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What was the joke again…
“Humans can survive off a diet consisting of potatoes and butter, as demonstrated by a years long case study commonly known as Ireland”
Something along those lines.
Think it's important to point out that they didn't do that by choice.
If you could only have one food, potatoes would be a good choice.
yikes, scurvy much?
try brocolli and eggs
Potatoes are A ok against scurvy (unlike eggs alone who can come along for the ride though, because hash brown and fried eggs, yum)
Potato
I've often heard repeated that a human can live on water, potatoes, and salted butter basically indefinitely.
Not sure how true, but seems plausible.
"beriberi" is malnutrition: it means literally "i cannot".
You become .. not very able to do what you need to do, to survive, on this kind of diet, fairly quickly.
Does Soylent count as 1 item?
god I miss Soylent. Cooking/eating is a huge burden for me (depressed and lazy) so I drank the heck out of Soylent when I was in the US. Now in Japan the only thing close is Calorie Mate and it's not nearly as good/nutritious. :(
Listen, taco bell has maybe 10-15 ingredients and has an infinite menu item…
I pretty much live off energy drinks and rice rn.
My dude, do you need some easy recipes? That can't be good for your mental health.
No.
I need money to be able to afford better food.
Energy drinks are expensive, health and money.
Redbull and Monster are expensive. Venom and Unbound Energy are less than a dollar.
A 32 oz bag of dried beans is $2. A 2 lb bag of carrots, also $2. Cook these together and you have a ton of meals
Too bad I only have $3. Cooking my rice in Unbound Energy instead of water.
Monster's not terrible if you buy it in bulk. You can get it for around a dollar per can from places like Costco.
Redbull idk - that stuff tastes like ass imo, so l never paid much attention to price. ...for the record, most Monster tastes like shit too, but there's a few gems in the Ultra line.
Egg-bread & scrambled-eggs ( with a multivitamin every other day ) can get you FAR, ultra-cheap ( if you ever need to get through a month on nearly-nothing ).
( obviously this isn't long-term, this is short-term-survival stuff )
add-in carrots, if you can.
A bit of broccoli makes a BIG difference in one's health.
Do what you can to get some omega-3's into you: our bodies can't make them, & if our bodies have to make omega-6's & omega-9's, apparently they just run mitochondria backwards, to do it.
Even a tablespoon of olive-oil / day will help your body keep functioning.
oatmeal, rice, beans, tomatoes, spices, broccoli. each of those foods is truly non-negotiable for me and without one life is not worth living. thanks.
For real, steak.
Its the ultimate elimination diet
Beef is very nutrient dense and contains all the nutrients a human needs
The carnivore diet is a thing, and it is just: beef, water and salt.
Most people who do this, do branch out after a while and add eggs, fish, liver etc
I'd be worried about purines. A diet of pure steak would likely lead to an insane case of gout, which is a buildup of uric acid crystals in your joints... which ranks pretty high on the list of excruciatingly painful things you can be diagnosed with.
Eggs and potatoes?
Potatoes, butter, salt, molybdenum.
I love food way too much it's probably like 15 to 20.
spoiler
- soya milk
- one type of cereal
- lets count uncooked eggs as 1 food type because i get to process them into any type i want
- dairy free butter
- olive oil
- rapeseed oil
- salt
- pepper
- pork ham
- chicken
- onions
- peas
- spinach
- sweet potatoes
- normal potatoes (i can now fabricate various flavours of crisps, yippee!)
- sultanas
- bananas
- tea OR coffee! Toss-up between the two.
- carrots
- wheat flour
- rice
- tomatoes
- pasta (some limit to what I'm willing to make myself)
- sourdough bread
- soya yoghurt
- apples
- oranges
- strawberries 28... i'm gonna stop listing stuff before I sound like a fat ass
Breastmilk should be enough. Just difficult to source.
Not if you have enough money.
Gasoline has all the calories you need to survive for the rest of your life.
Any mushroom is edible...once.
Just one, I guess. As long as I don't have to survive for very long
Chicken, broccoli, coffee, cream, cashews, olive oil, some cheese and spices, blueberries. That's 95% of my diet right now, and for the past four years or so.
Could I "survive" on less? Of, course. Do I want to? No. But, I may need to in the future.
I am not going to say "blood" because I don't want any to discover I am a vampire ha so I will say sliced meat between bred, butter on various hot objects and various vegetables/fruits depending on the time of day.
I don't have the expertise to answer the question, but I'm sad that so many answers here are jokes, or five word answers that aren't at all helpful :-(
Was really interested in this and hoped there'd be some knowledgeable people out there to educate us on this stuff!
With enough body fat, sprinkle in a bit of electrolyte and maybe vitamins and that's all you need.
I remember reading of a supervised case like that, many months, if not a year. I couldn't find it with a quick search.
I'm pretty sure I read/saw a more recent case. But this serves as a good source/proof too. Thanks
I know this is Lemmy and all, but, uh, beans.
Peanut butter, jelly, bread.
But if I'm doing it healthy, then add eggs, spinach, blueberries, yogurt.
That doesn't sound like a very good sandwich.
I read once that a person could survive indefinitely on potatoes and milk.
It's true. Add oats and eggs, and they can thrive.
I wouldn't thrive without pizza. That's my only one need.
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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