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Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

miketuritzin.com

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Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#51

Post by illumin8 »

bdclimber14 wrote: post #10

This reminds me slightly of Tim Ferris' "The 4 Hour Body". Has anyone had any real experience with his suggested diets? I find eating consistent and similar meals is cheaper and healthier.

I followed the 4HB diet for a month and it definitely does work to lose weight. The problem is that it has no variety, and you will get extremely sick of eating the same meal continuously over and over again.

There are many ways to eat slow carb without strictly following the 4HB diet. For example, Tim Ferris says to stay away from anything that is "white, or can be made to be white." He's talking mostly about wheat, flour, and pasta, but also includes brown rice. Brown rice is an excellent slow carb so it shouldn't be excluded. There are a lot of great grains that are slow carbs like buckwheat, quinoa, wild rice, steel cut oats, etc, that won't make you gain weight and are good balanced carbs.

My experience is that you can do the 4HB diet for a month or two and lose some weight, but think about it - do you want to eat beans every meal for the rest of your life? It's not a sustainable diet that you can stick with for a long time, and that's what matters. In the end, you need a healthy diet that you can stick with for an extended period of time, or you're just going to gain the weight back.

Stick with slow carbs (all the ones I mentioned above), nuts, fruits, vegetables, eggs, and lean meats, and you'll be fine. Stay away from fast carbs, sugars, and foods with a high glycemic index and get some variety in your diet. Eat breakfast every day with protein in it.

Another thing that doesn't work with Tim Ferris' diet is the "no fruit" rule. Fruit is not that bad. Most fruit has a low glycemic index, although some like watermelon is not that good for you (high GI). Completely excluding any fruit from your diet is probably not healthy long term.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#52

Post by samatman »

colanderman wrote: post #19

As a vegan on a limited budget, this approximates many of my meals (though I could stand to eat more nuts and seeds and fewer grains), and I can attest that any day I eat roughly this mix of foods is a day I feel superbly healthy. I would suggest replacing the low-fat dairy milk with a non-dairy alternative such as soy or almond milk. Although this would up the cost to $3.50ish/day, non-dairy milks are usually fortif…

If one can afford to invest in a soy milk maker, or persuade family to buy it as a present, making soy milk is extremely cheap. Also, what comes out of a soy milk maker is massively better than what you can get in a box.

I use a combination of soaked soy beans and ground coconut, for a grand total of about 15 cents a quart, including a bit of salt, vanilla, and a tablespoon of sugar (optional). It's a major dietary staple for me. I use the Joyoung CTS1048, reviewed here: http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/004154.php

Such a device pays for itself in a month or two, if one is a regular soy/nut milk aficionado.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#53

Post by r0s »

mmaunder wrote: post #22

My wife and I tried to do this recently on $1.70 per person per day. We didn't last our intended 28 days. A few observations we found: Meat and organic food was too expensive. Fruit is crazy expensive so we bought OJ from concentrate with no additives as a cheap source of Vitamin C. Eggs were are very expensive, but we needed the protein and nutrients, so rationed ourselves to 3 each per week. We had to remove all su…

> we found a few "living on a dollar a day" blogs, but every single one bought in bulk and then calculated the cost of each scoop they took out of the bin.

What's wrong with that? It's by far the cheapest way to cook. Bulk makes buying organic cheap too, as long as you don't shop at supermarkets. They have a habit of avoiding organic brands that are price-competitive with existing products.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#54

Post by bdclimber14 »

orenmazor wrote: post #31
mmaunder wrote: post #22

My wife and I tried to do this recently on $1.70 per person per day. We didn't last our intended 28 days. A few observations we found: Meat and organic food was too expensive. Fruit is crazy expensive so we bought OJ from concentrate with no additives as a cheap source of Vitamin C. Eggs were are very expensive, but we needed the protein and nutrients, so rationed ourselves to 3 each per week. We had to remove all su…

if you want to save on coffee, buy green beans and roast. I pay around $30 for 5lbs of green beans that are extremely high quality. you can do far cheaper than that though.

