practice one portion without the other, but my aim was to focus on the mechanics and not so much the theory. If it's your first dive into macrobiotics, it's a great all around guide. If you're just looking for a way to expand your knowledge of the kitchen side of it, it's a bit more than you need.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed reading this, it was a really fun read for a guide describing a particular diet/lifestyle. it makes it very clear that macrobiotics isn't just about eating... the author is really passionate about it and shows the macrobiotic ideals from a western perspective. the diet itself it hard to follow unless you are ready to make strict changes but she offers adaptations, and the philosophy is simplified to offer a broader understanding.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't totally ready for all of this, but I was curious to learn more about Macrobiotics. My biggest takeaway was to chew food more thoroughly in order to help experience the food on a fuller level as more flavor is released the more you chew. It also helps you feel less tired, since by the time you swallow, the food is thoroughly broken down leaving your body with less work to do. I wouldn't mind revisiting the book again and possibly gleaning more valuable information from it.

[Annette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't buy everything in this book, but there are definitely some tips that make a lot of sense to me. More whole grains and veggies, and chew your food more make a lot of intuitive sense. Pretty much cutting out fruit and dairy does not make sense to me. I'll definitely make some changes to my diet and behavior, but I'm not on the bandwagon just yet.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book on macrobiotics. It goes into detail on both the ideology and the practical applications. It is at times funny and other times inspiring all the while making it clear that this is not an all or nothing way of eating, but everyone can incorporate whatever parts of the philosophy they want.

[Danie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book mostly focuses on the philosophy of macrobiotics as defined by Michio Kuchi. There are a number as good recipes as well that I can't wait to try out. I gave this book only 3 stars, because it doesn't do a good job of describing how to actually live a balanced yin-yang life. It is a good introduction, but that's where it ends.

[Áine · Rating 3 out of 5]

By "I liked it," I mean this book totally depressed me, but it gave me the kick in the butt I needed to re-commit to my resolution not to have refined sugar. And to venture into the world of sea vegetables... The funny writing style made it an accessible introduction to macrobiotics. If that's something you're looking for, I'd pick this up.

[Emily Kestrel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Jessica Porter's writing style, and I felt this book is a good introduction to the theory and practice of macrobiotics. The book did not convince me of the benefits of actually eating macrobiotic, though. It might be beneficial to recover from certain kinds of illnesses (as Christine Pirello can attest to!), but I don't really see why everyone should eat this way.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not ready to go "whole hog" macrobiotic, but the suggestions to start with adding more grains to your diet and eating more balanced meals really helps. This book made the concepts behind the macrobiotic diet more accessible.

[Lillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book makes getting the yin and yang down easy- frees the concept up- makes the path not so restrictive and more of a fun adventure! great information, up-to-date (for now) cultural references and a fun, easy and creative attitude.

[Yasmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book seems like it might be a Sex and the City approach to macrobiotics, but it isn't really. Lots of information about the macrobiotic philosophy (yin and yang) that guide the diet. I'd recommend it if you're interested in macrobiotics specifically or just being healthier.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in August 2010

I did not like the layout or overall style of this book. For its size, it did not offer many recipes, especially not many recipes unknown to macrobiotics. There are much better books available on not only the macrobiotic lifestyle but recipes as well.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started out not knowing what to think, it seemed along of the lines of new agey talk, I kept reading through it it peaked my interest and I am anxious to try some of the recipes. by the time I finished the book, I want to buy it and put it into practice, I am intrigued.

[Sharon Summers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book. It is so entertaining and clear, and she goes into all these interesting principles that were entirely new to me. I learned alot and applied some. Must admit, though, that I've still got a complicated and torrid relationship with cheese. Some changes just take time.