Easily accessible in Dunwoody, near Georgia 400, 10 am – 1 pm, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Macrobiotic! What a terrific combination for a delicious cooking class, very informative about foods nurturing our health. Using ingredients in a whole new way, as well as foods new to your palate! Nurturing our skin, bones, teeth, liver, kidney, brain & even more.

Peek at the menu, then RSVP: marsharueff@mac.com or give me a call 678.643.5662!

Greens Smoothie for Vitality, Grain for Best Complexion – best kept secret ever!, Savory Greens in Citrus Dressing, Black Beans Extravaganza, Mixed Berry Fruit Tart

Ume Sho Kuzu which Mr. Kushi and Alex Jack alphabetically suggest for 41 conditions from anemia to upper digestive cancers, and other conditions in their book The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health. So what does this amazing drink actually do? They explain it strengthens our blood, promotes healthy digestion by healing the intestinal and stomach lining, and restores energy. Well of course! If we heal these three categories: blood, intestines and stomach, our energy has to improve! This is healing from deep within our bodies, so this drink is very sustaining. And it’s easy to make.

How’s 7 minutes for quick-to-make sound? And only three ingredients in your already well-stocked macrobiotic diet kitchen: umeboshi plum, shoyu – a special soy sauce, and kuzu – the harvested root of the kudzu plant. Plus one cup water. That’s easy for sure!

• 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.

Now, please drink while hot, not scorching your throat, but very soon after making it.

I always sit in a quiet, darkened room on my healing couch from my Fred’s dear parents to have this wonderful drink! So you find your special place for this precious remedy for yourself.

I would love to share one story with you how I know this drink works. About 10 years ago my dear father who is this very week celebrating his 90^th birthday, was very ill. A cancer survivor of 30 years at that time, he was interested in trying the macrobiotic diet after being diagnosed with 10 serious conditions. I almost flew to the hardware store to buy jars, dishwashed them and quickly assembled a full  macrobiotic diet set-up for him from my kitchen’s ingredients. Within a few hours I was tooling down the highway towards Wilmington, North Carolina – a 7 hour trip.

Arriving that evening, I quickly prepared this drink, and upon the first sip, Daddy said could you please line up twelve of these? I knew it was the perfect drink for him, and as he had one each day, one-by-one of those terrible conditions just went away. It wasn’t magic. We were simply alkalining his blood, coating his intestinal walls with this very gentle and soothing healing kuzu, and his energy restored within just a few days. The healing properties of these 3 ingredients have been known and used thousands of years. And yes, we used the top quality products I’m suggesting for you.

*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           

So it’s good news for those of you beginning a macrobiotic diet, knowing our food selection greatly supports Mother Earth! Macrobiotic food selection prefers organic farming which substantiates soil, rather than depleting our farmland. Avoiding both meat and poultry, we are not perpetuating the problems raising these animals creates for our planet. Using water, land, grains and other foods that could be used throughout the world to feed the starving human population. Not to mention introducing hormones and improper animal food into the food chain.

The Macrobiotic Diet, as you will learn in macrobiotic cooking classes, asks to avoid meat and cheese, poultry and eggs, as well as all soft dairy. Soft dairy, what’s that? Everything made from milk – cow milk. When we think about it, for whom was that milk originally meant? You guessed it. The baby calf, and usually only for 4-6 months, depending on the farmer’s set-up. And if that baby calf’s milk grows a 2000 pound carcass, don’t you think that’s maybe too much for human’s physique?

This means all those soft dairy products in our grocer’s dairy section are really not meant for human consumption: butter, cream cheese, sour cream. And diet versions: margarine, cottage cheese, yoghurt. Even frozen yoghurt. The soft dairy adversely affects us above the waist, creating problems with our lungs, breast, thyroid and throat.  Poultry, meat and cheese affect us around and below the waist creating problems with our pancreas, liver, gall bladder, kidneys, reproductive organs and  intestines.

Why can we say this? Because the soft dairy is more expansive, or more yin, with energy rising upwards, and poultry, meat and cheese have dense, heavy yang energetics with a downward movement. So eliminating these foods on a macrobiotic diet leads us in the direction of health for ourselves as well as helping Mother Earth. A perfect win-win combination!

Title: Macrobiotic diet greatly helps mother earth! Wow! We’re eating green!

Description: Macrobiotic Diet recommendations supports Mother Earth with organic farming, eliminating poultry, meat and dairy products, while improving our health simultaneously! 

Once more our knowledge of the Macrobiotic Diet boosted Fred’s recovery with lightening speed, and we are ever so grateful to Senior Counselor William Spear, Litchfield, Connecticut for his guidance.

