Fifteen years ago Harvard students drowned their troubles in liquor; last year they took to LSD. Today the get high on Macrobiotics, a brown rice diet said to produce euphoria within two or three days.

A few days ago we went down to the East-West Institute to try a Macrobiotic meal and watch Mr. Michio Kushi, the director, transmute elements, Our disappointment at finding this exotic Oriental institution in an old gray frame house on Walden Street, a few blocks north of Porter Square, disappeared when we opened the door; a healthy smell of brown rice broke over us.

A tall, rather emaciated young man greeted us at the door. He was holding a bowl of brown rice and chewing, "Dinner is ready," he said, and, still chewing, led us into the living room.

About 20 people were kneeling Japanese-style on chintz-covered pillows arranged around three low tables. We smiled at everyone as we lowered ourself to the floor.

"Your first time here, isn't it," the man on our right said matter-of-factly. "Can read it in your face. You look sick."

Maintaining our manners we asked if Mr. Kushi could really help us to better health, greater knowledge, and spiritual unity through a daily bowl of brown rice. Our neighbor, who said his name was Whittaker, told us he'd thought he felt well before he went on the Diet, but that Mr. Kushi had taken one look at his face and told him how sick he was.

"Since I've been on Macrobiotics, my asthma's cleared up, my headaches are gone, my back's stopped aching, and I sleep two hours less a night. The foods most people eat are dangerous for man--they corrupt the body. You might call Macrobiotics a study in human ecology. Man must eat like his environment or else he upsets the harmony between himself and nature and experiences the harmful effects of dislocation. In plain terms, he gets sick. Look at the stuff most people eat. Bananas, oranges--do you notice oranges growing in Boston? Man is naturally a grain eater. He ate grain for thousands of years. Why shouldn't he eat grain now?"

"Can you eat meat? We have cows in New England," we said.

"Nope," Whittaker snapped. "Too much yang, Can't drink milk either. All dairy products are bad--too much yin."

The tall young man returned, still chewing, and handed us a plate of gray grain bread and a bowl of chocolate-colored paste made from soy sauce and sesame butter. We began to spread the paste on the bread.

"Chew it well," Whittaker advised. "Don't want to get lumps in your stomach."

"How can you tell yin foods from yang foods?" we asked, chewing carefully.

"Yin is expanded and dilated," Whittaker explained obligingly. "Yang is constricted and solid, Yin is purple; yang is red. Yin is cold; yang is hot. Yin grows up; yang grows down. Which do you think is more yin, a tomato or a carrot?"

"A tomato," we said, "because it's higher off the ground."

"Right. And parts of the same object are more or less yin or yang. Fruits are yin; so are vegetables, but they can be made yang enough to eat by cooking under high pressure; yangization. Eggplant is too yin to eat at all; you can tell it's yin because it's violet. Red meat is too yang. Brown rice contains yin and yang in almost perfect proportions for the human system. All you need to live is a little brown rice.