>From: Carol S <[log in to unmask]>
>macrobiotics followers I know eat tons and tons of brown rice, something
>that would be difficult to do on a raw food diet.
>

Hi Carol - The basic foundation of Macro. teaching is that all our
actions
spring from the imbalance of Yin/Yang of the food that we eat. For ex.
Coffee is very high yin (expansive) and meat is very high yang
(contract).
So, the resulting imbalance forces to you do something which will
result in
balance. So, as long as your food is not balanced, you have no freedom
to
choose on what to do with your life. To know more on this, you can
refer to
any book by Michio Kushi or George Ohsawa (tons of them are around).

So, they look at any food and see how balanced they are in terms of
yin/yang. They conclude that all grains are the most balanced of all,
and
brown rice gets the 'numero uno' position of all grains. Since they
chew
each mouth 50 - 100 times, though they are cooked, with the help of
our
saliva, they get digested without problem. I was not interested in
chewing
like that. So, after a longtime, I came to the idea of soaking the raw
brown
rice and eat it. In fact, they started sprouting after a few days. So,
I eat
sprouted rice regularly. Believe me, they are the most balanced food
of all
and they have all the healing qualities they claim on it. People who
have
excessive acidity will find it highly helpful, since it has no acid in
it.
Also, you will feel the freedom to do what you really want to do. I
have got
many benefits from it. One that is very striking is, my teeth become
strong
immediately. Also, rice is very detoxing food, when eaten alone and
for a
few days in a row. It won't make you feel tired like fruitarian diets.
It is
worth the try, if you have a few days to spend on it. Good luck!

Renga