So each time a nurse or doc entered the Pre-op Room I was bent over Fred in some position with the ear pull and massage or my hands cupping his abdomen – always the left underneath, right on top, massaging his feet, or cupping his heels. Fred drifted in and out deep sleep, remaining relaxed, breathing deeply. We only met the surgeon the previous morning and he rearranged his schedule to slide Fred in first thing in the morning – so here we were with a wait on our hands.  Why not make the most of my hands with this special massage, which has such healing results. Cranio-Sacral massage propels the pineal fluid to smoothly ride it’s full wave all around the spine, and this promotes natural healing. Even when you are worried about your beloved’s health and the pending surgery, may as well make the most of your time together with sweet kisses, and gentle hands stroking healing touches. That’s what I always say! It’s so much easier feeling you are doing something to help heal, rather than being caught up in anxiety waiting creates.

We had been diligent the day prior to this unexpected surgery too. Bill said not to eat after 10pm, although the doc’s office just said mid-night. And miso soup at dinner prepared Fred for the medication he would be given this morning, as well as a special drink used on the Macrobiotic Diet Ume Sho Kuzu. Nicknamed the Macrobiotic Antibiotic!

It uses the harvested root of the kudzu plant, and the special pickled apricot plus naturally fermented shoyu sauce, this home remedy drink boosts the immune system, as it alkalines the blood. I would prepare another round of both when we arrive home this afternoon. Yes, hernia surgery these days is out-patient, even if the patient has a heart condition, so we were being careful in every aspect.

So the Bonus Payoff was astounding! Fred’s coloring and alertness after surgery was better than we could imagine! Thank you Fuji for teaching me advanced cranio-sacral techniques each time you visited Atlanta! Yes! And William Spear for the soft food suggestions for Fred’s meals. I inquired about Brown Rice Cream, and Bill had said no, just soft foods, and vegetables more well-cooked than you normally prepare. No beans for a while, and no white fish til the first bowel passed. Kantens to help soften the stool. He even said to add kanten flakes to the Barley Tea to help that softening process.

And at home, I gave Fred more massage throughout the day and evening. While he read, and slept. Cranio-Sacral penetrates even more deeply while the recipient sleeps, deepening that sleep.

Once familiar with these ingredients & dishes, you quickly overcome old cravings & eating habits.

When craving Oily Foods:  

Fried Tofu, Tempeh, Sauteed Vegetables, Fried Rice, Fried Noodles

Healthier Protein:   

Bean Soups, Tempeh, Tofu, Dried Tofu, Seitan, Miso Soup, White Meat Fish

Instead of Flour Products:  

Pickles, Pressed Salad, Sea Vegetables, Condiment, Fu, Seitan

Instead of Dairy Foods: 

Amasake, Fried Tempeh, Tofu, Scrambled Tofu, Tofu Dressings, Tofu Cheese Spread, Hiziki with Vegetables and Fried Tempeh, Stir-Fry Vegetables, Seeds, Nuts, Tempura, Almond Butter, Tahini, Scallion-Miso Condiment

Instead of Meat/Chicken:  

• Tempeh with Scallions, Deep-fried, as a fried patty, Rueben Sandwich
• Grain Patty or Veggie Burger, especially rice cooked w/ beans
• Seitan & Stir Fry Veggies: Kinpira, Nishimi, Deep-fry, with Pasta and Tomato Sauce.
• Tofu: pan-fried, stir-fry, baked
• Fish: poached with ginger, scallions, served with grated daikon and Vegetables

Healthy Sweets without Added Sugar:

• Sweet corn, peas, carrots, nishimi vegetable dish, Carrot Soup
• Onion Butter, Carrot Butter, Millet Square with nuts, Couscous cake, Carrot Cake
• Rice Pudding, Azuki Chestnut Raisin Puree, Amasake Pudding, Stewed Fruit, Chestnut Puree, Apple Compote, Seasonal Fruit Pies

Macrobiotics is based on the energetics of the food. This is to say, on how the food makes us feel after we eat it. Do we have more energy after eating? Are we tired? Do we feel like running a marathon or the potato couch watching it on tv?

Macrobiotics principles are used to reverse health conditions, even serious, so-called terminal diagnosis when caught early and the diet is practiced well, with the guidance of an experienced Senior Macrobiotic Counselor.

So that’s why I’m steeped in Macro tradition, experience, recipes and lifestyle. And we love it.

Wouldn’t it be fun to suddenly feel, act and look 20 years younger! That’s our Macrobiotic Diet, for ya!

