Woman Survives On An All-Emoji Diet For One Week

Some people practically live in their smartphones, but this is taking it a bit too far. Atlantic writer Kelsey Rexroat recently undertook an "emoji diet." During her week-long experiment she only ate foods represented by emoji (the Japanese picture characters available for smart phones). She quickly found out that her new diet was more difficult to maintain than she thought. Here's a list of emoji we have noticed are sorely missing from the emoji keyboard: sandwiches, steak, chicken, yogurt, potatoes, fish, and most vegetables (except for corn and eggplant).

As a result of these limitations, this writer found out that eating digitally is tougher than she thought.  She had three rules: she could only eat foods on the pre-approved emoji list, she had to eat all of the food represented, and she could combine and cook these foods to make them more enjoyable. Breakfast on the first day consisted of a fruit smoothie. She also tries some of the more traditional Japanese fare, like oden (a Japanese winter dish of boiled eggs, fishcakes and other ingredients), sticky rice balls, and ramen.

Her verdict? "The emoji diet hasn't left me hungry or dissatisfied — if anything, my dessert binge has added some pounds — but it has slimmed down my wallet."

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Joanna Fantozzi is an Associate Editor with The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter@JoannaFantozzi