Last of the Tomato Crop
Yesterday was, in nutritional terms, a bit of a disaster. I’m too ashamed to admit how badly we ate, but I’d been looking at various things in the preceding week and thought it was time to start on the 30 Plants a Week target.
To be fair, during that preceding week we had a hash that included onions, leeks, garlic, parsnip, potato, swede, carrot and cabbage, which took care of the five-a-day in just one meal, so not all our food is as disastrous as Sunday. I’ve allowed things to slip a bit during the summer and need to do better.
It’s simple – try to eat 30 sorts of plant a week. It is good for you as an aid to ensuring you get your five-a-day (which is quite a low target – most of the rest of the world tries harder ) and it is good for ensuring variety. It also means I have to think about it more when I’m shopping and selecting recipes, and if you’re thinking about the good stuff, you also think about avoiding the bad stuff. Pork pies are great to eat, and easy to build a salad around, but they are full of fat and salt and eating them regularly probably counts as slow suicide.
I’ve just been looking at what counts. I knew tea and coffee were in, and chocolate, but it seems that it has to be at least 70% dark chocolate. So that’s out as I only eat chocolate for pleasure, and 70% is more of a penance. Peanut butter and popcorn both count. I’m thinking this could be an American-based dietary regime. I suppose the eggplant/zucchini thing should have been a clue. Herbs and spices, nuts and seeds all count. They specifically say that rosemary on roast potatoes counts. How much rosemary can you get on a roast potato?
Actually, I just found the answer to that. All veg varieties count as one point – in fact red, yellow and green peppers, for instance, count as one point each. same with green and brown lentils and all the sorts of beans. But herbs and spices only count as a quarter of a point as you don’t have much of them. Fair enough.
Brown bread counts, white bread doesn’t. Same with rice and pasta. I thought it seemed to good to be true, though at the back of my mind white bread was never going to count.
Breakfast – 3 fruits plus wheat
Anyway, Julia just called me through to breakfast, and, as you can see, I took the camera.
Monday Breakfast –
Wholewheat TESCO “Weetabix”
Blueberries
Bananas
Strawberries
Tea
Total: 5 (25 to go).
I’m not sure we should be eating so much imported fruit. I may have to look into that.
There is a diet regime, originating in the USA, based on this, but they expect you to be mindful, to think about what you eat and to eschew thinks that are bad for you , like honey. That’s the first time I’ve seen honey listed as being bad for you. It’s something to think about, but I’m not sure I’m prepared to give up honey. Or Maple Syrup. Julia brought quite a lot back from Canada. Any decisions on sources of added sugar may have to wait a while.
Garden – October
The birds all flew away as they saw me raise the camera – pigeon, blackbird, great tits, robin, magpie – all gone.
Which benighted bureaucrat invented the 30 a week putsch. I have a better one – and it is just as brilliantly conceived: Five colours a week. I won’t say more, but try it and see! ! !
Sounds like a good way to ensure variety, but 30 week gives me more to blog about. 🙂 I will, however, use the colours as a guide.
What a penance to have to do all this research
If only somebody would write a pork pie and fudge diet book. . . .
Such a shame that honey doesn’t count! We have such a lot of apples and pears this year and as all our neighbours are also dealing with gluts of fruit we can’t give them away. Our pears don’t keep and are not ones that can be eaten fresh so I had to caramelise six of them last night and serve them with ice-cream. We suffered!
Pears are tricky. However, they are fresh and organic and full of fibre so I imagine they are doing you good as you force them down. 🙂
Haha! Such a guilty pleasure.
To be honest, it’s easier to give up guilt than it is to give up honey. 🙂
Very true!
🙂
Life without honey is not worth living. It would be almost as bad as giving up cheese.
There is something seriously flawed about a dietary regime which does not allow honey, I agree.
Your breakfast sounds great!
We are freezing away cut up veggies from the garden, which can be cooked into things later. We had lots of pears this year, as well as apples.
We jsut picked the last beans and the green tomatoes this morning.
Why oh why does everything we love have to be bad for us? A question for the ages.
If only I knew the answer. I may try self-hypnotism. Oh, I will exclaim, that high fibre non-dairy ice cream is soooo delicious . . . 🙂
All sounds a bit complicated. Why not go for the seasonal fruit and veg diet? Although that does seem to involve an awful lot of swede and far too many apples. Oh, and not forgetting the non stop marrows in summer. Maybe best to stick with the American diet.
We have moved away from seasonality so much. Fortunately potatoes, onions and tinned tomatoes always seem to be in season. 🙂