 Aloha everyone and welcome to another episode of Lillian's Vegan World. I'm coming to you live from gorgeous downtown Honolulu. I am a vegan chef and author of the new book, Lillian's, not Lillian's Vegan World, that's his show of Hawaii, a vegan paradise. Today I'm so excited to have on my show all the way from Maui live with us today Sherry Brinks, macrobiotic chef and nutritionist. Welcome to the show Sherry, so awesome to have you on. Thank you Lillian, really happy to be here. You know what, I have been vegan for quite some time now 14 years and I've been in this vegan food industry for about 20 years but one thing I've not delved into yet is macrobiotics. So I'm really really excited to talk to you and learn about what it's all about. Sherry first of all I'd love for you to introduce yourself to the viewers and tell us a little bit a little bit about you. Okay so I've lived here in Maui and I have a Dallas Healing Arts School here in Haiku where we teach Chi Ne song and nutrition and we have macrobiotic potlucks here once a month and we do some Chi Gong and it's a Dallas Healing Arts School here in Maui and so I got into the healing arts many many years ago in my 20s and now I'm here doing macrobiotic nutrition as well because my husband and I actually healed our health condition through macrobiotics and we tried everything and macrobiotics is the one thing that actually healed our condition. Sherry before we go on please explain to the viewers exactly what macrobiotics is. So macrobiotics is a yin yang philosophy and when it's yin and yang some people they you know eat fruits or they eat meat you know so meat would be very yang and sugar would be very yin but we want to go on the middle path and what's the middle path well it's not too yang animals and it's not too yang yang yin yang it's not too yang or yin and which is processed sugar is yin and animals is yang we want to go in the middle ground and what's the middle ground miso soup vegetables grains and we also don't do dairy as well so it's very uh it alkalizes the system it builds the immune system and it strengthens the guts and also it's a yin yang philosophy so it's very balancing the food where it's taking the middle path rather than like the extreme yang or the extreme yin interesting a lot of energy in the body as well doing the same protocol I did take a look at your awesome Facebook page which is under your name Sherry Brinks and there's a lot of information there about macrobiotics I actually learned a lot just scrolling through some of your posts and I did I did notice I did see the Japanese miso soup recipe that you made from scratch using dashi I actually lived in Japan for 30 years and that's where I started my career as a chef so it was awesome to see that and most of us know that the Japanese have one of the life longest lifespans in the world so there's definitely something to be said of that cuisine it's very interesting yeah um I was reading that about you about your book and then I was actually studying a little bit about what you do with the veganism in your book and I saw that you did live in Japan and then you were making broths and dashi and I was like oh my gosh because that's one of my dreams is to go to Japan and in time there you know studying a little bit more on how they more on the macrobiotic part you know because I know they have macrobiotic over there different places that they cook and the foods that they have over there so I'm very excited to visit one day so that is so amazing that you got to stay there and live there and learn yes it's definitely amazing place yeah because what I heard in the statistics say that the women over there in Japan don't go through painful menstrual cycles and they don't have menopause symptoms because of the seaweed and the miso and the vegetables and the way they eat they don't really have to go through the big menopause or the painful menstrual cycles that the women have here in the western and I think it's the only actually country that the women are very healthy in that way that's so interesting and and I I believe that actually I eat pretty much like a Japanese person as well and I'm going to be 50 next month in a few weeks and I I'll just put it out there I haven't reached menopause or did not have any symptoms at all thus far but this is about the age where you know that sort of stuff starts to kick in so maybe there is definitely you know that Japanese cuisine is something to look into so I was excited to see that it is included in the macrobiotic biotic diet so Sherry tell us more um first of all what is the condition that you you healed you and your husband so macrobiotics um as long as we refrain away from processed sugar animals and dairy which macrobikes actually uses a little bit of fish and the reason why is because some people are weak they're very weak in their condition so they need a little bit more young so then actually that's actually a medicine fish for that but it's very rare you know it's just on certain people but with macrobiotics it's mostly vegan but it uses a protocol so the difference between vegetarianism veganism and macrobiotics is that macrobiotics has a certain protocol that you have you need to eat the certain protocol throughout the week to discharge the excess yen that's in the system and so that protocol is like the miso soup and the umogushi plum and the sauerkraut and vegetables and grains and the kukucha tea and umo not umogushi plum but the uh because I mentioned that already but they have the sesame seeds the gamagio so all this is a protocol to help heal the condition so what's happening is is that when I started eating uh eating the macrobiotics um my husband and I we tried everything we called doctors we went to uh health like holistic health doctors in uh I think I went to three different western