brown rice

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Some f*ing GREAT miso.

October 1, 2008 in Reviews by bursty | 2 comments

I know - we usually don’t go to the extremes of language here on AGAD, but I had to do it today. To celebrate my reintegration into macrobiotics, I bought some beautiful, organic, miso soup in a refridgerated jar at the co-op last night made by the South River Miso Company.

And, let me tell you - this stuff was amazing. It’s different from other misos I have had - it has a bit more of a sour flavor (in a great way), it has a beautiful deep sienna color to it, it was smooth and not too salty. I give it an A++. Seriously - these people are experts. And on their website they sell all different varieties of miso - they just may become my main source! Get yourself a jar of this stuff for a nice treat - it’s a bit on the spendy side but worth every penny. We had the “hearty brown rice” variety, but I think we may try adzuki bean next. The South River Miso Company even has misos made without soy for those who may feel like we get plenty of soy on vegetarian/vegan diets. They also have a great recipe book available online.

After about a month without miso, I had forgotten how nice it is to start the meal off with a nice bowl of it - it was great to be reminded. Jake added carrots, rice, garbanzo beans, and some leaks. mmm… Happy first coursing!

Macrobiotics for Vagabonds

September 18, 2008 in News, Personal Health by bursty | 2 comments

vag•a•bond: noun. a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job.

As I mentioned a while back, Jake & I are in the process of moving.  We fit the definition above quite perfectly right now, actually.  And it turns out that macrobiotics and the vagabond lifestyle don’t work together in harmony all that well.  As the halfro macro mentioned in her last post, it is great to have a partner to be macrobiotic with you — to cook with, eat with, and reflect with about macrobiotics (and also for company and companionship, of course).  Another essential element, for me, to macrobiotics, is your own kitchen.  For some reason a grocery bag filled with whole grains from the co-op (no more shopping at the wanna-be co-op!  yay!) doesn’t quite subsitute for happy inviting canisters on the counter, your own pots and pans, and a stove that you know well. Read the rest of this entry »

Rice In The Fast Lane

July 3, 2008 in Grains, Personal Health by cooljuice | 1 comment

A brown rice fast, a balanced body.

In medieval days, sages treated illness directly with dietary changes, oftentimes prescribing a ten day brown rice fast to balance the body and rid it of impurities.

It sounds a little too easy to 21st century ears where we have over the counter drugs far stronger and varied than any medieval sage could have imagined.

With three months of macro behind us, we decided to give it a try, modifying it to a four day go.

And quite honestly…it’s weird. Come on, a brown rice fast? I’m still having a hard time explaining to my friends that I don’t eat cheese, and that yes I’m ok, and no I’m not sick…
So, whipping out the bowl of brown rice I had been eating out of for 4 days wasn’t exactly good advertising for macrobiotics, at least in the circles I move in.

I’ve been in Minnesota for the last few weeks, away from Kerstin, and we thought this might be a good way to stay connected through macrobiotics even though we weren’t eating together (something I miss terrrrrrrribly).

While I’ve had a hard time understanding and accepting the yin-yang philosophies of the macrobiotic lifestyle, I can attest that eating brown rice does bring one to a sense of great balance and harmony. I already have a big crush on brown rice, so my opinion is biased, but you’ve got to take my word for it.

Just like Kerstin wrote, I was a very satisfied, craving-free, happy feeling macro for four days. The nutrients, minerals and protein in rice is astonishingly satisfying. And after three months of diluting the sodium and sugar from our bodies and letting our tastebuds heal, eating something nourishing tastes nourishing and actually feels nourishing. I gladly ate my meals of rice all day every day. Heck—I’ll probably do it again.

Notes On A Brown Rice Fast

July 3, 2008 in Grains, Personal Health by bursty | 2 comments

Last week, we did a 4-day brown rice fast. Obviously, it’s not a fast, because you eat. You only eat brown rice. Plain, brown, preferably short-grain (I had long-grain because it was very hot here), rice.

We did a modified form of the famous (macrobiotically famous, that is) 10-day brown rice fast. (another blog about it here.) For those in good health, a shorter fast can do the trick as well as a 10-day one, but a 10-day brown rice fast is often recommended to clean out the system for someone who is using macrobiotics for health reasons (i.e. a diagnosis of cancer, or a kidney problem, liver, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. etc.).

Since we’ve been doing the macro-thing for about 3 months now, the 4-day fast was pretty perfect to clean me up. I literally cooked a huge pot of brown rice in the mornings, packed it in my bag, and munched on it throughout the day, whenever I got hungry. And you know what? It wasn’t that bad!

Of course there were moments that people around me were eating (Chinese food at lunch, of all things - and they never order Chinese food - or didn’t, when I was eating things like that) and I got hungry - but I just went and got my glass tupperware full of brown rice and went to work! A few strange looks… yes… but seriously - I felt great!

The rice is a very yang food, being a whole grain, so eating only brown rice for several days brings your body into a very yang state - and it dispells all of the gross yin stuff floating around in your system like acids. The really crazy thing about it is that I didn’t really have any cravings for anything other than rice after the first day and a half or so.

I was perfectly content chewing on my brown rice, staring off into the distance. That leads me to another point - you get into a kind of brown rice haze… the world seems to melt together a bit and everyone seems so rushed—I felt light, and healthy, my skin felt clean, I was calm and relaxed, and happy. All the yang energy in my body relaxed me and it was pretty fabulous….

Anyone out there in macro-world done a brown rice fast? What were your thoughts, feelings, how long did you do it for? Results? Please share!