Tracking my food for a month#
This August, out of curiosity, I decided to monitor my food intake for a month. So I bought myself a kitchen scale, a friend lent me a few measuring spoons, and I started keeping records. The idea was to make no notable changes in what I eat so that I could identify useful patterns. Among other things, I was hoping that this would help me reduce unnecessary expenses. As with most of my projects, I relied on ledger cli for the bookkeeping part.
The data#
I decided to not log water and tea consumption (normally I don't drink anything else). Certain ingredients are not simple to measure accurately. Some spices come to mind, but mostly I had troubles with things like parsley, spinach, lettuce, beet greens etc. (as I tend to mix them), so I ended up using a single category -- "leafy greens". The data doesn't contain details about the cooking process even though I have my particularities (e.g., I tend to eat my vegetables raw for lunch and steamed for dinner)1. The end-result is this ledger file (which I use to generate the summary data below). Note that the time of each record indicates meal start (normally it took me around half an hour to finish) and some ingredients are counted by piece e.g., eggs, apples, plums2.
Ingredients#
The "garbage in, garbage out" principle from computer science applies here directly. No amount of cooking trickery can undo the damage present at the source! So, I give a few examples of what the "numbers" in the data actually represent. To begin with, here is a typical lunch menu and what my fridge looks like when stocked.
Figure 1. An example dish I usually have for lunch
Figure 2. My fridge when stocked
The backbone of my regime#
I consider the backbone of my diet to be grains (einkorn, wheat), legumes (lentils, chickpea) and nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, etc). All three are, more or less, constantly present on my table through the year. The rest of the ingredients vary considerably from season to season and depending on the type of sports activities I do3. This can be seen clearly in the data -- I was fairly surprised to see that, at a normal pace, I consume around 4kg of nuts per month:
7541.0g Ingredients
2065.0g Grains
925.0g Cereal
820.0g Einkorn
320.0g Wheat
1555.0g Legumes
890.0g Chickpea
530.0g Lentils
135.0g Natto
3921.0g Nuts
885.0g Almonds
300.0g Brazil nuts
621.0g Cocoa beans
895.0g Hazelnuts
1220.0g Walnuts
Walnuts are the "key player" due to the fact that I like them a lot and there are many high-quality producers around Grenoble4 (I always buy shelled walnuts and crack them open when I eat, I have almost transitioned to doing the same with hazelnuts as well). Cocoa beans are an exception in this context. This year I couldn't find good quality raw ones and I bought them roasted (it turned out that, when roasted, they are more digestible and develop a richer, more pronounced flavor).
Figure 3. Nuts, ready to use
A note on einkorn: this is the grain I have experimented with the most over the years. By "einkorn" here I mean "littlespelt" i.e., "petit épeautre" in French or "лимец" in Bulgarian. Normally I soak the grain in water between 2 to 24 hours (depending on how I want to prepare it). Then I can eat it directly, let it sprout or heat to a boil, then immediately cool (the latter option is what I do most of the time). It preserves very well in a fridge (unlike chickpea) and pairs nicely with almost anything else I eat. This last point is the reason I have reduced my bread consumption a lot the past few years (I almost never buy nowadays and prepare it myself -- more on this later).
Having lived in Japan, I really like natto. Unfortunately, here I haven't been able to find good one at a reasonable price (as with everything else in life, I have to learn to prepare it myself -- I guess this would be one of my next food related projects).
The 5 colors principle#
My first reaction when I heard it 10 years ago was "who cares about colors"! I guess I should write a post named "Teach Yourself to Eat in Ten Years" following the famous Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (whose point is spot on). Most of the colors in my food came from the following veggies:
5686.5g Ingredients:Vegetables
440.0g Beetroot
120.0g Cabbage red
825.0g Carrots
202.0g Celery
0.5g Chive
192.0g Fennel
62.0g Garlic
245.0g Green beans
93.0g Kohlrabi
66.0g Leafy greens
1168.0g Mushrooms
781.0g Onion
100.0g Onion fresh
47.0g Parsley
1190.0g Peppers
5.0g Peppers chilli
50.0g Radish
100.0g Zucchini
Peppers, carrots and beetroot are the usual suspects. I remember my reaction when I found a local producer of Cubanelle peppers that taste just like what I could harvest from my grandmother's garden5! Most veggies in my plate don't have only an associated color, they have an associated name as well -- the name of the person that produced them. It is so important to see and talk to the people that have chosen this path ... to look at their hands, they speak volumes! Luckily, here in Grenoble this happens quite naturally.
I remember when I was in my 20s, I had a girlfriend that invited me at her grandmother's place and they had prepared beetroot (I think it was boiled). I thought the taste was so awful that I felt unwelcome. Over the years I have tried many different recipes and the result was always the same -- I didn't like it. Until one day I tried it raw and this changed my perspective (something really clicked). Now I always eat my beetroot raw -- just peel the skin and cut it in slices (it seems to me that anything else is simply a waste of high-quality food). To my surprise, my kids like it as well.