doctors and they couldn't figure anything out what I had in fact I almost died from they gave me um some kind of medication uh because they thought it was like um what is it like what is that called um like a bladder infection and so they said just take this antibiotic but they didn't really test me and I was allergic to that antibiotic and I woke up in the middle of the night and I was shaking and I almost died and then the emergency came and then they took me to the emergency and they said well you don't have a bladder infection why are you taking this I said well the doctor gave it to me but they didn't really come out with a test or anything so I mean I literally thought I was going to die because I was actually allergic to that when they gave me the sulfate uh antibiotic so then I studied and then even one doctor told me over the phone that I had cancer and so but by that time I was like oh my god so I laid on the floor and my whole my adrenal's just tightened up and I had this back pain and I was so scared I was like oh my god this doctor just told me that I had bladder cancer over the phone so then I was just like oh my god oh my god and I was really scared at that time right and I remember that I studied macrobiotics way back when when I lived in LA because I was doing the acting and the actors were into the macrobiotics and then one of the actors or he was a pianist and he healed himself through leukemia with macrobiotics and he says hey I'm going to make you a macrobiotic dinner I said okay so he made me one but I went home I couldn't make it all the way home but I actually was looking for a trash can and I saw this big minister I went behind and actually threw up the first meal even one meal of macrobiotics actually starts the healing process to discharge all the stuff in the body and back then in my 20s in Hollywood I was like eating fast food hamburgers and stuff you know but so excited about this that I actually went to the macrobiotics center in the bay area and they were healing people with cancer they had this one side where all the cancer patients were staying and then the other side was a kitchen and they had the macrobiotic master some Japan Cornelia and her husband they were from Japan and they were masters at it so I went there and I paid them and then they showed me how to cook in the kitchen macrobiotically you know I was so excited went back to Hollywood but I didn't have enough support to actually move there and do the program so 30 years later I get this paramedic pause symptom I mean I don't even know what it was I was 46 years old and I'm like oh my god what's going on and this is when all the doctors were telling me oh you know once that I had cancer then I went to this other person and they said oh well it could be this interstitial cystitis we don't know what it is and then another person said we'll take this medication and I will start from it I mean I was going through everything I even went through holistic practitioners and they were giving me stuff and it nothing worked and I was still scared I was like oh my god what if I do have cancer because I was all scared um so then I said okay I remember about this macrobiotic this person that actually healed himself then I met two people in Sebastian of the area when I was living there she healed herself the colitis and then also my other friend killed herself for breast cancer with macrobiotics so then I'm like I'm just going to do macrobiotics so I went strictly on macro six months later I healed so we don't really know what it was but I'm thinking that what happened was we ate everything at the time that I built up acidity in my body and so when I urinated it was burning and this kind so it was this acid in my body and then with my husband he actually healed his gall with macrobiotics so he no longer I don't have to take him to the emergency room and he's actually Hawaiian he's from Milwaukee and so his whole family they all are diabetic or they have high cholesterol or they have something and he's the only one that doesn't have sick medications that's incredible I I must say yes the the typical Hawaiian diet in addition to a typical American diet is probably not one of the best ways you can form your eating habits so definitely definitely you need to find something else whether it's more vegetarian food vegan food and now we're talking about macrobiotics today we are going to take a quick break soon but before we do sherry I think people really would be interested to see what it is you eat so I do want to show one of the slides before we go to the break that you have prepared let's pull up the first one so this is you in one of your classes I believe yeah so this is at we hold a summer camp not actually I don't but actually there's somebody that holds the whole summer camp in Yosemite a macrobiotic summer camp for 10 days in all the teachers and practitioners and people who want to learn about it they do this like around July August for 10 days the cabins and camping and then different places to learn throughout you know it's a camp and you can learn all kinds of macrobiotic teachings there so we were actually cooking in the kitchen there and it's so much fun because everybody gets a chance to actually cook together and that was the time when I was cooking and we there's a bunch of us cooking in the kitchen in the macrobiotic kitchen now okay awesome sherry we will take a quick break and be back with you to talk more about macrobiotics and healing the body through this natural form of eating stay tuned everyone see you after the break welcome back everyone to Lillian's vegan world I'm your host Lillian Cumig and today we're talking all about macrobiotics with a macrobiotic chef and nutritionist sherry brings welcome back to the show again sherry so yeah about macrobiotics it's so amazing what