Readers reply: what are the fewest separate meals you may eat and nonetheless have a wholesome, balanced weight-reduction plan? | Meals

What are the fewest separate meals you may eat and nonetheless have a wholesome, balanced weight-reduction plan? Nancy Bamber, Ottawa

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Readers reply

Pulses. You might in all probability stay fairly healthily for a lot of months on anyone or two of them. Ditto fish. eamonmcc

Fairly so. One can be useless with out a pulse. LlamaInPyjamas

Pot Noodle and Angel Delight, washed down with copious pints of ice-cold weissbeer. moynihan16

I’ve heard that Guinness and sardines in tomato sauce incorporates the entire taking pictures match of nutritional vitamins and vitamins, however it will be a lonely and sadly fragrant life. HarrytheHawk

Positively artichokes. Protein, nutritional vitamins, fibre, minerals. Add butter with lemon for vitamin C and umami. Kira Mango

Within the 80s, once I was a younger mom of 4 under-fives, I learn in Penelope Leach’s glorious guide that beans on toast, an apple and a glass of milk have been a wonderfully balanced weight-reduction plan. On Friday, I taken care of 4 grandchildren aged 5 and beneath and that’s what they’d for tea. DoraMarr

Fish and potatoes. Ask the coastal British, the Portuguese, the north Germans, the French Normans, the Dutch and so on. After all, that’s in the event you actually needed to, which is the thing of the train, isn’t it? Potatoes for practically every thing, fish for the remainder. You’d in all probability need to scrunch the fish bones a bit, in any other case it’s possible you’ll get a bit low on calcium. Nonetheless, a minimum of the poo wouldn’t go white within the solar – or wouldn’t it? bricklayersoption

Potatoes and milk, with an iron complement. Karen Whaley

One egg a day ought to get you thru. All you want is l’oeuf and un oeuf is nearly as good as a feast (though in the event you fancy one thing plant-based, don’t let a pomme de terre you). Mobilepope

Scotch egg – a “substantial meal”, bear in mind? TowellingWolf

Irish espresso. It has the 4 main meals teams: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fats. Abigailgem

As a healthcare skilled, I used to be as soon as frightened by a affected person I noticed who would solely eat Weetabix with entire milk. A dietitian good friend reassured me they might handle on this weight-reduction plan for fairly a while: the cereal provides you carbohydrates and fibre, plus is fortified with nutritional vitamins, and the milk provides you fat and protein. eecherry

My good friend Mike claimed to have lived on oranges and Mars bars in his bachelor days. galrita

Which is why he was a bachelor. RHConnon

Rice and beans. All important amino acids; loads of fibre; nutritional vitamins; carbs for vitality. Many individuals worldwide have this as the premise of their weight-reduction plan. meansardine

After all, what counts as a nutritious diet will rely on the person’s physiology, genetics, psychology and socio-cultural context and desires, but when we have been going to create the minimalist weight-reduction plan to go well with most individuals – a weight-reduction plan with little or no selection can be suboptimal for the microbiome, so maybe not possible to name it utterly wholesome – then one would prioritise fat and protein over carbohydrates, as they’re crucial within the synthesis of all tissue sorts, hormones and nearly all organic molecules, and so they present adequate vitality.

Subsequent can be getting the perfect micronutrients within the densest sources attainable, together with issues reminiscent of choline in egg yolks, which is usually neglected.

I feel it will look one thing like this: eggs with yolks, wild salmon, liver, kale and blueberries. That just about covers all micro and macronutrient wants.

All of the “simply eat this pulse” brigade are lacking out on vitamin B12, fats and an entire set of amino acids, to say the least. I feel they’re conflating “wholesome and balanced” with “low cost and vegan”. BenjiFM

Plain yoghurt! Or different sources of probiotics – sauerkraut, kimchi. Synthesises B nutritional vitamins and vitamin Ok. Most likely crucial single meals one can eat. G

Three meals: oatmeal, blueberries and candy potatoes. Rebecca Willis

Corn. Squash. Beans. That’s it. Barred0wl

Darkish bread, tomatoes, milk. Christine Hricovsky

The one single foodstuff that’s utterly nutritionally balanced for people is human milk. CaressOfSteel

It’s solely nutritionally balanced for infants. ShadyAsh