The Experiment is Nigh

In answer to Sask 1’s question about my upcoming experiment, namely “Will you really do this?”, I say – yep.

To summarize, on Monday I plan to start a thirty day experiment wherein I will eliminate all fast food and other unnaturally processed foods (especially those containing uber-sugars like high fructose corn syrup) for thirty days. This is not a diet, attempt to get into better shape and/or lose weight, or a permanent food plan. I won’t be force- or under-feeding myself, nor will I keep a calorie log or modify my exercise routine. I just want to know, if Spurlock made himself ill by eating McDonald’s food for a month, what would happen to me if I did the opposite? So I decided to try it and find out.

This weekend I will be preparing for the test by decontaminating my apartment, removing deadly foodstuff’s like TV dinners and Jell-o from the premises, mostly by eating them. I don’t really have a lot of junk food in the place, mainly some ice cream (made with natural ingredients) and a few Lean Cuisine dinners that have to go because they’re laden with low-fat chemicals. In anticipation of the upcoming trial I ate a Big Mac for lunch this week, the first I’ve had in many years and hopefully the last. Who the hell actually likes those things? The bread to “meat” ratio is clearly inverted.

I haven’t been to the store to buy any non-processed foods just yet, but I have been looking at some of what I had assumed would be acceptable. I saw a brand of applesauce with words like “Homestyle” and “Old-Fashioned” on it, then read the list of ingredients only to discover the second and third ones listed were both corn syrup, one high fructose and the other just regular sugary death. Toad734 also recommended avoiding hydrogenated oils, which is good advice since it sounds more like warp drive fuel than a foodstuff. The more I look, the more I think ultra-sugars and modified oils are the basis of all foods sold in America. You have to assume nothing and really go out of the way to avoid them.