Think global, eat local

Ten years ago I lost fifteen pounds without dieting, and kept it off for a long time. Beta, who was then four, had a medical condition which required that she abstain from eating anything containing various ingredients including primarily white flour, yeast, and sugar. We decided to support her for the several months she ate like that by eating that way too. We could eat as much as we wanted, as long as it didn’t include this list of ingredients.

Have you ever read the list of contents of anything you buy in the store? Everything contains sugar and yeast. It was like raw carrots for us, and one or two other things. But very healthy.

So that’s what I’m going to try again. Sometime soon. The idea of processed food is increasingly repugnant to me anyway. The food that I eat, I think, ought to be something simple. Like, food. Not some industrial product.

Like, besides the fact that my kids hate it, the idea that consuming tobacco supports rich subsidized monopolists who willingly trade the health of millions for more money makes it easier for me to refrain from smoking.

One could, I think, come up with political diets. The no-grain diet, in protest of those vast fields of wheat. The no-corn diet. The no feedlot meat diet. Whatever.

I’m cutting down on sugar, yeast and white flour, and you won’t catch me eating tobacco either.

8 responses to “Think global, eat local

  1. Well, I’m eating tobacco, coffee, wine, and eggs.
    Until the homicidal urges take over.

  2. Just say no to eating tobacco.

    Me, I have to admit that since I quit smoking, I have taken up the nasty habit of party snuff-dipping – only the snuff that comes in little convenient packets. So I guess I kind of eat tobacco these days.

    But I’m thinking of quitting.

  3. I’m now on a doctor-ordered heart-friendly diet, which means suddenly I can’t eat anything I used to eat except maybe bread. No salt, no butter, no fat, no cream, no chocolate, no cheese, no french fries, no anything else fries, etc. I have eaten something like (realistic guess) 30 carrot sticks today, and we don’t cut them small. I am eating as much as I want (more than I want, actually) of the limited menu of things (dandelions and feldspar, mainly) I am allowed to eat, and I noticed I’m starting to lose weight.

    I wonder how much patience weighs?

  4. mig

    i think feldspar is like 85% glitter isn’t it, so that would fit in with what the other people were saying.

    i went on a carrot diet once, where i ate nothing but carrots (i was just in that sort of a mood) and was pleased with the amount of weight i was losing until i noticed that my eyes were no longer tracking smoothly, but rather in little jerks. so i stopped.

    i also once ate so many tangerines i turned orange. i went to see a doctor because i was orange, and he said “mikan takusan tabemasuka?” and i had to say, “hai, so desu.”

  5. tee hee.

    (received the buttons Mig, they’re now spread around my handbag and jealous friends; I’m doing nice things for everyone and hopefully for you too.)

  6. D

    Can’t you just chew on the tobacco, spit it out into the handily placed spitoon at your feet and then drawl “fill your hands you sunovabitch” as you go for your guns?

  7. I lost 15 pounds this past fall just by laying off high-glycemic things like pasta, potatoes and rice. Don’t forget that pasta is basically white flour with a little egg in it.

  8. aren’t mikan mandarin oranges? (aka “oranges that come all the way from china”)

    when were you in japan? and where in japan? (i’m sorry, i’m going through the archives but i haven’t hit everything yet…)