From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Aug 24 2003 - 09:55:28 MDT
On Sun, 24 Aug 2003, Samantha Atkins wrote:
> On Saturday 23 August 2003 06:44, Robbie Lindauer wrote:
> >
> > On the other hand, food bills for a family of four are around
> > $2000/month. By FAR the biggest expenses are Rent/Mortgage and Food.
>
> Huh? I can feed a familly of four 50 meals/month in a restaurant on that kind
> of money! I can and have fed a family of four on $500/month.
Ok, this sounds like a very *interesting* challenge.
Taking the standard diet that the FDA proposes:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/Fpyr/pyramid.html
just *how* inexpensive can one make a healthy diet?
It is not completely necessary to consume all of the required vitamins and
minerals from dietary sources -- one can use supplements. It would be an
extropic project to produce a set of weekly menus with some variety that
have the lowest cost and best "health" perspectives. We could start with
"daily" menus and mix and match contributions from individuals. One would
have to do some math based on the nutrition content of various meals and
prices from grocery receipts but it should not be *that* difficult
given information one is now normally provided with.
My sample calculation: 2500 calories/day / 280 calories/meal = ~9 meals/day.
(based on calorie content of Lean Cuisine "Sweedish Meatballs" dish).
Nine meals per day @ $3.35/meal = ~$904/month. And that is based on
"pre-prepared" meals. (There are some huge problems with salt
content of 9 such meals per day but it provides a frame of reference.)
Interestingly, if we had an "ideal" menu we might discover which
countries really are regulating agricultural imports in such a way
as to drive up prices and support their farm "lobby" at the expense
of the consumers.
Robert
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