Looking for a Perfect Food - Nutritional, Portable, Storable

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Ok, I'm tired of thinking about food. I hate wondering what to eat tomorrow. I hate grocery shopping. I hate preparing food. I'm not even a big fan of eating food. This causes a dilemma for me because I understand that my body needs nutrition and a variety of foods to eat. Additionally, I'm a very active individual and need energy to meet my physical goals in life.

I'm asking for some assistance in developing (for myself, no commercial enterprise here, however I do think there's a market for it) a 'meal' that would meet the following goals.

1. Will be used as entire caloric intake. Meaning I plan on eating this 'meal' for every meal and snack of the day. I do not want anything else to enter my mouth besides water.

2. Needs to have between 30-40% Carbs, 15-25% fats, 35-55% protein.

3. Needs to be able to be pre-prepared in bulk and then stored in the fridge/freezer.

4. Does not have to resemble food. I'd be happy with a 'paste' that met these needs. For those of you familiar with 'The Matrix' there is a paste that they eat in the movie that gives their bodies everything they need. I want that.

5. Should have a low calorie per gram of food ratio.

6. Taste/Smell are not important, but should be tolerable (not induce vomiting Very Happy

)

7. Should use natural ingredients wherever possible.

That's pretty much it. I understand that I'm asking for something really strange. I understand that people will think I'm crazy. I understand all of that. Thank you in advance for these comments, but I'm really just interested in advancing this idea of mine.

Any thoughts?

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@maporsche,

You should read in "Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan and you will understand why your idea will not work. Of course, the people who invented Ensure will tell you they have the perfect answer to you dilemma.

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@Green Witch,

Thanks GW, I'll check it out.

I do currently use a product called Myoplex which is a meal replacement shake. It does give a lot of nutrients. I don't use this shake for every meal, because it does lack veggies/fruits and I'm sure quite a bit more.

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@maporsche,

You might want to look into "space food":

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/living/spacefood/index.html

You can even buy some of the stuff, or find recipes for them.

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@Green Witch,

As I read the reviews of this book I realize maybe I didn't make my goals clear.

I have no problem eating real food. I guess what I'm looking for is a recipie that uses real food and sort of blends all of them together in one "meet all nutritional needs" meal/shake.

If it's as simple as throwing a bunch of veggies, fruits, meat, nuts, etc into a blender and hitting puree then great, I'll start doing that.

I'm not looking for a processed food per se, although I'm not entirely opposed to it, just something for that will make sure that I never have to wonder "what's for dinner" or "where do I want to eat tonight".

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@maporsche,

Quinoa. Has all the amino acids, you could live off the stuff, storable, easy to cook, light, cheap, tastes great.

Throw in assorted veg/fruits whatever to mix it up.

Don't know if it meets your nutritional reqs. exactly, but it's great stuff, really recommend it. One thing that is nice is that you can cook a huge batch, put 'em in small containers in the fridge for up to a week or so and it still tastes great re-heated or even cold.

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Thanks Cyclops...never heard of this stuff. I'll have to check it out in more detail, but it looks like the type of stuff I'm talking about.

Doesn't meet all my needs, but I'm sure I could add some stuff to it to make it work.

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@maporsche,

Pollan talks about the importance of eating a diverse diet, that is why I recommended it. It is not possible to be healthy and eat the same handful of foods day in and day out. Even in tribal cultures diets vary greatly due to season and availability. Mono diets can lead to specific health problems and the body's inability to absorb nutrients.

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@Green Witch,

Gotcha, that makes more sense.

But what if I took the diversity you're speaking of and added it all to one mixture.

For example, say I took every type of vegetable at my super market and figured out how much of each type a person should eat in a given week and then blended it all together. Wouldn't that be about the same thing?

Not disagreeing with you; just trying to learn.

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Dog food.

They've put a lot of work into finding a diet that will support a large mammal.

1 Reply

@maporsche,

maporsche wrote:

Gotcha, that makes more sense.

But what if I took the diversity you're speaking of and added it all to one mixture.

For example, say I took every type of vegetable at my super market and figured out how much of each type a person should eat in a given week and then blended it all together. Wouldn't that be about the same thing?

Not disagreeing with you; just trying to learn.

make sure you see which veg are better cooked; with some of them, you can't access a lot of the nutrients without applying some heat and breaking down barriers.

It sounds like you need the Dilberito -

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/DilBeriTO.jpg

Scott Adams felt the same way as you, didn't want to mess about with cooking or anything. Just everything healthy in one package.

Cycloptichorn

0 Replies

I believe you want soup.

It can be made in pretty much any proportion. Some sort of protein, veg and carbs, all together. Blend some but not all of it as otherwise it's not very pleasant, texturally. And watch the salt. But chicken, a mess o' veggies and some sort of grain (and quinoa would be fabulous) could fit the bill. Easy to freeze in single-serve sizes, too.

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@DrewDad,

I wish dog food met all of my nutritional needs drewdad.

That's almost exactly what I'm looking for though. Why doesn't something like this exist for people?

2 Replies

@maporsche,

maporsche wrote:

I wish dog food met all of my nutritional needs drewdad.

That's almost exactly what I'm looking for though. Why doesn't something like this exist for people?

Truthfully, we are more complex than dogs and evolved eating a much more varied diet. Hard to fit all that in a single can!

Here -

http://evsh.net/why-cant-we-make-bachelor-chow-a-reality

Cycloptichorn

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Found something called the 'Prison Loaf'...looks interesting.

http://www.slate.com/id/2075999/

1 Reply

And Survival tabs...although this doesn't seem too nutritious, but it is something I'll buy and add to my home emergency kit.

http://dehydrated-food.net/tabs.html

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@maporsche,

maporsche wrote:

I wish dog food met all of my nutritional needs drewdad.

That's almost exactly what I'm looking for though. Why doesn't something like this exist for people?

soylent green.

the suggestion for quinoa is excellent.

One thing though, it doesn't taste like much by itself. Sometimes I'll saute onions, then add water, bring to a boil and add the quinoa and fresh or canned tomatoes.

Actually, what could do is fry the onions, add brocolli, a yellow vegetable, some tomatoes, some olive oil, beets, green beans, peppers, whatever you want, and cook with the quinoa.

For those that don't know, quinoa is a complete protein.

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make up a weeks worth of food on sunday, and run it through a blender

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or, if you think that's too much prep, go to the store and buy as many frozen dinner as will fit in your freezer.

There some really good Indian food out there, and any other cuisne you can think of. I'm not talking Hot Pockets, but some realy good wholesome food.

Sure you'd have to go to the store, but you could just to one area and get it all done.

1 Reply

@chai2,

I'd do that, but there's too much sodium in frozen foods.

I like the idea of quinoa as a base and adding in a full variety of fruits/veggies and maybe even some chicken/fish and blending it all together. I'll probably throw in some beans and some nuts as well.

I'll package it into 500 calorie packages, and eat/drink 5/6 a day.

I'll work on a recipe today/tomorrow and post it for feedback.

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Looking for a Perfect Food - Nutritional, Portable, Storable

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