The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics: A Philosophy for ... (ISBN 1583332057)

Unsubstantiated claims:
I was disappointed by Ms.Porter's lack of a bibliography to back up some of the more controversial content in the book. Dairy causes wet spots in your lungs? (just one example that she never explains) She seemed to shoot from the hip without backing up her statements. I am sure she is not a medical professional nor a nutritionist and should not be representing this information as remotely factual. The fact that she prefaces many of these statements with the wording that 'it can be debated' does not let her off the hook. The publishers should have demanded better. Anything can and will be debated. Most authors do not write books amounting to conjecture and have someone buy it. I am glad that I did not pay full price. I hope that people do their own research before taking parts of this book as the truth. Talk with your physician.

Informative, Fun, Great Recipes:
I had been reading about Macrobiotics for a while online before buying this book. It was an easy read and it helped me go "whole hog". I have only been macrobiotic for a short time and have seen amazing transformations not only in myself but in my husband as well. I never thought he would have stuck with this diet since he enjoyed meat and dairy so much. I was vegan before so I knew it wouldn't be hard for me. But after seeing the results in just a few weeks we knew we were macro for life. No more GMO's, no more processed foods, no more refined sugar, no more dairy and meat pumped full of hormones, no more feeling bloated and sluggish. We chew our food thoroughly and enjoy it and are never hungry. We eat good portions of great food. The fat and "sludge" in our bodies is melting off literally and I'm sure we aren't even balancing yin and yang that well yet or upward and downward foods etc. I can't imagine the benefits as we refine our knowledge. I threw out all our food not befitting any human and gave some other stuff away to friends in need. Then we took the time to find all the new ingredients but it's not too hard when you have Whole Foods Market or a Henry's nearby. I bought all kinds of new kitchen gadgets and tossed out the microwave and teflon items as well as any polycarbonate plastics with BPA's. I would recommend this book and way of life to anyone striving for health, vitality and energy. I used to drink a Rockstar before running at the gym or take an Herbal Nitro or Red Bull. Now I can run and workout without the use of stimulating sugars and caffeine that whack out the chemicals in your body and deplete needed vitamins from your system. I never thought I could have a strong workout without these enhancers. But since going macro I not only can have a great workout but my endurance is up and I'm doing more. This is a new way of life for us and I promise, it's a good one.

Beware of Kindle Edition/Table 1 unreadable/Great book:
This is a wonderful book. However, I downloaded it to my new Kindle and immediately had problems reading the first Table even after adjusting to the largest font. I wrote customer service today thinking they would back it up with a text copy or some refund but they just said this will happen and side-stepped the issue. I don't really find this an acceptable policy when a very important part of the book is unreadable.

Saved my life:
My daughter read this book and said she wanted to feel like Jessica felt. Two weeks later we were at the Kushi Institute learning about macrobiotics for a week. When my daughter and I eat macrobiotically we feel much better. I believe that eating macrobiotically has helped pull me back from the brink of some awful Western disease. Ms. Porter has written a great book to introduce a way of life that can seem daunting to many.

Life changing book:
This book is amazing! Since I knew nothing about macrobiotics before I read it, I was skeptical. The farther in I got the more the concepts began to make sense. It is written in plain english and very easy to understand. It's also very funny, making it a pleasure to read. I highly recommend this book!