Hi,
Problems with the digestion of whole grains such as brown rice, might not just be a problem of not chewing enough, but also a digestive system that is not utilizing the food properly, once it gets there.
If one is relatively new to macrobiotics, like anything else, the smartest thing might be to get the body used to the food, first, and then after a good while, maybe 10 days to 4 months, depending on one's condition, one can embark on macrobiotic healing intensives like brown rice fasts and lots of ginger compresses.
One doesn't join a martial arts school and be instantly ready to defend one's self, start medical school and immediately engage in surgery, enter architecture school and immediately start building houses, so why should you enter macrobiotics and immediately embark on a fast on something as extreme?
There is always a middle step of development, and in the case of people starting macrobiotics, it is both getting used to the food and building a organism that ultilizes the nutrients in a maximum way.
One of the first things that a person following a traditional approach to macrobiotics should do beside make cooked brown rice, is also make miso soup.
Miso soup helps the digestive system more easily break down the complex carbohydrates, starches, and fibers, in both grains and vegetables and innoculates the intestings with healthy microorganisms that helps the intestinal villi absorb the nutrients on the path to feeding the body and making good quality blood.
Another good fermented food to have with ones meal besides whole grains, temperate climate vegetables (assuming that you are living in a temperate zone), and sea vegetables, is a fermented or picled vegetable of some kind.
Bruce tells me that he has been experimenting with a grain (mostly organic (og) short grain brown rice with a little bit of another grain like og spelt, og kamut, og rye, og hato muigi, other og whole grains, or lotus seeds), beans (og aduki, black soybeans, chickpeas, or lentils), and og (often unpastuerized) sauerkraut diet.
It seems to us that one can get their fermented foods in various ways whether it be from miso soup, tamari/shoyu added in cooking, umeboshi plum/paste/vinegar, and various other naturally pickled vegetables.
Also, don't get too caught up in the "I only eat local foods or the foods of my ancestors/racial group!" syndrome.
Start out with the foods that seem to best work for everyone including the foods that were first discovered and used in the Orient (there are many things that we use and benefit from that were invented or developed by people of other races and cultures, so maybe we should give thanks for that!) , and then as your health, equilibrium, and well being improves branch out into using the foods that seem to connect you to your ancestors, blood type, or ethnicity, but to be sure always continue in some fashion with the foods that that most nourish and sustain you (that you started with).
If you are going to eat more wheat than rice, then make sure it's organically grown, soaked a good while, and when you can, fermented a little, as well.
Nothing is always black or white, there are grays and other colors, too.
Macrobiotics is a great tool that can help one embark on and experience a great adventure and freedom.
And when you shop for macrobiotic foods, cookware, books, and other products, please visit Simply Natural Foods
http://www.simply-natural.biz/ , first!
Be Well.
Cool Dude