happens in the beginning is that we discharge so the protocol is when we do the protocol and we reframe from dairy all animals and process sugar and sometimes fruit because it's very yin and just stick to the protocol what happens is that we start discharging and that's what happened to me and my husband when we healed our health condition is that I started blowing my nose a lot and the reason why is because over a period of time when one consumes any kind of animals dairy and processed sugar it builds up in the system and then all sudden one could get like you know I had a lump here but it was benign actually get lumps in the breasts or anywhere else cancer diabetes any kind of health condition because that's really what and where the health conditions come from is dairy any kind of animals in process sugar in the macrobiotic world this is you know where most of it comes from there's some emotional but mostly because every disease has emotional components but mostly like 90% is what we eat and so the protocol in oh it's amazing a lot of us discharge out through the skin blowing our nose we got to get rid of all that mucus buildup whether it's you know a knot or you know a knot right here in the breast or it could be in the organs there's a lot of mucus buildup in the organs over the years and so we want to discharge and macrobiotics we call it discharging and the only way we could discharge a lot of this is through the macrobiotic protocol and what is that well it's a seven protocol umabushi plum which is very alkalizing and great for the digestion fermented this is a fermented sour plum I think we call it yeah umaboshi in Japanese you did mention quite a few fermented foods which as everyone knows is great for gut bacteria so umaboshi is one of them yeah umabushi plum but you want to make sure that you get the health food store you don't want to get it at the regular stores or Asian stores because they put msg in it so make sure health food store only because the msg is not good and then um that umabushi plum and then we have gamagio which is basically roasted sesame seeds and a little bit of salt in there and that's another thing that macrobiotics does mineralizes the system because we lose a lot of minerals so that's where we add salt to a lot of the stuff but interesting the person can't handle the salt and we lessen a lot of the salt so um we got umabushi plum gamagio and usually I just get the sesame seeds and actually roast them myself and add some salt to it and all this is online you can just type it in and get the recipe of how to make it but they do what kind of sorry sherry I was going to ask what kind of salt are you using do you see salt or Himalayan uh kosher I'm I'm very I'm very much into salt and actually macrobiotics is very much into salt too so we get it I get mined from the macrobiotic salt uh I mean macrobiotic sites it's online I know I I'm so excited about this you can see I I am too I'm learning so much in you know only you know what is it 20 minutes in I'm learning a lot please continue on yeah so we don't do Himalayan salt or black salt or all this other salt because it's too strong for the system we just do regular salt and this salt comes from Mexico but it's like um in a certain place and it's the best salt for us because it's most balancing in the system because we try different salts and that you get online they have like a different places you can go this one's goldline.com and they have the salt there and uh I gosh I could there's si salts and then I try this other salt from the macrobiotic site but si salt it's called and it's the most balancing of yin and yang salt for the system because the other salts are a little bit more stronger like Himalayan and so we're always trying to find the most balancing one you see and then the third one is sauerkraut sauerkraut is very important because a lot of times we lose the good bacteria someone's going antibiotics or just we need to strengthen our guts so it's very important to do sauerkraut but raw sauerkraut at the health food store very important yeah not just on a shelf or anything it needs to be refrigerated and because that's where all the good bacteria is and just a spoonful a lot of people like eat a whole bunch but just a spoonful is fine you know every day. Interesting I'm definitely going to do that I love sauerkraut to begin with but I have never tried the raw sauerkraut from a health food store. Oh okay yeah it's very important because they have the organic usually at the health food store we don't know what's really you know in it at the regular stores just like the umeboshi you know they put MSG in that so that is the fourth one no actually the fourth one is I said this third one the fourth one would be grains so I know a lot of people have stuff about grains but macrobiotic practitioners can eat grain because their gut is strong enough because they strengthen their gut through the protocol because when I first started eating grains because I didn't believe in them before but it was like whoa but then eventually you get strong because of the protocol of macrobiotics and doing the intercom press too is very important. Yeah I'm guessing it's the same as when you transition from a regular diet non-vegan diet to a vegan diet at the beginning you can expect to see some changes in your maybe bowel movements or you know your gut maybe more gas things like that you can probably expect but they do go away that's the thing so I'm glad to hear that with macrobiotics too and in the beginning you may see some kind of awkward symptoms but they will subside so you do believe in eating grains yourself absolutely because it's just a yeah it's very interesting I mean the wheat I could understand that you know there's stuff in the wheat and um the pesticides and stuff like that it's hard to digest but