What is the most useful food ever?

maxx

eggs.  one of natures most perfect food @Barnardot

MayCaesar

Of all the foods I know, beans are the best at supplying all the necessary nutrients. Beans are the only food I know which you can eat exclusively pretty much forever and still stay somewhat healthy: it is not a fun diet, but it works. Especially if it is canned beans with some nutritious additives.

Here is a fun video about a guy who lived for 40 days on canned beans alone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYsTlfhDSDY

That said, one food is too limiting. If you make it three foods, then you can come up with multiple fairly healthy diets. For example, beans + rice + peanuts together contain virtually everything your body needs. In fact, eating only these at home will already put you into the 20% healthy eaters on the West or so.

As an experiment, I once followed a very simple diet for 2 months: for the first month I only ate oatmeal, peanuts and milk, and I added boiled eggs on the second month. Felt absolutely incredible, lost the little unhealthy weight I had, was focused and motivated to work hard and exercise daily. It was a very boring diet, but it is a great one for anyone who eats a lot of junk food and wants to stop doing that. After this diet you gain a new appreciation for other healthy foods, and the junk food is not even on your radar. And this diet also saves you a TON of money: oatmeal, eggs and milk are dirt cheap, and peanuts you can get on Amazon in bulk at a low price as well.

maxx

the reason i qupoted eggs, is because they contain b-12. a needed nutriet for the body.  as you said, one food would be hard, however eggs are a strong quality staple. if three foods, i would take beans as well, and potatoes. potatoes have more vitamin c than oranges.  most peanut butter has too much salt; and of course, the peanut is actually a bean anyway.  @MayCaesar

Swolliw

@Barnardot @maxx @MayCaeser
I reckon you couldn't go past bananas. Chances are that if you were stranded on an island, the source of your food would be banana palms so that you would have plentiful fresh food packed with vitamins and minerals.

And, here's a bonus. I saw a YouTube video of a scientist who extracted pure potassium from bananas, especially from the skins, by reducing the elements down through stages of burning. There was only one chemical added to form a precipitate which was some sort of carbonate as I recall which I reckon you would find in rocks. Anyway, with the potassium, you could heave a great lump of it into the sea. The resulting violent combustion would attract a passing ship and you would be rescued.
Worth thinking about? And let's face it, burnt rice is nothing much to write home about, especially the smell and cleaning the pot afterwards.

JoeKerr

@Swolliw

Yes indeed, bananas do it for me. Plenty of nutrition and they even come in their own wrapper.

maxx

  the body needs certain amino acids that it can only get by foods; as well as vitamin b 12. another thing banans lack is protein. again, all in all; eggs would be a much better choice.Egg Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits (verywellfit.com)  @JoeKerr ; @ swolliw 

piloteer

@Barnardot

Human meat. Humans need all the same nutrients, so our bodies take in all the same nutrients. Therefore, human meat would already have all the nutrients I need. I went a month just eating that and I never felt better. Beans are a close second though.    

ZeusAres42

piloteer said:

@Barnardot

Human meat. Humans need all the same nutrients, so our bodies take in all the same nutrients. Therefore, human meat would already have all the nutrients I need. I went a month just eating that and I never felt better. Beans are a close second though.    

@piloteer

And what about eating human brains? I mean weren't ancient hominids doing just that?

piloteer

ZeusAres42 said:

piloteer said:

@Barnardot

Human meat. Humans need all the same nutrients, so our bodies take in all the same nutrients. Therefore, human meat would already have all the nutrients I need. I went a month just eating that and I never felt better. Beans are a close second though.    

@piloteer

And what about eating human brains? I mean weren't ancient hominids doing just that?

If they were, I wasn't aware of that until now. The brain would be one of the most nutritious parts of the body. If we were caught on an island and the only meat we had was fish, we'd run the risk of getting "protein poisoning" (otherwise known as scurvy). Eating only lean meat with no fatty tissue will kill you. The brain/heart/liver, and all the other organs provide all the healthy fats we need to survive.      

ZeusAres42

@piloteer

ZeusAres42 said:

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@piloteer

And what about eating human brains? I mean weren't ancient hominids doing just that?

If they were, I wasn't aware of that until now. The brain would be one of the most nutritious parts of the body. If we were caught on an island and the only meat we had was fish, we'd run the risk of getting "protein poisoning" (otherwise known as scurvy). Eating only lean meat with no fatty tissue will kill you. The brain/heart/liver, and all the other organs provide all the healthy fats we need to survive.      

Actually IDK about human brains but these guys were definitely eating brains regularly. I came by this after recently listing to an audiobook called the biological mind by Dr. Alan Jassanoff and one of the first chapters was about this. I was also currently eating my dinner as I did this. I was not impressed lol.

Swolliw

@maxx

again, all in all; eggs would be a much better choice.

I think you have won this one, there probably is no other better (natural) complete food. Although, thinking about it now, if I were smarter I would have gone for one of those jars of complete food mixes that athletes and body-builders use. Can one live on a deserted island living only on processed food? 

ZeusAres42

@piloteer

Interesting though as Dr. Alan Janasoff makes a good point about how lots of us tend to think that eating a brain is somehow severely savage and yet we wouldn't even bat an eyelid with other organs.

piloteer

@ZeusAres42

I actually learned about protein poisoning from Les Stroud. If you think about it, much of what survivorman teaches us has to do with our diets. He says that if we find ourselves lost in the woods for days and somehow catch a small rodent or squirrel, we should most definitely not ignore the brains and internal organs because we need those nutrients. You can also get fatty acids from bone marrow also. I hope you're not about to dig in to dinner right now. I can see how this might ruin a meal.     

piloteer

Swolliw said:

@maxx

again, all in all; eggs would be a much better choice.

I think you have won this one, there probably is no other better (natural) complete food. Although, thinking about it now, if I were smarter I would have gone for one of those jars of complete food mixes that athletes and body-builders use. Can one live on a deserted island living only on processed food? 

I'm not sure why we would need to be stranded on an island to pick a food item that we think is the most nutritious. I mean, if I choose kiwi fruit, but there happens to be plenty of coconuts and fish on the island I'm stranded on, does that mean I must still keep within my dietary restrictions of nothing accept kiwis? 

piloteer

Barnardot said:

If your stranded on a desserted island and you have only one food what would you have?

i think that rice is the best because people eat it ever day anyway and it won’t go off and it will keep you alive because it’s good for you.

It would have to be brown rice though. White rice has virtually no nutritional value. White rice and bleached flour do not fit the proper nutritional value criteria for it to be considered a food by the FDA, so vitamins are added to them so they can have at least some nutritional value to them.  

Barnardot

So how many of your family is left now?@piloteer

Barnardot

@piloteer ;dietary restrictions of nothing accept kiwis? 

Your a worry with eating people. What makes kiwis more nutritious than Chinese?

maxx

i guesss it depends upon the duration of being on the island. if forever, even eggs would  not be a complete choice.  they would have to be eaten raw, because cooking destroys all ensymes and our body needs them from raw foods, those the body can not produce for itself. those drinkd that body builders use are basically ok but not a meal replacement, for the body also needs bulk in which a drink does not have. potatoes is a good choice for a second food if eaten raw
 @Swolliw