Seeking nutritionists and foodhackers...

[dante]

Is it possible to create a single bowl of food that:

1) Is 1200-1400 calories.
2) Vegetarian (Eggs, Fish, No meat).
3) Contains all your vitamins and minerals -- all of which comes from food - no multivitamins supplements.  Also important is not too much of each vitamin to throw everything else off.
4) Helps keep the balance of good/bad bacteria.
5) Even though I've stated it should fit in a bowl it should not be a huge bowl - something that will not tax the stomach.
6) Carbs are fine as long as there nutritional balance.

I'm serious about this ... I'm considering creating a contest out of this and awarding a cash prize for the best solution / taste (doesn't have to be tasty, bland is acceptable.)

[Tym]

Would it have to be vegetables? What about a heavy smoothie? Or something that you blended?

[jakkdl]

http://soylent.me

They are closing in on shipping within the US to backers. I'm super excited!

[iri]

http://soylent.me

They are closing in on shipping within the US to backers. I'm super excited!

LOL
best application: backup food in case of disaster

[CPTBadAss]

Take this recipe and alter it to fit your needs: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/01/poulets-sumo-wrestler-stew-chankonabe.html

[iri]

Take this recipe and alter it to fit your needs: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/01/poulets-sumo-wrestler-stew-chankonabe.html

replace chicken thighs with what?

[hcry4]

Maybe r/vegetarian could possibly provide an answer to this?

[SpAmRaY]

Take this recipe and alter it to fit your needs: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/01/poulets-sumo-wrestler-stew-chankonabe.html

replace chicken thighs with what?

If chickens come from eggs and chickens eat a vegetarian diet then chicken must be a vegetable.

[CPTBadAss]

Take this recipe and alter it to fit your needs: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/01/poulets-sumo-wrestler-stew-chankonabe.html

replace chicken thighs with what?

Fish or more tofu. Just double up on the proteins that dante finds acceptable.

[jakkdl]

http://soylent.me

They are closing in on shipping within the US to backers. I'm super excited!

LOL
best application: backup food in case of disaster

Best application is to not have to make food, do the dishes or buy groceries every single day! Eating proper food is good and all, but not worth the effort to do all the time. 

[iri]

http://soylent.me

They are closing in on shipping within the US to backers. I'm super excited!

LOL
best application: backup food in case of disaster

Best application is to not have to make food, do the dishes or buy groceries every single day! Eating proper food is good and all, but not worth the effort to do all the time. 

are you an american living in sweden?

[Malphas]

The answer is no.

Edit: Also, Soylent is garbage.

[iri]

Take this recipe and alter it to fit your needs: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/01/poulets-sumo-wrestler-stew-chankonabe.html

replace chicken thighs with what?

Fish or more tofu. Just double up on the proteins that dante finds acceptable.

I would vote for tuna or salmon.

[Malphas]

A more elaborate answer is that if you forego the vegetarian criteria then it's probably do-able if you include a small variety of the most nutrient packed foods there are. So if you have a bowl of liver, sardines, eggs, mackerel, kale, spinach, avocado, olives, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, coconut oil, maybe some oats then you'd have the best chance of meeting your goal.

[dante]

Would it have to be vegetables? What about a heavy smoothie? Or something that you blended?

Smoothie/Blended would be acceptable.

I've been following soylent for quite a while - and there are things to like about it.  While I agree whole foods/vegetables are the best - there is no way of knowing how many nutrients are remaining in them by time they hit the supermarket.

I was just curious if there were special/uncommon fermented foods/etc that I was unaware of that can be assembled in such a way to give you everything you need in a single bowl.  I hear KimChi and/or Sauerkraut is quite nutritious but it's too high in sodium for me.

I've been spending quite a large amount of time on Cronometer analyzing various permutations of food to try to create a balanced diet.  The closest I've come to nirvana was 8 eggs + 36-48oz of Broccoli gives you everything you need; but that's way too much food.

[Malphas]

Eggs and broccoli won't give you everything you need except in the most minimal possible sense. I doubt Cronometer gives you proper breakdown of amino acids and fatty acids, and instead uses terms like "protein" and "saturated fats" which only give you a vague idea of the actual content of the food. Same with vitamins, "vitamix [x ]" doesn't tell you the proper chemical name for the compound in the food, and the same vitamin can come in multiple forms. For instance vitamin A can come from retinol in foods like liver, which the human body can actually make use of, or as carotene in foods like carrots, which has to be converted in the body and is far less efficient.

[dante]

Here is what I'm trying to achieve.  It's mostly in Korean with some Japanese but is subtitled in English.

[Malphas]

The general concept of this isn't difficult; you could easily get more nutrition from a single meal than the average person's diet considering how poor modern diets are with regard to nutrient density, but it doesn't really work with vegetarianism which relies more on grazing habits since the food tends me be less calorie dense, and really could use supplementation.

