This short guide is meant for dudes who are struggling with money, either because of living in a poor area, inflation, still living with parents or for whatever other reason.
1. Eggs
Eggs are by far the best cheap food to eat. They are meant to carry new life of an offspring, hence they contain a wide array of nutrients in abundance.
2. Milk
Preferably whole (3.5% fat content) milk, but if that's too expensive, go for less fatty ones. Milk was originally meant for baby cows to grow into adult cows weighing 500 kilos, it has all nutrients to satiate you. 1 liter of milk here costs no more than 0.7 US$ yet provides:
3. Ground meat
Preferably red meat (beef, pork, lamb, goat etc.) but if that's out of your budget then white meat will do too (turkey, chicken). Red meat is better because it's fattier, providing you with more energy. What type of meat the cheapest varies a lot by region, beef is a lot more affordable in North America than in Europe, where pork among with turkey is the cheapest usually.
Aside from eggs, organs meats should be a staple of your diet. You should forget the modern Western notion that animals are only consumed for their muscle meat. Don't let the rest of the 80% animal go to waste, your ancestors used to eat "nose to tail" - no part was dumped away
Example - a cheap yet nutritious day
As you can see it's a short list, yet these foods cover all your nutritional needs
1. Eggs
Eggs are by far the best cheap food to eat. They are meant to carry new life of an offspring, hence they contain a wide array of nutrients in abundance.
- They are abundant in the highest quality protein - egg's protein content's absorption is the best among natural foods. Only your mother's milk beats it
- They are abundant in saturated fat - essential for optimal hormone levels and at 9.3 kcals / gram, fats provide the most energy out of the macronutrients
- They are abundant in cholesterol - essential for high testosterone level
- They contain a wide range of vitamins and minerals as well, most notably biotin (vitamin B7) but others as well,
For the sake of the example, let's take 20 eggs a day (size M, average weight 58 grams). Where I live (Central Europe) this costs no more than 2.5 US$, yet see all the nutrients 1 160 grams of eggs provide:
1 800 calories, 146 grams of protein, 123 grams of fat and you are already done for the day for half of micronutrients.
If you are short on money, eggs should make up the base of your diet. Buy in bulk, 30 packs or go to farmer's markets where they are usually cheaper than in grocery stores.
2. Milk
Preferably whole (3.5% fat content) milk, but if that's too expensive, go for less fatty ones. Milk was originally meant for baby cows to grow into adult cows weighing 500 kilos, it has all nutrients to satiate you. 1 liter of milk here costs no more than 0.7 US$ yet provides:
- 31 grams of high quality protein (mix of whey and caseine)
- 32 grams of fat for energy
- 48 grams of simple carbohydrates in the form of lactose (milk sugar) - this amount is enough to keep you anabolic for the day yet low enough to keep you lean
- Truckload of calcium
UHT treated milk is usually cheaper than fresh, buy in bulk to save money.
3. Ground meat
Preferably red meat (beef, pork, lamb, goat etc.) but if that's out of your budget then white meat will do too (turkey, chicken). Red meat is better because it's fattier, providing you with more energy. What type of meat the cheapest varies a lot by region, beef is a lot more affordable in North America than in Europe, where pork among with turkey is the cheapest usually.
Ground meat is the least economical choice on this list:
Aside from high quality protein and fat, it doesn't really offer anything. You should still eat it from time to time, but this brings us to the 4th point, eat organs instead for most of the time.
4. Organ meatsAside from eggs, organs meats should be a staple of your diet. You should forget the modern Western notion that animals are only consumed for their muscle meat. Don't let the rest of the 80% animal go to waste, your ancestors used to eat "nose to tail" - no part was dumped away
Liver
Liver is the best food objectively, out of all foods. Not only it has a great amount of nutrients, it's also one of the cheapest. No more than 100 grams of liver contains all of these:
- All the protein content of regular muscle meat
- Lots of cholesterol
- Zinc, iron and copper
- Stupid amount of vitamin A and even some vitamin C
Not bad for only 0.18 US$. However, there's unfortunately a caveat to liver - you cannot eat it too frequently as it has too much vitamin A, which is a fat soluble vitamin that can build up in fatty tissue over time if consumed in excess. Throw in a small amounts of liver few times a week for lots of cheap nutrients.
Heart
Chicken, pork, beef etc. heart is a fantastic food, since it's technically a type of muscle meat, but also an organ, which means A) it has many micronutrients on top of protein B) normies will not eat because it's not quite palatable --> dirt cheap
100 grams of chicken hearts will cost me no more than 0.2 US$ yet provide me with this:
Unlike liver, heart doesn't contain fat soluble vitamins so it can be eaten without limitations. Heart is essentially the blackpilled version of normie muscle meat (like chicken breasts). If you cannot afford ground meat, just substitute it with heart.
Kidney
Kidneys are perhaps the cheapest type of meat at 0.12 US$ / 100 grams:
But unfortunately rightfully so, as no matter how well you prepare them, they will always have at least some amount of... well yes... left over. I recommend them as a resort if you are really short on money and cannot get better
Other organs
I only made seperate paragraphs for liver, heart and kidney, because from my knowledge these are the ones that can be bought in most places, widely avaible. But as I have mentioned the "nose to tail" principle, many other organs you can get your hands on are also fantastic and usually dirt cheap because once again, normies don't eat organs.
- spleen
- tripe
- tongue
- Head cheese
- brain
- testicles
- lungs
- bones - to make collagen rich bone broth
etc., whatever is avaible at your local place
Example - a cheap yet nutritious day
220 grams of protein, 2 500 calories, these should be more than enough for the majority of the populance for less than 3$
Now prices differ in places, but in general these foods are cheap in most parts.
Some notes about nutrients:
- this cheap diet will lead to an unbalanced omega 3 : 6 ratio. Fatty fish (mackerel, herring) and cod liver are the best sources of omega 3, those are more expensive usually but you should still put them into your diet whenever you can
- vitamin K: I used Chronometer to make this and that website works shitty when it comes to vitamin K; animals foods are abundant in vitamin K2 but the website doesn't lists it usually, so don't be scared
- magnesium: you can get the rest of the needed amount from either tap water, mineral water or dirt cheap magnesium tablets
- manganese: I wrote about it in my nutrition guide, copied from there
Tl;dr the RDA for manganese is very likely set too high for reality - vitamin C: the less carbohydrates you consume, the less your vitamin C need. This cheap carnivore diet only has a little amount of carbs, which will not compete with ascorbic acid, read more about it in Vitamins/Water soluble vitamins/Vitamin C:
https://looksmax.org/threads/a-comprehensive-guide-to-essential-nutrients.499467/
As you can see it's a short list, yet these foods cover all your nutritional needs
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