Current Realities

So if you saw my last post of what i ate last week, you'll see i started making more exception with the culmination of sunday eating entirely zero local food. What's up with that right? Well I have been feeling the project coming to a close and I've felt like I've gleaned what I need to from this experiment and feel anxious to not be bound my these rules. I look forward to when eating local food is a daily decision rather than a constraints. i am making the decision for the constraint but it doesn't feel like real life, it feels like a project. and so i started being bad here and there and finally yesterday I really indulged. After breakfast I felt like shit (physically felt terrible) pizza was damn good though. Even though I was indulging, the whole time i was eating i felt really conscious of that fact that the bacon and eggs were most definitely coming from factory farmed animals - pigs in close confinement, chickens in cages. I usually have no problem telling people about my project and pushing acceptable social boundaries, but i just felt like going with it. So yeah a lot of the decision was based on wanting to participate in social situations. Social situation have been the number one thing I've felt alienated from during this project. Other people who i have read about that have done this sort of experiment (Barbara Kingsolver, No Impact Man) all have done it with their family. I feel like this would be a lot easier, since the people you eat with on a regular basis are doing the project too, versus me who I'm on my own with two roommates and all my friends not doing it. I feel like as a household decision it would be a lot easier, I'm constantly surrounded my food I can't eat and people eating it. I've learned to live with it, and meditate to zen place :-) its also funny though that people are constantly apologizing to me for eating in front of me, but its like what is that apology really doing? relieving you from feeling guilty, not really thinking about why I am choosing to make the statement of not the food you are. Ever think about why I'm not eating that cheeseburger in your hand? Its been really interesting how such a simple act on me not eating something affect the people around me. All these social protocols attached to food is sort of strange when you become aware of them.....

Anyway. I failed in a big (interesting?) way yesterday in terms of food, but I'm getting back in it today and going to finish out strong for the rest of the project. I thought i have one week left, as i was counting weeks (8 weeks = 2 months = 60 days) but when I counted out the days, April 1st will be day 60 so i have 10 days left (after today). hurray! People have been asking me what my first meal is going to be. It was going to be pizza, but since i've had pizza I think it's going to be a darwin's sandwich with turkey, hummus, apple, avocado, cheese, carrots, sprout, tomatoes, mayo and mustard, with and orange and a LARGE soy latte. yes please. Despite the cheating, there isn' really a lot of food i miss. Citrus and coffee are really the only big ones. I've been able to make a lot of things I want. And the things I can't, I don't really want to be putting so many chemical and high fructose corn syrup in my body.

and this week i gained .5 pounds to bring me to -.5 from my starting weight. honestly not bad if you look at everything I ate (i guess you don't get to see the quantities, but usually when i say ice cream, i mean the whole pint and when i say chocolate i mean one the big fancy chocolate bars) I bet i would lose a lot of weight if i didn't drink too. local beer has a lot of calories ha.

Food Rewind

Tuesday-

Breakfast: toast (homemade) with butter (homemade)

Lunch: Arugula salad (Sheffield, MA - 139 miles)

Dinner: Quesadilla with home made corn tortilla (Corn Meal From Hadley, MA - 101 miles, Wheat flour from Norwich, VT - 139 miles) Turkey from New Haven, VT - 3 miles from Bristol, VT (where i was when i bought it) 219 miles from boston, Cheddar Cheese from Cabot, VT - 70 miles from bristol, vt, 198 from boston

Wednesday-

Breakfast: Toast (homemade) with butter (homemade)

Snack: Apple

Lunch: French Onion (whately, MA - 108 miles) Soup with Cabbage (South Deerfield, MA - 109 miles)

Dinner: Soup again, Chips (Needham, MA - 9 miles) and Salsa (concord, MA - 20.6 miles)

Dessert: Chocolate

Drinks: Narragansett (providence, RI - 49.6 miles) guiness (i only had one and it was st patrick's day)

Late Night: Bravo Pizza (illegal food)

Thursday-

Breakfast: French Toast with homemade bread and eggs from Grand Isle, VT - 44 miles from bristol, 246 from boston

Snack: Arugula Salad with home made dressing (oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup)

