Human
Nutrition for the Hungry:
A 36 Year
Experiment on Least Cost Ration
by Paul VanRaden
© 2023
To hungry people, food is the thing needed most. Millions of people are hungry because they are too poor to buy more food or better quality food. For hungry people, the goal of human nutrition is to get the nutrients they need at the lowest possible cost. When money is very short, good taste is a luxury. Any money that can be saved when buying food can be used for other needs such as housing, clothes, and medicine or other luxuries such as education. Billions of people, mostly in Asia and Africa, still must use half of their income to buy food.
To remind myself of the needs of the hungry, I put myself in their shoes. Each time I go to the grocery store, I buy only those foods that provide me with the most nutrients per dollar. The foods that I eat are called a "least cost ration" by animal scientists. Since 1987, I have eaten only the cheapest foods available with little regard for taste. For the past 36 years, the total cost of my meals, drinks, and snacks always added up to less than $3 per day except when away from home, rare visits to restaurants, or a few leftovers from family members not on the diet. My costs ranged from $2.18 to $2.94 per day as some food prices increased or decreased and my shopping skills improved after years of practice. This year I switched to shopping at Aldi’s which is about 2 miles further but has better prices. In 2023, the cost of my food, drink, and snacks decreased to the current $2.54 for 2,380 calories per day (Table 1).
When buying groceries, poor people should remember one main point. Foods that provide the most calories per dollar usually are the best deals. Among high-energy, low-cost foods, those having more protein, vitamins, or minerals should be selected as a secondary goal (see Table 2). The foods that I buy provide close to the recommended daily intake of most nutrients and average 908 calories per dollar. Several foods such as rice, dried noodles, spaghetti, peanut butter, peanuts, ice cream, and iced tea mix provide >1000. Since 1987, hot dogs and bologna have been the only meats that qualified for my diet and they currently provide 1,215 and 1,041 calories per dollar, respectively. At the grocery store, multiply the calories per serving times the number of servings and then divide by the cost of the item to obtain the calories per dollar (or euro, or yen, or other local currency) in your marketplace. Happy shopping and dining.
The diet helps you avoid both starvation and obesity because the nutrients are so affordable, and the standard meals prevent overeating. For the last 30 years my weight has not increased or decreased by more than 5 pounds from the average of 185 pounds (84 ± 2.5 kg). Breakfast is a rotation between the 2 or 3 cheapest cereals (currently corn flakes, raisin bran, and shredded wheat) with milk and 1/3 cup of apple juice. Lunch is a peanut butter and bologna sandwich every day but was just a bologna sandwich for the first 30 years with peanut butter as an optional snack. Dinner is a 4-day rotation between spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, noodle soup with dried split peas added, or rice and dried split peas topped with a little spaghetti sauce. Each dinner includes one hot dog, 1/3 of a carrot, one glass of tea, and ice cream for dessert. No other drinks or snacks are included except tap water.
Food values and nutrients
Costs, caloric values, and nutrient values are in Table 1 for each food item in the diet. Any shopper can select similar foods and sum up the nutrients directly from the package labels. However, each shopper’s caloric needs may differ depending on age, gender, body size, and activity level. Estimates from USDA are available at:
EstimatedCalorieNeedsPerDayTable.pdf (azureedge.us)
Average adults need about 2,100 calories per day whereas my diet is balanced for about 2,400 calories needed for a 62-year-old male, 6 feet 1 inches (185 cm) tall, weighing 182 pounds (82.6 kg), and averaging 3 hours of vigorous exercise per week. My actual cost of food for 2,380 calories averages $2.54 per day and would convert to $2.24 for a 2,100-calorie diet.
