Day 40

Breakfast: Porridge, Toast, with butter and honey, Hot Apple and Blackcurrant juice.
Lunch: Vegetarian Stovies.
Tea Time: Cheese Pudding, with mashed turnip and potato, and cabbage.
Snacks: Homemade biscuits.

Well, that's it...

Final Thoughts:
This diet is kind of like a diet people would have eaten maybe in the UK up to victorian times and during World War 2 in the UK. Maybe we will go back to eating more things we can produce in our country if the prices of food continues to go up. It would be better for our counties sustainability- but I'm not sure we could produce enough food in this country at the levels we consume it just now.

As a vegetarian I'm still not sure that I would be able to be completely healthy for an extended period of time but in the short term its been reasonably varied. I maybe could have been more adventurous about what i have cooked. I am aware of a lack of beans and nuts that would usually be some part of my diet. I did use green split peas a few times- but after i was ill (unrelated to my diet) I didn't fancy eating them. In terms of other health benefits: I don't think I lost any weight; someone commented that my skin looked clearer; I've expressed concerns about my cholesterol level but actually cutting out the chocolate probably balances with the increased intake of butter, and cheese.

It was most difficult at the start finding things to eat and initially I was amazed at the lack of purely UK produce around- even the bread in the supermarket which says "100% British Wheat" has so many other ingredients including soya flour that it can't really be considered a UK product- in terms of my diet anyway. Most of the things I have eaten have been cooked from scratch and aren't pre-processed. I quite like that aspect of it really. I've surprised myself that things aren't as difficult to make as I feared- particularly bread. My main problems occurred where i hadn't planned ahead for eating and was left with a very small choice- oatcakes and butter at work for instance. Health food shops are pretty poor for UK produce, Supermarkets are a bit better and The Farm Shop was best of all- partly because you could ask them about where things came from- try that in any other shop and you often have a severe lack of knowledge. A guy in the health food shop thought all the teas would be okay because they were UK companies!

Another interesting things for me was that people always seemed keen to talk to me about it- everyone has an interest in food. This blog has the most comments I've had on a blog I have done. Thanks for all your support. I think Food is Political.

Things I think I will still do:
Make bread sometimes
Make cakes and biscuits
Maybe keep eating butter- I like the fact that it's got one ingredient vs the 10s of things that are in spreads.
Eat porridge or shredded wheat
Eat UK honey
Use the farm shop
Think about where food comes from a lot more, and buy local or UK where I can.

Amount I paid in forfeits: £86.45 -most of which comes from the salt, pepper and baking powder I used during the time- and when I was eating out and paying the cost of the meal as the forfeit - I did always try to eat something that could have been produced in the uk though- no pasta, rice, curries, pizza's, veggie sausages, tea, coffee or chocolate. All the things I'm looking forward to eating tomorrow morning at breakfast!

And next year: maybe do the same again- or maybe try a diet based on what people's rations were in ww2? who knows?

Day 39 Plastic vs Glass

Breakfast: Porridge, Toast with butter and honey, Hot Apple and Blackcurrant juice.
Snack: Home made biscuits.
Lunch: Roasted Cheese, Co-op Apple and Spring Water.
TeaTime: Tortilla, with extra potatoes.

Packaging is an issue for us with our food. If you make most of your food you are going to cut down on packaging a lot- you still have some things that are packaged- like eggs and flour and sugar- but a lot more recyclable paper. Processed stuff usually comes in plastic. My main source of plastic has probably been in my Copella english apple juice. I was having a look to see if I could work out whether Plastic is better if it is recycled and a comparison to glass bottles for things. The Co-op fruit and spring water comes in a glass bottle (unfortunately making it look like an alcopop)
The main points are: Plastic is made from a non-renewable resource which will run out at some point. It can be recycled but only a limited number of times. Glass is made from sand and as such we have pretty abundant resources of it. It can also be recycled multiple times. Both could also be re-used but Glass is more suitable for multiple re-use. The website addresses below give some interesting facts and figures about glass and plastic.
The best thing really would be re-useable glass milk bottles and Barrs drinks (if I could have guaranteed they had all uk ingredients, and it was in the least way healthy!)
Re-use is better than recycling.Glass recycling
Plastic Recycling