Snack: Tortilla Chips, Chocolate

Late Lunch: French Onion and Cabbage Soup

Dessert: Gaga Ice Cream from Warwick, RI - 65.8 miles

Drinks: Sam Adams

Late night: chicken tacos (illegal food -these tasted really bad, bland, and i felt like shit after and regreted it)

Friday-

Breakfast: Eggs (Grand Isle, VT - 44 miles from bristol, 246 from boston)

Lunch: Arugula Salad (Sheffield, MA - 139 miles) with smoked gouda (Winchendon, MA - 65.8 miles) and wheat berries (Northfield, MA - 88.9 miles), home made dressing

Snack: Chips (Needham, MA - 9 miles) and Salsa (concord, MA - 20.6 miles)

Snack: Ice Cream from Richardson's in Middleton, MA - 28.1 miles

Dinner: Pasta (somerville- 4.9 miles) Pasta Sauce - (Woonsocket, RI - 42.8 miles) Smoked Gouda (Winchendon, MA - 65.8 miles)

Drinks: Beer from Harpoon (boston, MA - 7.7 miles)

Saturday-

Breakfast: Eggs (Grand Isle, VT - 44 miles from bristol, 246 from boston)

Snack: Chocolate milk (Thatcher Diary in Milton, MA - 15 miles) Chips (Needham, MA - 9 miles) and Salsa (concord, MA - 20.6 miles)

Dinner: LAMB STEAK!!! on the grill (Stillman's Farm in Hardwick, MA - 77.4 miles) and Arugula Salad (Sheffield, MA - 139 miles) with Smoked Gouda (Winchendon, MA - 65.8 miles) and home made dressing

Drinks: Harpoon (boston, MA 7.7 miles)

Sunday- (Disclaimer: I failed in a big way on this day, see accompanying post)

Brunch: Eggs, toast, bacon, belgian waffle with strawberries and whip cream, home fries, mamosa with cranberry juice

Dinner: Cheese pizza, buffalo chicken pizza

Plantz

how the plants are looking from Jena Duncan on Vimeo.

Soup!

I made a delicious french onion soup also with purple cabbage. Sounds gross maybe but reallly good. I saw cabbage today and cringed, and bought it. I had never cooked cabbage before. So i sliced it up for my soup and started munching on some raw cabbage. BIG SURPRISE to me. I love cabbage, and had to stop munching before there wasn't any left! I'm constantly amazed at how much i like the food that have always seemed gross to me. I was listening to a thing today that was talking about how we developed the defense mechanism of being disgusted to keep us from eating things that could kill us, but i fail to see how being grossed out by beets and cabbage was designed to keep me from dying when they are actually very tasty. and look really cool. The cabbage gave my soup a great deep purple/red broth.

NYC

So i spent the weekend in nyc for a trip for my art in context class packing in some full days going to different galleries and museums. It was a rainy weekend for sure. What i wasn't counting on was over stimulation of food desires. Even before I got off the bus I was watching all the restaurants and advertisements drive by. I wanted EVERYTHING. It was sort of rough. In the cold rainy weather with everyone else wanting it, I too really wanted coffee. I almost got some on a few occasions, but I held strong. So what did i eat? I ended up compromising a little. I brought some food and went to a farmers market in the terribly wind and rain, and gave in a little too. By the end of the day, I was soaking wet and exhausted so I picked my battles

Friday:

Breakfast - Eggs and Pancakes (ate at home)

Snack- carrots (precut and part of the two giant bags i brought)

Lunch- Turkey sandwiches with home made bread, misty knoll turkey from when i was in vt, Annie's Mustard from vt, goat cheese from mass

Snack- more carrots

Dinner - white pizza (locally made, probably not local ingredients)

Drinks- Blue Point Beer, gin and tonic (the bar ran out of beer glasses so i gave in and had a cocktail, a lame excuse i admit but it was so tasty, I've gotten rather sick of beer)

Saturday:

Breakfast- Apple Maple Smoothie from the farmers market

Grazing throughout the day- bread from farmers market, juice from farmers market

Early Dinner: Garlic Bread, Hot Chocolate, pizza (locally made but probably not local ingredients)

Snack: the turkey from my uneaten turkey sandwhich

Sunday:

