100 Mile Challenge

If you committed to a diet of food that was solely grown within 100 miles of your house, what would you miss most? Coffee? Spices? 

It's a valid question for Waterloo naturopaths Rachel VandenBerg and Michael Torreiter, who, this week, are hoping to round up 100 committed locals to join them in eating 100 mile food for 100 days this summer.

Authors Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, a B.C. couple, were the first to try it and tell about it. They devoted themselves to local eating for a year and chronicled their experiences in the much-discussed 2007 book The 100 Mile Diet.

They then took the project to everyday folks in Mission, B.C., having six families there try 100 days of eating food grown and produced within a 100 mile radius of Mission, and the results recently aired in a Food Network Canada program called The 100 Mile Challenge.

Torreiter and VandenBerg, who run the Healing Path Centre for Natural Medicine on King Street in Waterloo, first thought of the idea a couple of years ago and were going to try it then. Other things got in the way at the time, but fast forward to now, and the doctors are ready to take on the task. They hope to find at least 98 other willing participants.

This Tuesday, they'll hold a recruitment session of sorts at The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery from 7 to 9 p.m., where all are welcome. Regional public health planner Marc Xuereb will give a presentation on local eating, growers will be on hand, and there will be a Q and A session about how the 100 days will work. The whole affair will be catered with locally produced food.

Though the 100 days won't officially start until Saturday, July 4 (timed to coincide with our abundant growing season), VandenBerg says they're getting the ball rolling now because they "wanted people to avoid the stress of being unprepared. This way we can paint a picture of what these 100 days will look like and people have time to figure out what prep work they'll need to do."

Over the course of the three-plus months (the project wraps up over Thanksgiving), there will be potluck events, organized farm expeditions and workshops. VandenBerg says they'll be open to suggestions from participants as to how the experience can be enriched for everyone.

Local food growers and sellers are thrilled about the project and many are enthusiastically offering to help out in any way they can. It will, after all, mean increased sales for those who run small food-based businesses in the region and are constantly struggling to market themselves against commercial grocers and big box stores.

Asked what they think participants will find it hardest to give up, Torreiter and VandenBerg have a few thoughts.

"Coffee and chocolate," they both say, right off the bat.

"Sugar might be tough but we do have honey and maple syrup," adds VandenBerg. "Nuts and seeds might be a problem. And people pretty much can't have anything that comes in a package so the loss of convenience will be tough. I think making everything from scratch will be the hardest thing."

Indeed, Torreiter laughs at the thought of getting out a pasta maker late on a Friday night and telling the kids to wait a couple hours while he makes up homemade dough and then cranks it out.

Though reducing carbon footprints and supporting the local economy are often the top reasons for eating 100 mile foods, Torreiter thinks the health benefits will also be well worth the effort. (One local eater in Mission, B.C. unexpectedly lost 42 pounds.)

"As naturopaths, we're interested in healthy eating and anything that gets people back to a whole foods-based diet," says Torreiter. "The prevalence of processed foods is just huge. Giving that up will be hard for people."

If you think you're up for the 100 Mile Challenge, visit www.healingpathcentre.com or call the office at 519-578-7000. Or just head down to the gallery Tuesday night.

Maybe one bite of those homegrown regional canapes will have you signing up on the spot.