I was watching an old episode of “True Life” on Mtv, and the subject happened to be extreme allergies. There was this one teenage boy in particular who struck me because, basically, his food allergies were so severe that he was intolerant of all but something like 8 foods. Of this entire wide world of foods, just 8!
Of course, he was suffering from a load of nutritional imbalances since his diet was so limited. But it really started me thinking about how I eat foods with a million ingredients all the time, and that’s not very healthy either. Anything processed, weird chemical dyes, etc.
chemistry in the kitchen
What if you had to limit yourself to eight, whole foods?
I posed the challenge to myself to create something healthy with 8 ingredients that I would be equally happy eating in the heat of the day or in the middle of the night. My mission lately has been to incorporate as many vegetables into my diet as possible… so meet my salad!
pico de gallo, on the half shell
Just 8 Ingredient Salad
- cucumber
- bell pepper, multi-colored
- tomato
- onion, from my boyfriend’s nona’s garden
- corn
- lime juice
- cilantro
- tajín
Una knows healthy food when she sees it
photo credit 2
To Your Satisfaction 
Woah, I thought I had a limited diet due to food allergies, but this is scary. My mom can’t eat tree nuts (including any soy products), peanuts, fruit, and vegetables. I’m not actually sure what she does eat.
I saw that episode! I felt horrible for those kids. I had no idea that people actually suffered from extreme allergies to that extent.
I’ve been trying to eat only real food for some time now (real, as in whole foods with no weird ingredients that you can’t pronounce). But it’s definitely tough because a lot of the foods I enjoy happen to be processed. And it’s so much easier and more convenient to find junk foods. Sad but true!
I love really simple meals but I don’t know how I’d handle eating just 8 foods. You’d certainly get incredibly creative mixing up those combinations.
It looks wonderful 🙂