I’ll say now that this is a hypothetical, although only just.
I’ll soon be a full-time college student, and funds will be short. I have a stockpile of rice, beans, frozen veggies, and oatmeal. However, I have no plans to make this my exclusive diet. I’ll be purchasing lots of fresh veggies each week, including avocado. I’ll be eating nuts daily and cooking a lot veggies in a stir-fry, so there’s some fat. I’ll also be eating tofu on a regualr basis, several times a week most likely. I’m not a fan of eggs or milk, but I’ll have tuna, salmon, and sardines if I can afford it. I have olive oil and mustard and the other stuff to make dressings for the veggies, so more fat. I’ll be making my own bread.
I’m just curious that, should it come to it, how bad would it be to have to actually survive on just rice, beans, and veggies.
There are essential fatty acids that the body cannot produce, and they are, well, essential. But boy I’ve only read of that actually causing problems in the context of the early days of hyperalimentation (long term IV nutrition) and in infants fed very deficient diets.
Some fat also helps the fat soluble vitamins get absorbed.
Some fats are not essential but still seem to be correlated with good outcomes, like MUFAs.
Low end for “Acceptable Macronutrient Dietary Range” (AMDR) for total fat is set at about 20 to 25 grams/d depending on age and gender, 5 grams /d for n-6 (the essential one being linoleic acid) and 0.6 grams/d for n-3s.
Brown rice has 1.6 g total fat/cup of which 552 mg is n-6 and 25 mg is n-3. Black beans have 0.9 grams/cup total; 217 mg n-6; and 181 mg n-3. Pintos not far off. Lentils 0.8g, 771 mg, 73 mg respectivey. 4 cups each of beans and rice a day (plus the veggies) likely needed to get enough calories would get 10 gram total fat of which 3 grams would be n-6 and a bit over 800 mg n-3.
An occasional tablespoon of peanut butter (8 grams of fat; 4 of them MUFAs and over 2 n-6) or 1 ounce handful of almonds (16 grams of fat; 9.5 MUFA, 3.5 grams n-6) or walnuts (18.5 grams total fat; 2.5 grams MUFA, 10.7 grams n-6, 2.5 grams n-3) would get well over what is required. And yes cooking with a bit of canola or olive oil oil if our hypothetical still has some hanging in the pantry can go a long way too.
Yes, B-12. Either in fortified cereal, and some oatmeal is, other fortified beverages, or in a vitamin supplement (the only vitamin needed in it).
For protein the cheapest sources (assuming bought in bulk on sale prices) seem to be peanut butter, legumes, eggs, canned tuna, frozen chicken, more or less in that order, ranging from 1.5 to 4 cents a gram. RDA for adult women is 46 grams a day.
Seriously what you describe as what you will be eating sounds like a very healthy diet plan.
Assuming you supplement it with the occasional animal flesh serving (that includes fish) every week or few weeks at a minimum and you do some stir-frying in oil and the like it’s actually not that bad a diet. For most of the past 10,000 years most of humanity didn’t eat as well as that yet they survived.
If your finances really are that constrained do check out things like soup kitchens, food pantries, and the like.
If you are really concerned get a basic generic multi-vitamin. You probably won’t need it, but peace of mind is worth something.
This isn’t as hard to pull off as you think. You can mix it up quite a bit and still afford more than rice and beans. Do you have a Dollar Tree store in your area? I have plenty of money and even I shop for some of my food there. Everything is $1 and much of it is name brand or similar quality. You can just buy a load of things like canned fish, condiments and spices there and save a ton of money (I love their New Orleans spice mix more than just about any others anywhere for example). You can walk out of there with a load of staples that will last a long time for $15 or $20 dollars and then fill in the rest with food of your choice from a regular grocery store.
The big savings from Dollar Tree isn’t from food though, it is from the household cleaners and similar items that cost way more in other stores. Laundry detergent for example is $1 for a large container that can clean 20 - 30 loads of clothes and it costs 90+% less than Tide and does the job just as well. Batteries for casual electronics - same thing, $1 and they will power your remote controls just as well as the most expensive batteries you can buy.
If you want to live on mostly rice and beans and other commodity items, the best way to get a great deal on those is to buy them in bulk from Asian or Hispanic ethnic supermarkets. You can buy huge sacks of both rice and beans for not much money at all if you have one of those around and they will last you for months.
