What's the most limited diet a human thrive on

[DogsnKids]

I was chatting to a friend about our ASD DCs rigid diets and started musing about how few foods you could have and thrive. By which I mean get the necessary vitamins and minerals and protein.

I think you could do it on lentils. Am I wrong?

@DogsnKids

Thinking of 19th century poor

Wasn't the life expectancy for East End working poor less than 40 in the Victorian age?

@NYnewstart

Baked beans have most nutrients including vit c.

I’d always heard baked beans were a “complete food”.

I like mine with Worcestershire sauce on though which would be an issue!

OMG eggs, chips and beans!

Potatoes and oranges are a complete diet

With a bit of butter

But you must eat all parts of the potato for it to be complete

A nutritionist I know says variety of foods is not just about getting all the different nutrients, but also about avoiding “always having the same poisons”
A good example of this would be blue fish.

@LaurieFairyCake

Potatoes and oranges are a complete diet

With a bit of butter

But you must eat all parts of the potato for it to be complete

What about protein?

Potatoes with a side of milk- this is a fact from school ingrained in my mind- you can live a whole life on that diet as it contains everything needed

I know someone in their late 50's that mostly only eats chips, jacket potatoes and cheese. They're slim and healthy, nice skin, hair, teeth etc. No health issues at all.

I reckon jacket potatoes, cheese and baked beans would provide you with all your vital nutrients and would be bloody tasty too.

DS 14 is having eating issues at the moment. The only thing he's deficient in is vitamin D. He literally lives on a few carrot sticks a day.

Jacket spud with beans
Bananas

@Anyonebut There are a lot of good reasons for us to eat a varied diet, no one is denying that. Gut flora for one. But some people seem to manage for a long time on a limited range, anecdotally.

My 6 year old brother would only eat bacon and chips for a year. He’s perfectly healthy now.

Presumably the 'side of milk' taken with the potato can be cheese ? Or butter or cream?

Potato and cheese is literally my favourite food

I absolutely could live on this, particularly if I was allowed a green vegetable too.

@DogsnKids

What about dripping and pease pudding.

Love pease pudding and ham sandwiches

Potatoes and buttermilk/milk. Irish peasants were considered to be the best fed in Europe pre the Great Hunger on the above diet and hence why they were recruited as Navvies.

Yeah ds is 9 has Asd and survives primarily on cereal. He does take vitamins, and will eat small amounts of cheese. Hardly any fruit or veg (do chips count?)
Chicken nuggets, fish fingers sausage roll. Crisps and biscuits. Will not eat meat if it looks like meat. Likes bread. All not good things really. I'm hoping that he might get the courage to try more foods as he gets older, but he hasn't yet.

Based on observation of a couple of friends of mine, a very restricted diet of 98% Weetabix/milk, crisps and orange juice seem to be sufficient to grow and sustain a tall, strong, healthy-looking adult with plenty of energy - whereas a very restricted diet of 60% bacon sandwiches does not produce a healthy adult in any respect!

@EmmaH2022 - significant factors in that were disease and poor housing.

@riverpebbles, of course! It’s just that certain things (not all) could build up certain substances over time, so certain restricted diets could be worse than others for these reasons, even if nutritionally, they cover the same bases.

I find that living with my ASD dc has narrowed my palate rather than broadening theirs 😁

Ds has arfid and I’m in a fb group and it’s amazing how many children when they have blood tests even with being very limited still aren’t in a worrying position nutrient wise. The body obviously does a good job at getting what it needs somehow

According to the BBC list of the most nutritious foods, milk doesn't even make the top 100.

That aside, given that around 65% of the world's humans are known to be lactose intolerant, I don't think milk is something that the majority of humans could ever thrive on.

Also early deaths in the 19th century would have been averaged out by high infant mortality.

I presume cavemen had accidents and got eaten by lions. But they'd have lived on meat and berries

So no one should feel guilty for regularly feeding their child baked potatoes, cheese and beans then, especially if they are reduced salt beans.