50 foods in one week?
Over the last two and half years I have become so much more aware of the foods I eat and what effect this has on me.
Not just that I must avoid gluten and how badly I can suffer when I’ve been glutened but also the variety and sources of my food. I eat a vegetarian diet and cook 90% of my food from scratch.
So I was keen to have a go at the 50 foods challenge.
The idea behind the challenge is that you try and eat 50 foods that are all different in seven days. No repetition. So if I ate bread, I couldn’t then put bagels or buns down as well as they would count as the same thing. You can however list each individual spice or oil etc.
I was pretty confident I could do it as I felt that I ate a wide and varied diet. I wasn’t prepared for how quickly I would hit the fifty target.
Starting on a Sunday and after breakfast of cereal and toast I was already up to 18 foods. The reason I did this was because of my gluten free diet. Where most peoples cereal might contain one or two ingredients, mine contained five and the toast had thirteen!
This continued and by day two of the challenge I had hit the 50 foods. So I continued on for the remaining five days and although the list of new foods slowed as I inevitably had some repetitions of things.
I was really pleased to have hit seventy five different foods in one week.
50 foods breakdown.
Protein.
- Soya milk
- Egg
- Cows Milk
- Butter
- Cheese
- Quorn
- Red Lentils
- Baked beans
Fruit and Vegetables
- Carrots
- Peas
- Sweetcorn
- Onion
- Lemon
- Garlic
- Tomato
- Apple
- Satsuma
- Plum
- Peach
- Banana
- Cabbage
- Parsnip
- Leek
Grains
- Oats
- Chickpea flour
- Maize flour
- Potato flour
- Tapicoa flour
- Rice flour
- Corn flour
- Psyllium Husk
Nuts and seeds
- Coconut
- Peanuts
- Sunflower seeds
- Linseed
- Millet seeds
- Poppy seeds
- Golden flaxseed
- Almonds
Oils
- Rapeseed oil
- Vegetable oil
- Sunflower oil
- Palm oil
Condiments
- Sugar
- Spirulina
- Maca
- Honey
- Yeast extract
- Cayenne
- Salt
- Chilli powder
- Cumin
- Black pepper
- Vanilla
- Basil
- Marjoram
- Thyme
- Oregano
- Dill
- Parsely
- Celery seed
- Turmeric
- Mace
- Lovage
- Nutmeg
- Paprika
- Cacao
- Agave syrup
As you can see my choices and use of herbs and spices really boosted my range. The idea of trying to eat 50 foods in seven days is to increase the amount of different bacteria in your gut. The more diversity you have on your plate the more diversity you should have in your gut. For example if you ate 50 foods that is equal to approximately 1,500 different bacteria in your gut.
Conclusions
I can’t say that as of yet I felt any significant change in my tummy. That is probably down to already eating such a wide range of foods. However this challenge has got me thinking, about the diversity in my weekly diet and not falling into the trap of eating the same things combined different ways each day. My aim will be to continue trying to hit that 50 foods target each week.
Its always interesting reading about other peoples diets, I have just been told I have cows milk allergy and need to cut out dairy so I am finding alternatives, but it shocks me how much food I am having to cut out now that I would have eaten before.
I think clean eating is definitely the way forward at least there is no packet reading!
I spent the last ten years not having lactose, so I understand how tricky it is.
Oh yes it is really easy to fall into the trap of eating the same things. What an interesting challenge ? Thank you for linking up to #ablogginggoodtime ?
It was fun to do and not too hard
I love this challenge! I think I might just give it a go! Really interesting to think about what’s going in your mouth…
Thanks for sharing with #coolmumclub
I found it a great motivator to eat a wider range of foods.
This puts me to shame – I’m not sure I even manage half of this in a week! It’s definitely a kick up the bum to try and add some more variety to my diet #coolmumclub
A mushroom risotto.
SPINACH & RICOTTA CANNELLONI
Welsh Rarebit
vegetable chilli
My favourite vegetarian meal is a large omelet, which I make with free range eggs and mushrooms, peppers, onions and maybe a bit of cheese
Would love to win this.
I’m a big fan of risotto, especially a good vegetable-laden one!
Roasted veggies with couscous
My Hubby cooks me a very tasty vegetarian stir fry.
Veggie haggis is beaut!
Cheeses and Salads.
I always enjoy vegetarian lasagne
We are all vegetarian so all of our meals are, my favourite would probably be a big pan of homemade chilli, filled with a big variety of vegetables, beans and some vegetarian mince
quorn pieces with pasta and cheese sauce
I love Indian food, and my favourite curry is Mutter Paneer.
I love making veggie casserole and it tastes great with linda mccartney sausages in! Lush!
My husband’s vegetable and apricot couscous with a chilli sauce
I just love a veggie casserole done in the slow cooker
vegetable stir fry
Vegetable lasagne
Vegetable Moussaka
Mushroom and spinach curry!
My favourite vegetarian meal at the moment is Falafel Fajitas 😋
I love a vegetable stir fry – I can use up whatever needs using up and get creative!
Jackfruit mixed with rice and mixed beans
I’d love this, to help me lose some weight
My favourite is one of the simplest, tagliatelle broccoli with a bit of a chilli kick
What a great idea. I’ve had to cut a load out of my diet for allergy health reasons and wondered about how broad my diet was. I’ll give it a go, thanks.
My favourite vegetarian dish is vegetable stew. It’s a great winter warmer and very delicious too.
I think it has to be something Mexican like a bean burrito or a sweet potato and black bean quesadilla