However, if your goal is to save money in general, you have to look at it in a holistic way because food expenditures are only a small part of the typical American’s budget. There are ways to save lots more money by addressing every spending category and that can free up more for food or whatever else you choose. Done correctly, it doesn’t even require any special sacrifice and minimal loss of quality over the more expensive options.
A bit less with some fat sources … but yes, and filling, hence not too many who eat as much of that as they want have too much exess fat.
But (s)he already has a lot of brown rice, beans, and frozen veggies stocked up. It’s a sunk cost. Also some basics in the house.
Really one can eat quite tastily with variations of the veggie/beans/rice spine so long as one has a small creative streak, the ability to riff off of what is cheap that week in the veggie bins, and a half-way decently stocked spice rack. Throw in an occasional can of chopped tomatoes and many other variations open up. Add a pressure cooker or a crock pot (both usually able to be found at garage sales for virtually nothing) to the stir fry pan and seriously, that’s plenty of yum.
I take this to mean that someone who relies on beans and rice as the backbone of their daily diet is significantly less likely to be overweight? I ask because at the moment I’m extremely overweight. In addition to my dietary changes, I’ll be walking a lot on a daily basis: I won’t have a car and I’ll be walking around campus and the city (Portland, OR) every day. Both these things (good diet and exercise) I don’t get now. If my new diet will help… all the better.
In addition to the beans, rice, and oatmeal I’ll have the basics for bread, a fair assortment of spices, a wok with steamer basket, a crock pot, a dutch oven, and other basic kitchen supplies. I’ll also have several pounds each of lentils, quinoa, whole wheat berries, tea, coffee… basically the dry staples. Plus some sauces: soy sauce, hot sauce, teriyaki, mustard, etc.
If I’m reading this thread right, it sounds like as long I get fresh veggies and fruit and a little fish every week, I should be good to go.
If you’re going to base a large part of your diet around beans, lentils, vegetables and rice, I recommend looking at Indian recipes(if you haven’t already). Almost all Indian food uses essentially those ingredients, and while in college I ate lentils/pea soup(dal) cooked with some tadka(oil and spices) as one meal every day for a year. It was ready in 10 minutes(in a pressure cooker), and took under half a minute of my time to prepare.
It’s a pity you don’t like egg, which I think is the most versatile, easiest to cook and most nutritionally complete option available.
What would a McDonald’s burger/cheeseburger (base, 2 oz (?), from the dollar menu do for B12/C/Iron?
It would take care of the caloric issue and the salt - and make the protein a bit more tasty?
It’s cheaper than a dozen eggs, and doesn’t require cooking - just a strong stomach (I can’t finish the Double Cheeseburger, for which I have a craving - hey - it used to be for Big Mac!).
I meant for the calories – it’s hard to beat fast food on a calories-per-dollar basis. 430 cals for the double bacon cheeseburger, 20% DV of iron and some calcium. This page says it has some B12 too. The fries have vitamin C. Sodas are further cheap (though nutritionally devoid) calories.
I don’t think McDonald’s is all that unhealthy for you in moderate quantities, combined with exercise. It’s mostly the excess of calories the people consume, but if you’re desperate for calories, it’s hard to beat meat and sugar.
There is a condition called lathyrism which results from eating a diet of certain species of beans to the exclusion of other nutrients. It causes nerve damage and can be very debilitating.
Given that the OP lists other foods, it may not be an issue in this case. It occurs only in near famine conditions where variety is not an option.
Oatmeal has the micronutrient molybdenum. If you eat the oatmeal with milk, you can get some B12 that way. You can use powdered milk to save money, but for the fat, you might want to go ahead and get 2%. Milk isn’t that expensive if you buy generic. You can look for 1/2 gallons at their sell-by date on sale, and by a couple, and freeze some. but you can usually get a gallon for under $3, and freeze part of it.
A burger would MORE than cover the B12 requirements - humans need only minute quantities and it’s retained for years in the body.
Eating occasional food of animal origin - flesh, milk, eggs, etc. - is all you need to cover the B12 needs (absent a metabolic problem, but pernicious anemia isn’t fixed by diet). The only people who need to be truly concerned are strict vegans. Since the OP apparently eats fish from time to time the OP should be fine on that account.
