When we cook, we bring out certain nutrients in our food. Each type of cooking brings something out. With blanched vegetable salad, vegetables are quickly boiled in lightly salted water. The vegetables are removed from the water when their color is bright. We are really after brightness. Some people may think they need the vitamin C in the vegetables, but that is not the point. The point is bringing our energy up to the surface and having it sparkling and bright on the surface. That is what blanched vegetables do. It is more accurate to see this cooking style for what it does to our energy, how it nourishes our energy. It nourishes our brightness and our freshness.

Quite often people are concerned about their weight, and I say “Eat blanched vegetables. That will keep the weight up.” Then they look at me in a very strange way, thinking “There is no fat there, no protein there. What is going to keep my weight up? But blanched vegetable salad keeps you from over-contracting. It keeps you fresh and bright. Your weight will be fine if you eat them often.

If you try to balance foods nutritionally, it is very complicated, but if you see things as energy, it becomes very simple and clear. What are you looking for? Are you looking for more strength and vitality; more freshness; more stability? If you know what you are looking for then it is easier to recreate energetically. Practicing the Seven Steps of Strengthening Health Macrobiotics helps us tune in to what we want, and we can then create that with our cooking. In this way we can greatly improve our health and that of the world around us.