
Stigler Diet - vinchuco
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler_diet
======
Houshalter
Here's a story of a guy who used the same method to come up with the optimal
diet for himself:
[https://www.gwern.net/docs/statistics/decision/1990-dantzig....](https://www.gwern.net/docs/statistics/decision/1990-dantzig.pdf)

The first try he ended up with a diet that required 500 gallons of vinegar a
day. There was a mistake in the data that give vinegar 0 weight.

The second try ended up with 200 bouillon cubes per day. He didn't put a limit
on salt content.

Then it gave him 2 pounds of bran per day. And when he put a limit on that, it
changed to two pounds of black molasses. His wife put a stop to it after that.

Optimization is very dangerous when applied in large quantities. The vast
majority of good solutions of any high dimensional problem will end up in
weird edge cases.

~~~
mayoff
And for those who don't know anything else about George Dantzig, the author of
that article:

There's an urban legend about a college student who shows up late for a math
class, sees some problems written on the board, assumes they're homework, and
solves them over the weekend, but it turns out the professor wrote the
problems on the board as examples of open problems in the field.

This urban legend is true, and George Dantzig was the student.

[https://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp](https://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp)

------
CuriouslyC
Ironically, this diet isn't too far off the diet I've formulated for optimal
nutrition, which is based on substantial literature review.

In terms of optimal nutrition, the core of the diet I've come upon is:

* Lentils/split peas - the core of the diet, high in fermentable fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals

* Yogurt - inexpensive source of high quality protein, vitamin d and calcium, the basis for smoothies

* Sauerkraut - cheap, filling, acts as a probiotic which when paired with lentils ensures a lactobacillus dominant microbiome.

* Eggs - cheap source of high quality protein, omega-6 essential fatty acids, vitamin d & e.

* Seeds - mostly chia and hemp, but sunflower and pumpkin are really good as well. These satisfy your omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acid requirements and are loaded with minerals. If you skip out on spinach and buy cheap eggs with low vitamin E content then sunflower seeds are excellent.

I also eat a lot of berries (frozen, in smoothies), whey protein and lean
pork/chicken, though these are less important in my opinion.

An additional health hack that I highly recommend is to consume a lot of
vinegar. The putative health benefits of alcohol are almost certainly due to
its metabolism into acetate. By consuming vinegar directly, you skip the
production of acetaldehyde (which has been linked to DNA damage). My favorite
way to consume vinegar is by pickling vegetables in a vinegar solution, then
using them as garnishes to add flavor to meals.

While I understand many people don't put a lot of stock in anecdotal reports,
this diet paired with a bodybuilder lifestyle keeps me around 220lbs @ ~12%
bodyfat which is quite exceptional considering I'm 6' tall, and naturally
obese if I don't watch my diet.

~~~
ha8o8le
Very cool. I just did a similar exercise also based on a lot of research
(posted it on this thread). Interested in your thoughts.

------
jonbarker
Becoming 'fat adapted' reduces this cost significantly as you can get
approximately 120 fat calories in a tablespoon of high quality coconut or
olive oil for about 10 cents in bulk based on my last trip to costco, and as
long as you supplement that with an inexpensive protein source you can get by
on a very cheap diet. I splurge on high quality veggies simply because we
don't know enough about phytonutrients' effect on health to rule them out.
This in combination with skipping meals (intermittent fasting) causes the food
bill to drop significantly and has some potential health benefits.

------
istorical
If you were to blend the benefits of services like Soylent (nutritionally
balanced meals) and BlueApron (delicious delivered recipes), you arrive at a
service where you pick from a list of healthy ingredients and the service uses
linear programming to build "solutions" aka recipes for meals that balance the
ingredients such that they provide proper nutrition and then provide you with
the list of ingredients to purchase (or ship them directly to you).

Also related: [https://discourse.soylent.com/t/genetic-algorithms-
automatic...](https://discourse.soylent.com/t/genetic-algorithms-automatic-
diy-soylent/5212)

~~~
bitwize
We'll have IBM use Watson to provide the solutions -- call it "Big Iron Chef".

------
ha8o8le
I just did my own version of this diet with a nutrient-dense low-carb
approach.

Ground beef: $3.50/lb = $2.19/day

Sardines: $9.99 for 6 - 4.375 oz = $1.67/can = $1.67/day

Fresh spinach: $3.99/2.5 lb (.35 cents/g) = $.84/day

Eggs: $7.99/ 5 dozen (13.3 cents/egg) = $.40/day

Sunflower seeds: $2.49/lb = $.36/day

Butter: $9.99 for 4lbs = $2.50/lb = $.12 cents/day

Total cost: $5.58/day

This is 1800 calories and is 65% fat, 30% protein, and 5% carbohydrate. I used
[http://nutritiondata.self.com](http://nutritiondata.self.com) to formulate it
and it meets or (far) exceeds every vitamin and mineral requirement except for
only 50% DV of Thiamin (not worried about this).

I basically do a version of this but with more expensive boneless short rib
(very marbled and delicious) and am in perfect shape (you can find evidence
here if you scroll down a bit
[https://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg](https://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg) )

Spreading this menu over 2 meals (one at noon and one at 7:30pm) will give you
a nice intermittent fast. It will also train your body to burn fat instead of
sugar. You will be very full off of only 1800 calories and should lose a lot
of weight.

Disclaimer: I'm not dispensing nutritional advice as I am not a doctor or
dietician. I've just researched this stuff for years and am making the
documentary [http://foodlies.org](http://foodlies.org)