Although a dollar burger from McDonald’s once a week for someone on the proposed diet wouldn’t hurt, either. It’s not necessary, but it’s not a problem given the overall diet.
Don’t forget the other leg, vegetables, but without question yes, in comparison with the Standard American Diet. And with your off and on handfuls of nuts, cans of tuna/salmon/sardines, tofu, and avocado here and there (which together bump up your protein some more while also increasing the fats generally thought of as “good fats”) … many cardiologists and endocrinologists would kill to have patients eating like that!
Basically, and oversimplifying-ly, it comes down to calories in vs calories out. You must run on a calorie deficit if you want to lose weight, meaning you have to spend more than you eat. If I were you I’d aim for maybe 1600 or 1800 instead of 2000 kcal/day and see how that works after a few weeks. You’ll be hungry a lot, and suffering quite a bit, especially in the beginning… but it’ll get easier in time. You might want to check with your new uni’s health center: many have physicians or even registered dieticians who can assist students with diet and exercise planning for free or for very low cost.
Now, math aside, something especially important in a case like yours is the difference between satiety vs calories. Satiety is the FEELING of fullness you get, independent of the calories or nutrition you’re actually receiving. A piece of chocolate has a lot of calories but won’t make you full. A gallon of diet soda would make you feel very full (for a while) but won’t give you any calories or nutrition. Most food is a balance of the two.
Generally, fats are good at providing satiety, with carbs and proteins somewhat behind them. If you stick to that diet plan (beans, rice, veggies) and add some fats when you can, it should be a pretty filling (satiating) meal because of the sheer volume of food that you’ll be consuming, versus more energy-dense things like candy bars, cheesecake, etc. Brown rice and the fiber and such in everything should help as well, and will hopefully provide some lasting satiety for a few hours after you eat.
The difference in satiety for this diet is just mainly that it takes a lot more physical volume for a bowl of rice and veggies)to provide the same calories that a burger could provide in a thin slab of dense meat. That volume is one of the indicators your body uses to gauge hunger and satiety (but not the only, which is why you can still feel very full after eating/drinking a few tablespoons of oil).
Internationally, actual poor people eat white rice, not brown, because the expense of cooking brown rice is so much greater. Does anyone here wish to comment on the American energy cost of using brown rice?
Inconsequential. In Portland, OR, residential costs 6 cents per kWh. A rice cooker is conveniently about 1000W, and takes about an hour to cook brown rice, maybe a quarter that for white rice. So cooking brown rice once a day would be $1.80 per month versus maybe 45 cents for brown rice. If Lancia can’t afford that, she has bigger problems than whether her rice is hulled.
Edit: Using natural gas (such as a gas stove) would result in similarly small price differences.
However, brown rice does cost a lot more at the store. I’d buy it bulk at Costco or a Hispanic/Asian market if I were her.
Actually protein and high fiber (“complex”) carbs provide the greatest satiety; fat not so much. The major study of this goes back to 1995. That one looked at the impact of servings all 240 calories and created what they called a “satiety index.” (SI)
If interested, here are some details about protein and satiety:
Also discussed in that article is the fact that it protein causes more energy out (diet-induced thermogenesis and energy expenditure).
Food high in fiber’s impact is multifold. Its bulk physically distends, giving a sense of fullness (as you note), and it also is associated with delayed absorption. With regular consumption it also fosters bacteria growth in the gut that digest the fiber into compounds that regulate appetite and satiety such as short chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
Fat OTOH is often associated with low satiety and high palatability/reward or “hedonic value” - i.e. higher fat foods, especially coupled with sweet and salty, trigger the brain’s pleasure centers which get people to keep eating while the brain is also receiving the signals that say the body is no longer hungry at all, or is even quite full.
This hyper-reward value tends not to occur with meal variations off of the veggies-beans-rice base.
Power is included in the rent on my flat, so it is indeed inconsequential.
However, I don’t use a rice cooker, but rather a dutch oven. Brown the rice for a bit in a bit of butter or oil (more fat, I guess. Hadn’t thought about that) add boiling water, cover and let sit on low for 45 minutes or so.
Mix with some roasted leeks, sweet potatoes, and cherry tomatoes… divine.
Also, the veggies, if I roast them, usually have a light coating of oil on them before going in the oven. So, a bit more fat there as well.
