the reason the descriptions are so basic is because what you do eat and what you do not eat, for health reasons, are based on your personal constitution, and therefore vary from person to person. say, me for example.. i've very YIN (acid), and have to eat more yang (alkaline) food. cancer is caused by an acid condition. most things are in americans, because of the diet.
anyway, i wish i could be more specific but it's really hard unless you do a diagnosis with someone asking them a ton of questions (this is what i did with alex from work) and then work out a general sketch of how they can eat. it's not strict once you get the hang of it and the general idea of 'right' and 'not so right'. it doesn't eliminate everything and isn't even technically vegan/vegetarian necessarily. it doesn't say DONT EAT THIS, it just gives suggestions of what will make a person feel better.
anyway, there are two really short good books that give a really good foundation for it and you can get them really cheap used i'm sure:
the pocket guide to macrobiotics by carl ferre (a more eastern medical approach)
and acid and alkaline by herman aihara (a more scientific approach)
the name was made by george ohsawa, the person who is thought to have essentially made the lifestyle modern and brought it back into existence, and developed it from several eastern health methods.
