It wasn't news to me that diet pills and the advertising that went along with them was false. The outrageous claims that one can lose weight by taking a pill and watch fat miraculously melt away seems to me that anyone with an ounce of common sense would know it's not true.

Those unfortunates that have a difficult time losing weight are grasping for false straws when they decide to purchase diet pills, powders and liquids. I learned that there is no miracle diet or pill that will cure all.

When I was 18, I worked at a macrobiotic restaurant and cooking school in Boston.

This was the start of my education of learning to cook. The people I worked with were dedicated to balancing their food each day, which is what the macrobiotic diet is about. If you ate something salty, you wanted something refreshing or sweet.

If you ate something heavy like meat, you balanced it with a light vegetables or fruit. If one drank coffee all day one would be attracted to food that would make you not so jittery.

Macrobiotics is based on eating whole foods and the center of the diet was eating meals with whole grains. Brown rice was the preferred and most balanced grain.

The macrobiotic philosophy of eating to achieve balance included digesting one's food properly. To do this it was necessary to chew each mouthful of food at least 50 times. Chewing food so slowly was one of the hardest parts of the diet for me. I was used to eating quickly as I grew up in a family of 13 and we ate fast so we could have seconds before all the food was gone.

But I dutifully counted each chew so I would properly digest it. I was also told by chewing slowly, that I would eat less.

From Boston, I moved to Belgium and worked at a macrobiotic soup kitchen near a university and took cooking classes from several different cooks.

People who ate a strict macrobiotic diet were invariably very thin. I was told that excesses from eating meat, dairy and sugar would miraculously melt away on the macrobiotic diet. Eating brown rice, steamed vegetables and small amounts of cooked fruit would keep one thin.

I really tried to eat the simple macrobiotic diet, but I was constantly hungry and could think of nothing but food. I became a sneaky eater and would stop at the pastry shops and eat the delicious and scrumptious Belgian delicacies, along with strong coffee and cream. In the evening after eating miso soup, seaweed, brown rice and a side of steamed vegetables; I would take a walk and purchase from street vendors fried potatoes dipped in mayonnaise.

I put on 20 pounds in Belgium. The macrobiotic people said that I was the first person they knew to become fat on the diet. I decided to quit trying to eat so strictly and widened my diet and the weight came off. I wasn't hungry all the time thus I wasn't consumed with thinking of food constantly. The macrobiotic diet taught me about food and I did learn to cook.

But for me I have found that eating a wide variety of foods is the best. There is no miracle diet that will cure all.

Sheila Donnelly can be reached at 434-2233 or by e-mail at :mailto:newsroom@austindailyherald.com