Breakfast- Toast (homemade) with strawberry rhubarb jam

Late Brunch: Tomato Eggs, Homefries, bacon, salad, toast

Snack: Carrots

Dinner: Vermont Fresh pasta (from when i was home) tomato sauce, pesto

Dessert: French Vanilla Ice cream (Made in Cambridge)

Today:

Breakfast: Apple, Cheddar, goat cheese omelette

Lunch: Pasta with tomato sauce

Dinner: Pasta with tomato sauce and beef, cheese quesadilla with home made corn tortillas and cabot cheddar (from when i was home)

Dessert: Butterworks yogurt with maple syrup

what to eat? from Jena Duncan on Vimeo.

Epic Lobster Adventure with my Mom

lobster adventure from Jena Duncan on Vimeo.

My body

So a lot of people have been asking me how its affecting my body. I started on the first day recording my weight weekly to try to see how the food would affect my weight (a REALLY general measure of how healthy i am eating) Here's what's been going on:

Starting weight: 150.5

After Week 1: 151.5 (+1 lbs)

Week 2: 150 (-1.5 lbs)

Week 3: 149.5 (-.5 lbs)

Week 4: 149.5 (0 lbs)

Week 5: 150.5 (+1 lbs)

Week 6 : 149.5 (-1 lbs)

Total Weigh loss: 1lbs

Ok so on initial thought, losing 1 pound isn't very impressive from not eating any processed foods. But lets look at the bigger picture right now. Its the middle of winter. Not a lot of fresh veggies are in season. The winter months are typically a time to eat ones winter stores and conserve energy. The whole meat and potatoes thing, pretty true if you through in some chicken and breads and diary too. So considering I'm eating a diet with pretty high fat, a lot of meat, few greens, and to be honest copious amounts of chocolate, I think I'm doing pretty good. I can't speak for everyone but in the winter we typically pack on the pounds. So if i lose a few pounds or even break even in the winter that sounds pretty good to me considering I eat a lot of chocolate and ice cream, whole milk yogurt, whole milk, a lot of bread, meat. I imagine in the spring and summer months when there are veggies galore will be a time to see more of an impact, but non the less I have dropped a pants size.

But interestingly enough I've been learning more about the nutrition of pastured meat and diary. It makes sense, but never occurred to me that what the animals eat highly determines their own nutrition and thus our nutrition. Cows and chickens naturally eat grass. Grass fed meat has high levels of beta carotene, vitamin e, and folic acid. In general, it has less fat than cows raised on corn feed

and living in a confined area because pastured cows get exercise and don't eat only carbohydrates.

In terms of the fat that grass fed beef does have they have more of the good for us polyunstaturated

fats than the unhealthy saturated fats found in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's)

Less Saturated fat, and less total fat than grain fed animals.

Grass fed beef and chicken also have higher levels of omega-3's an essential fatty acid found in the

cells of green plants and indispensable to human healthy particularly in the development of

neurons (brain cells).

Another important fatty acid omega-6 found in the seeds of green plants while omega-3 in the

leaves. Studies have shown that it is the balance of these two fatty acids, rather than the actual

amounts that play a critical role. A ratio above 4:1 tends to be problematic in health. An imbalance

in ratio may account for many diseases of civilization such as cardiac, diabetes, obesity,

learning behavior in children, and depression in adults.

Factory and thus corn fed meat has a ratio 10:1 whereas grass fed beef has the

recommended ratio of 3:1

Its a similar story with chickens and eggs. Eggs from chickens that were allowed a rich diet of

grass and insects, fruits and veggies, and little corn have much more omega-3's and thus a healthy

ratio of 1.5 to 1 of fatty acids while a "supermarket egg" has a ratio of over 20:1.

Fish has traditionally been seen as the Mecca of omega 3's but since over half of the US burns coal to generate electricty and 80,000 pounds of mercury is dumped into the oceans every year as a result. Nearly all fish are contaminated with mercury. If you get farm raised fish, they are usually fed corn and then you have the same problems of low omega-3.

Grass-fed beef is loaded with other natural minerals and vitamins, plus it's a great source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) a fat that reduces the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and a number of immune disorders.