Great Construction

Seven, The Complete Nutritional Diet

     The type of nutritional diet that I will explain here is based on one for the Japanese people. To divide the diet of human beings into two main types, there is a vegetable based diet and an animal-meat based diet. Here I will explain the vegetable based diet.
     The nutritional elements that turn into blood for the human physical body and for what becomes human flesh, tissue, and muscle are contained in the vegetarian diet, that is, cereals and vegetables, and from the viewpoint of simply providing enough nutrients for the physical body, a vegetarian diet is sufficient. But human beings, as long as they have requirements for living in society, apart from simply existing, must have intelligence, vitality, a positive attitude toward self-improvement, and all manner of desires and ambitions. It is the meat-oriented diet that has the role of producing the energy for such manner of will and thought. Thus, those who live in urban areas should have a diet that includes more meat products, and conversely, farmers should have an intake of predominately vegetable matter. The earth has indeed been created so an appropriate diet may naturally be followed. Thus, upon being afflicted with sickness or disease, a diet predominately of vegetable matter is most rational. When one becomes so afflicted, use of knowledge, vitality, and desires is not necessary, and conversely, due to fever and pain, physical aspects decline, so it is fair to say that it is only a vegetable diet which is necessary to maintain the physical body’s functions. But look at what happens. Because nutrition as understood these days holds that individuals who get sick should eat more meat than usual, the consumption of meat encourages exhaustion due to sickness, so the conspicuousness of this mistake is indeed frightening.
     Between heaven and earth, in all of creation, there is not one item or action in the growth and development of all things that does not depart from the principle of positive (yang) and negative (yin), as can be seen in the contrasts of day and night, summer and winter, heaven and earth, fire and water, or male and female, and there is positive and negative in foodstuffs as well.
     To speak of cereals, rice is yang and wheat is yin. In terms of race, the Japanese are yang and Westerners are yin. That the Japanese eat rice and Westerners eat wheat follows this principle. Therefore, for the Japanese to eat primarily rice is the way it should be, so in unavoidable situations, there is no problem that a little wheat is consumed, but it is not good at all for Japanese to eat copious amounts of wheat. To divide plant foods into yin and yang, cereals are yin and those classified as vegetables are yang. Within the vegetable group as well, there is the distinction of yin and yang. Roots, fruits, vegetables that are the colors of white, red, and black are yang. Greens, indeed all green colored vegetables as well leafy plants are yin. The white root of daikon is yang, and the green leafy part is yin. So, ideally speaking, the best is to eat a balance of yin and yang foods that accords with time and occasion.
     Fish in some combinations is yang; vegetables are yin; chicken is yang; fish in other combinations is yin. When we think about these categories, it would be no mistake to apply these to the daily lives of people in society. Males leave their homes and make use of their intelligence and vitality, so a combination that is about half animal flesh and half plant matter is satisfactory. Females work within the home and physical activity predominates, so a diet of seventy percent plant matter and thirty percent animal flesh is best. The recent rise in cases of hysteria among women of the upper classes is because they eat too much meat.
     Another point regards milk which by all means deserves attention. From infants, who ingest it unknowingly to adults, there are those who regularly drink cow’s milk, but indeed this mistake is most extreme. Think about why we grow teeth. Of course, they are to masticate our food. Children have no teeth to do so, so they do drink milk, but it is obvious for older people who have teeth that drinking milk is against the laws of nature. Say, for example, an adult individual were to drink milk like an infant. Would it not be natural for this adult to crawl and not stand and walk like an infant? For contemporary civilized peoples to not understand such an obvious fact shows that they are indeed foolish. Drinking milk regularly itself is mistaken, but there is no problem when it is used as a food additive for flavor, for example, stirred into coffee, or mixed with other ingredients for baking and cooking. When Japanese drink milk, their physical vitality weakens. I would like to report that to the regular drinkers of milk to whom I have explained this principle and who have stopped drinking milk, many if not most have greatly increased their health.

Lectures on Japanese Medicine, Volume 1, 1935
translated by cynndd

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“Nana, Kanzen Eiyōshoku” is the seventh chapter of Nihon Ijutsu Kōgiroku, Dai-ippen (Lectures on Japanese Medicine, Volume 1) which was compiled and distributed in mimeographed form in 1935. Although “Dai-ippen” (Volume 1) is included in the title where it has been anthologized, there are no subsequent volumes.