Macrobiotic philosophy teaches practitioners to lead a balanced lifestyle based on the Chinese yin-yang principles. The actual macrobiotic diet closely resembles a vegan-like food pattern with virtually no animal food consumed. The macrobiotic movement has become increasingly popular during the past decade due to various survival stories from chronically ill persons who used the macrobiotic way as an alternative approach to medicine. Macrobiotics applies yin-yang principles to explain the relationship between food and the human organism and a balanced diet. When the body ingests toxins, as a result of an unbalanced diet, its natural healing process produces abnormalities in one or all of these three life processes.
Most people naturally react to the situation by taking medicine to relieve the symptoms.
According to practitioners of macrobiotics, the ingestion of pharmaceuticals only inhibits the body's ability to heal itself, therefore, causing an accumulation of toxins in the body and thus, intensifying the disease. The seven stages of symptomology begins with Stage One, which symptoms begin with 'abnormal discharges,' such as constipation, and progresses through Stage Seven. Stage Two represents the accumulation of toxins in the body as the symptoms of the disease worsen. In Stage Three the body is affected mentally physically, emotionally and spiritually. The Sixth Stage is when the body disposes of toxins in special sites that the medical world refers to as tumors, which is also known as cancer.