Hi southernwonder,

...good point there...

I took macrobiotics very serously for over a year. This diet also contains philosophy about how foods affect mood as well as health (among other things). I think I got a little too far into the diet and my judgement became impared (I used to get pretty obsessed with things like this).
I can say that this type of diet provides a lot of healthful ingredients and recipes. Much of it resembles the traditional Japanese menu and so it includes some tastes that were pretty new to me, but also very healthful like seaweeds and rice-flour. Two things out of this diet that I really do believe are helpful are miso soup and green tea (if you don't mind caffeine). You can find some nice recipes for miso soup (chock full of noodles or veggies - yum) online. Looking back, this diet opened my eyes to some new and healthful recipes. At that time I had hoped it would be a cure-all. But in the end I guess I haven't really found food to affect me too much... So I've come back to feeling that it's simply best to eat unprocessed foods as much as possible and cook when possible. Here is a cookbook I like
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Bes.../9780760717400

E