|
Food |
Price $ / package |
Net size (grams) |
Net size (U.S.) |
Servings / package |
Servings / week |
Calories / serving |
Calories / dollar |
|
Rice |
9.99 |
4536 |
10 pounds |
100 |
5 |
160 |
1603 |
|
Dried split peas |
1.49 |
454 |
1 pound |
9 |
2 |
170 |
769 |
|
Macaroni / cheese |
0.99 |
206 |
6 ounce |
3 |
3 |
250 |
758 |
|
Spaghetti |
1.49 |
454 |
1 pound |
8 |
4 |
210 |
1128 |
|
Spaghetti sauce |
1.39 |
680 |
24 ounce |
5 |
3 |
70 |
252 |
|
Dry noodles |
3.68 |
510 |
18 ounce |
24 |
4 |
190 |
1239 |
|
Hot dogs |
1.48 |
425 |
15 ounce |
8 |
7 |
120 |
1215 |
|
Bologna |
1.69 |
454 |
1 pound |
14 |
7 |
110 |
1041 |
|
Wheat bread |
1.69 |
454 |
1 pound |
20 |
14 |
70 |
828 |
|
Margarine |
1.38 |
454 |
1 pound |
32 |
5 |
60 |
1391 |
|
Eggs (large) |
1.10 |
680 |
24 ounce |
12 |
4 |
70 |
764 |
|
Whole milk |
2.62 |
3901 |
1 gallon |
16 |
14 |
150 |
916 |
|
Corn flakes |
1.75 |
510 |
18 ounce |
12 |
6 |
140 |
960 |
|
Raisin bran |
2.15 |
471 |
16.6 ounce |
8 |
4 |
190 |
707 |
|
Shredded wheat |
1.55 |
510 |
18 ounce |
9 |
4 |
210 |
1219 |
|
Ice cream |
2.24 |
792 |
1.5 quart |
9 |
7 |
230 |
844 |
|
Peanut butter |
3.89 |
1130 |
40 ounce |
35 |
7 |
180 |
1620 |
|
Peanuts |
1.95 |
1130 |
40 ounce |
15 |
7 |
180 |
1462 |
|
Carrots |
1.69 |
908 |
2 pounds |
12 |
2 |
36 |
213 |
|
Apple juice |
1.55 |
1890 |
64 ounce |
8 |
4 |
110 |
619 |
|
Iced tea mix |
5.99 |
1870 |
66.1 ounce |
75 |
7 |
100 |
1252 |
|
Multi-vitamin |
20.99 |
150 |
12 ounce |
150 |
4 |
7 |
50 |
|
Average / day1 |
2.94 |
|
|
|
|
2380 |
907 |
1Weighted by number of servings per week for each food
My serving sizes vary a little each day according to appetite even while my food rotation remains constant, like clockwork. A trick to maintain an exact breakfast rotation is to always eat from the cereal box on the left side and returning that box to the right side or, if empty, replace it with a full box. My dinner rotation is listed on a small paper on the kitchen counter. Just before preparing each meal, I move the marker (a small cow) from the previous day’s meal to the next day's meal. That avoids wasting any time remembering what you ate or deciding what to eat. Grocery shopping is also very fast unless prices change, causing a previous, higher cost item to be replaced by a new, cheaper item.
A healthy diet can provide the nutrients you need at a reasonable cost. Table 2 shows that all vitamins and minerals in the diet are close to or above the recommended allowance. In 2023, multi-vitamin pills costing $0.15 each were included to boost my B vitamin intakes close to the 100% recommended. In my 2022 diet, calcium had been only at 74% of recommended because high milk prices reduced my intake. Thus, calcium pills were included to reach 100% of recommended but are no longer required. Your diet might also need vitamin and mineral supplements depending on food prices in your neighborhood and if the foods (such as cereal) are already fortified. My 2023 diet includes only one multi-vitamin every other day instead of the 2 pills per day that the package advised.
Table 2. Nutrients per serving of foods in 2023 and total daily intake as percent of recommended.
|
Food |
Nutrients (g) |
Vitamins1 and minerals2 (% of recommended) |
|||||||||||
|
|
Carb |
Fat |
Protein |
Fiber |
A |
B1 |
B2 |
B3 |
B6 |
C |
Folate |
Ca |
Fe |
|
Rice |
36 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
|
25 |
|
20 |
|
|
45 |
10 |
|
|
Dried peas |
32 |
1 |
11 |
17 |
|
15 |
|
|
20 |
6 |
|||
|
Mac / cheese |
50 |
1.5 |
8 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 |
15 |
|
Spaghetti |
41 |
1 |
7 |
5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
|
|
Spag. sauce |
14 |
1.5 |
2 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
6 |
||
|
Dry noodles |
27 |
7 |
4 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
|
|
Hot dogs |
3 |
10 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 |
2 |
|
Bologna |
4 |
8 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 |
2 |
|
Wheat bread |
13 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
6 |
2 |
6 |
|
20 |
2 |
20 |
4 |
|
|
Margarine |
0 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Eggs (large) |
0 |
2 |
6 |
0 |
1 |
|
|
|
5 |
|
|
2 |
3 |
|
Whole milk |
12 |
8 |
8 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25 |
|
|
Corn flakes |
30 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
50 |
40 |
40 |
40 |
35 |
50 |
|
60 |
|
|
Raisin bran |
48 |
1 |
5 |
7 |
35 |
60 |
50 |
40 |
50 |
90 |
2 |
60 |
|
|
Shred. wheat |
50 |
1 |
5 |
6 |
|
90 |
|
25 |
25 |
15 |
|
50 |
|
|
Ice cream |
21 |
12 |
3 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
2 |
|
Peanutbutter |
8 |
15 |
7 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
2 |
|
Peanuts |
6 |
15 |
7 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
6 |
|
Carrots |
8 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
110 |
7 |
4 |
5 |
7 |
10 |
|
2 |
1 |
|
Apple juice |
29 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
80 |
6 |
6 |
|
Iced tea mix |
18 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Calcium pills |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
26 |
|
|
Multivitamin |
7 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
25 |
|
25 |
|
50 |
25 |
50 |
|
|
|
Total / day |
313 |
91 |
74 |
28 |
159 |
152 |
82 |
103 |
106 |
146 |
173 |
120 |
168 |
1Vitamin: B1 = thiamine, B2 = riboflavin, B3 = niacin, B6 = pyridoxine
2Minerals: Ca = calcium, Fe = Iron
Protein intake recommended for men
is 56 grams per day and the diet provides 74 grams (Table 2). Fiber intake recommended
is 28 grams per day for each 2,000 calories and the diet provides 28 grams but
in a 2,380-calorie diet which is proportionally a little less fiber than USDA recommends:
USDA
Protein Requirements in Grams (sfgate.com)
How much (dietary) fiber should I eat? (usda.gov)
The diet helps you consume less of
earth’s resources, leaving more for others. That is why I have dined on these
foods since 1987. The only imported item in 2023 was apple juice bottled in USA
from concentrate imported from Ukraine. Food is easily available in America and
costs very little, about $2.50 per day. Hundreds of millions of additional
consumers could live and eat here if more of us dine on the VanRaden ration. I
recommend it.
