Conscious Choice Seattle: Near-Sighted

August 2006 | Food :: Conscious Dining

Near-Sighted

The ‘100-mile diet’ limits some food choices but expands your world

By Ritzy Ryciak

A hundred miles seems a long way.

Or not.

Jennifer Adler had never heard of the “100-mile diet.” Maybe you haven’t either.

Thankfully, for those of us who have embarked on a diet or two in our own lives, the 100-mile label does not refer to the distance we must crawl to get our next meal. Instead, it is new trend within the local food movement.

The 100-mile “dieters” only eat food that is harvested within a 100-mile radius.

In the Northwest, that translates to a diet void of coffee, tea, olive oil, chocolate, salt and tropical fruits like bananas. And depending on where your center of the universe is, grains are typically out too.

The 100-mile idea began in Vancouver, B.C., with two journalists who did it for a year. It has now inspired thousands of people to take the plunge, cut out coffee and go Extreme Local. The 100-mile diet website, www.100mile.org, features “dieters” from Canada, to New York to Oregon.

There’s even a term for this type of eater, “locavore,” inspired by ecologist Gary Paul Nabham’s book, “Coming Home to Eat.” Websites like, Locavores.com and EatLocalChallenge.com are in-depth resources for anyone interested in joining the eat local movement.

The thing is, Adler isn’t jumping on the extreme local bandwagon, she was a 100-miler before her kind even had a name. A 31-year-old Vashon Island resident, Adler does not drink coffee, uses lard or butter in place of olive oil and drinks nettle tea, “a multi-vitamin in a liquid form” on a daily basis.

A conscious local eater since 2002, Adler stepped up her local diligence even more two years ago when she transitioned from being a 13-year veteran vegetarian into a meat eater.

"I started looking at where my animal products were going to come from,” says Adler, a Bastyr-trained nutritionist. “Vashon was the place that I found to get sustainable cows that lived in a really happy environment."

At Sea Breeze farm on Vashon, Adler saw grass fed cows and calves that got to be with their mothers. She started visiting the farm once a week to get her meat, dairy and eggs.

"I go through a lot of raw milk,” says Adler, referring to milk that has not been pasteurized and is reminiscent of the glass-bottled milk delivered to doorsteps way back when. “A lot of people are sensitive to dairy but when dairy is in its raw state it is full of enzymes and healthy bacteria."

Eventually, Vashon’s peaceful pace of life lured her, and a year ago she moved to the island.

Today, Adler lives in a house in the woods; a hiking trail leads to her front door. The 400-square-foot house is surrounded by native food and overlooks a ravine filled with trees—some older than 400 years. Adler harvests seaweed for salt sources via her kayak and forages for salad makings— Shepard’s purse, sheep sorel, dandelion greens and chickweed—in her own backyard.

Ever tried a kelp pickle?

Adler makes them out of bull kelp, which she sustainably harvests around the island. The “pickles” are crunchy, wonderfully salty and full of minerals.

The pickles are proof positive that in addition to health benefits, eating local foods can help us adapt to the environment that we live in.

"If I am eating bananas and oranges in the middle of winter,” says Adler. “I am just going to be craving sunshine and my body isn’t going to be retaining vitamin D in the same way because of the high potassium and sugar content."
As a working nutritionist, Adler teaches at Bastyr, consults with private clients and teaches cooking classes all around Seattle (her website is www.realizehealth.com). One of Adler’s biggest goals is to help people feel connected with their food and its origin.: “I feel like I am voting with every bite that I take."

Ritzy Ryciak is a regular contributor to Conscious Choice.

Nora Next Month
Nora West, our food mentor, will return with the September issue for more Conscious Dining reviews and culinary insights.

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