{Macrobiotic March} Are Nut Butters Macrobiotic?

Happy March! Here in NYC we are starting to warm up… a little!

To jumpstart the month of macrobiotic posts, I have 2 things for you.

1) I made a Macrobiotics page for the blog. I went through ALL my posts and recipes and put links to the relevant ones there. Please check it out if you have time.

2) I wanted to answer a common question:

Is nut butter macrobiotic?

peanut-butter

This is a toughie – the basic answer is YES, nut butters can be macrobiotic.

But the caveat is that nuts (and nut butters) should be eaten in moderation: maybe 2-3 times a week. The most specific measurement I found was no more than 1.5 cups of nuts in a week. I am not sure how much nut butter 1.5 cups of nuts would amount to. Probably 3/4 of a cup of nut butter? That is a little less than 2 tablespoons of nut butter a day.

Any nut butter with added sugar is not macrobiotic, so macrobiotic nut butters are the natural kind – nuts should be the only ingredient. No added sugars, no added oils.

Get freshly ground nut butter, if possible.

Some nuts are not macrobiotic: peanuts are not (much as I love them), pistachios, Brazil nuts, cashews (another love!), filberts (aka hazlenuts) and macadamia nuts – these are all not allowed.

Why are some nuts avoided on a macrobiotic diet?

The simple reason is that macrobiotics encourages eating in harmony with your climate. The disallowed nuts are likely not native and could not grow in the temperate climate where most of us live (I am in the northeast US). I think these nuts listed above are only found in tropical climates.

The other reason for avoiding certain foods, like these nuts, is that (according to macrobiotics) foods can have either yin (expansive, cooling, moist) or yang (contractive, warming, drying) energies. Likely these nuts to avoid are very yin or very yang (probably too yin). Macrobiotics tries to help you strike a balance, and it’s easiest to get this balance if you are not eating either of the extremes (far on the yin or yang side of the spectrum). But more on this later.

Note that peanuts are a different story – most peanuts and peanut butters have fungus on them/in them (yep, I know – sounds gross – they still taste great). The amount of fungus allowed in peanuts/peanut butter is small (15 or 25 parts per billion I believe) but that is too much for macrobiotics to be okay with.

However – don’t lose hope! There are lots of macrobiotic nuts and seeds: walnuts, sesame seeds (to make tahini or sesame butter), pumpkin and squash seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans, coconuts, and chestnuts (are these really a nut?).

walnut

chestnuts

I like fresh almond butter, coconut butter, and I adore tahini and sesame seeds in general.

Another note – if you’re following a strict healing macrobiotic diet for a specific ailment, you’ll probably be avoiding all nuts + nut butters, at least until you are healed from whatever your illness is. Then you would slowly add nuts and nut butters back in, as your body allows.

I hope this answered any questions you might have about macrobiotics and nuts / nut butters.

What is your favorite nut? What’s your favorite nut butter? How much do you eat in a week?

  • My favorite nut is the cashew (not macrobiotic)
  • My favorite nut butter is tahini (macrobiotic) or peanut butter (not)
  • It depends on the week – some weeks I probably eat 2-3 cups of nuts; other weeks I don’t have any at all.

Healthy Eats for a Busy Life

This week has been very very busy. I’m trying to get as much as I can out of this free Equinox pass (for the intenSati Warrior Challenge) and work is pretty crazy and I’m also trying to have a social life. Is that impossible? I wish I didn’t have to sleep.

I have eaten some very yummy things, though. These are steamed Japanese sweet potatoes:

jan 15 2010 001

I just cut up a humongous ‘tater and steamed it for about 6-7 minutes. The chunks were small enough that it cooked quickly. Tasted kind of like a ripe kabocha, but not quite as good. I miss kabocha squash – I should definitely make an effort to get some. I think I had this sweet potato with some maple syrup. Those are paint chips in the background.

AM New York (a free paper that I get going in to the subway) has had coupons recently for $5 off at Energy Kitchen. Energy kitchen is a fast food store that only sells dishes that are under 500 calories! I love it. I got this total tuna sandwich the other day:

jan 15 2010 002

It has 290 calories. Obviously you can’t just have one dish from there, because it wouldn’t be much food – but if you get a sandwich and have something extra like an apple, it’s a really yummy, healthy, satisfying lunch. I wish I had pictures of the other things I’ve tried: the veggie egg wrap with broccoli and onions (274 calories), the ostrich (!) burger (271 calories), the steamed broccoli side (kind of boring), and the sauteed mushrooms and onions side (very good!). My coworker likes Energy Kitchen too – his new year’s resolutions had to do with being healthier and eating less meat, so we like similar stuff!

Last but not least is this great salad I had a few weeks ago when I was in NJ for new year’s:

jan 03 2010 022

It’s called the Whole Earth Salad (named after the Whole Earth Center in Princeton, where my dad and sister got it). I wrote down what I think is in it so that I can try to recreate it: kale, almonds, rice/bulgar, cabbage, carrots, sesame seeds, marinated firm tofu, and a lemony dressing. It’s vegan (and vegetarian).

Off to snuggle. What are you doing this weekend?

Family Yums & Workouts

I’m a bit busy, but here are some yums that I had with my family last week…

07 pear salad

My mom made a wonderful salad with pears, blue cheese crumbles, walnuts, white onions, and cranberries (and maybe something else? Mom?). She topped it with a homemade vinaigrette salad dressing. She left the blue cheese crumbles on the side for those who wanted to be vegan.

08 pear salad

That same night she made a creamy leek soup (vegan, amazingly enough). It was delicious. I think she used almond milk. There was definitely dill in there too.

09 leek soup

My dad made his signature waffles for breakfast. We had them with butter and syrup.

10 waffles

My dad also made French toast. Also topped with butter and syrup.

11 french toast

Does your family have any signature dishes?

Workouts of the week:

  • Monday: run in the morning (1.75 miles); walk home (2 miles)
  • Tuesday: yoga in the morning (25 minutes on my own); walk @ lunch (1 mile); walk home (2 miles)
  • Wednesday (today) so far: kendell hogan’s bootcamp calorie burn (30 minutes, free!)