History
Figure 1. Daily food costs 1987-2022 in U.S. dollars as
originally estimated, adjusted to 2,100 calories / day, and adjusted for
inflation.
Costs per day in Figure 1 were calculated from initial estimates of total calories, then costs were standardized to 2,100 calories, and then were adjusted by the consumer price index to today’s dollars. After adjusting for the general inflation rate, the cost of my food is now about half of the cost 36 years ago. Thus, food has become more affordable across time. Enjoy each meal and its nutrients that help make your life healthy and happy.
Food items providing the most nutrients per dollar have been very consistent for 36 years. Most foods in the 1987 diet are also in the 2023 diet. After about 2007 the dinner rotation substituted dried noodles for potatoes. For 34 years the breakfast rotation included 2 or 3 eggs each Sunday, but not in 2022 due to a rapid rise in egg prices; however, eggs are now affordable and back in the diet. Examples of my previous cookbooks from 1987, 2012, and 2017 are in Tables 3, 4, and 5:
Table 3. Foods included in the least cost ration in 1987 and calories provided per dollar.
|
Food |
Price $ / package |
Net size (grams) |
Net size (U.S.) |
Servings / package |
Servings / week |
Calories / serving |
Calories / dollar |
|
Rice |
0.28 |
454 |
1 pounds |
10 |
6 |
160 |
5714 |
|
Macaroni / cheese |
0.39 |
206 |
7.25 ounce |
3 |
3 |
249 |
1923 |
|
Spaghetti |
0.73 |
454 |
1 pound |
8 |
5 |
200 |
2192 |
|
Spaghetti sauce |
2.69 |
737 |
26 ounce |
5 |
5 |
70 |
130 |
|
Hot dogs |
0.99 |
340 |
12 ounce |
8 |
7 |
100 |
808 |
|
Bologna |
1.89 |
454 |
1 pound |
14 |
7 |
80 |
593 |
|
Wheat bread |
0.69 |
454 |
1 pound |
20 |
14 |
80 |
2319 |
|
Margarine |
0.45 |
454 |
1 pound |
32 |
8 |
60 |
4267 |
|
Eggs, extra large |
1.00 |
851 |
30 ounce |
12 |
3 |
78 |
960 |
|
Whole milk |
1.63 |
3901 |
1 gallon |
16 |
16 |
150 |
1472 |
|
Corn flakes |
1.29 |
510 |
18 ounce |
13 |
7 |
150 |
1512 |
|
Raisin bran |
1.85 |
530 |
18.7 ounce |
9 |
7 |
200 |
865 |
|
Peanut butter |
1.87 |
794 |
28 ounce |
14 |
7 |
200 |
1348 |
|
Potatoes |
0.23 |
454 |
1 pound |
1 |
8 |
120 |
522 |
|
Bananas |
0.43 |
454 |
1 pound |
2 |
3 |
100 |
465 |
|
Juice, 10% real |
1.89 |
3780 |
1 pound |
16 |
5 |
80 |
677 |
|
Average / day1 |
2.28 |
|
|
|
|
2215 |
971 |
1Weighted by number of servings per week for each food
Table 4. Foods included in the least cost ration in 2012 and calories provided per dollar.
