Macrobiotics

Macrobiotics is a way of eating centered around mostly plant-based, locally sourced whole foods, along with lifestyle practices to promote health and well being. Macrobiotics is also a social movement that trains people in how to diagnose and care for themselves using macrobiotic principles. In 2020, it consists of various training centers working in a loose coalition, with teachers in several countries, including the U.S., England, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

George Ohsawa, founder (1893-1966)

George Ohsawa (1893-1966), born Nyoichi Sakurazawa in Japan, was the founder of the macrobiotics. He was an effusive, prolific author who wrote about 300 books in Japanese and, while living in France after WWII, about twenty books in French (using pen names Musagendo, Nyoiti or Yukikazu Sakurazawa).

Macrobiotics in the U.S.

Many of the macrobiotic teachers and counselors now active in the United States trained originally under either Herman Aihara (1920-1998) and his wife Cornelia if on the west coast, or Michio Kushi (1926-2014) his wife Aveline if on the east coast. As of 2021, contemporary senior counselors in the United States are now in old age themselves and originally trained at a time when macrobiotics became suddenly of more widespread interest during the upheaval of the 1960's.