The Diet, she is over. After midnight last night I ate a pint of ice cream in under twenty minutes. This morning I had three mocha lattes, just because I could, and this afternoon I am relearning old lessons about overconsumption and the consequences thereof.
21st-century modern conveniences are available to me once again. After shooting at the Farmer's Market today, we went into a coffee shop, sat down and reviewed the footage. I was like a country yokel on his first trip to the big city, gawping wide-eyed at the pretty lights.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
xenophanean's post here pretty much sums up my reaction to the Diet. But I'd like to add a few points:
- It's impractical if you live in a city, or have a job, or don't own a car.
- It's expensive.
- It lacks seasonings, spices, and flavourings.
- It lacks fibre, necessary fats, calcium, and nutrients necessary for moral stability.
- It probably doesn't actually help save the planet at all.
On the other hand it's taught me a lot about how to be inventive with limited (and often bland) ingredients, how to avoid wastage, and the origins of our dinner. And I'm eating vegetables now, which is probably a good thing.
More details will be available in the episode, coming soon to an Internet near you.
Some of the Hotel guests have given me two slices of artichoke, olive and jalapeno pizza. And I've been nabbing the bar snacks, which have paprika on them. Dis is livin', I tell you. Aaapril in Pareee....
April 7 2008, 23:21:00 UTC 4 years ago Edited: April 7 2008, 23:23:37 UTC
If you live in a city, it's plain silly going to the neighbouring county to get all your food, except as an experiment. Most cities will have grocers who source food locally: for example, supermarkets around Edinburgh stock milk from Bonaly, and today I bought eggs from Fife in M&S - which I believe should be within the 100 miles allowable by the diet. When I lived in East Anglia I suspect we lived on the 100-mile diet more or less by accident; our milk, meat and bread were made in the surrounding villages and we grew our own vegetables - including artichokes :) I know you were trying to stick to the rules as much as was possible, but since spices have been shipped around the world for centuries I think they should be allowed. As for the lack of bread, I wonder if the poor wheat harvest in Britain last year has forced bakers to get theirs from abroad when they would ordinarily get it locally?