The 100-Mile Diet
Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, of Vancouver British Columbia, decided to make their diet compliment their already green lifestyle — especially when they found out that most of the food that North Americans eat travel an average of 1500 miles before reaching our plates.
They made a commitment to only eat food from within a 100-mile radius of their home for an entire year. Sure, they ate a lot of potatoes and spent a lot of time exploring their 100-mile radius to find the foods they’d enjoyed eating before this change, but they also learned a lot about how people eat:
First of all, eating locally means eating or preserving fresh food and avoiding meals from the box and other pre-packaged items. Secondly, they discovered that there are a lot of foods available locally once they learned the seasons and about seasonal foods. Third, they also realized that eating locally means avoiding many of the preservatives and added sugars and fats that other foods “offered” them.
After their one-year experience they did incorporate some of their favorite foods back into their diet such as olives, beer and chocolate, but their experience has made them more committed to eating locally as much as possible.
Overall, Smith and MacKinnon were forced to answer intriguing questions involving self-sufficiency and how North Americans spend their time and have a lesson that everyone could learn a little from. The best part? This idea of eating locally and self-sufficiency has spread and people all over North America are giving it a try — some for a few weeks and others for just one meal, but either way it sure does raise awareness.