If you've tried to text your girflriend a sandwich emoji followed by a question mark—only to find that there isn't one—Kelsey Rexroat feels your pain. In an article for The Atlantic, Rexroat wrote about eating only foods that have emoji equivalents for an entire week—and as part of the challenge, she also had to consume every food that exists in emoji form by the end of the seven days.
Rexroat came across several amusing food combos and discoveries, if not a sustainable (or advisable, from a health perspective) diet. Since emoji originated in Japan, there's a high prevalence of seafood and fruit, as well as rice (eight different emoji actually involve rice!) and desserts (11 are sugary treats).
This had Rexroat making adventurous treks to Asian markets to hunt down rice balls (fish-filled triangles of rice, neatly wrapped in seaweed), oden (boiled eggs and fishcakes stewed in broth), and dango (you know, the three sherbert-looking-balls-on-a-stick image that's actually rice balls filled with plum paste).
Luckily, there are also pizza and beer emoji, as well as spaghetti and red wine (which Rexroat admits isn't that different from her typical diet). She finished the challenge with an appropriately festive treat of cupcakes and martinis.
By day seven, Rexroat wrote,"Emoji diet hasn't left me hungry or dissatisfied—if anything, my dessert binge has added some points—but it has slimmed down my wallet since I've been making more food purchases as I avoid the majority of my pantry."
Final verdict: Doable, but definitely not advisable from a financial or health perspective. May we request the addition of many more fruits and veggies to the current set of emoji characters? Kale smoothie emoji, anyone?
See pictures of some of Rexroat's meals, and real the full article at The Atlantic.
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