A macrobiotic diet is a simple, way of life greatly controlling one's health and more by eating a whole foods based diet using the laws of yin and yang-the complementary energies and by eating foods that are mostly alkaline, and minimizing the acidic foods in our diet to being no more than roughly 20%. It is possible to live a long healthy life following a macrobiotic diet, and a diet like this requires far less land to raise the food, making people far less demanding of the planet earth. The health benefits have been confirmed by researchers around the world. Many diseases, from the common cold to cancer, can be prevented and even cured, by natural healing, eating seasonal, locally grown, and energetically balanced foods, consisting mainly of whole grains, beans, vegetables, seaweeds, and fermented foods. It is not a fad but a diet based on the teachings of the world's oldest civilizations. Ways like this of controlling ones health that have worked for ages have been suppressed and hidden with the rise of capitalism since healthy people are not profitable. If 1 in 100,000 people died of cancer like back in 1900 Western medicine would not make much money at all like they do from 1 in 150 dying from cancer today.