My low-demand, worry-free, and healthy diet

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I moved to the US 2 months ago and I’m pretty sure that I finally figured out food (tm). I thought my setup might be helpful to other people, so I’m sharing it here.

I find this diet very tasty and I believe it to be extremely healthy. Plus:

  1. It’s just $19/day.
  2. It requires less than 10 minutes/day for cooking and cleaning up.
  3. All of the meals are extremely convenient to consume at my desk while I keep working.
  4. I spend 0 time choosing which food to buy.

I should note that I don’t really care about food in the bigger picture and am mostly annoyed by it. Therefore I minimize annoyance as much possible. (although I love sugar to the point where I am forbidden by my wife from eating anything sweet most of the year, as I cannot control myself and gradually start eating only snickers if allowed)

So, my diet is:

  1. Muesli with kefir and Athletic Greens “superfood” powder for breakfast/brunch (920-1241 kcal)
    • Muesli ingredients: oats, raisins, almonds, flax seeds, cashews, pumkin seeds.
    • Kefir ingredients (may vary between producers slightly): pasteurized whole milk, pectin, various yeast and bacterial cultures.
    • Athletic Greens ingredients: vitamins and minerals, superfood complex, dairy free probiotics, plant extracts and antioxidants, enzyme and mushroom complex. Details: https://athleticgreens.com/ingredients/en.
  2. MealSquares for lunch, dinner, snacks (1200-1600 kcal)
    • MealSquares ingredients: whole grain oats, eggs, milk, dark chocolate chips (chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, milkfat), whey, orange juice, rice bran, sunflower seeds, dates, sweet potatoes, apples, vegetable glycerin, chickpeas, carrots, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, xanthan gum, sunflower lecithin, xylitol, iodized sea salt, potassium citrate, cinnamon, aluminum free baking powder, Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), Vitamin D3, Vitamin K2, niacinamide (B3), calcium folinate, lactase, spices.

In terms of macro nutrients, this diet ends up having approximately (for 2500 kcal):

Reasoning here is roughly is as follows: I love muesli with kefir for breakfast, while MealSquares seem to actually have everything one needs for proper nutrition. Just in case, since vegetables are lindy, I will add good green powder (which is probably actually healthier than normal vegetables that lose most of their nutrition after being plucked and before being eaten), to make sure that I have enough vegetables in my diet.

A Google Sheet with all of the details about exact food I eat, links, and explanations of calculations is embeded below or can be viewed here.

If you think this diet is bad or unhealthy in some way, please email me at alexey@newscience.org or leave a comment here.

FAQ/Notes are after the spreadsheet.

FAQ/Notes

Q: Why not just eat or drink Soylent?

A: Soylent drinks/bars end up costing almost exactly as much as MealSquares but with Soylent I would be worrying whether Soy Protein Isolate, Maltodextrin, and seed oils – the three main components of Soylent – are any good for me and whether simply mixing isolated ingredients and vitamins ends up missing some “unknown uknowns” of food. Three main components of MealSquares, in contrast, are whole grain oats, eggs, and milk. Also Soylent drink doesn’t feel very good while Soylent squares leave a weird aftertaste.

Q: What kitchen equipment is required?

A: I use a $19 Nicewell kitchen scale to make sure I eat 150-200 grams of muesli and 450-600 grams of kefir. I also use a $22 dry food dispenser for muesli, which makes getting muesli extremely easy. You’ll also need a fridge to store kefir and MealSquares.

Q: Why buy the super expensive Athletic Greens when there are endless “superfood” powders on Amazon for 1/3-1/2 of the price?

A: I read a lot of reviews of all kinds of other powders and I couldn’t get myself to the point where I could trust any of them 100%. Some had issues with consistency. Some were magnetic (???). Some had weird ingredients. Most tasted like shit. Since I want to minimize my worry, I figured that simply buying the most expensive powder that brags about its clean production, is specifically endorsed by Tim Ferriss as one of the very few supplements he uses, has a bunch of weird but cool-sounding shit in it that other powders do not usually have, and tastes good when I add it to my muesli while being stored in individual packets, is worth extra $50-80/month. Plus I literally no longer worry about not eating enough fruit and vegetables of course.

Q: How do you feel on this diet?

A: I really like the taste of both muesli with kefir and Athletic Greens and of MealSquares and I feel great about eating exclusively them. When I eat poorly I get bloated and constipated. No such issues with this diet.

Q: What the hell is up with kefir?

You can use milk instead of kefir, decreasing the cost per day by about $2. I prefer kefir because I like its taste better and because due to its creaminess I don’t need to worry about it spilling/splashing when I carry it around and eat (unrelated: I think that “lowfat” dairy is a scam and avoid it in favor of whole milk as much as possible).

Q: What if I’m not in the US?

MealSquares are only delivered to the US at the moment 😪 Athletic Greens have worldwide delivery. Local muesli and kefir should be available everywhere.