In various parts of your body, Jexux Larretxea has been affected by this disease. The doctors couldn't guess what caused the pain and fell into the depression. Then he lost his sight. He was found with lumps in his head and told that he wouldn't have surgery because they were in a bad spot. According to the doctors, the man had aged too fast, had his grandfather's cells, 85 years old, and had no history. He was unlucky. Incidentally, his daughter read in the newspaper an article about Errezil's pelotari, Joxe Mari Etxenagusia. Pelotari cured leukemia in a center in France, thanks to a diet called a macrobiotic. “Take medicine and pray. I had nothing to lose and I decided to go to the center,” says Larretxea. He headed to the centre of the village of Saint Gaudens, where Master René Levi died a year ago. Levi was a student of macrobiotic founder George Ohsawa. His teacher said to him, “You come quite late, but if you take it with a lot of faith and the body helps you a little, you can have a chance.” He proposed rice or buckwheat, and Larretxea chose wheat. For one month I had eaten no more than buckwheat, chewed 300 times each bite and without a drop of water. He was 84 kilos when he went to downtown Saint Gaudense and began to lose a kilo and a half a day. “I was weakening myself, but I also felt good.” He finally regained his sight. After a year traveling to France, he weighed 42 kilos and little by little, in addition to wheat, he started with other foods. It started to get better... “to this day.” It's been 17 years.

If we ate like 80 years ago ...

Food and lifestyle all changed for Jexux Larretxea. He felt tremendous frustration because in society in general, the customs he wanted to acquire collided with the everyday lives of others. Think of an intimate friend and a few others who stepped into the path of macrobiotics. It says that in five years it was about 500 people.

13 years ago, he decided to dedicate 24 hours a day to the path of macrobiotics. She has studied Dietetics and Nutrition and currently has a consultation in several municipalities. Offers cooking courses and conferences. That's the main goal, to extend macrobiotics to as many people as possible. The level of knowledge is not twenty years ago, so a few had heard the word macrobiotics and those who resorted to macrobiotics had some serious harm. It estimates that there will be some 40,000 macrobiotics in Gipuzkoa today. Starting to put the territories of Hego Euskal Herria in order, he told us about Gipuzkoa, Navarra, Bizkaia and Araba.

Larretxea believes that it is not surprising that there are many patients in this area and that it has been possible to hit the macrobiotic. Somewhere we've gotten used to food with a lot of bitterness, we pick extreme foods and eat them out of proportion. The macrobiotic constantly seeks the balance between food and gives us an example of what the tradition of the Basques has been and of what the balance is: mix cider and cheese. However, it does not have many customs to sell in the Basque Country. Larretxea has been remembering for 80 years corn, barley, wheat, millet... which were staple foods in the farmhouse: “It is not so many years, cereals were a fundamental food, as we are now demanding. But in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening they ate pork at that time.”

Sick and absent

When Jexux Larretxea approached master René Levi, 17 years ago, in downtown Saint Gaudense half were Basque, including Spanish, French and Italian. There were those who had serious illnesses. Things are different now. In the same Basque Country there are people who have gone a long way into macrobiotics and local people who are advising, teaching cooking courses and lectures. According to Larretxea, there are currently less than half of those who come to the clinic for suffering from a serious illness. More than half of the patients “before and after, they are patients who are in the process of suffering from serious diseases”. They have trouble sleeping, they have a lot of anxiety and eat a lot, they have trouble urinating or defecating, they have trouble having a child. To the consultation of Larretxea come people of all ages, and above all, the approach of the young people rejoices in the spinar that lives in Oiartzun, “they are the future and they have to change everything that is lived, the way of eating, the lifestyle... Everything.”

The belly and emotions

Macrobiotics is not just food. It is an adaptation of the culinary traditions of the Far East based on the balance between yin and yang. Japanese philosopher George Ohsawa brought this knowledge from Japan to Europe that links food, medicine and even spirituality. As explained by Larretxea, it should be taken into account that the body has three parts: the psychic, the physical and the spiritual or the emotional. All three have the same importance, but the physical aspect has to be OK to treat the other two. Thanks to the macrobiotic diet the body begins to recover and little by little the body recovers the instinct that the human being has lost, that is, the body will tell us at all times if it wants to eat or drink or not, what it wants to eat... The way of eating can influence the psychic and emotional aspect, as if this is not satisfactory the diseases will not be eliminated.

He has set an example to underline the importance of the triangle: “Today it is said that men and women are equal, but that freedom is not on track. A lot of health damage is being done. Men, in general, are not open, we have not changed and women lead a very hard life; out, work at home, children...”. We asked if you have patients affected by this lifestyle: “Many women, and therefore sons and daughters.”

The Gap Left by René Levi

Last year Maestro René Levi died. For Larretxea, French Levi has left them a hole, “it was our father. Those who are now in Saint Gaudens are doing very well, but people were going there for Levi. The Basques have the habit of making small gods and that is what has happened to Levi. People are still there, but less than before. In addition, Levi counted on his team with Castellanoparlantes, which also facilitated communication. On the other hand, we have to keep in mind that we have to go far.” Larretxea tells us the idea that it has been thinking for many years, to set up a kind of hostel right here. It would be for about 120 people, with the possibility of eating and sleeping in the enclosure. Rooms for any age, conferences, cooking courses... The crops that would be eaten there would be produced on the land purchased. She has given us an example of a woman who would benefit from staying at this hostel: the woman has cancer. He wants to start a macrobiotic diet. At home, she prepares daily food for her husband and children. If you start making a new diet, you should cook the two types of food and, as long as you cook for others, you will have to end the temptation of the aromas of always. It is also possible that the family does not have faith in the new diet. Larretxea believes that these patients, at least in the first moments of treatment, would be grateful to the hostel. It tells us about three conditions to make a hard diet with a serious illness: believing in what you are going to do, having your body strong enough for the change and the help of others.
From a medical point of view, macrobiotics have no type approval, but macrobiotics are becoming more and more numerous. Those affected by serious diseases, in the absence of any other assiduous, touch the doors of this way of eating from the Far East. However, more and more have opted for macrobiotics to feel better, to lose weight or to put aside the vortex of eating.