Staying Peaty and Healthy in Poverty.

[CJ_87]

Hello food fans,

With all the talk of economic collapse and various other potential calamities (both intentional and collateral), I was thinking about what would be the optimal ways to maximise nutritional health in an environment of relative scarcity.

Ray Peat's suggestion for cheap but nutritious foods was milk and potatoes. He also mentioned Old Tom Parr who lived to over 150 on a very simple diet of "bread crusts and cheese", and who died after he ate very rich foods after banqueting with the king. Peat also was fond of nixtamilized corn, and also viewed white rice as relatively benign.

From this I conclude that the basic poverty diet ought to be largely a combination of starch and dairy.

I think it is important not to fall into despair if a person finds themselves economically constrained. And I think it would be illuminating for everyone if forum members would share their thoughts and anecdotes on the question of how to stay healthy on a very limited budget.

If you have any, please share them!

 

[Greyfox]

Salt might be a good one. especially all the electrolytes combined in water. The reason I mention this even though it's not directly a calorie or macronutrient is because of the idea that these electrolytes are sparing or can buffer the effects of calorie deprivation. There are people who use "snake juice" in order to mitigate the negative symptoms of fasting. I have had periods where I felt rather decent on snake juice.

If anyone has any more information on how the electrolytes might prevent excessive wasting and degeneration I'd like to know more, especially from a ray peat perspective.

 

[Jennifer]

Hello food fans,

With all the talk of economic collapse and various other potential calamities (both intentional and collateral), I was thinking about what would be the optimal ways to maximise nutritional health in an environment of relative scarcity.

Ray Peat's suggestion for cheap but nutritious foods was milk and potatoes. He also mentioned Old Tom Parr who lived to over 150 on a very simple diet of "bread crusts and cheese", and who died after he ate very rich foods after banqueting with the king. Peat also was fond of nixtamilized corn, and also viewed white rice as relatively benign.

From this I conclude that the basic poverty diet ought to be largely a combination of starch and dairy.

I think it is important not to fall into despair if a person finds themselves economically constrained. And I think it would be illuminating for everyone if forum members would share their thoughts and anecdotes on the question of how to stay healthy on a very limited budget.

If you have any, please share them!

For those who don’t digest starchy foods or legumes well:

• Conventional milk
• Conventional butter
• Conventional eggs
• Canned seafood—sardines, tuna etc.
• Juice concentrate—orange, apple, grape etc.
• Overripe bananas
• Conventional honey
• White sugar fortified with conventional coffee or tea

 

[Peatful]

Ray Peat's suggestion for cheap but nutritious foods was milk and potatoes.

He stated eggs and potatoes in the one I heard by happenstance recently

Just cook the heck out of the potatoes to make them easier to digest if it comes down to either eating them vs being hungry

 

[-Luke-]

Oatmeal is pretty cheap, even the organic version (not sure about other countries, but you can get 500g organic oatmeal for 0.95 EUR here). Pretty much the same with eggs if you don't eat more than two a day.

If you have the space, it would probably be best to have some chickens, maybe goats/sheep, apple trees and potatoes in the garden to be less dependent on supermarket prices.

 

[xeliex]

For those who don’t digest starchy foods or legumes well:

• Conventional milk
• Conventional butter
• Conventional eggs
• Canned seafood—sardines, tuna etc.
• Juice concentrate—orange, apple, grape etc.
• Overripe bananas
• Conventional honey
• White sugar fortified with conventional coffee or tea

Good stuff.
I'd add cheap stuff like raisins or other dried fruits that pack a lot of nutrition for their weight.
Also sweetened condensed milk that may be diluted if needed (though nano-particles might be a concern).

 

[Greyfox]

Good stuff.
I'd add cheap stuff like raisins or other dried fruits that pack a lot of nutrition for their weight.
Also sweetened condensed milk that may be diluted if needed (though nano-particles might be a concern).

A lot of raisins here have sunflower oil in them. I bought some thinking they were okay and when I started eating them noticed something wasn't right. Checked the packet. Sunflower oil...

 

[Runenight201]

I think I could survive off of Green beans, tomatoes, eggs, and water. All of which could be done in a backyard with good soil.