Proteins#
Protein intake is a controversial topic (partly because its impact on my life depends heavily on the kind of life I'm living). I have experimented with various regimes over the years, including completely removing meat from my diet (for two years). What I have learned in the process is that I should listen to my body. To give context, during the period of my food-tracking experiment I was very active. I walked on average 16km per day, which is considerably less than what I did during my summer walking challenge from last year, but I complemented it with quite intense strength training four times a week (among other things, most sessions included four series of 9 correctly executed pull-ups). So I had to pay special attention to my protein intake. Here are the ingredients:
100
18567.0g
6320ml Ingredients:Proteins
2300.0g Chicken boiled
6320ml Chicken bouillon
1015.0g Chicken fried
100 Eggs
190.0g Liver
305.0g Salmon
481.0g Sardines
1611.0g Tofu
3070.0g Turkey roasted
9595.0g Yogurt
Figure 4. Boiled chicken
Figure 5. Boiled chicken stored in the fridge
I tend to buy a mature hen (that has actually seen the light of day) and boil it for three and a half or four hours (without added spices). The result is displayed above (when boiled and when stored in the fridge afterwards). The "Chicken bouillon" in the balance comes from here and I normally have to store some of it in jars (see the first shelf of my fridge). The meat might end-up being a bit tough (well, if the kids don't complain, I guess its just fine) but the bouillon is special6!. In addition, I like preparing whole turkey leg in a convection oven (again no spices, 180°C for a bit less than two hours) -- the meat is lean, just fantastic.
And then comes my Bulgarian yogurt. I say "my" because I prepare it myself -- this is an entire ritual, I have found a very good quality milk7. I started doing this only a year ago but I think that my understanding is close to being mature (I intend to write a dedicated post). Most yogurt I ate during my experiment was from cow's milk:
Figure 6. My yogurt
My weekly eggs consumption was:
25-Aug-17 - 25-Aug-23 Ingredients:Proteins:Eggs 13 13
25-Aug-24 - 25-Aug-30 Ingredients:Proteins:Eggs 24 37
25-Aug-31 - 25-Sep-06 Ingredients:Proteins:Eggs 17 54
25-Sep-07 - 25-Sep-13 Ingredients:Proteins:Eggs 24 78
25-Sep-14 - 25-Sep-20 Ingredients:Proteins:Eggs 22 100
Carbs#
I am not a heavy carbs eater and probably that's why when I do eat, I really feel them (especially if I have to do intense physical effort afterwards).
I guess, the things I eat are mostly standard. As the pumpkin season was not in full-swing I didn't eat as much as I normally do during the winter. We are quite lucky here in Grenoble -- we have a great variety and excellent local producers of pumpkins. Same for chestnuts (by the way, this winter I tried for the first time chestnuts from a producer in Ardèche -- the guy was so passionate about his crops -- great stuff).
The one thing probably worth mentioning is my bread (I experiment quite a bit and tend to mix different flours). The image below is of a typical flour I use8 -- made by one of the remarkable local producers (from him I usually buy excellent beetroot and strawberries as well):
Figure 7. Flour that smells like home!
I prepare dough only from flour and water -- it doesn't need much kneading. I make only small portions and if I am in a hurry I grill them almost like naan bread, or if I have some time I bake them in the oven. nothing fancy. I have invented the following desert: I wrap the dough around walnuts and dried dates (cut in pieces), and bake for half an hour (it is naturally sweet and so damn delicious).
Fruits#
304
3380.0g Ingredients
257
375.0g Dried fruits
257 Dates
375.0g Goji berries
47
3005.0g Fruits
13 Apples
2800.0g Figs (wild)
205.0g Grapes
1 Peaches
33 Plums blue
Dates are my "fried in need". I think that I can easily determined how stressed I am by how many dates I eat (there is a clear correlation). I eat them mostly with my breakfast and before I exercise. During the experiment I didn't feel like eating a lot of fruits with one exception -- figs. They are quite expensive and I have no idea why but in the shops around here the quality is bad. So I end up "hunting" for figs and on a good day I am reminded that there is a hungry pig in me somewhere (I was quite lucky this year, there were many good trees and not many people caring to eat from them).
Misc#
The data contains several other categories like seeds, spices, fats, algae. Here I want to mention chocolate (probably I should call it cocoa paste). I like it a lot and I eat even though I already eat cocoa beans. There is a slightly bitter taste that goes very well with walnuts (and dates).
Here are several examples
Figure 8. Dark chocolate (100% cocoa)
A parting thought#
The process of monitoring oneself is revealing at many levels. The fact that I was in this frame of mind lead to many valuable discussions with friends that helped me to understand much about my food and in turn about myself. I am curious to see what would I think of this post in five years time ...
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However, normally, when I say "I am cooking" I really mean "I am assembling ingredients". ↩
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This is much more intuitive to me and, anyway, I am not interested in counting calories or tracking macronutrients. ↩
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For example, I tend to eat quite a bit of lean meat and eggs during periods of intense physical activity (I have convinced myself experimentally that this makes a big difference in my case). ↩
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Usually, in October it is possible to simply go and gather some. For example, after my food tracking experiment was over, in October I went with my daughter to Tulins (which is half an hour away by train) and we gathered 8kg of walnuts from the ground. ↩
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I have a memory: once I saw how my dog sneaked into the garden, picked a pepper, and sat down, carefully nibbling it between her front paws (it was so weird). ↩
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When I was a kid I should have appreciated more when my grandmother was making soup from our own chicken (it felt so standard and unimportant at the time). ↩
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I had a long discussion with a friend whether one should say "raw milk" to indicate the milk straight from the cow/sheep/goat. I refuse to accept that we need to add the term raw -- milk is milk, everything else requires a qualifier. ↩
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Even though this particular pack was bought after the experiment was over. ↩