There’s more to deciding on a diet than carbohydrates and fats. There’s yin and yang.

And a way to living up to the long life, with a macrobiotic diet. Coming from macro for long and bios for life, the diet is aimed at improving eating by getting back to less processing and more traditional ways of cooking. And contrary to popular notion, it’s not all about brown rice.

The macrobiotic diet, stressing on high-fibre foods, was initiated in Japan and then taken to Europe in the late nineteenth century. Macrobiotics stresses locally or organically grown whole grain cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruit, seaweed and fermented soy products while balancing the yin and yang properties, based on the acidity of the food, where it grows, the colour, shape, flavour and moisture content of the food. Grains are given more importance, particularly brown rice.

Because low-fat, high-fibre diets are often recommended for cancer and other chronic diseases, the macrobiotic diet has been used by these patients. Researchers now are also working on the relationship between macrobiotic diet and cancer prevention.

Besides brown rice one can have whole-wheat, berries, barley and corn. And for those who want to add spice, there’s semi-cooked noodles, pasta with veggies and brown bread occasionally. Vegetables are recommended raw but otherwise, they can be steamed, boiled and baked. “The food should never be cooked or steamed in microwave but pressure cookers should be used instead,” says Dr Kanupriya Khanna, chief dietitian and consultant Fortis Lafamme.

For non-vegetarians, the choice is between fish and seafood cooked in ginger or mustard sauce (to detoxify the harmful effect of fish and seafood) instead of meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products.

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