The Brown Rice Diet - Ohsawa No. 7
Don and I followed The Brown Rice Diet, aka George Ohsawa's Diet Number 7 regimen recently, which we enjoyed quite a bit. While we were not exclusively eating only brown rice, we found the results of eating mostly brown rice for 10 days to be quite revealing ~ if not life changing ~ as I'll be sharing in this upcoming series of blog posts.
Why I Decided to Eat The Brown Rice Diet / Ohsawa No. 7 for 7-10 Days
Some of you may be wondering what kind of crazy diet are we following now? Well, actually, I'm glad you asked. Ever open and curious, we decided to give what has been dubbed The Brown Rice Diet by some (including myself as chronicled in my video series) a try.
All I can say is that after immersing myself in several old macrobiotic books we received as an unexpected gift, followed by several newly acquired old books by George Ohsawa ~ including different editions of Zen Macrobiotics ~ along with Dirk Benedict's Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy, there wasn't much deliberation. My body, mind and spirit aligned like a planetary syzygy. I just knew I needed to / wanted to / was compelled to eat a LOT of brown rice for at least one week. I sensed the motivation from deep within me, beyond the grip of my conscious mind, ready to try The Brown Rice Diet for at least 7 days, as a sort of reset - on multiple levels.
Considering all the other ways of eating I've tried over the years, trying The Brown Rice Diet for 7-10 days actually seemed a no-brainer. What could it hurt? After all, I thought to myself, seven days will go by in a flash, which it did. And I loved every second of it!
So, you may be wondering, who is George Ohsawa, and why eat only or mostly brown rice for a week?
Here's my video short announcing our plans to begin Ohsawa's Diet 7, eating mostly brown rice for at least seven days.
A Brief Intro to George Ohsawa
George Ohsawa (1893 - 1966) wrote many books, countless articles, and traveled the world teaching what he called 'the Unifying Principle' ~ the theory of Yin / Yang (from his perspective) and how to apply it to living a long, great, healthy life.
As Ohsawa states in, You Are All Sanpaku,
"True health can only be established by individual triumph over the constant temptations and dangers of daily life."
Ohsawa believed there were no incurable diseases, only incurable people. And that we have the power to heal ourselves, when we eat and drink properly, according to the universal principles of balance ~ the primary premise of macrobiotics.
He further elucidates that true health, "cannot be established through a proxy war on cancer, war on poverty, war on tuberculosis [which he contracted while young and overcame applying these very principles] or war on heart disease....
"True health can be won by recognition of the principle of the Oneness of the universe, and man's relation to it."
(To learn more about Ohsawa and other early macrobiotic pioneers, you may enjoy this article - Macrobiotics - Our First Introduction and Early Pioneers. I also discuss several earlier teachers of a macrobiotic way of life, including excerpts from The Essene Gospel of Peace, vol. 1 & 2 translated by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely in The Macrobiotic Action Plan, Your MAP to Greater Health & Happiness (or simply, The MAP) available in paperback and Ebook formats.)
What is The Brown Rice Diet, aka Ohsawa Diet No. 7?
Although technically speaking, Diet 7 is a 100% grain-based diet* we included Miso Soup with a little seaweed, ginger and small quantities of a few vegetables, like celery, scallion, and later some carrots; nori sheets, and Gomashio Sesame Salt and umeboshi plum paste condiments, as seen in the pictures below.
In addition to cooked brown rice (and brown sweet rice), we used Lundberg rice cakes as needed for snacks, and Bob's Red Mill Creamy Brown Rice Cereal for breakfast or later evening on a couple of occasions. We drank Ume Sho Kudzu, delicious energizing, alkalizing tea every morning.
PHOTOS: Brown Rice Balls, top L has umeboshi plum paste in the center, and is rolled in Gomashio Sesame Salt w/ Black & Brown Sesame Seeds, shown top R. On two occasions, I included the quicker cooking Creamy Brown Rice wit a little Creamy Buckwheat, a more warming grain, as it was quite cold during the time period we were following The Brown Rice Diet.
Following the first seven days of The Brown Rice Diet, we continued with our routine, slowly adding in more vegetables and tofu, usually as a stir fry cooked in a little oil, and seasoned primarily with tamari.
What I Did NOT Consume during the entire 10 Days:
- Since Ohsawa recommends consuming as minimal liquid as possible - as a diet of whole grain and a small bowl of soup, and small amounts of vegetables contains plenty of water - I refrained from my water guzzling habit. At most I consumed an additional pint of water in a day, if that, aside from our Ume Sho Kudzu Drink (Morning Tea.) There are days I have barely consumed more than 1-2 ounces of plain water. Some days I have an extra 4 ounces or so of hot tea instead.
- Speaking of consuming minimal liquids, I did not drink ANY coffee or lattes. Not even any of my Teeccino morning hot beverage. None. Nada!
- No fruit or juices.
- No dark chocolate! No chocolate anything!
- No organic cane sugar, brown sugar, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, barley malt, sorghum syrup, monk fruit, or stevia. NO sweetener of any type at all.
- Nothing baked, no flour products.
- Minimal (healthy) seasoning. Fresh ginger in the Ume Sho Kudzu drink and Miso Soup, and otherwise only sea salt, tamari and miso.
- No nut or seed butters the first 7 days, after which I added a little back.
- No Power Meal protein powder or added protein-rich tofu, beans or legumes of any type the first week.
What Has Transpired Since Eating The Brown Rice Diet?
Once we completed 7 Days of The Brown Rice / Ohsawa Diet No. 7, we were feeling so much better, we wanted to continue, more or less, with a few additions.
We added more protein-rich plant foods back for starters. Mostly tofu, with some smaller beans, tempeh and homemade seitan. We now have a routine of having Miso Soup at least once per day. Sometimes we have a little soup at each of our two main meals. We are also adding a little more protein-rich additions to or with our breakfast porridge.
