THE DIETITIAN’S VERDICT

“This is definitely not a good thing to do long term,” says Linia Patel, a registered dietitian and British Dietetic Association spokesman. “In terms of gut health, a diet this high in animal protein is a gut bacteria’s worst enemy. It actually causes the bad bacteria to thrive and decreases the percentage of the good bacteria.

“They don’t thrive on animal protein, high sugar, refined carbohydrate diets.

“You experienced weight loss because you’d been eating a diet that was high in refined carbohydrate, which would mean that your insulin levels went up and down a lot, like a blood sugar rollercoaster ride. To keep on that ride you have to keep propelling yourself up with sugar.

“In the first couple of days of just eating meat, you probably would have felt a bit rubbish, but then you’d recover because you’re no longer on that rollercoaster.

“It’s not the meat that made you feel better, it’s that you weren’t eating crap anymore.” Pigeon breast makes a wonderful breakfast, too. I fry another eight and eat two while attempting to put them all into a lunch box for lunch. Salted and then fried in lard, these chunks of otherwise lean meat are a conversation piece at work.

I turn to ground game for supper, stripping the meat from two small rabbit carcasses and frying it all. I consume the meat in front of a Quest documentary about cargo ships.

All of my food over the past few days has been from the British Isles, with the exception of that ham from Co-op, and I’m quite pleased to have briefly eaten “locally” for five days straight. On a similar note, I think the amount of packaging I use has roughly halved.