This week, I'm excited to welcome to the podcast Steven Acuff to the podcast. He began eating natural food in 1971 with his discovery of macrobiotic food.  At different times between 1980 and 1987 he studied with macrobiotic author and lecturer Michio Kushi in Boston, Massachusetts to further his understanding of macrobiotic food therapy and oriental body diagnosis. Steven has taught many international seminars, including joint seminars with Shizuko Yamamoto, a world-renowned master of shiatsu massage. These courses furthered his knowledge of this Japanese style of massage and his understanding of the energy flow within the body and its importance for healing.

Some questions asked during this episode:

• How do you define macrobiotic food?
• Should we be concerned about the acid-alkaline balance of our food or is it a myth?
• Should we be worried about chemicals if buying non-organic produce?

https://180nutrition.com.au/

Stu

(00:48)

This week, I'm excited to welcome Steven Acuff to the podcast. Stephen is a nutrition consultant offering a holistic approach to self-healing health and wellbeing. He's an expert in the field of the macrobiotic diet and his book, Eating the Wu Way, takes into account personal needs that otherwise often get overlooked with a common one-size-fits-all approach to food. In this episode, we discussed the principles of the macrobiotic diet, explore the acid alkaline balance and dig into the potential roadblocks that a modern day diet could present. Over to Steven.

Stu

(01:31):

Hey, guys. This is Stu from 180 Nutrition, and I am delighted to welcome Steven Acuff to the podcast. Stephen, how are you?

Steven

(01:39)

I'm well here at Stockholm, Sweden. The morning has started and I'm full of energy.

Stu

(01:44)

I was just mentioning, I'm kind of getting to the reverse end of the scale as we're coming to the evening in Byron Bay in Australia, but all good. Thank you so much for offering some of your time today. But first up, for all of our listeners that may not be familiar with you or your work, I'd love it if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself please.

Steven

(02:03)

Well, it began, my journey with organic foods, in 1971 at the age of 25. Just out of curiosity, I had no health problems, but I was involved in the original environmental issues and it made sense to me to eat organic food. So I went to a lecture about macrobiotic food and decided I'd give it a try for a week. And so here I am, 50 years later, talking to you about it.

Steven

(02:33)

I've spent most of my adult life in Europe. I come from Oregon originally, but Europe drew me. I always had an affinity for it. I have four children and nine grandchildren here. Went to 1999 to Australia, met a lovely Aussie lady who came to our center to learn more about macrobiotics and we hit it off. So I came down there and it was love at first sight when I came to Australia. And had I not had all of my family already here, I would already be immigrated there. Australia's the perfect place for me because it's got that laid back quality of the US, and yet it's got a sophisticated European nature to it also. So for me, it's just like tailor made.

Steven

(03:22)

In fact, I remember one man I met at a UK summer camp, a health camp, was asking me about Australia and he said, "The Australians are interesting." He said, "You know, basically they're Californian with an East London dialect." For full interview and transcript: https://180nutrition.com.au/180-tv/steven-acuff-interview/