THE ALL CARB DIET

I can’t resist. I’ve put off the topic too long. It is my favourite topic so it’s about time I talk about it again. Of course, I’m referring to food. Oh! I love to eat everything. No, I’m not a foodie or a connoisseur. I have a blind love (mostly!) that is indiscriminate to food of all qualities. Food, in general, is a wonderful thing.

Here in Timor-Leste, the food is nothing to write home about, but I’m beginning to like it more and more the longer I’m here. I don’t think I will crave any of it as most of it is rice with boiled vegetables on top. Any meat I’ve had has usually been so hacked and the animal had so little meat on it to begin with, that it is just bone and gristle. The one thing I do truly enjoy is the lettuce, tomato, and hard-boiled egg, garlic, and some type of onion salad. A dressing of oil, salt, and vinegar is liberally applied to the top. Maybe it is the pure lack of fresh vegetables, but this salad tastes amazing.

The Timorese diet is almost completely carbohydrates. There is some fat, and almost no protein. I get some through eggs. There isn’t enough meat to count. I only get it on the weekends when I leave the communities. I’m fairly active here and eat large quantities of food, so I think that would compensate. But it doesn’t. After three weeks working in the community I have lost ten pounds. I really don’t know how. The only thing I think it can be is that my body burns through the pure carb diet a little too easily.