~~~
squarefoot
"Eggs: $7.99/ 5 dozen (13.3 cents/egg) = $.40/day"

Wait, does that mean 3 eggs/day? That would be asking for troubles
(cholesterol).

~~~
ha8o8le
Dietary cholesterol is actually not bad - check out this article for a good
overview [https://chriskresser.com/the-diet-heart-myth-cholesterol-
and...](https://chriskresser.com/the-diet-heart-myth-cholesterol-and-
saturated-fat-are-not-the-enemy/)

Have been researching this for a long time. It was hard for me to believe at
first, but the science is sound.

~~~
hnzix
_> It was hard for me to believe at first_

Nina Teicholz has a lot to say about the garbage state of nutritional science,
the AHA and just how much expensive taxpayer-funded research has been buried
over the past 50 years.

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_kEmYTiHtc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_kEmYTiHtc)

~~~
ha8o8le
I was being coy. I've read Nina's book and heavily researched all of this. I'm
glad you and other people know about this stuff. Let's make this common
knowledge!

------
erickhill
FWIW, when adjusted for inflation, $39.93 (the total annual cost of Stigler's
1939 diet) is approximately equivalent to $712 in 2018 US dollars(1). Still a
paltry sum, though, for a year's worth of food for most people in the US, I
think.

1\.
[http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/](http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/)

~~~
randallsquared
Or delivered on a pallet for about $1000/person-year:
[https://www.costco.com/THRIVE-1-Year-Food-
Storage-31%2C500-S...](https://www.costco.com/THRIVE-1-Year-Food-
Storage-31%2C500-Servings.product.11763436.html)

~~~
itp
Note that that's $1000/person-year for 1300 calories per day, vs. 3000
calories on the Stigler Diet!

~~~
ha8o8le
The diet I created and posted here is only $2,000 per year and includes fresh,
nutritious foods that don't detract from your health like most of those foods
loaded with carbohydrate and sugar would in your example.

Obviously they aren't comparable, I just think it's cool you could live in
perfect health for a year for $2,000

------
burger_moon
For boring but optimized meals for nutrition and cost more people should
really look at what bodybuilders eat. When you're a competitive bodybuilder
every calorie counts and every meal is planned and carefully calculated. Now,
most of you don't need the same volume of food and the protein amount is going
to be higher than what your average sedentary person needs but still provides
a great baseline for getting in the right nutrients and balanced amounts of
fats/carbs/proteins.

------
Camillo
> a moderately active man weighing 154 pounds

> 3,000 Calories

It's really striking how much heavier and how much less active Americans have
become.

~~~
nemo1618
This bit stuck out to me too:

    
    
      I called my doctor and asked him how come the nutritional requirements didn't
      show a limit on the amount of salt? "Isn't too much salt dangerous?" He
      replied that it wasn't necessary; most people had enough sense not to consume
      too much.

------
mpreda
As I started preparing home-made kefir, I realized that full-fat milk has a
balanced protein-fat content, and is rich in some other nutrients.
Fermentation to kefir reduces the lactose content while increasing some of the
good things (vitamins, amino-acids).

In my calculations, about 3L of kefir per day should satisfy the energy and
protein needs of an adult; for under $3/day.

If that'd work, it would be the first complete diet made from only _one_
ingredient!

~~~
pizza
fun fact kefir is like 0.5% alcohol so that amounts to 15 mL of alcohol for 3
L of kefir! Not much at all, but probably adds up combined with other drinks

~~~
mpreda
Now that's what I call a complete meal, the drink included :)

------
petters
Here is a meal from these ingredients by a Google chef: [https://gsuite-
developers.googleblog.com/2014/09/sudoku-line...](https://gsuite-
developers.googleblog.com/2014/09/sudoku-linear-optimization-and-ten-
cent.html?m=1)

> Google Chef Anthony Marco took it as a challenge, and we’re calling the
> result Foie Linéaire à la Stigler

------
nategri
Extremely cool until even the smell of navy beans makes you wretch.

Also, given the generally poor state of even contemporary nutritional science
this strikes me as something akin to a particularly beautiful set of solutions
for a universe in which the luminiferous aether is real.

BUT it is still a really neat optimization problem, and that is likely the
spirit under which it was submitted.

------
crwalker
Bookmarking this for later use. I've always wanted to find a recipe somewhere
between Soylent and Lembas Bread that can be used for long hiking or canoe
trips.

Unfortunately the beans and cabbage hardly sound appetizing for a bread. The
obvious ideas are wheat, nuts, and dried fruits.

Any good resources for this?