I misread your original post though where you said you permitted eggs and fish - I read it as the inverse. In that case if you take the list I mentioned earlier, you'd be doing pretty well. Liver really is superior in importance to everything else on the list collectively though (except oily fish maybe), so it would be worth making that one exception to include it.

Also trying to put all of this into one bowl is going to be ****ing gross. It's probably possible to make a fairly decent tasting meal if you were to split it up into courses or sides though.

[dante]

I misread your original post though where you said you permitted eggs and fish - I read it as the inverse. In that case if you take the list I mentioned earlier, you'd be doing pretty well. Liver really is superior in importance to everything else on the list collectively though (except oily fish maybe), so it would be worth making that one exception to include it.

I love beef liver and tongue - probably more than the rest of the animal!  However I've avoided liver specifically because of the toxicity of the nutrients.  Even 4oz of Beef Liver has an insane amount of Vitamin A and Copper: way more than some over-loaded MultiVitamins.  It could work if I only added a few grams.  Obviously if I were to implement this I would stick with grass fed/finished liver.

Also trying to put all of this into one bowl is going to be ****ing gross. It's probably possible to make a fairly decent tasting meal if you were to split it up into courses or sides though.

After thinking about it some more I think I would agree.  It would probably be better to have 1-2 main items on a dish with a small number of side dishes.

[Malphas]

Conversely I hate liver but include one serving per week in my diet precisely because of the nutrient density.

[ferociousfingerings]

what about portioning and frequency considerations?

Are you trying to reduce your frequency to one meal a day, by trying to put everything you need in that one meal?

Or are you planning to make this one "bowl" contain enough servings for one whole day worth of "meals?"

[dante]

what about portioning and frequency considerations?

Are you trying to reduce your frequency to one meal a day, by trying to put everything you need in that one meal?

Or are you planning to make this one "bowl" contain enough servings for one whole day worth of "meals?"

This bowl can be a plate - basically 1 meal per day - as small as possible while maintaining nutritional requirements.

[ferociousfingerings]

okay... but isn't that going to mess up your metabolism, eating only once per day? And, is it even possible for the body to achieve 100% efficiency in nutrient uptake?

If it were me, i'd want to execute a single food making session, but eat from it several times per day, to ensure that my metabolism stays higher.

I'd think if you're going with one meal a day, you'd want to figure out your body's nutrient uptake efficiency, and then make something "more nutritious" to compensate for what the body will pass instead of using (edit: or, if, for example, your body can only use 50% of the nutrients in the potent feed, you'd have to eat that 100% nutrient mixture twice per day, to ensure 100% nutrition).

Or, is this more of a "eat whatever whenever, but also have one sure-thing meal full of adequate nutrients?"

[digi]

okay... but isn't that going to mess up your metabolism, eating only once per day? And, is it even possible for the body to achieve 100% efficiency in nutrient uptake?

If it were me, i'd want to execute a single food making session, but eat from it several times per day, to ensure that my metabolism stays higher.

I'd think if you're going with one meal a day, you'd want to figure out your body's nutrient uptake efficiency, and then make something "more nutritious" to compensate for what the body will pass instead of using.

Or, is this more of a "eat whatever whenever, but also have one sure-thing meal full of adequate nutrients?"

This ^ Eat throughout the day, eat more protein than you think you need, no saturated fats, fast food or soda. Hit the weights like a man-beast. Mix your protein with beer, it's some next level ****. You might have to work your way up to that

[Malphas]

Awful advice, digi. Saturated fats are good for you, and people already eat more protein than they need, not that it hurts to have more, but it's unnecessary.

Also, I presume dante has specifically chosen a one feeding a day approach for a reason, rather than it simply being an oversight, and has already taken things like metabolism into consideration. It's basically the same kind of argument as the ones for intermittent fasting - not something I personally believe has a great deal of evidence to support yet, but it's a fairly respectable line of thought.

[biochem]

Its going to be hard to reconcile all of the goals in the original post because some of them are contradictory.  For instance, to achieve an optimal balance of good/bad bacteria one should eat only plants (strict vegan diet).  But a vegan diet risks not getting enough of some vitamins (B12 in particular). 

Personally, I'm a vegan and just take a multivitamin for the peace of mind knowing that I don't have to worry about micronutrients and vitamins.

[digi]

Awful advice, digi. Saturated fats are good for you, and people already eat more protein than they need, not that it hurts to have more, but it's unnecessary.

Also, I presume dante has specifically chosen a one feeding a day approach for a reason, rather than it simply being an oversight, and has already taken things like metabolism into consideration. It's basically the same kind of argument as the ones for intermittent fasting - not something I personally believe has a great deal of evidence to support yet, but it's a fairly respectable line of thought.

I stand corrected, I should have added that you need to shotgun the beer and face-plant into your brotein like Scarface into blow. Exercise should be discarded as well.