The list of things I’ve done today is simple – got up, checked emails, read WP. Read news online, regretted it, wrote a witty political blog post, decided, yet again, that I don’t want to do politics. Unfortunately it took me an hour to write and polish and delete.
Julia made breakfast, we skipped lunch, watched a bit of TV. I wrote. Julia cooked. Watched quizzes all evening. That’s about it.
Vegetables – Carsington Water
We duplicated some of the plants we ate yesterday but added an apple, an orange and Brussels Sprouts. We are a third of the way into the week and are now on 15 sorts of plant, so we are on target.
Wholewheat TESCO “Weetabix”
Blueberries
Bananas
Strawberries
Tea
Mixed dried fruit
Apricots
Coffee
Carrots
Parsnips
Leeks
Cauliflower
Apple
Orange
Potatoes
Brussels Sprouts
We also had spices – Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Mixed Spice not really enough to count and the vegetarian stuff in the sausage.
The bread in the bread pudding and the flour in the cake and pudding batter were both white, so don’t count. We also had tomato relish, but probably not enough to count.
That’s sixteen so far and I have at least 21 sources of plant-based food in the kitchen, so we are going to hit target. I’m looking to do just over the 30. No point showing off or setting the bar too high in the first week.
Quite apart from the benefits of greater variety to my gut microbiome, there are definite benefits to my menu planning and recipe selection. It’s also making me blog more, which isn’t a benefit I’ve seen listed in any of the articles.
Stir Fry Vegetables
Now, having given a home to trillions of tiny organisms, all I need to do is avoid antibiotics. They have a disastrous effect on my internal functions, though to be fair, they did cure me when I was ill a few months ago, so I forgive them.
\one last thought – if you gather all the microbes in your gut together they weigh about as much as an adult hamster. Are you having the same mental picture that I am – a hamster on a wheel in my stomach? Now add the Dick Barton Theme as a soundtrack . . .
All sounds good, Simon. It pays to make the microbiome happy. 🙂
When I found out how big it was, it became much more real. A hamster! 🙂
Dash, all my yoghurt eating is wasted as they have just put me on antibiotics. Is all strong white bread flour no good, or is it just shop bought white bread that is disqualified?
Not entirely sure, but I think all non-whole meal is disqualified. This means a lot of supermarket brown bread is out as it isn’t really wholemeal. Strong white flour is till white, but is high protein/gluten for making better structure in bread.
Sorry to hear about the antibiotics, I hope you recover soon. I had to eat yoghurt with my antibiotics last time |I had them, to stop the worst of the effects.
😂
Far too many choices for me to think about
🙂 Yes, it gets difficult. I always used to wear black socks. It made life simpler. Then Julia bought me some coloured ones. For a while I struggled to match them up, but now I just wear the first two out of the drawer.
Can’t get that image out of my mind. Except the hamster is in my stomach. 😉
🙂 My work, as they say, is done.