The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics: A Philosophy for achieving a Radiant Mind and a Fabulous Body [Paperback]

Jessica Porter (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 9, 2004

A modern girl’s guide to the secrets of eating for health, beauty, and peace of mind.

"Part Joan Rivers, part Mahatma Gandhi, Jessica Porter makes macrobiotics meaningful, hilarious, and totally life-changing."

Simon Doonan, creative director, Barneys New York and author of Wacky Chicks

Heralded by New York magazine as one of the city’s most popular diets, macrobiotics has become the latest trend in dieting, thanks to high-profile supporters like Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Speaking to the generation of young women looking to extend their healthy lifestyles beyond yoga and Pilates, macrobiotic chef and instructor Jessica Porter offers fresh, contemporary, and accessible insight into one of the world’s most popular diets that is based on century’s old principles. She explains that through the right balance of food, women can find balance in every aspect of their lives—improved health, weight loss, or fulfilling relationships.

The effects of eating a macrobiotic diet can extend beyond basic health to weight loss, beauty, better sex, and peace of mind. Cooking tips and recipes are combined with Jessica’s no-nonsense philosophy and witty anecdotes to create a lifestyle book that will inspire women to hit the kitchen with an understanding of how to strengthen their mind and body through food.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This lighthearted book demystifies the macro craze, explains the theories behind the diet and provides...recipes...to please your...palate. -- Harper's Bazaar, November 2004

About the Author

Jessica Porter is a macrobiotic chef, cooking instructor, and hypnotist. She completed her macrobiotic training at the Kushi Institute in Beckett, Massachusetts. She hosts a weekly radio show in Portland, Maine, has written and appeared in her own one-woman show, Zen Comedy, and has been featured in Simon Doonan’s recent book, Wacky Chicks: Life Lessons from Fearlessly Inappropriate and Fabulously Eccentric Women.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Avery Trade (September 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583332057
• ISBN-13: 978-1583332054
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Nutrition > Macrobiotics
  • #2 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Hip & Thigh Workouts
  • #89 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Culinary Arts & Techniques

More About the Author

Jessica Porter is a macrobiotic chef, cooking instructor, and hypnotist. She completed her macrobiotic training at the Kushi Institute in Beckett, Massachusetts. She has written and appeared in her own one-woman show, Zen Comedy, and has been featured in Simon Doonan's book, Wacky Chicks: Life Lessons from Fearlessly Inappropriate and Fabulously Eccentric Women.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

265 of 271 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book convinced me to take the macro plunge February 2, 2005

By Glutton for books

Format:Paperback

I had been considering trying macrobiotics for a few years before it became trendy and this book was released. The first books I consulted were by Kushi and incredibly dry; they made it seem too challenging; focusing on foods I could not find and appliances that needed to be bought in order to start. Then I read Jessica Porter's book and it convinced me to take the plunge.

Her writing is accesiible and she includes entertaning anecdotes from her experience with discovering macrobiotic philosophy. Hte personal conversation stlye makes the information easier to remember and apply than other texts. She makes macrobiotics seem posisble for any one, any where they live. I do not live near a thriving organic community, but she supplies a wide range of resources, online stores, helpful web sites and other useful books to help in the transition. Though she was trained at the Kushi Institute, she gives readers knowledge of the full range of approaches that exist.

Did you know that there is a macrobiotic equivalent to Reese's peanut butter cups? She gives the recipes for these, as well as other deserts for special occasions, in addition to the staple dishes that constitute a macrobiotic eating system. I do wish tht the book had more recipes, and found the book "Cook Your Way to the Life You Want" and Cooking Whole Foods" by Christina Pirello excellent complements. They are not necessary additions, but Porter made me eager to read much more about macrobiotics.

Macrobiotics is learning how to balance food to meet your body's nutritional needs, which will vary depending on your daily activities and stress. It tkaes a life time to master, but Porter provides excellent ropes to help you start immediately, if you so wish. She also provides a gradual (her recommended) approach. An excess of sweets, for example, is not recommended as healthy on average, but she give recipes for safer alternatives to combat cravings caused by mass marketing campaigns of the food industry, as you being your journey into macrobiotics.

