What is the 100 Mile Diet?
June 11, 2009 by JenniferM
Filed under Clean Eating Basics
In my inbox yesterday I received a link to a podcast and the transcript of an interview with Angela St. Cyr. Some of you may know her (and her family), but I had never heard of her. Apparently Angela and her family were part of Food Network Canada’s 100-Mile Challenge held in April. Angela and her family participated in what is called a 100-Mile Diet, but what is this 100-Mile Diet?
After I read the transcript of the podcast with Angela, I was so excited that I did a little digging into this 
100-Mile Diet to see if it would be something that I would want to do too. Basically it’s only eating local foods that you can buy within a 100-mile radius of your home! So Angela’s family ate only locally-grown foods and their meals came from fresh ingredients. I love, love, love this because not only is it eating clean, but it’s supporting local farmers and business owners, something I do and something I encourage others to do whenever I can. Although Angela and her family found the challenge…well, a challenge at first, preparing meals from local, fresh food got easier.
Upon reading the transcript at HealthCastle.com, the part that struck me was the following:
Gloria Tsang, RD: Most viewers were surprised in the last episode that at least some or at least half of the people on the challenge actually lost weight. And your mom lost quite a bit of weight. Why do you think this happened?
Angela St. Cyr: You know, I am still baffled by that myself. Really, it goes against what we as a society believe is supposed to be good for weight loss. We ate so much cheese and drank so much milk. Whipping cream was pretty much a food group for our family during the challenge. It still to this day baffles me. The only thing I can think of, and again, I am not a doctor or a scientist, is the lack of preservatives in the food could possibly play a part in weight gain and weight loss. I don’t know what studies have or have not been done on that. The other thing is it’s almost impossible to over eat when you are doing a 100 Mile diet because at this stage of it, there is no pre-packaged, quick, easy foods unless they are healthy foods like raw fruits and vegetables. So it’s almost impossible to mindlessly eat and over eat. Because there is so much involved in order to put that food in front of you, you are not going to just mindlessly grab something and eat it. Plus another thing that really has not been talked about very much is the energy of everyone and the lack of hunger. I have always been a thin person but I have a huge appetite and I eat a lot, and I’m always hungry. When I was on the challenge, I did not experience that. And the only thing that I can attribute that to is the vitamin content in the fruits and vegetables are that much higher because you are consuming so quickly after them being harvested that I think your body is getting the nutritional without you having to over eat in order to achieve that.
To read the full transcript, see: Feeding Your Family, 100-Mile Diet Style
So how is it possible that this family ate like this and lost weight? Hmmm. Could it be the preservatives in our food that is partially the cause of our current obesity epidemic? I do realize decreased physical activity also plays a role, but when you have food that has a 4-year shelf life because of the preservatives contained in that food, what do those preservatives do to your body? Why haven’t there been any scientific studies to find out?
To read more about the inspiration behind this challenge, visit: 100-Mile Diet — Local Eating for Global Change.
I’m seriously thinking about trying this, at least for 30 days. I spoke to my husband about it last night, but only had a few minutes of a discussion and really didn’t come to a concrete agreement with him. I will have to work on that, but the only thing I keep thinking is…if I do this 100-Mile Diet (as an experiment, at least)…where will I get bananas?? They’re one of my favorite fruits, I obviously can’t get them locally, and I’m not sure I can go 30 days without eating a banana!
If you’re interested in buying more local foods, check out: Local Harvest. It’s a great resource for finding farms and farmer’s market in your area.
So what do you think — could you do a 100-mile diet? Answer our poll below and leave a comment and tell us why or why not!
[poll id="3"]
I find it interesting that the family lost weight even with whipping cream as a “food group”. It goes with something that I talked to my husband about–I am 50+ and I don’t remember people having all of the food allergies that it seems they have today. I wonder if eating locally wouldn’t clear up food allergies, also. The local air, soil,water, etc. would all be somewhat in tune with your body (I have known people that have to take their home water with them on trips or they get sick). Just wondering…
Joan, thanks for commenting! I know that whipping cream thing floored me! And the cheeses too. The only thing I can figure out is that the milk was fresh, raw milk and the cheese and cream would be the same. No preservatives or additives, nothing in them to ensure they’ll last 4 months on the shelf/in the fridge (that’s what cheese from the store will last now – 4 months…good grief…I remember when it would only last a week!) and no hormones or steroids.
That’s an interesting point about the food allergies too, definitely something to think about!
I think this sounds like a great summer activity. We have a full garden and visit the local farmer’s market once or twice a week to supplement. I noticed that there is a dairy farm and a pork farm represented in the market too. I will visit their stands and see what they have to offer.
This would be very hard for us in the winter as we live in the midwest. Winters, no matter how much food I put away from the garden, still require purchasing veggies and fruits from out of state.
I will talk w/ hubby and see what he thinks.
Hi Lora, thanks for leaving a comment!
Yes, I think winters would hold us up to and make things incredibly difficult and…inconvenient. We live in rural Appalachia, in the mountains and have some pretty harsh winters too, and while I intend to can a lot of veggies from our garden this year (including onions of all things!), we would still have to purchase fruit from somewhere and other veggies like carrots and things like that. Now, my father-in-law has a farm and he grows things like blackberries and blueberries and we always freeze some of those to use in the winter, but I’d still need fresh fruit and most definitely some bananas and strawberries!
Barbara Kingsolver’s book, “Animal Vegetable Miracle” is a great read on eating local fare. Barbara and her family, who live on a farm in Virginia, committed to raising as much of their own food as possible and eating local for a year. I highly recommend this inspirational book.
Jennifer- love the 100 mile diet idea. The participants could have also lost weight due to the higher dairy intake. Studies are now showing people are naturally less hungry with the more dairy products they consume.
Lora- we also have a full garden which we love and supplement by going to our local nursery’s produce stand. We get a flat of berries each week, some to eat and the rest to freeze for winter. In August it will be peaches and nectarines. We love to make fruit smoothies all winter. We also blanch and freeze our veggies or puree and freeze for soup bases. This way we are better stocked for winter.
Angie- we recently got in touch with a local organic pork grower and I can’t believe the difference in the taste! Well worth every penny.
There is something to be said for eating only what’s in season. It allows our bodies to fall into a natural rhythm that is usually off balance in our society.
I ran into something similar living in Germany. While I was there, I ate lots of cheese, drank full fat milk, had tons of bread and even a few desserts. I lived there for 8 1/2 months with this same diet every day.
I came home and had not gained a single pound. I was exactly the same weight, only I felt far more satisfied by the food I had been eating. I didn’t feel the need to binge during those months abroad.
I’m sure chemicals play a part in our obesity problem here in the states. I mean, we drink growth hormones in our milk like it’s going out of style. Cows aren’t the only ones “growing” from these hormones. Who knows what else they are spraying on our food!
And now with all the liver problems coming to the surface from genetically altered foods, it’s no wonder we can’t get ahead. But then, there’s a lot of money to be made off of unhealthy people. It makes one pause to wonder…