Now what the hell am I supposed to eat?

Once upon a time, bread was good for you - as long as it wasn't white bread of course. Bacon, eggs and red meat were bad for you if you ate them every day, so you really only had them on weekends. They were fine in moderation. Milk was essential for strong bones, and if you didn't drink it, you would never be strong and healthy.

Then we found out that milk isn't that good for you. Cows are given so many antibiotics, some of them are transferred into the milk and it's the long term effects haven't been determined, but it's sometimes cited as a reason for the rise of lactose intolerance. That's fine, because I don't like milk and I haven't had any for years.

Bread then became the new public enemy #1. It is a carb, and all carbs are bad. They contribute to insulin resistance, which occurs because the body can no longer process fuels, fats and sugars. This occurs because our bodies are geared towards storing food for an upcoming famine, but in this current day and age, there never is a famine. Our carbs are over-processed so they're broken down into sugars too quickly and easily, and our body develops an insulin resistance, which causes us to gain weight and keep it on despite reducing caloric intake. Bread also bears no resemblance to the product of our grandparents' generation anyway. Unless you're buying whole grain bread, most of the nutrients have actually been stripped out of it during the processing. Also, apparently there is more gluten in today's bread than there was several years ago, and many people have difficulty digesting it. This too was ok. After I returned from Germany when I was 16, I declared that I only wanted to eat bakery whole grain or rye bread, so I could still have my honey on toast with a clear conscience - I wasn't eating mass-produced bread.

However, now that I am in Ireland and am struggling more with my figure, I have had to eliminate many carbs from my diet. I find it's the only way I can keep weight down. So I've had to say good-bye to my beloved honey on toast - for now anyway. I could never find proper whole grain bread here anyway.

So my diet mainly consists of salads, cheese, eggs, chicken and pork. I do eat carbs sometimes because I'm just not that good of a dieter, but when I am being strict, it's mostly salads and meats.

Of course, by salad I don't mean iceberg lettuce. I read in the Globe & Mail a couple of years ago that the molecules in iceberg lettuce in particular retain radioactive material even after washing. California farms get most of their water from the Colorado River which contains some toxic contaminants from the aerospace/nuclear industry from companies like Lockheed Martin that sometimes illegally dump waste in the river. So since then I only buy greenhouse-grown Boston Leaf lettuce.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a report that avian flu has hit Britain. Now it turns out that the bird was never in the regular poultry supply so it's all good, but considering the British track record - foot & mouth, mad cow, I'm not convinced. Also, the health authorities have assured us that eating poultry and eggs is ok - just be sure to make sure that the yolk on your eggs is cooked. Ok, so runny yolk is risky, but cooked yolk is ok. I'm feeling a little more uneasy now. Also, though I live in Ireland, that doesn't make me immune. The Irish are notorious for half-assed laziness when it comes to manufacturing/production.

Since that report came out, I've had a really hard time eating chicken. It's just the last straw for me. First it was "Fast Food Nation". After reading about the meat processing process, I was freaking out that I couldn't afford to only buy organic meat on a regular basis. After awhile, however, I started to not think about it so much. Then a couple of months ago I read an article about the manufacturing of chickens and how they're fed massive amounts of hormones to grow faster and that if you see bruise-like marks on the chicken, it's actually urine - they accidentally pee on each other and themselves because they're in such close quarters. So I just made sure that none of the chicken I bought had bruises on it. Now I'm possibly eating something that can cause the next world pandemic... That just did it for me. I can't even look at the chicken breasts at the meat counter.

So for the eighth day in a row I'm eating pork. I like pork, and garlic spareribs are one of my favourite foods. Of course, I can't eat rice with those spareribs anymore, but that's ok. I remember hearing something about pork - or is it just that you can't eat it if you're Jewish? Well, I'm not Jewish and I'm certainly not going to seek out any information about whether or not pork is good for you. I don't want to know. As it is, I'm so bored with my diet. It's completely uninspiring but there is nothing else I can eat (that I like). I can make fish sometimes, but I bring a packed lunch to work and fish isn't suitable for that. I get home from the gym too late during the week to cook a meal then so I can only really have fish on the weekends. So that leaves salad, pork, cheese and eggs... but wait, cheese comes from cows pumped up on antibiotics doesn't it, and eggs come from avian flu-infected chickens.... CRAP!!!

Now what the hell do I eat?