Compost Diet/Reset
There is so much saturation with fad diets that it has become lame. Well, at the risk of lameness I wanted to share a diet that only takes one day and the purpose is not to just improve one's health but learn about the waste being generated by food packaging you handle. This is a 24 hour to one week diet in which you consume only foods that can be composted and avoid single use packaging.
This project is a means to cleanse and reset, to become more conscious of the amount of waste in packaging and food waste in general. Do you ever consider what it would take to move toward a circular system at your home-to reuse the consumer materials entering your household? The first step is to become more conscious about the amount of waste and food byproduct you generate.
The compost diet is a way to become more aware, and because it is reliant on a lot of fruits, vegetables, eggs, and nuts, it is actually quite healthy. Starting with a 24 hour period, the aim is to only generate waste that can be composted in your backyard composting systems/worm farm. So, off the bat no single use plastics/food wrappers are allowed.
Our ancestors, particularly the ones who foraged for food, did not have to deal with dozens of plastic wrappers on a weekly basis. The pitfall to this diet is that you will see with much more clarity just how much waste is around you. But, you may say, why not just recycle the materials...the issue is the recycling systems are in fact global and for years Asian countries, particularly China, have accepted a lot of plastic scrap from the U.S. and European countries. That global system has broken down now that China has stopped accepting foreign recyclables, leaving a lot of U.S. recyclables in landfills or incinerators.
Here is what is not permissible for this diet in a 24 hour period:
~Nothing single use:
Breakfast
Coffee: I use a french press to make coffee, so for a 24 hour period this is pretty simple-the used grinds can be composted in a worm farm or backyard composter. In a longer period, there are issues such as the coffee bean packaging cannot be composted due to a foil lining, which is something to consider. Carry in a reusable coffee mug, no single use containers. For the coffee beans you purchase, I suggest organic beans since a main source of pesticide ingestion is conventional coffee. Organic coffee bean residue is preferable in your composting systems as well as your body!
Nut and berry blend: walnuts, blackberries, blue berries, and pumpkin seeds. This is a nice little trail mix that creates no waste in a 24 hour period as long as you do not have plastic waste from the berry containers. I also very much enjoy pistachios, but cannot compost the shells in my systems, so I refrain from them for this project. Remember to carry the trail mix in a reusable food container/glass.
Hydration
Remember, no plastic water bottles, use a stainless steel water bottle to carry water from home or a fountain at your office/workplace. Our water is delivered in five gallon, reusable glass jugs, so circular holds. Water is a solvent and will take on properties from most containers, this is why water held within plastic starts to take on estrogenic molecules. This is not the case for glass or stainless steel.
Pre-lunch Snack
Hard boiled eggs or vegetables with or without dip. Eggs are fantastic. The byproduct of hard boiled egg are shells, which are compostable and fantastic in an organic garden. Egg shells will feed your soil (and plants) with calcium as they breakdown and also deter slugs, which do not like the sharp edges of the broken up shells. Eggs can be widely used for this compost diet project.
Lunch
You can pick something from your fridge that cannot be composted, such as leftover chicken or other animal protein. If eating leftovers, be sure to use a reusable glass container. For my project, I ate two apples since I loaded up on so much eggs, nuts and berries during the morning hours. Of course, the apple cores can be composted, including mashed up a bit and fed to your worms.
Mid-afternoon snack
Vegetables or crackers with hummus. If you finish the hummus you probably busted the project, since the hummus most likely arrived in a plastic container if purchased. Same goes for crackers, which are packaged with foil or plastic and a paper/light cardboard box. This is why this project is much easier to do for 24 hours than one week! That is the point, to become more aware of how food packaging is jacked up.
Dinner
Omelet with fresh herbs and avocado. Egg shells and the avocado peel and pit are compostable.
Suggest you try eating dinner before 5pm/1700 and then not eat until 0800 the following day. The above dinner followed by some exercise, like a long walk after dinner will revitalize your metabolism and outlook. Feel free to have a cup of tea as a night cap-the tea bag can be composted (but the string on some bags is problematic).
Good luck!