|
Food |
Price $ / package |
Net size (grams) |
Net size (U.S.) |
Servings / package |
Servings / week |
Calories / serving |
Calories / dollar |
|
Rice |
4.59 |
2268 |
5 pounds |
50 |
5 |
160 |
1743 |
|
Lentils |
1.59 |
454 |
1 pound |
13 |
3 |
120 |
981 |
|
Macaroni / cheese |
1.09 |
206 |
7.25 ounce |
2.5 |
2 |
290 |
665 |
|
Spaghetti |
1.79 |
454 |
1 pound |
8 |
5 |
210 |
939 |
|
Spaghetti sauce |
1.19 |
737 |
26 ounce |
6 |
4 |
60 |
303 |
|
Margarine |
1.00 |
454 |
1 pound |
32 |
4 |
70 |
2240 |
|
Dry noodles |
1.69 |
510 |
18 ounce |
12 |
4 |
190 |
1349 |
|
Hot dogs |
1.09 |
340 |
12 ounce |
8 |
7 |
120 |
881 |
|
Bologna |
1.99 |
454 |
1 pound |
14 |
6 |
80 |
563 |
|
Wheat bread |
2.00 |
624 |
22 ounce |
18 |
12 |
100 |
900 |
|
Oatmeal pies |
1.79 |
459 |
16.2 ounce |
12 |
5 |
170 |
1140 |
|
Whole milk |
3.59 |
3901 |
1 gallon |
16 |
12 |
140 |
624 |
|
Corn flakes |
1.99 |
510 |
18 ounce |
18 |
6 |
100 |
905 |
|
Wheat flakes |
1.99 |
510 |
18 ounce |
17 |
6 |
120 |
1025 |
|
Juice, 10% real |
2.79 |
3780 |
1 gallon |
16 |
5 |
70 |
401 |
|
Ice tea mix |
3.49 |
85 |
3 ounce |
120 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
|
Sugar |
3.29 |
2268 |
5 pounds |
189 |
14 |
45 |
2585 |
|
Peanut butter |
3.69 |
454 |
1 pound |
14 |
7 |
210 |
797 |
|
Banana chips |
3.99 |
425 |
15 ounce |
11 |
5 |
210 |
579 |
|
Carrots |
2.49 |
907 |
2 pounds |
12 |
2 |
30 |
145 |
|
Eggs, large |
1.99 |
680 |
24 ounce |
12 |
2 |
70 |
422 |
|
Ice cream |
3.49 |
792 |
1.5 quart |
12 |
7 |
200 |
688 |
|
Average / day1 |
2.86 |
|
|
|
|
2220 |
776 |
1Weighted by number of servings per week for each food
Table 5. Foods included in the least cost ration in 2017 and calories provided per dollar.
|
Food |
Price $ / package |
Net size (grams) |
Net size (U.S.) |
Servings / package |
Servings / week |
Calories / serving |
Calories / dollar |
|
Rice |
4.99 |
2268 |
5 pounds |
50 |
5 |
160 |
1603 |
|
Lentils |
1.69 |
454 |
1 pound |
8 |
3 |
70 |
330 |
|
Macaroni / cheese |
0.42 |
206 |
7.25 ounce |
3 |
3 |
240 |
1429 |
|
Spaghetti |
1.00 |
454 |
1 pound |
8 |
5 |
200 |
1600 |
|
Spaghetti sauce |
2.50 |
737 |
26 ounce |
10 |
4 |
70 |
280 |
|
Dry noodles |
2.00 |
510 |
18 ounce |
24 |
4 |
190 |
2280 |
|
Hot dogs |
0.89 |
340 |
12 ounce |
8 |
7 |
110 |
989 |
|
Bologna |
1.25 |
454 |
1 pound |
12 |
6 |
70 |
672 |
|
Wheat bread |
1.99 |
454 |
1 pound |
20 |
10 |
80 |
804 |
|
Margarine |
1.25 |
454 |
1 pound |
32 |
4 |
70 |
1792 |
|
Whole milk |
3.39 |
3901 |
1 gallon |
16 |
12 |
150 |
708 |
|
Corn flakes |
1.47 |
510 |
18 ounce |
16 |
7 |
130 |
1415 |
|
Raisin bran |
2.09 |
530 |
18.7 ounce |
9 |
7 |
190 |
818 |
|
Juice, 10% real |
1.89 |
3780 |
1 gallon |
16 |
5 |
80 |
677 |
|
Iced tea mix |
6.99 |
1420 |
50.2 ounce |
80 |
7 |
80 |
916 |
|
Peanut butter |
4.19 |
794 |
28 ounce |
35 |
7 |
200 |
1671 |
|
Carrots |
0.79 |
454 |
1 pound |
5.8 |
2 |
30 |
220 |
|
Eggs, jumbo |
1.99 |
851 |
30 ounce |
12 |
2 |
70 |
422 |
|
Ice cream |
2.39 |
792 |
1.5 quart |
12 |
7 |
180 |
904 |
|
Average / day1 |
2.18 |
|
|
|
|
2070 |
950 |
1Weighted by number of servings per week for each food
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