3 ms·

Going by UK prices as that was the subject of the article and what I'm familiar with, you can get 1 kg of long grain rice for £0.45 (~$0.60), which contains 3,6

Going by UK prices as that was the subject of the article and what I'm familiar with, you can get 1 kg of long grain rice for £0.45 (~$0.60), which contains 3,650 calories. 1kg of lentils is £1.40 ($1.83) and contains 3,530 calories and a healthy amount of proteins, minerals and vitamins. A female needs 2000 calories per day, so for £0.67p ($0.88) you can get 1000 calories from rice and 1000 calories from lentils and meet your minimum requirements, and have some money left over to buy salt, spices and veg. Other staples such as oats, beans, pasta are at similar prices (1kg of oats can be found as low as £0.75 and contains 3650 calories) and can provide additional nutritional diversity, but there is no question that you can meet your minimum calorie requirements with $1/day, at least in the UK. This may not be the most appealing diet to some (although spices go a long way into making cheap palatable dishes), but if the alternative is going so hungry you are unable to move without grabbing on to furniture, you cannot afford to complain about the taste of a bland bowl of a rice.

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
So, how do you fight off scurvy? What does 12 cents worth of veg look like? That's, what, an 1/8th of an orange a day?
- joefourier 7y ago
  You buy off whatever veg is on-sale (e.g. the Aldi Super 6) - citrus can be less than a pound per kg, so 12 cents can actually get you a whole medium-sized orange (you buy a pack for 50p and eat it over the next few days). Cabbage, broccoli and misc frozen veg are generally more cost-effective, however.
  - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
    Based upon that diet you'd get 0% of your Vitamin D, 5 % of your vitamin A, and 15% of your calcium. You'd get 4 grams of fat, no sodium, and barely any potassium. You'd be getting 180% of your recommended carbs for the day. I doubt that would be sustainable over the long term.
    - joefourier 7y ago
      You can take supplements or research the other low cost foods that compensate for the deficiencies (spinach, eggs, fish oils, etc.). Do note that the primary goal is to obtain enough calories to avoid suffering from hunger and dizziness, not achieving the most optimal and sustainable diet (although a rice, beans, oat & veg diet is doubtlessly a far better base than the typical low-income western pattern diet of fast food and sugary drinks). Obviously you'd obviously want to find ways to increase your income in order to have more than a $1/day to spend on food, but you'll never get there if you're starving.
      - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
        If your budget is $1/day I doubt that supplements are in the cards, and it's obviously not sustainable, as part B of this nutritional plan is "get a better job".
        DuskStar 7y ago
        The multivitamin I get off Amazon is ~7c/day. I'm sure there are cheaper options out there, though.

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago

So, how do you fight off scurvy? What does 12 cents worth of veg look like? That's, what, an 1/8th of an orange a day?

joefourier 7y ago
You buy off whatever veg is on-sale (e.g. the Aldi Super 6) - citrus can be less than a pound per kg, so 12 cents can actually get you a whole medium-sized orange (you buy a pack for 50p and eat it over the next few days). Cabbage, broccoli and misc frozen veg are generally more cost-effective, however.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
  Based upon that diet you'd get 0% of your Vitamin D, 5 % of your vitamin A, and 15% of your calcium. You'd get 4 grams of fat, no sodium, and barely any potassium. You'd be getting 180% of your recommended carbs for the day. I doubt that would be sustainable over the long term.
  - joefourier 7y ago
    You can take supplements or research the other low cost foods that compensate for the deficiencies (spinach, eggs, fish oils, etc.). Do note that the primary goal is to obtain enough calories to avoid suffering from hunger and dizziness, not achieving the most optimal and sustainable diet (although a rice, beans, oat & veg diet is doubtlessly a far better base than the typical low-income western pattern diet of fast food and sugary drinks). Obviously you'd obviously want to find ways to increase your income in order to have more than a $1/day to spend on food, but you'll never get there if you're starving.
    - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
      If your budget is $1/day I doubt that supplements are in the cards, and it's obviously not sustainable, as part B of this nutritional plan is "get a better job".
      - DuskStar 7y ago
        The multivitamin I get off Amazon is ~7c/day. I'm sure there are cheaper options out there, though.