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The 10-day Brown Rice Fast
The brown rice fast is a way to get back in balance. The original claim for it when something called macrobiotics was popular in the 1960's, was that it restored the proper balance of yin and yang in your system. Whatever. What I know is that I have performed this fast numerous times -- more than ten, I think -- and that it appears to have certain very desirable effects.
It causes you to think better, partly due to the B-vitamins in the outer part of the rice kernel, the part that's scraped off to make white rice. It gives you incredible physical energy -- I have been known to walk 30 miles during a brown rice fast, and not really get tired from it. And you do seem to be in a better balance. The overall effect is enough that I did repeat it all those times through the years.
Pay close attention, because this regimen is very easy to get wrong, in which case the results are not guaranteed.
Okay, here are the rules. Use only unprocessed short-grain rice, available in health-food stores. For ten days you eat nothing but the rice. Nothing means nothing. No soy sauce. No salt or other condiment. You do not have even an aspirin, or any other pill. No caffeine, of course. No smoking, drinking, or drug use. The rice is prepared in small quantities, 2 parts water to 1 part rice. Bring the rice to a boil, reduce the heat so that it's just simmering, and cover the pot. Cook it until all of the water is absorbed into the rice, and all of the milky-white substance on the bottom has disappeared. There should be a generous amount of golden-brown on the bottom. This is very important. If it's not there, keep cooking until it is. This is what makes the rice yang enough.
It was said that some groups would gather that golden-brown powder up and feed it to any of their members who was ill.
During the ten days, drink as little water as possible. You are getting your water mostly from the rice. No soda, of course. Eat as much as you want, but it shouldn't be more than a pound in a day, and will probably be a lot less.
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