Customer Reviews

The Cancer Prevention Diet: Michio Kushi's Macrobiotic Blueprint for the Prevention and Relief of Disease

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The Cancer Prevention Diet, by Michio Kushi, outlines the causes and cures for cancer, according to a macrobiotic philosophy. This philosophy, posited on yin-yang (as male-female) is about excess, imbalance (sickness) and balance (health) and how to bring this about in our lives and our diets. It is a wonderful book - very thorough on background, filled with testimonies from cancer survivors, outlining the different types of cancers, and detailing information on menus, cooking, healing tactics, etc. Even if one does not fully embrace the macrobiotic philosophy, I think this is a wonderful book, and gives sound advice on healthy eating and lots of other things associated with cancer. I highly recommend this book as a reference book for health, and a book of hope.

This book does an excellent job of summarizing and organizing all of the work done by Michio Kushi and others over the span of decades working with cancer patients. Though Macrobiotics is based on much Japanese culture, this book is geared to the westernized/American reader so there is very little in the way of cultural chasm to jump over.

Many of the reviews up here are rather ill-informed. Though Macro has been around for decades, most of modern medicine now accepts its precepts, including the AMA, WHO, National Institute of Cancer Research and others. Most of the major natural lifestyle books that have been published in the last 30 years acknowledge learning much from Michio--some are direct carbon copies of Michio's works!

In any case, I have used it and seen first hand my family members recover directly from changing the diet and lifestyle. The changes to body and health happen within a few weeks. My family and I looked and felt better within 6-8 weeks, and the member that had been diagnosed with cancer and given 6 months to live, had the cancer go into remission and lived a number of years longer--and did not die from cancer. I make no claim it will work in every case, but it is a tremendous aid in re-establishing ones good health. If I were to come down with cancer or other serious illness I would go strict Macro. It not only effects your chronic health, but your more general weight and energy levels as well. It is a bit hard to stay on for the long haul with our modern lifestyles, but you do the best you can--and you do it seriously if you are sick.

There has NEVER been any serious and backed up accusation that anything on the diet is in any way dangerous to your health, so there is zero downside to trying it.

As to the sad passing of members of Michio's family from cancer, what can one say. There appears to be a weakness in their genetic make-up that allows this. Nobody knows if they would have died at a much earlier age, and for all we know Michio was attracted to the study of health and cancer due to this family predilection. This is a common reason people get into the study of health.

I am forever grateful for the work this man has done and shared with us.

I read the book and am fully convinced of the diet prescribed by Michio. I've just completely switched to a macrobiotics diet and feel healthier and more energetic. My blood pressure is back to normal so is my diabetes. I've read several of his books where there are testimonies of cancer cases where doctors have given up hope and given them months to live, they've survived for years and have proven western medical opinion wrong.

I've heard from people who have met Michio that he's a chain smoker and not surprisingly as mentioned in another review that he died of lung cancer. Does that prove that what he preach is not true? I don't think so. If not for his diet, he might have died much earlier but he live to a ripe old age of 70 plus.

I'm all for brown rice, miso soup, sea vegetables, sea salts etc.They are the healthiest food around and very delicious too. Incidentally I've just been diagnosed with prostate cancer and my doctor told me decide within a week on prostatectomy before it spreads. I'm not going to do that BUT put my faith in a wholesome and healthy diet. I'm sure I've many more good years without the suffering the possibility of impotence that comes with surgery.

Good luck to all with cancer! And don't try to convince your doctor about macrobiotic. Western medicine is like a religion, it does not accept other beliefs. You got to make the leap of faith. God bless you!

Once again, Mischio Kushi has written an informative and precise book on how to maintain your health, even when facing a diagnosis of cancer.

Like so much of the macrobiotic diet, this is a healthy and great diet to begin to feel great and regain your health.

This book is different, because it is divided up by the different types of cancer. It tells you the SPECIFICS of what you need to add to or subtract from the normal Macrobiotic diet for dealing with your specific kind of cancer. He also gives you a rundown of what the dietary causes are for your cancer. You also need a good general Macrobiotic book that explains the diet/lifestyle. But you definitely need this book. The normal Macrobiotic diet is not what is recommended for specific kinds of cancers, according to this book. I went on the diet for breast cancer about 15 years ago, when I found a lump the size of a small egg. I followed the diet in this book for breast cancer to the letter, and in two weeks the lump was a third the size as it was originally, and in 3 weeks it was gone. I stayed on the breast cancer diet (from this book) for another week, and then went on the regular Macrobiotics for a while. I was able to add lots of things in when I went off the specific breast cancer diet, as it is pretty restrictive, even for macrobiotics. I don't know that I had cancer. I didn't go to a doctor and have anything done to find out. But I DO know that my lump went away, I felt great, and I had more energy than I ever had in my life. And I have never had a lump come back. This book is extremely good. I can only think some of the other reviewers did not realize exactly what this book was about and/or understand how to apply it.

If you are already using another book and have cancer, just keep on the regular macrobiotics until you get this one, to see the specifics for your kind of cancer. I recommend this book very highly! IF YOU DO NOT HAVE CANCER and are trying Macrobiotics in general, this book is good to have, but I would not think it would be really necessary for you. It would probably be good to have on hand if you were going to give help to someone who DID have cancer though.