Down with scarcity mentality tho! We must be striving for abundance always

 

[Brundle]

Canned potatoes, milk powder and water would be the foods I'd take to Space or whatever. Into a cave to explore the center of the Earth. In Romero's "Day of the Dead" (1985) they had beef treats.

 

[Dapose]

Potatoes will grow anywhere in any kind of soil. A bag of seed potato’s is $5. You could grow a ton of potatoes.
Two three apple trees can make more fruit then a family could ever eat.
Costco butter and milk is cheap. And there dried palm dates and mango slices. Ground beef is cheap and nutritious.
Also an important point is only do this of it sounds fun to you. Fun to be frugal like a kid doing a fun experiment. If you are doing this cuz you’re scared of some theoretical collapse then that sucks. That’s just participating in fear scarcity culture. Look at it like a Mr. Money Mustache experiment!
Good luck and have fun!

 

[Rafe]

If you have choices during a collapse, then I like Jennifer’s list + potatoes + corn you might be able to soak in lime, coffee. Candy if you can find it.

The problem is that you wouldn’t have many real choices in the usual markets.

Though sugar is demonized by the culture I noticed when shelves were emptying during lockdown that some people went right for sugar, flour, butter because those were selling out.

If you have fewer choices, then you eat the best you can & understand what is happening.

For now, while I still have some choices, I eat well in anticipation that if I can’t eat that well in the future, then I’ll go into it as resilient at the front end as I can be.

As it is, I don’t eat meat as often as I did 4 years ago, I eat more potatoes, less fresh fruit. I still drink raw milk & frozen concentrated oj, sugar, coffee, eggs, coke, but I just eat less than I used to most days, then re-feed once or twice a week.

Growing potatoes in my backyard has been one of the single best experiences. I now know I can do that if I have to.

If you live in a tropical or subtropical climate I have read that sweet potatoes can be a virtually endless crop if you don’t get frost. And can be propagated from a grocery store sweet potato. They are high in beta carotene. But they are calorie dense.

 

[youngsinatra]

If I wouldn’t be restricted because of food sensitivities I’d opt for selfmade sour dough bread with butter, potatoes, apples (possibly free from a neighbors apple tree), some ground beef, milk and eggs.

 

[Herbie]

I want to bring the view of how to thrive when in a situation where food can't be grown, no way to store perishables or homeless and only can eat on the go things.

Stick to big picture things calcium/ phosphorus, saturated/pufa, copper/iron

Have an open mind and try different things, ignore exipients due to so ubiquitous.

Remember something like "eating anything to keep the metabolic rate going is better than eating nothing" - Ray Peat.

Use anti serotonin drugs like cyproheptadine, lisuride, metergoline, harmalan, tobacco to help digestion and inflammation while eating less than ideal.

Most peoples diets are a complete train wreck and being poisoned, humans are very resilient if they have enough energy, despite dietary insults.

From my personal experience having a Ray Peat inspired orthorexia nervosa is far more stressful and detrimental than eating at McDonald's 3 times a day, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.

 

[Jam]

Milk, either raw from local farms or from personally owned goat/sheep, turned into butter, cheese, and kefir if no refrigeration available, and/or condensed milk.
Butter, store-purchased or homemade (it's quite easy but requires some elbow grease depending on tools), transformed into ghee if no refrigeration available.
Cheese (we're drowning in it here, can easily be made at home). Hard cheeses don't require refrigeration.
Eggs, preferably from own hens, otherwise from local farmers or store-bought. Unpasteurized eggs that have not had their shells cleaned do not require refrigeration.
Potatoes, self-grown and/or freeze-dried (very cheap to buy or produce and easy to store).
Chestnuts, very plentiful here in the autumn, fresh and whole dried / milled.
Sourdough bread from local bakeries or self-made. Starter can be obtained from homemade buttermilk / clabber.
Pasta (it's all unenriched here), very easy to store, and cheap.
Rice (ditto).
Seasonal fruit (plenty to pick wild around here, especially cherries, prunes, apples, and peaches) and home-made preserves.
Fresh meat when available, especially wild game (more than enough wild boars, hares, birds, and deer here), and dried (prosciutto, jerky, etc.)
Seafood (ditto).
Raw honey.

 

[Explorer]

Condensed milk is quite cheap proportional to calorie amount here - both sugar and calcium and some fats and proteins, some coconut oil although it can be expensive but good for combining with cheaper foods in bulk, pure sugar