What three meals gives you most of your needed nutrition?

May 17, 2021 5:53 AM

If you had to have the same 3 meals every day.

If you had to go to a desert island for 5 years and could only bring a ton of food that consists of the same meals for everyday eating- A breakfast, A Lunch and a Dinner- what would they be so that you had the most nutrition possible on the island?

posted by fantasticness to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

MefiWiki FAQ: Do food pills or Bachelor Chow exist? Is there a basic food that will supply all required nutrients?
posted by zamboni at 6:07 AM on May 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

Loaded steel cut oatmeal with blueberries or raspberries, coconut oil, ground flax and chia, milk of choice, and peanut butter or other nuts OR eggs with avocado, beans, salsa on a tortilla.

Lunch and dinner would be fish or chicken with salad, roasted veggies, and whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, or chickpea pasta.
posted by lafemma at 6:13 AM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I mean, the easy answer is brand name Soylent. It's billed to be exactly this.

But when asked the ice breaker, what would I eat every day, I usually say a stir fry, because of the sheer variety of sauces and flavors and ingredients.
posted by bbqturtle at 7:26 AM on May 17, 2021

I came here to say what lafemma said, to which I'd add beans and rice. Red beans or black beans, doesn't matter. They're a complete protein together.
posted by jquinby at 7:32 AM on May 17, 2021

When I was extremely broke in my 20s I ate a lot of baked potatoes. There are a LOT of vitamins in a potato, they are nearly as cheap as the dirt they grow in, and baked potatoes are tasty. And I drink a lot of milk anyway. I did switch to whole milk during my brokeness because I didn't like how much weight I was losing and wanted the extra calories. Potatoes and milk will get you pretty darn far, nutritionally.

I did feel extremely validated years later reading The Martian, a 370 page paen to the life-saving potato.
posted by phunniemee at 7:36 AM on May 17, 2021 [29 favorites]

Beans and brown rice, there are so many cultural variations on beans and rice I could eat well. Also assuming I don't have a fully equipped kitchen but a pot and a fire it all cooks in one pot. You can soak them before cooking to save firewood and potable water and I can add what I scavenge for the day for variety. Much like the old medieval pottage.

Assuming no fruit trees of any sort on the island, I'd also want to add a nice lemon or citrus fruit to my diet, though most seaweeds contain OK amounts of vitamin C so I could supplement my diet with seaweeds of various sorts after the citrus fruit ran out.

Now those are my purely practical what could I survive with ideas based on reading too many adventure novels as a kid and overthinking the whole thing at the time.

What I'd actually want from a foods I'd be happy eating not survival POV though is

Daves bread toasted and PB or avocado for breakfast. Pot of Tea.

Lunch Roast Beef sandwich. Proper homemade roast beef not deli meat.

Dinner. Stirfrys or fried rice, which is basically a stirfry but with rice.

Not super nutritionally balanced, but foods I could happily chow down on day after day.
posted by wwax at 7:43 AM on May 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

I've posted this before, nobeagle kibble: can of black beans, can of chick peas, can of lentils, 1lb of mixed frozen veggies thawed/drained, salsa (likely 1/2 jar to a full jar depending upon size). Either mix in freshly cooked brown rice, or add a second jar of lentils. Mix this all up, and you've got several days worth of foodage. Alternately try pasta sauce, but I'm a salsa person.
posted by nobeagle at 7:49 AM on May 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

You meed protein, carbs, fat, and fiber. Vegetables, both raw and cooked, provide minerals and vitamins. Start the day with whole grain, maybe bread (oatmeal, muffin) with fruit, nuts, and an egg on the side. Coffee and tea have health benefits, if you like a caffeinated beverage. Hearty lunch of vegetables, tofu, rice, as stirfry or a bowl. Dinner of pasta or potatoes, veg., possibly as soup, and salad. Fruit for dessert.
posted by theora55 at 9:57 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

This book details the daily nutritional requirements of all the macro and micro nutrients and what foods give you those requirements in what quantity. Don’t worry that it’s vegan focused it compares contrasts with meat based sources too.
Also think of it more like what you eat in a week vs in a day since it’s hard to physically eat that much food to get it all.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:18 PM on May 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

Well I'd stock as follows:

Barley or steel cut oats, brown rice - one or all three
Oil - olive or safflower
Lentils and chickpeas
Sunflower seeds, almonds or peanuts, chia seeds - if only one, sunflower seeds
Garlic and onions in copious amounts/to grow, cabbage, potatoes, beets (greens and bottoms), , if possible tomatoes in some form (salsa, canned tomatoes, fresh), carrots
Citrus fruit, preferably lemons and one other, berries (could be preserved cherries)
Spices/flavours: saffron, cinnamon, salt, pepper, turmeric, soy sauce/miso paste
Pickles: turnips, beets, sauerkraut, carrots if I can't bring fresh OR if we have unlimited fresh/frozen, then vinegar and pickling spice and add turnips and cucumbers above to the onions and beets
Small amount of sugar for pickling and variety; cornstarch for fake 'eggs' or thickening
If there's room here for joy and indulgence - cheese of some kind, feta if possible otherwise a big wheel of grana paderno

From that I would make:
porridge (oatmeal/barley, congee) + fruit
grain bowls with fruit or with beans/lentils, vegetables/pickles, nuts/seeds
Soup of many, many kinds with yummy cheese on it
mujadarah and other rice/bean dishes, including cheesy lentils
cabbage rolls with rice and lentils
lentil/rice patties and "meatballs" (best if eggs are involved)
one million potato dishes including colcannon

If I had to pick the three most streamlined dishes for nutrition:
- porridge with cinnamon, sunflower seeds and fruit, preferably both berry and citrus options
- mujadarah for lunch (lentils/brown rice/onions/saffon/salt/pepper/oil)
- cabbage/beets including greens/potatoes for dinner in various formats some requiring oil, with at least salt and pepper

I'd consider adding fish to the above.
posted by warriorqueen at 1:00 PM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]