Macro manage (macrobiotic food and cooking)

By Huang Lijie, Singapore Cooks, Sunday Times dated 1 Feb 2009

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Cancer survivor Simone Vaz uses wheat gluten product seitan to spice up the meals in her macrobiotic diet

Ms Vaz shows that macrobiotic food need not be bland with her seitan stew. -- ST PHOTOS: ASHLEIGH SIM

Deprivation is usually the main course on the menu of most diets.

So it is a surprise to hear freelance public relations consultant Simone Vaz, who is in her 40s, say that she is eating more luxuriously after switching to a macrobiotic diet.

The high-fibre, low-fat diet, popularised by Japanese philosopher George Ohsawa in the early 1900s, focuses on simply cooked organic food and favours ingredients such as whole grains and vegetables.

The diet is popular among celebrities who want to stay slim, and among cancer patients who find it beneficial to their health.

Before she ate macrobiotically, Ms Vaz, who is Eurasian, used to pile her plate with roast lamb, steaks and sausages.

Since the breast cancer survivor started on the macrobiotic diet in 2006, however, her understanding of eating luxuriously has changed.

She says: 'Previously, my meals had very little colour and texture. For example, when I had steak for a meal, it'd just be a huge piece of meat, some mashed potatoes and probably a small portion of greens on the side.

'Now, every day I eat about 10 different types of vegetables cooked in a variety of ways, so even the simplest dish has more texture, sensation and colour than what I used to consume. This is what I call eating luxuriously.'

Indeed, based on her description of how she jazzes up vegetable dishes - with toppings such as organic cranberries and pine nuts, and seasoning such as lemon zest and sea salt - the macrobiotic diet does not seem ascetic.

Yet Ms Vaz, who is single, is able to empathise with those who shy away from the diet because they perceive it as restrictive and bland.

After all, when she first tried macrobiotic food 11 years ago at a friend's home, it did not leave her singing its praises.

She says: 'It was ghastly and unappetising and I thought to myself that I couldn't do the diet if I had to.'

The about-turn came in 2006, when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer.

She read up as much as she could about the illness and, in the process, came across anecdotes from cancer patients who attributed their recovery to eating macrobiotically.

Determined not to succumb to cancer like her grandfather and father did, she decided to go on the diet.

Her grandfather died of lymphoma (cancer of the lymph nodes) in the 1970s and her father, of lung cancer, in the late 1990s.

Her mother, a retired teacher, is a healthy septuagenarian. Vaz has two younger brothers, both in their 30s.

For guidance on eating macrobiotically, she turned to books such as The Cancer Prevention Diet (1993) by Michio Kushi, a famous advocate of the macrobiotic diet.

Eager to deepen her practice, she started a 12-month distance-learning certification course to become a macrobiotics counsellor last year. The course is conducted by Macrobiotics America, a macrobiotics institute in California.

A macrobiotics counsellor helps people understand how macrobiotics can support them in the healing of illnesses.

The course included a two-week hands-on cooking class in California. There, she learnt how to make simple macrobiotic meals tasty.

For example, a meal comprising steamed vegetables and brown rice could be enhanced by adding lemon juice and soya sauce to the vegetables, and topping it off with some julienned apple.

She also learnt how to make yummy macrobiotic desserts by substituting processed baking products such as bleached flour and white sugar with wholesome ingredients such as wholegrain flour and natural brown rice syrup. Also, butter was replaced with avocado.

She was also introduced to seitan, a wheat gluten product that is similar in texture to meat. It is a versatile ingredient in macrobiotic cooking.

It can be used, for example, in an Asian-style stew, such as in the recipe she shares below. It can also be minced and used as a filling for lasagne or shaped into a burger patty.

Spurred by the positive changes to her life since she adopted a macrobiotic diet - her cancer is in remission following treatment - she started Lusher Than Life, a macrobiotics service centre last year.

It offers a range of classes on macrobiotic living, including cooking classes. She says: 'The macrobiotic diet changed my life. I'm physically healthier and emotionally more stable, and I want to encourage others with my experience.'