Join our cooking classes in this wonderful year 2013! Raise your health to the next levels! Reach for your stars healthwise! Make a special health commitment to YOURSELF and your family!

We’ll guide your baby steps, and you’ll take off with leaps and bounds! 

Macrobiotic Diet is your healthy workout – lifting pots, lugging shopping bags, & muscle toning as you’re chopping veggies! Now your actual cooking supplements your physical workout, & healthy eating benefits double!

Who would ever think cooking’s a workout? 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 1¹/2 hours. We

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 use to call  myself the Chief Macrobiotic Dishwasher, and I was feelin’ my muscles every time 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.

Hope I’ve whet 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’! 

Well, let’s see how that pie chart translates to your dinner plate? If you’re figure 50% grain and your plate swarms half full of rice, it’s way too much. Why? Because these figures are based on weight, and whole grain really being the heaviest of these food groups, will take the least space on your plate. In fact the small rice bowls typically measure about 3/4 to 1 cup. Sometimes I eat a bit more.

Beans too, just about 3 tablespoons, and the same for sea veggies, or it’s just too much mineralization.

So what gets the largest volume? Greens! The broom sweeping our intestinal walls, and other wonderful vegetables. These together compile half the plate.

The other items filling out the macrobiotic diet chart are the soups, teas, condiments lightly sprinkled so you can still see your grain!

Within the occasional column of this chart are fish, nuts, seeds, fruit prepared to suit each person’s condition and health with appropriate amounts recommended.

A wonderful book to have on your Macrobiotic Book Shelf is The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health, by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack, which covers quantities as well as explaining cooking styles.

You want the most experienced teacher you can find. At Atlanta Macrobiotics we are lucky bringing Warren Kramer 4 times a year, and cooking with Warren and his delightful wife, Fatim, during the week they are in Atlanta. So what’s so special about this? If you were here, you’d hear Warren continually telling changes, no we do this. Or we always do it this way, or use a new shoyu or different miso. As Macrobiotics is an ever-evolving diet. Learning these new preparations are significant opportunities to improve your health whether you are new to macrobiotics or long-time macrobiotic practitioner.

We have opened our home serving the Atlanta Macrobiotic Community with Macrobiotic Cooking Classes since 1992!  It’s been our way to give back for all the wonderful benefits Fred and I have felt in our journey towards health. Now it’s your turn! We invite, and welcome to join the many new friends we greet every year, within our well-designed macro kitchen.

 You’ll see the tricks of our trade! Utensils, cooking pots, how and where to store everything for efficiency and time-saving techniques. We receive rave reviews from clients who, on their return home, are able to achieve a great boost to their own macrobiotic practice.

That’s all we’re about! Making this new way of lifestyle and diet easy, fun, quick-er, and delicious for you. Making it accessible. Making it yours. At Atlanta Macrobiotics it’s all about Y-O-U!

Please call for our private cooking class arrangements, group cooking classes. We also invite you to bring a group of friends together, and we’ll do the teachin’! Together we can rock your world forward to a healthier, wonderful journey!

We look forward to schedule special time with you!

LIke the Crown Jewel of Macrobioitics! Why?

Remedies are amazing combinations of macro food already on the shelves of our kitchen.

Only, we might never think of preparing them to help us overcome fever, pain, hasten cuts healing, menstrual cramping, severe bruises from a fall, severe headaches ~ even migraines, jet lag, medicating for a dental appointment, & much more, til you learn it in a class! Then you know! Your confidence level just measured, yep, I can do this! Easily!

Warren Kramer explains taking conventional medicines band-aid a situation. Rather than heal it from within, medicines actually drive the condition deeper into our body. But macrobiotic home remedies hasten healing, and change the direction of our health.

Taking a Home Remedy Class is really special, and important for those new to macrobiotics. You’ll already own great tools – the ingredients in your kitchen! Knowing how to use them right from the start of your practicing macro will step up your ante! So call us for a private class to learn the home remedies, and please watch for our group classes on Home Remedies, as well.

It’s so much better knowing how to make these remedies well, before you, or someone you love, need them. Then, you’ll be the expert. And sure, you’ll follow directions, but you won’t be learning it from scratch at an emergency! It’s so much easier to observe an experiment in a cooking class mode, than on yourself or family member when they are in pain, don’cha think?

And you’ll become the expert offering your 2 cents on The Kind Life Website of Alicia Silverstone, and suddenly everyone knows your preferred home remedy! Alicia refers to Carrot-Daikon Tea, which you’ll be sampling, too!