Live data from Hacker News

Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

efficiencyiseverything.com

221–230 of 289 posts

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#221
post #101

"These recipes will be based on Potatoes, Milk, Flour, Eggs, and Kale. (Honorable mention to Pinto Beans and Carrots)" Been a week since I saw any of those in shops, and can't recall the last time I saw kale. As always the cheap staple foods and tins are the first to go in panic buying and you just know that all the stuff we usual meh at and lob into the food bank box's are the exact stuff people are now stocking and…

Where are you living? I’m in Seattle, which, as far as covid-19 impact goes, is easily at-or-near the top of the list of impacted cities. I have not seen a shortage of anything aside from Clorox wipes in any of the groceries around me. It’s surprising to me reading about such shortages, especially in less impacted cities. Maybe the panic factor is higher for those who aren’t directly in the midst of it?

Yesterday, QFC in Interbay was nearly out of canned beans, flour, and milk. I’m sure there was more that was low, but I noticed those bare sections in particular.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#222
post #86

Do intermittent fasting - no need to eat for 3-5 days at a time.

Careful giving medical advice. Fasting can be dangerous in some cases. The advice I got from my doctor is to start with 24 hour fasts. And then try 48 hours. And then probably stop there. (I am not a medical expert)

A lot of intermittent fasters follow something less extreme: a 16:8 hour fast. You eat normally during an 8 hour window (lunch, a snack, and dinner, for example) and then don't eat for 16 hours (no after-dinner snacks and no breakfast).

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#223
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been to a supermarket where the eggs weren't refrigerated. They're usually right next to the milk.

In Europe? I (european) have never been to a supermarket where the eggs were refregirated

Norway, and none of the supermarkets or similar shops here have unrefrigerated eggs. Then again, our egg manufacturers have also paid for ads saying their eggs last a lot longer than expiration date they're mandated by EU to put on the boxes.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#224

If you have a way of measuring your body fat to a reasonable degree of accuracy, you can ration your food by knowing how much stored body fat your body can convert into energy per day. Your body can convert roughly 0.9% of your body fat into energy in a day. So if you're 180lbs with 33% body fat, you have 60 lbs of fat on you. You should be able to convert ~0.54lbs into energy, which at ~3500 kcal per lbs comes out t…

You could do that, but it is dangerous to do so during an epidemic. Having body fat helps you if you get very sick. Having low body fat means you are at a higher risk of death when your body has to fight off disease. Being very underweight increases your risk of catching diseases. Of course, being excessively obese has other risks. I am not a doctor (although anyone blindly following internet advice needs to be caref…

There's a lot of space between obesity and underweight. What's being discussed here is use of excess stored body fat to extend one's food supply without impacting muscle mass or cognitive function. Perhaps I should have added the recommended minimum body fat levels but anyone getting near those levels would be unable to get an appreciable number of calories from stored bodyfat anyway, defeating the purpose of using body fat for food supply extension.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#225
post #28

Its worth clarifying that the article is specifically addressing the fallout from the pandemic: Unemployment and poverty due to failing economies and shuttered restaurants and bars. In the US, Despite our country having vast and endless supplies of food from megafarms and their accompanying subsidies, there is very little safety net in America to ensure anyone is fed at all once they are unemployed. worth posting, a…

I'm curious if anyone has numbers on how much a homemade sourdough loaf costs on average. My experience is that flour is quite expensive (and currently not available in UK shops). I've also noticed a spike in electricity costs since we've started baking regularly. (Difficult to calculate exactly) My guess is that baking your own is a bit cheaper than going to some artisanal baker, but a lot more expensive than a stan…

> My experience is that flour is quite expensive

My mom loves making baked goods. At some point, she switched to buying 5+ lbs. bags of flour. It turns out that flour bags from 1-25 lbs. are priced way closer than you'd expect.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#226

If you have a way of measuring your body fat to a reasonable degree of accuracy, you can ration your food by knowing how much stored body fat your body can convert into energy per day. Your body can convert roughly 0.9% of your body fat into energy in a day. So if you're 180lbs with 33% body fat, you have 60 lbs of fat on you. You should be able to convert ~0.54lbs into energy, which at ~3500 kcal per lbs comes out t…

You could do that, but it is dangerous to do so during an epidemic. Having body fat helps you if you get very sick. Having low body fat means you are at a higher risk of death when your body has to fight off disease. Being very underweight increases your risk of catching diseases. Of course, being excessively obese has other risks. I am not a doctor (although anyone blindly following internet advice needs to be caref…

The average American has a long way to go before reaching "very underweight".

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#227
post #101

"These recipes will be based on Potatoes, Milk, Flour, Eggs, and Kale. (Honorable mention to Pinto Beans and Carrots)" Been a week since I saw any of those in shops, and can't recall the last time I saw kale. As always the cheap staple foods and tins are the first to go in panic buying and you just know that all the stuff we usual meh at and lob into the food bank box's are the exact stuff people are now stocking and…

> can't recall the last time I saw kale

In the Bay Area, I saw it Thursday. For the most part, produce has been pretty available, probably because hoarding it makes little sense.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, at least, better than starvation.

I don't get the downvotes since this is a concern to those wanting to maintain healthy diet, there are plenty of fat and protein rich non-perishables out there. Ever heard about canned sardines and other fish in extra virgin olive oil? Or pure protein powder? For fats, well why not having a bit of that olive oil? Mediterranean cuisine puts it literally everywhere. Cheap doesn't have to mean junk food automatically. O…

I'd argue that canned fish and lots of fats makes the flavors more exciting. But there are plenty of people who find canned fish gross (the idea if nothing else.)

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTF are you even responding to? I'm responding to a person other than you first of all. State as in New Jersey or Ohio, not state of mind. Chill the fuck out. What is the intent of your messaging here?

I'm responding to your comment. Scroll up to see my initial interest in this thread. Yes, State as in New Jersey. As in, you're in the United States. Where there are far better WIC-like programs than many other countries. You are better off than people who are happier than you are. Poverty is relative. It sucks, but if you are eating when there's no pandemic, a very slight change over a long time will prepare you for…

WIC is all well and good but I want to know who in USDA was so petty as to keep cilantro off of it? I saw a mother at save a lot denied it once and it made no sense.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#230
post #188

If you can still get it, frozen self rising pizza costs less than $3 for about a kilogram of food. As I live alone I would buy a pizza like this and chop it into pieces before cooking it so it is fresh every serving. I add a few chunks of butter to the bottom above foil. Similar taste to pizza hut for a fraction of the cost. Speghetti is also good when cooked with butter. Instead of adding the usual tablespoon of oli…

You may want to look up Marcella Hazan’s spaghetti sauce recipe
Post reply on HN