I'll do a separate post sharing our macrobiotic meals as of late, a format that is working well for us so far, with adjustments made here and there as needed.
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| Leftover brown rice becomes the next morning's porridge |
Our Symptoms As Mirrors
What has really stood out to us is how we feel when we venture off course, whether by getting our cooking technique, food selection or seasonings wrong, or for me especially, when eating out. I take my mom out to lunch once per week, choosing the best option I can that makes the most sense in that moment, contingent on our location, her needs, etc. I pack rice cakes to-go, yet I still inadvertently end up eating something that tasted really good but drove up my thirst later, or I drink more fluids, or eat something more refined than I have been since starting The Brown Rice Diet. Generally speaking, for these and other various reasons, I tend to feel much better eating all our own food. I mean, don't you?
On other occasions we were celebrating with family, and ate way more food than we typically would at a much later hour than we normally eat. And while each time these inevitable situations arose, we did our best to keep it as close within our parameters as possible.
The slips are to be expected. It was the immediacy of our reactions, or symptoms that has taken us most by surprise. And let me tell you, once you are feeling noticeably more energized, sharp, clear, focused, balanced, happy, strong, and grounded, you become more motivated to expand on that feel-good wave. Plus you become much more mindful and discerning about what you are eating and drinking, and its effects on your energy and moods. Let's face it, during our daily life, it's easy to lose our mindfulness.
All our symptoms mirror to us the delicate balance and intrinsic adjustments our human organism ceaselessly makes to maintain homeostasis. Now in our 60s, the fragility of our health at a deeper level ~ as per our Chinese medicine and macrobiotic-based diagnoses which looks for patterns of imbalance, along with root causes ~ has been quite a wake-up call.
But, you may ask...
Were all these improvements just because of eating mostly brown rice? Or has there been something else that contributed to the seeming magic we enjoyed during our week of eating The Brown Rice Diet?
I think it's a bit of both.
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| I consumed 4-6 cups of brown rice per day |
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| Ume Sho Kudzu - Morning Tea |
Getting to the Root of the Matter: Na:K
Many seemingly unrelated symptoms share a common, originating root cause or underlying weakness. Through more good fortune, we received some insights from a fellow long-time macrobiotic practitioner helping shed light on some current dietary misinformation to minimize sodium intake that we had been following. This can be especially problematic for plant-based dieters.
Most importantly, following The Brown Rice Diet helped us realize our absolute need to increase our intake of sodium in relation to potassium, and for me especially, reduce my total intake of fluids.
This in and of itself is likely the greatest source of dietary self-sabotage we have been unwittingly making for way too long, and hence our need for some deep healing. I now suspect it is at least partly why we made the poor decision back in 2017 to abandon our plant-based / macrobiotic diet. From a macrobiotic perspective, our diet was too Yin which led to poor judgement. All of this will be covered more in my upcoming posts.
In a nutshell, a macrobiotic diet spared us from dealing with some very troubling, potentially pre-cancerous health issues back in 2011 when we first switched to a plant-based / vegan macrobiotic diet. Perhaps if we knew then what we know now, I wouldn't be writing this series of posts.
Our current goal is to reverse the unintended, self-inflicted damage to our hearts, kidneys, and more from consuming the wrong foods, the right foods inappropriately prepared, and too much fluid.
Brown Rice Magic
Beyond all that, I have found over the years that eating brown rice really puts me in my happy place. Why? Michio Kushi and others would say it's because brown rice is the most balanced grain. Maybe. Maybe I don't need to know why, I only need to enjoy the sublime experience of feeling centered, balanced, content, and happy. When I eat the right foods, appropriately seasoned and prepared, without excess fluids, happiness bubbles up spontaneously and organically, like a fresh mountain spring.
My desire with this series of posts about eating The Brown Rice Diet / Ohsawa Diet No. 7 began to transform my life is to help others avoid our mistakes, and the unnecessary suffering or premature decline that arises from eating and drinking inappropriately. I know many are suffering, it's easy to observe. In truth, very few people are truly healthy. Unfortunately, our culture is very conflicted about what constitutes true health, and a healthy diet.
What This Series on How Eating The Brown Rice Diet is Transforming My Life Will Include
To make this series about how eating mostly brown rice is transforming my life easier for you to digest, I will try to keep each post as brief as possible. (For me!)
Here is what I plan to cover:
- Some caveats about George Ohsawa's Diet No. 7 (including the *asterisk note, below.)
- George Ohsawa's 7 Conditions of Health and 7 Levels of Judgement (and our modified perspective.)
- An explanation of Yin and Yang (Ohsawa's 'Unique Principle') from a Chinese medicine versus macrobiotic perspective - and where we believe macrobiotics gets it wrong.
- A review of how we implemented, and what we experienced while following The Brown Rice Diet (I share what we ate, and how we were feeling while eating The Brown Rice Diet / Ohsawa No. 7 in my video series playlist of the same name on my Vegan Great Life YouTube channel. I'll leave the first official video, below.)
- Why too much liquid and potassium in combination with too little sodium has been sabotaging my health, likely beginning years ago, and how this can be seen from a Yin / Yang perspective so you can learn how to avoid my mistakes, and self-heal, the ultimate goal for writing The Macrobiotic Action Plan, Your MAP to Greater Health & Happiness (aka The MAP)
- Food posts, what we've been eating since following The Brown Rice Diet for 7-10 days.
- How you may want to adjust what you are eating and drinking according to your needs, based on your condition, constitution, and energetic expenditure (blending macrobiotics with an Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine perspective, as I did in The MAP)
- How eating mostly brown rice is transforming my life in seemingly unrelated ways, and elevating my judgement
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