You should be able to get $4-5/lb of green beans fairly easily. The lower quality roasted beans typically go for $6/lb. I roast my own beans for taste though, it truly is superior if you do a good roast.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#55

Post by jhuni »

richcollins wrote: post #43
jhuni wrote: post #30

The real problem with this diet is it doesn't contain any fruits (Avocados, Cucumbers, Olives, Bananas, Grapes, Berries, etc). Our ancestors lived primarily on raw fruits so they are definitely the healthiest natural/uncooked foods for humans.

Evidence for your assertion that our ancestors ate mostly fruit?

Try living primitively, without technology, no stove, no refrigerator, no guns, no tractors, none of this stuff. What are you going to eat?

Are you going to eat meat? Just try to capture a wild animal with your bare hands and eat it raw, you will look ridiculous. This isn't a practical option without technology.

And even if you manage to capture it somehow or scavenge one that is already dead, there are tons of bacteria and diseases that you can get from raw meat since humans don't have the hydrochloric acid that carnivores do. Are you going to eat diary? Of course not, it is totally unnatural to eat another animals milk.

Legumes, beans, and grains although healthy, generally need to be cooked or otherwise prepared. They aren't edible raw. Similarly, many vegetables need to be cooked and they contain parts that are indigestible. Nuts often need to be cracked open.

On the other hand, fruits are just there on the tree ready for picking they don't need any special preparation - it should be completely obvious that this is the food of primitive people - our ancestors.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#56

Post by samatman »

richcollins wrote: post #43
jhuni wrote: post #30

The real problem with this diet is it doesn't contain any fruits (Avocados, Cucumbers, Olives, Bananas, Grapes, Berries, etc). Our ancestors lived primarily on raw fruits so they are definitely the healthiest natural/uncooked foods for humans.

Evidence for your assertion that our ancestors ate mostly fruit?

color vision, opposable thumbs...

okay granted, these ancestors were millions of years ago and only a couple feet tall. But it's not a controversial assertion.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#57

Post by bdclimber14 »

illumin8 wrote: post #51
bdclimber14 wrote: post #10

This reminds me slightly of Tim Ferris' "The 4 Hour Body". Has anyone had any real experience with his suggested diets? I find eating consistent and similar meals is cheaper and healthier.

I followed the 4HB diet for a month and it definitely does work to lose weight. The problem is that it has no variety, and you will get extremely sick of eating the same meal continuously over and over again. There are many ways to eat slow carb without strictly following the 4HB diet. For example, Tim Ferris says to stay away from anything that is "white, or can be made to be white." He's talking mostly about wheat,…

I agree with fruit, he seemed to contradict himself since he praises foods with low GI, but ostracizes fruit.

His counter argument for the lack of sustainability for this diet is the "cheat day" but I haven't found that to be effective at all with sustaining the diet.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#59

Post by mmaunder »

r0s wrote: post #53
mmaunder wrote: post #22

My wife and I tried to do this recently on $1.70 per person per day. We didn't last our intended 28 days. A few observations we found: Meat and organic food was too expensive. Fruit is crazy expensive so we bought OJ from concentrate with no additives as a cheap source of Vitamin C. Eggs were are very expensive, but we needed the protein and nutrients, so rationed ourselves to 3 each per week. We had to remove all su…

> we found a few "living on a dollar a day" blogs, but every single one bought in bulk and then calculated the cost of each scoop they took out of the bin. What's wrong with that? It's by far the cheapest way to cook. Bulk makes buying organic cheap too, as long as you don't shop at supermarkets. They have a habit of avoiding organic brands that are price-competitive with existing products.

I guess it's not a train smash, but most people don't buy flour by the bin. The main problem I had with their approach was not eating a balanced diet and it being unsustainable.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#60

Post by samatman »

jhuni wrote: post #55
richcollins wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evidence for your assertion that our ancestors ate mostly fruit?

Try living primitively, without technology, no stove, no refrigerator, no guns, no tractors, none of this stuff. What are you going to eat? Are you going to eat meat? Just try to capture a wild animal with your bare hands and eat it raw, you will look ridiculous. This isn't a practical option without technology. And even if you manage to capture it somehow or scavenge one that is already dead, there are tons of bacte…

If by "technology" you are willing to overlook sharpened sticks and fire, then I'm thinking I'd be eating anything I could kill. That, and anything I could gather: nuts, roots, seeds, leaves and stems, anything that wouldn't in turn kill me.

Oh, and delicious grubs!

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