The Nonlinear Library EA - Diet that is vegan, frugal, time-efficient, ~evidence-based and ascetic: An example of a non-Huel EA diet? by Ulrik Horn
Feb 6, 2024
10:30
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TL;DR
I am posting this as I think the diet I am following might be suited to perhaps at least a few other EAs, especially those that are looking for a somewhat "optimized" diet while being hesitant about Huel. My diet aims to be vegan, affordable, evidence-based, time-efficient and is quite ascetic. The intersection of these criteria seems close to EA and also different from how most people think about their diet. Therefore, I thought perhaps posting this might be helpful for some EAs who have thought very little about this but would like to learn about more optimal diets.
Moreover, I am interested in feedback from others who have done other or more research and come to other/supplemental findings - what am I missing? I have no expertise in dietary sciences and also have not done deep research as explained in the section on methodology.
This post/diet might not be for you if you:
Require novelty in your food (i.e. not eating the same handful of different items week after week)
Derive a lot of well-being from eating good-tasting food (my diet is not unappetizing but it does require the consumer not to derive much life satisfaction from frequently eating good-tasting food)
To keep this post short I will describe the diet briefly so please ask clarifying questions in the comments.
A reason to be skeptical of Huel is that the evidence is lacking. As far as I understand, the only diet with considerable evidence is the Mediterranean diet as a whole. This is why, as I explain below, I am trying to make my diet as conformant as possible with the Mediterranean diet.
The diet itself
The diet consists of the following items and quantities. Note that this is a daily average, I do not consume all items every day. Instead, I aim to consume them all over a week such that the daily average ends up close to the following:
Then some notes on how to make this more time-efficient/ascetic:
Once a week I lightly (5-7 minutes) steam 4-5 crowns of broccoli, blend with olive oil and keep in the fridge to be eaten over 5 days (2 days a week are without vegetables due to my concerns about extended fridge life of this puree) during a week. I find high-powered blenders required to properly cut the stems.
The legumes are just the canned type and I just drain, rinse and eat out of the box.
Based on whether I think I need more carbs or more proteins, I change the proportions of the following and eat as much as possible after having consumed the other items:
The legumes
Oats, wheat/spelt and rice. I pick whatever is most convenient in terms of "form factor" such as pasta, bread or just plain cooked rice. I usually just dip bread in olive oil, or sprinkle olive oil on top of the rice). Sometimes I sprinkle some chili, squeeze some lemon and sprinkle some soy sauce and olive oil on top of rice or pasta - I guess I am not a complete ascetic haha
My analysis indicates I might be short on vitamin D and B12 from the above, so I take these daily as supplements. I also take algal omega 3 in the form of DHA and EPA as the diet lacks in this (I think it only contains the ALA form that is much less bioavailable and the Mediterranean diet includes a lot of fish) and this is somewhat likely to be important for both short-term and long-term well-being
I also consume some fruit (perhaps equivalent to 5 oranges a week). Nutritionally, this is perhaps not strictly needed according to the calcs below, but as I am inspired by the Mediterranean diet and I am sure most people in those studies ate some fruit, I eat whatever and whenever convenient.
Please note that the choice of items above is based on analysis as explained below. There ...
TL;DR
I am posting this as I think the diet I am following might be suited to perhaps at least a few other EAs, especially those that are looking for a somewhat "optimized" diet while being hesitant about Huel. My diet aims to be vegan, affordable, evidence-based, time-efficient and is quite ascetic. The intersection of these criteria seems close to EA and also different from how most people think about their diet. Therefore, I thought perhaps posting this might be helpful for some EAs who have thought very little about this but would like to learn about more optimal diets.
Moreover, I am interested in feedback from others who have done other or more research and come to other/supplemental findings - what am I missing? I have no expertise in dietary sciences and also have not done deep research as explained in the section on methodology.
This post/diet might not be for you if you:
Require novelty in your food (i.e. not eating the same handful of different items week after week)
Derive a lot of well-being from eating good-tasting food (my diet is not unappetizing but it does require the consumer not to derive much life satisfaction from frequently eating good-tasting food)
To keep this post short I will describe the diet briefly so please ask clarifying questions in the comments.
A reason to be skeptical of Huel is that the evidence is lacking. As far as I understand, the only diet with considerable evidence is the Mediterranean diet as a whole. This is why, as I explain below, I am trying to make my diet as conformant as possible with the Mediterranean diet.
The diet itself
The diet consists of the following items and quantities. Note that this is a daily average, I do not consume all items every day. Instead, I aim to consume them all over a week such that the daily average ends up close to the following:
Then some notes on how to make this more time-efficient/ascetic:
Once a week I lightly (5-7 minutes) steam 4-5 crowns of broccoli, blend with olive oil and keep in the fridge to be eaten over 5 days (2 days a week are without vegetables due to my concerns about extended fridge life of this puree) during a week. I find high-powered blenders required to properly cut the stems.
The legumes are just the canned type and I just drain, rinse and eat out of the box.
Based on whether I think I need more carbs or more proteins, I change the proportions of the following and eat as much as possible after having consumed the other items:
The legumes
Oats, wheat/spelt and rice. I pick whatever is most convenient in terms of "form factor" such as pasta, bread or just plain cooked rice. I usually just dip bread in olive oil, or sprinkle olive oil on top of the rice). Sometimes I sprinkle some chili, squeeze some lemon and sprinkle some soy sauce and olive oil on top of rice or pasta - I guess I am not a complete ascetic haha
My analysis indicates I might be short on vitamin D and B12 from the above, so I take these daily as supplements. I also take algal omega 3 in the form of DHA and EPA as the diet lacks in this (I think it only contains the ALA form that is much less bioavailable and the Mediterranean diet includes a lot of fish) and this is somewhat likely to be important for both short-term and long-term well-being
I also consume some fruit (perhaps equivalent to 5 oranges a week). Nutritionally, this is perhaps not strictly needed according to the calcs below, but as I am inspired by the Mediterranean diet and I am sure most people in those studies ate some fruit, I eat whatever and whenever convenient.
Please note that the choice of items above is based on analysis as explained below. There ...