There were times when I thought the book indulged a little too much into "feel the power of the universe" rhetoric, but the truth of the matter is that what you eat affects not only your health, but also your moods, and an improved diet helps increase your powers of perception, by making you less vitim to illenss and mood fluctuations.

There are some macro books that I have purchased and had to read again and again, because they were so complicated. This one I reread because I enjoy and am inspired by the writing.

121 of 127 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally - a book that explains it clearly December 27, 2004

By Theresa Reed

Format:Paperback

I have read many books on macrobiotics, only to toss them to the side in frustration. Macrobiotics always seemed so difficult, so time consuming and restrictive. I could never grasp the meaning of 'yin and yang' regarding food - until now.

Jessica Porter has written a book that is accessible, easy to understand and very witty! I have a much better understanding of the effects that food has on my body - and this gives me the power to make better choices. I am not a full fledged macrobiotic junkie (and may never be) - but at least now I can lean in that direction with confidence, not confusion! Thanks Jessica, for the best intro to macrobiotics that I have ever read!

152 of 163 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Should be called the GULLIBLE chick's guide to macrobiotics March 29, 2009

By J. Fuchs TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Okay before you all bash me because I didn't love this book, let me state that I was already mostly macrobiotic before reading it -- I'm vegan (other than a couple of tablespoons of milk in the coffee I'm weaning myself off of), my diet consists mostly of whole grains, vegetables, & legumes, I don't eat sugar at all and almost no refined or processed food, and I cook most of what I eat fresh, every day. I'm not reviewing the philosophy or science of macrobiotics, just this book, which I was looking to as just what the title suggests.

The Positives

The book is for the most part well-written and the explanation of macrobiotic philosophy is pretty clear. So far so good. You either agree with the notion of the universe as being composed of the fundamental forces of yin and yang, or you don't, but you can't argue with statements such as "in macrobiotics ______ is seen as yin," or with the idea of creating balance or with a clear statement of activities that increase yin or yang (unless you think she is wrong about what macrobiotics means, but I didn't catch any of that). Porter also sets forth great ideas for helping people achieve balance in a general sense as well as a macrobiotic sense.

The Negatives

There is no substantiation for most of what Porter says and here I'm talking not about the unsubstantiable (carrots are more yang than celery), but about outright statements such as:

1. Dairy food leaves snotty, wet deposits in the lungs (p. 114);
2. Coffee gives you wrinkles (p. 143 -- oh yeah, 1/2 cup a day even? Porter might have just said coffee's a diuretic, but she doesn't, just that it "gives you wrinkles");
3. It's good to snack on 1/2 sheet of nori every day (p. 151, no explanation why);
4. Plopping the kids in front of video is a good idea if it frees you up for an hour a day of cooking (p. 167);
5. More than 15-20 mins. of bathing can leave you weak because after 20 mins. in hot water the body begins to release minerals (p. 178);
6. Microwave cooking is weakening to the blood (p. 179);
7. Spinach and chard generally shouldn't be eaten as they are high in oxalic acid (p. 191 -- this is true, but it's the only reference in the book to oxalic acid, so most people will wonder why it's relevant); and
8. Saturated fat dulls the walls of the vagina (p. 263).

I'm not saying categorically that these points are inaccurate, just that Porter offers not a shred of evidence for these statements, but puts them forth as facts, not just as macrobiotic philosophy. This casts into doubt everything she says, which is a shame.

Porter also gives little more than lip service to the possibility (a reality for most people) that cooking all your food at least every other day isn't feasible, and that most people who work have to eat out a lot. More practical advice would have been helpful.

The Downright Hideous

Gross overuse of the 'word' "desludging". If you're not sick of it by the end of this book, you have a greater tolerance than I do for lazy writing.

Porter would probably say that I'm just too yang, and she may be right, but I'm sure that there are books that could do a better job of convincing me. If scientific accuracy isn't that important to you, and if you think, as Porter does, that Madonna and Gwyneth are the epitome of women who have it all and are living ideal lives, you might enjoy this book. But if you need some actual facts before you chuck meat, cheese, pasta, tomatoes, sugar, alcohol and caffeine out the window entirely, or even before you ditch your version of vegetarianism for the macrobiotic one, look elsewhere. This book is not for you.