~~~
vorpalhex
There's a difference between food good for survival and food that is good for
you.

You can buy modern high calorie food bars that will last ten years and contain
3000 cals in a tiny package, but they're mostly carbs. Again, great for
survival but not something to live off of while on a fun trip in the
backcountry.

I usually pack precooked meats (frozen if needed), dried meats, firm biscuits
or crackers, and some nuts and fruit. Granola and oats are good too of course.

If you have conveyance (a canoe or kayak, an atv, etc) then you can afford to
bring much less dense (and usually better tasting) food.

~~~
eric_h
> If you have conveyance (a canoe or kayak, an atv, etc) then you can afford
> to bring much less dense (and usually better tasting) food.

Can confirm, many years ago went on a canoe trip on the Shenandoah for a week
and we brought about 400lbs total food and equipment per 2 man canoe. We ate
like kings, and mine and my boat-mate's canoe was the only one that didn't
capsize on the trip (everyone had fully waterproof bags, so no one lost
anything, it was just a matter of pride).

------
racer-v
I created a diet optimized for maximum dietary fiber and protein with minimum
calories (optimized separately). Highest fiber/calorie ratio is generally
cruciferous vegetables; highest protein/calorie is fish and chicken (skinless
boneless breast meat). Using these two food groups I can satisfy my
macronutritional requirements on 600 calories/day. I add a multivitamin in
case I missed anything.

Based on these parameters I can judge any food based on whether its fiber and
protein can match (or beat) a linear combination of chicken and broccoli.
Basically if (2F + P) * 20/3 <= C then it's on the diet. This includes non-fat
yogurt, wheat bran, eggplant, and some types of beans.

~~~
CuriouslyC
Not all fiber is equivalent. The fiber in legumes tends to be highly
fermentable, and provide far more in the way of health benefits than the fiber
in vegetables such as broccoli.

Lentils are pretty much nature's perfect food when considering cost, protein
and fiber content. Additionally, lentils are low in methionine. I don't put
much stock in methionine restriction for human longevity, it does work in
rodents, so if you want to be a guinea pig (couldn't resist) they're good in
that respect too.

Eggs are also excellent for their high essential fatty acid content, and this
may sound counter-intuitive but if you eat a lot of beans dietary cholesterol
is actually beneficial. High quality eggs are also a really good source of
vitamins E and D.

Finally, though they're unfortunately not so cheap, hemp seeds provide you
with both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and minerals. A mix of sunflower or
pumpkin seeds and chia seeds works well and is cheaper if you're optimizing
for cost.

The only vitamin that I think is worth supplementing is niacin. Niacin has
been shown to increase BDNF levels in animals which can help with mood and
memory formation, and it has also been shown to increase lifespan by 10-15%.
For people who don't go outside and don't consume much milk vitamin D might
also be a good idea.

~~~
racer-v
> if you eat a lot of beans dietary cholesterol is actually beneficial

Interesting, I have found some references to beans lowering cholesterol but
not this stronger statement?

I've read that the link from dietary cholesterol to body cholesterol levels is
genetically variable, but that there's no test at present for determining
individual risk factors.

~~~
CuriouslyC
An extremely high fiber diet has been shown to negatively impact testosterone
production. Cholesterol is also important for nerve myelination, and high
cholsterol intake has been show to magnify strength gains from resistance
training.

------
blt
it would be interesting to try to constrain / regularize this problem such
that the solution is palatable. User could answer some questions about
ingredient preferences to build approximate set of weights for the LP
objective. Also easy to add some constraints that prevent huge amounts of one
food. Tools to allow the user to "critique" the solution which generate new
constraints or modify the objective.

Also would be interesting to run the same LP over historical ingredient price
datasets and see how the optimal diet changes as ingredient prices fluctuate.

------
jvandonsel
“No one recommends these diets for anyone, let alone everyone.”

But surely there must be some hacker out there who has decided to try it.

~~~
wvlia5
Yes, I did :D

------
mistercow
Huh, I did a similar thing a few years ago with much fewer ingredients to come
up with a low budget diet (I also used multivitamins to fill in the gaps). I
just threw a simple evolutionary approach at the problem, because modern
computers reward laziness.

------
faizshah
I'm sure we could attempt this today with a larger dataset of foods and
nutrients. I know that there's nutritiondata.self.com and the usda's nutrition
database, anyone know of an average price dataset for food?

~~~
ha8o8le
[http://nutritiondata.self.com](http://nutritiondata.self.com) uses the USDA
database.

I made a diet with only 5 foods (plus butter) that is ideal for human health
and weight loss (posted on this thread).

------
evnn
[https://www.completefoods.co/diy/recipes](https://www.completefoods.co/diy/recipes)

------
B1FF_PSUVM
> a 154-pound male

That's so XX century it hurts.

