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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   3688 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 14, 2024

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Can you come up with a healthy food menu for a day that includes 160g of protein and a little over 2000kcal for 4$? If you can't do it in 4$, go as low as possible.

Context: I did a deep-dive into recommended nutrition and apparently the current numbers are 2g of protein per kg of weight. My monthly budget for food is 100$, which comes out to about 3-4$ per day. I asked some LLMs the same question and they mostly couldn't do it.

I think soy protein is the cheapest, but soy flour is somewhat difficult to find

Yes. Greens, beef suet, and flour take you a long way, even if it’s not the most appetizing diet.

I think you're in eastern europe, and at least some of the US options are very unlikely to generalize over there (and the numbers are low for the US: 4 USD/day is about SNAP levels, and those are intended to supplement food budgets, not replace them entirely). If you're asking for US-side given the dollar unit:

The standard in the United States for hard-protein diets has traditionally been chicken breast, at about 130 grams protein and 700 calories per pound. Exact prices will vary depending on location, but expect around 2-3 USD per pound boneless skinless chicken breast in store brand bulk, generally on the lower end if you look at places like Sam's Club/CostCo. Bone-in used to consistently be less than 2 USD per pound, but it can vary a lot right now.

Canned tuna is kinda second-best: it's a little more expensive (~3ish USD per pound) and fewer calories, but it's shelf stable and prices are very stable. Depending on location, expect to need to check places like Gordon Food Services to buy in bulk. On the downside, large quantities start raising serious questions about heavy metal toxicity, and eating just canned tuna in water can risk rabbit starvation. Most people can't eat too much of it straight or solely spiced, as well.

Dried beans are more cost-effective in terms of dollar/calorie, but they can take obnoxious amounts of time to prepare, and they're pretty high in fat and carbs for the protein you get. Exact variety matters, but expect around 1-2 USD/pound dry weight, 100-120 grams protein and 1300 calories per pound. Even good in terms of dietary fiber! Downside is that it's a lot of beans, to the point I'm not sure I could eat that much in a day. Can be good to supplement or for variety, though.

Whey protein can sometimes be a reasonable choice, but it's very dependent on where and who you buy from. Some of the bulk purchases (eg Costco) can get as low as 3 USD/day to hit your protein requirements, while others will be as high as 30 USD/day.

Ground beef and turkey are usually (much) less dollar-efficient, but they can be used as supplements for flavor variation in ways that most of the above can't. Same for eggs. Unlike eggs, ground beef and turkey do (often!) go on sale, either for holidays or as it gets close to expiration date, often to compare or beat 'normal' chicken prices. Milk is very cheap, but it doesn't work well after the first gallon a day, and it doesn't work at all if you're lactose intolerant. (and I'd expect it's cheap in the US because of US-specific government policy stuff. Same for cheese.)

For filling the remainder of your diet, your big options are either breads or rice or noodles for carbohydrates, with the fixings (butter, fattier beans, heavy soups like cream of mushroom) for fats. You can get 1000 calories per 0.75 USD, here, without struggling too much; going with big bulk purchases can drop below that (eg 50 lbs of enriched white rice from CostCo runs around 25 USD, and each pound is 1500 calories and about 30 grams protein).

You can and should add some leafy greens for fiber and for macronutrients, but it tends to be what you do with the rest of your food budget, rather than a starting point.

These numbers are a little out of date, especially with current food inflation, but they'll point in a right-ish direction.

Dried beans are more cost-effective in terms of dollar/calorie, but they can take obnoxious amounts of time to prepare,

A tip for dealing with this is to prepare a large batch (like 5-10 lbs) at once and then freeze in portion sized bags. If you want to use them in a salad or just on their own you probably want to freeze them on a baking sheet before putting them into bags so they don't stick together too much.

Beans and chickpeas freeze pretty well and if you're using them for a stew or as filling in a burrito or something you absolute won't notice.

Are you in the US, and if so what region? I recall there was a blog in the early 2010's where there was a guy that did $2 a day, but I don't think he hit 2g/kg bw protein. That probably leaves some extra headroom, even with inflation, for a few extra grams of protein. I recall he had a bunch of open face penutbutter and banana sandwiches. It did require a bunch of annoying couponing to hit his budget as well.

Along those lines, the "Big On A Budget" Series from Animal is a bit of a cult classic. The ones with Evan Centopani are probably closest to what most people would consider a healthyish diet. The budget was $50 a week, early 2010's $s, and they didn't include the supplements they are selling. Offsetting that most people are probably not trying to feed a bulking 100kg+ body builder. You generally see a bunch of oats, rice, eggs, broccoli (if they include vegetables), and chicken breast. I am a fan of using broccoli slaw to save prep-time, as popularized by Chad Wesley Smith, but it's probably not worth it if your budget is that low.

Realistically $100/month is a very small food budget if you are in the US, especially for those protein goals. The USDA Thrifty Food Plan currently puts the budget for a 20-50 Male at $303.90/month. If you are US based and really only have a $100/month budget for food you likely qualify for SNAP benefits, and should also consider food banks.

Edit: I managed to dig up the couponing thing. It was $1 A Day, and it did involve annoying coupon shenanigans that are probably less common now. I think this site is also one I had thought of from the same era. There is a free PDF of a $4/day cookbook. I could have sworn there was another n$/day cookbook from that era that involved a bunch of baking, but apparently I never archived it.

I live in Eastern Europe. For reference, minimum wage here is about 500$/month and I make about 150% that.

Food prices here are about the same as those in the US/Western Europe. Bread is a little bit cheaper, meat is a little bit more expensive. But mostly the same.

5% tvorog is 2.5$ for 400g. That's 64g of protein, but still too expensive.

I think you'll have to stick to 1g/kg. It's not the end of the world, Central Asian construction workers have great muscle definition on a diet of kefir and white bread.

That makes way more sense than a US based person with that budget.

I think federal minimum wage at full time employment in the US is about $1,200/month right now. Seems consistent with PPP, which is about 2.1 for the Balkans.

For eating on a budget you probably have the slight advantage of things like kasha being more readily available in economy pricing, whereas (excluding oats for some reason) groats seem to be considered some sort of specialty health food in the US. Can't say I know anything beyond that though.

The traditional solution is a very legume heavy diet. My experience with beans in the Balkans is that they tend to be terrible and hard to eat much of, and recommend looking at Mexican recipes. I remember hearing something about rice and beans together making the protein better somehow, but don’t remember the specifics. And North African recipes for lentils. Second the eggs recommendation.

Rice + beans provide all essential amino acids, but in "you won't die or get sick" amounts, not "you'll get swole" amounts.

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