it's important when people do eat like bread to not just buy bread where it has all the yeast and the additives in it but just buy or just have salt and the starter in it and the wheat and water and that's it and the flour that's it but when you see all the stuff in it that's just making people have gut problems because it's processed yeah anything processed is yeah not not the best but we live in a world where now people want to eat conveniently so I was interested to it's all about convenience isn't it but now that we've had this COVID year where people have had the opportunity to spend more time in their kitchens I think this is this is the year that people have started to change and are venturing out into the cooking world a little bit more so very exciting for someone like myself who just put out a cookbook but uh definitely definitely people who you never imagined were cooking um have started to enjoy it sherry let's take a look at some of your photos there are more photos of your food so let's pull up the set that's next one yeah for the breads you get the farmers market and usually they just have the three or four in them and I get at Whole Foods where they it's organic it's just a three or four in a certain bread and then it's there you know or I make my own bread but we don't have to buy all this bread that has all the stuff and it makes people gain weight because yin makes a person expand and that's all yin the processed foods yin it makes people expand and gain weight so we want to contract to become more yaw these come stronger as we get older well I'll tell you sherry if we if we lead by example anyone who looks at you will look at how healthy and beautiful and glowing you are so whatever you're doing and whoever's watching this show if you want to look like that I think maybe start getting into some macro biotics sherry let's take a look at some more you I'm 52 next year I mean yeah see I would I would never never in a million years pick you to be that age but you know 50 is the new 30 so you are if you believe that you are what you eat and stop making excuses that you are the way you are because it's hereditary or your DNA the basic the bottom you know fact is that you are what you eat so changing your eating habits is the best way you can make changes to your body and your health yeah like for me it's definitely the macro biotics number one and then doing my qigong practice which I've taught in a walkthrough I'm going to be teaching qigong over there too um in the summer but yeah qigong yes absolutely there's so much to you sherry I'm going to have to get you on next year to do a part to follow up because there's so much more to you you also um ran the Taoist Healing Arts School in Maui I believe which did you mention that it was closed this year due to um the COVID-19 any plans to start up again I'm the founder of the Taoist Healing Arts School and uh yeah it's right now closed for people to come here but we actually do a few zooms not too much and then I'll go to a walkthrough uh and I teach a little I taught at the massage school there the qine song and I'm going to be teaching a qigong which is outside with five people in the summer next summer and so uh slowly but surely we're going to open it back up but not until maybe in the summer sherry we we are getting close to the the end of the show I I'm I feel like I could talk to you for hours about this protocol because I only yes four okay go ahead the fifth one so we said umabushi plum gemagio grains sauerkraut vegetables very important especially the root vegetables so really into root vegetables is very grounding because we don't eat animals so the way we ground is we do root vegetable stews you probably heard of it mashimi it's a Japanese root stew and using uh just different root vegetables stir-frying and different kind of ways to cook root vegetables and also dark food greens all kind of vegetables but we don't do the night shapes because it causes arthritis in the future so no night shades and um the fifth so that's the fifth one we're getting to oh the sixth one will be miso sleep that's where we build our immune system this is a miso because this is a protocol for people who want to heal their condition you don't have a health condition and you don't really need this protocol but you want to just keep it because later it won't happen and then we have let's see we did all seven and what's the last one can you guess the last one is we get in touch with sherry banks we find you seaweed is the eight oh i'm sorry the seven seven seaweed the seventh protocol i'm sorry there's an eighth one but we'll talk about that later but we have the seven protocol which is very important and then in advance we go into the eighth and the ninth but right now the seven is the most important so the seventh one seaweed that's awesome sherry talking to you has been amazing and uh definitely we we need people to reach out to you and we find you we can find you on facebook sherry banks is that how will you reach out sherry brings i like thank you for your book i've been looking into it you know and how you were in japan and everything that's just gosh what are my dreams you live one of my dreams well the you we have many more years ahead of us sherry brings so plenty of time to go to japan and um tick that off your bucket list thank you so much for joining the show today i truly appreciate having you on wish you uh happy holidays and to all our viewers thank you so much for joining me on lilians vegan world this year if i can quickly pull up my book um hawaii a vegan paradise still on sale and uh i'll be doing a book signing also at the kakako uh farmers market this december 12 and december 19 so do find me there thank you so much for for joining us i look forward to seeing you in 2021 happy holidays and i love i know how