Since no one seems to be addressing this particular edition of this particular book, I don't feel out of line to post this non-review review.
I have read the positive and negative discussions regarding Macrobiotics, the Kushi's personal health, etc.
What I would like to know is: Has anyone actually read this edition of this book?
How does it compare to the original edition that came out many years ago?
Is there anything new?
Are there any changes?
Would I benefit from reading this new version? or is it just a new release of an old edition with a few pages of introduction to macrobiotics to new readers, as many of the other reprints of old macrobiotic books have been?
Macrobiotics is great. I have read many of the books. Anyone would benefit from adopting the principles of the macrobiotic way of life.
However, Amazon is a site for selling books (among other things) not debating the principles of Macrobiotics. Reviews are supposed to help other customers decide if they should buy this particular BOOK. What about this particular BOOK?

Feel free to comment. I will gladly delete this post if someone would just address THIS BOOK and stop hashing out the pros and cons of Macrobiotics, Macro-neurotics, prevention or cure, the Kushi's personal lives....

Some of the ideas in this book are great; others are terrible. The important work that has been done since the 1980s concerning the essential, healing role that omega-3 fatty acids play in the human diet is not reflected in this book. Be very, very cautious if you use this book. Be sure to read widely to make up for the major deficits of scientific, nutritional knowledge that plague this author.

There is zero evidence that macrobiotics prevents cancer. I studied macrobiotics for several years in two study houses, and so was familiar with the larger macrobiotic community. Because of that, I know that a great many macrobiotic teachers with decades of faithful practice of this diet have died of cancer, and at an early age. A macro teacher named Ken Burns died of liver cancer. Leading teachers Sims and McCarty both died of prostate cancer. Murray Snyder died of throat cancer. None of these Kushi certified counsellors were anywhere near 60 when they died, even though they each ate thousands of perfectly prepared organic macrobiotic dishes. Macrobiotics didn't prevent them from developing cancer, nor did macrobiotics cure their cancer.

Then you have the Kushi family. Kushi's wife and daughter both died of cancer. EVEN MICHIO KUSHI HIMSELF developed colon cancer a few years ago and had to have an operation to deal with it! And besides cancer, macrobiotic teachers have died untimely deaths from heart disease. The founder of macrobiotics, Oshawa, died in his early 70s of a heart attack, as did a very popular Los Angeles teacher named Cecile Levine, who died in her early 50s.

Unfortunately, the macrobiotics organization doesn't tell you their diet fails to live up to the lofty claims they make for it. Macrobiotics is something of a cult, really, and cults don't tell the public the truth, even when it's clear they can't live up to their promises. They just keep selling the same books with the same promises and you're the loser for it.

Do these failures mean that some people haven't been helped by macrobiotics? No, because it's been scientifically proven that eating a diet of whole grains and fresh vegetables is better for you than eating processed food. Some cancer suffers may well have experienced remission because of this diet...SOME...but I can assure you that many have not. One has a better chance at being healthy by eating whole foods. But a better chance is not the same thing as saying that whole foods PREVENT or cure certain diseases. And so the very title of the book is dishonest and misleading.

I'm sure that many readers of these reviews are cancer suffers seeking hope for a personal cure. I don't mean to discourage them by what I write here, but on the other hand they deserve to know that much of the hope macrobiotics holds out is false hope. If that weren't true, wouldn't macrobiotics be much, much, much larger than it is today? Wouldn't millions of cancer patients practice macrobiotics, and wouldn't we have thousands of clinically verified case studies of cancer remission through the macro diet? If you didn't know, macrobiotics today is so small it's almost dead. The reason why is that it's a very hard diet to practice faithfully, and moreover, it just doesn't live up to its claim of "preventing" cancer.

Is there a diet that truly prevents or cures cancer? I can't say for sure, but I believe that a largely raw food diet offers more hope for cancer remission than does macrobiotics. In short, I'd recommend the Hippocrates organization over the Kushi Institute, and I wouldn't waste my money on this book or any book about macrobiotics. It's a diet revolution that has been tried and has failed.

This book is informative, but since cancer patients have to see a nutritiionist and eat whatever their body allows them to eat, this can be difficult. But, if the the patient can eat whatever they need to, this book has lots of good advice and suggestions.

This book is so far the more comprehensive reference manual I could find in the market for anti-cancer treatment diet. The title is mis-leading, maybe because the author does not want to take the pressure of responsiblity to teach what kind of food an existing cancer patient can eat and which are to be avoided. But it is indeed a pratical manual for theses poeple and their relatives who must prepare food for them. The draw back is the tongue - too assertive to be believed, and lack of scientific evidents/experiements proof. Everyone who has a little knowledge in the medication market knows that what so called 'patient's testmonies' are nothing but BS. You can always find a patient whose situation could be used to support any theory you present, if you are so honest that you do not distort the content by the way the words are organized.

However, for many people includes me, we need a guidance. And I think over-all the books is very helpful. After browsing the book in a B&N store for two consecutive nights, I bought the book from half.com.