This project is a means to cleanse and reset, to become more conscious of the amount of waste in packaging and food waste in general. Do you ever consider what it would take to move toward a circular system at your home-to reuse the consumer materials entering your household? The first step is to become more conscious about the amount of waste and food byproduct you generate.
The compost diet is a way to become more aware, and because it is reliant on a lot of fruits, vegetables, eggs, and nuts, it is actually quite healthy. Starting with a 24 hour period, the aim is to only generate waste that can be composted in your backyard composting systems/worm farm. So, off the bat no single use plastics/food wrappers are allowed.
Our ancestors, particularly the ones who foraged for food, did not have to deal with dozens of plastic wrappers on a weekly basis. The pitfall to this diet is that you will see with much more clarity just how much waste is around you. But, you may say, why not just recycle the materials...the issue is the recycling systems are in fact global and for years Asian countries, particularly China, have accepted a lot of plastic scrap from the U.S. and European countries. That global system has broken down now that China has stopped accepting foreign recyclables, leaving a lot of U.S. recyclables in landfills or incinerators.
Here is what is not permissible for this diet in a 24 hour period:
~Nothing single use:
- no plastic straws
- no plastic wrap of any kind
- no plastic packaging of any kind
- no food wraps that cannot be composted (foil/wax)
- no aluminum foil in cooking/wrapping
- no plastic bags
- no plastic bottles or single use items such as paper coffee cups
Here is how this experiment went for me:
Breakfast
Coffee: I use a french press to make coffee, so for a 24 hour period this is pretty simple-the used grinds can be composted in a worm farm or backyard composter. In a longer period, there are issues such as the coffee bean packaging cannot be composted due to a foil lining, which is something to consider. Carry in a reusable coffee mug, no single use containers. For the coffee beans you purchase, I suggest organic beans since a main source of pesticide ingestion is conventional coffee. Organic coffee bean residue is preferable in your composting systems as well as your body!
Nut and berry blend: walnuts, blackberries, blue berries, and pumpkin seeds. This is a nice little trail mix that creates no waste in a 24 hour period as long as you do not have plastic waste from the berry containers. I also very much enjoy pistachios, but cannot compost the shells in my systems, so I refrain from them for this project. Remember to carry the trail mix in a reusable food container/glass.
Hydration
Remember, no plastic water bottles, use a stainless steel water bottle to carry water from home or a fountain at your office/workplace. Our water is delivered in five gallon, reusable glass jugs, so circular holds. Water is a solvent and will take on properties from most containers, this is why water held within plastic starts to take on estrogenic molecules. This is not the case for glass or stainless steel.
Pre-lunch Snack
Hard boiled eggs or vegetables with or without dip. Eggs are fantastic. The byproduct of hard boiled egg are shells, which are compostable and fantastic in an organic garden. Egg shells will feed your soil (and plants) with calcium as they breakdown and also deter slugs, which do not like the sharp edges of the broken up shells. Eggs can be widely used for this compost diet project.
Lunch
You can pick something from your fridge that cannot be composted, such as leftover chicken or other animal protein. If eating leftovers, be sure to use a reusable glass container. For my project, I ate two apples since I loaded up on so much eggs, nuts and berries during the morning hours. Of course, the apple cores can be composted, including mashed up a bit and fed to your worms.
Mid-afternoon snack
Vegetables or crackers with hummus. If you finish the hummus you probably busted the project, since the hummus most likely arrived in a plastic container if purchased. Same goes for crackers, which are packaged with foil or plastic and a paper/light cardboard box. This is why this project is much easier to do for 24 hours than one week! That is the point, to become more aware of how food packaging is jacked up.
Dinner
Omelet with fresh herbs and avocado. Egg shells and the avocado peel and pit are compostable.
Suggest you try eating dinner before 5pm/1700 and then not eat until 0800 the following day. The above dinner followed by some exercise, like a long walk after dinner will revitalize your metabolism and outlook. Feel free to have a cup of tea as a night cap-the tea bag can be composted (but the string on some bags is problematic).
~Permissable food packaging:
Paper egg cartons (non-bleached)
Paper food wraps
Reusable glass and durable, multi-use plastic
Good luck!
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