Saturday, March 14, 2020

turd world peasant food


TURD WORLD PEASANT FOOD
I've written on this previously, but felt perhaps it couldn't hurt to revisit it in light of the next great depression, coming 90% unemployment and other such trials and tribulations. To be clear, this isn't a survival stockpile food storage plan, but rather the cheapest way to shop at the grocery store when money is tight. Your diet is going to be starch. At its worse, 95% starch and 5% oil. If you are slightly better off, 90% starch, 5% fat and 5% protein. I've experienced an even worse diet than this and did fine.
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Actually, it might have been better, health wise, but it was worse as far as variety. I lived a month just on potatoes and margarine, when unemployed. Of course, margarine nowadays is wretched swill. It has almost no oil and is no longer cheap. I would NOT recommend that. You are better off with some other crap oil like liquid soy or shortening. Very bad for you, so I'd try for the best oil you can get. But of course, you'll do what you can with what you have. And it will depend on how long you must keep up this diet. The longer it is, the better the oil I'd try to use.
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I've gone a week at a time with other single foods, always when unemployed. The stress of that took a lot of stress off of the crap I was eating. But I can tell you, a diet of white foods, even just for a week, is a REALLY good diet tool. When I ate just white rice or Top Ramen that week, my body fat took a nose dive. That crap is filler only. It is a Haitian mud pie. Try to do whatever, to avoid just eating a single White food ( white rice, white flour-which includes pasta, white instant potatoes, white sugar ). If that is all you have, at least it is calories. That will get you to the last in line for the stew pot. But it is sub-optimal.
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When you are looking at a calorie chart, white flour and whole wheat flour are the same. And if you eat a lot of other foods, JUST eating white flour only matters as far as lack of fiber. BUT! If you are getting most of your calories from white flour, your body will be able to tell the difference. White will NOT satisfy. It won't stick to your ribs, nor will it produce energy you can use. I've tried all of this, people. I'm my own guinea pig. A few days, no big deal. But this diet, long term? You will be screwing yourself.
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Here's a story for you I got from YouTube. I knew this already, from our just discussed book “King Rat” following prisoners of war, but perhaps this one will stick in your mind better. Before WWII, the Japanese military had problems with its troops becoming malnourished and sick. It took awhile to figure out why. The naval personnel were studied, with their beri-beri. Conscripts were peasant farmers, who were used to eating brown rice. When they joined up, they had unlimited access to as much WHITE rice as they could eat ( which stores much longer, having no oils ).
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They thought they were pigs in slop, as white rice was a delicacy. The equivalent of Wonder Bread rather than a half burnt lump of whole wheat bread that is dense, chewy and made you feel like a masticating cow. Hell, you barely have to chew Wonder, it just dissolves and slides right down. But here is the thing. They got all the calories they wanted, BUT, they had to pay for anything other than rice, out of their own pocket. You can't do that with eighteen year old's who grew up in poverty. They piss away all their money.
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So, the enlisted ranks were constantly getting sick, so sick they couldn't work. This was a military readiness issue. One doctor finally figured out that while brown rice had protein, white did not. They needed protein. The tight assed admirals finally realized a tiny bit of funds to better rations kept 20-50% of the troops out of sick bay. And no, the military doesn't care at all about you today. They are no more enlightened. They are just protecting their investment in training.
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All of the above is to illustrate that while you can eat cheap foods, you need to eat the RIGHT cheap foods. Potatoes will go a LONG way satisfying your protein needs. I didn't crave meat on my potato diet. But, I did it wrong by just eating one food. The potato is ALMOST the perfect food, containing all but some vitamins and minerals ( and no fat ). Fry up a potato, and get a dark green veggie, and you pretty much can survive on just that. I won't dwell on Taste Fatigue, other than to remind you that it is an overblown problem. BUT. If you do have a choice to avoid it, by all means do so. It will help tampering stress.
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For myself, the ideal butt poor diet would be potatoes, whole wheat flour and white rice. I love whole wheat. My body craves it, especially since I started grinding my own ( and keeping the flour in the fridge-the oils and vitamins on fresh ground give your body what it needs ). I prefer potatoes to other starches besides wheat. Rice, I'm not crazy about. But I can eat SOME. If I only ate ONE of the above, I would get tired of it, real quick. It took me five years before I ate another potato after my month diet of them, not even eating french fries which I consider food from the gods.
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I haven't liked rice since I ate nothing but for a week, over thirty years ago. A twelve pack of Top Ramen will last me a year, now, after eating those for a week twenty-five years ago. I can eat whole wheat every single day, but after about 25% of my calories from that not only am I over that taste wise, I get a hefty case of running to the crapper. As I said, taste fatigue is NOT real, not for poor people. Only spoiled Americans. But it IS real, until we have no choice but to accept it. Eat three different foods a day, to avoid this. Not ONE, like I did, but three. Learn from my mistake. Better nutritiously and better psychologically.
Continued tomorrow ( teaser-$20 a month grocery bill )
( .Y. )
( today's related Amazon link click HERE )
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note: Sam, and L.S. in VA, got your snail mail.  Crazy day, busy as a one armed paper hanger.  I'll reply soonest-thanks
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note: totally by accident, but here is a grocery trip report to go along with the above.  I went shopping yesterday.  Not because I had to but because I felt I still could ( although we'll know for sure in 28 days- LOL ).  I couldn't even spend $200.  There was barely any food.  If it wasn't a snack food, or a condiment, it was pretty much out at Wally.  No one was on that side of the store, hardly.  Kroger was starting to get Wally overflow and will look like them very shortly.  And this was a week after most folks payday ( no restock from the initial panic buying ).  Wally did have plenty of frozen, but ALL the dry goods except the above really took a giant hit.  
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note: continued from above.  I mostly just bought luxury goods.  Coffee ( they had plenty-foolish customers! ), Masa flour for variety.  Flavored diet water for the bidet bottles.  Taco seasoning, jello, whole wheat crackers, gum for the NOL, sugar and butter just because a few were left.  Comfort/luxury foods mostly.  At Kroger, they still had flour although it is probably already gone by now.  Cans of enchilada sauce, chicken soup, soy sauce, last of the lentils. They were wiped out of Top Ramen except the soy flavor, which sounded good to me.  I bought two cases.
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note: continued.  I went to the feed store and wheat was still $11 a fifty pound sack.  I would have gotten more but lack storage containers.  This was just for daily eating anyway.  Now, for sure, except for produce, I have no reason to go grocery shopping again unless stores by a miracle restock.  I can't see how they can all do so, with this kind of hit. I hope I am wrong.  So, potatoes and whole wheat are still well stocked.  I would have to pick something besides rice, if I didn't want to dip into my stockpile.  If you must still shop, go to the less frequented stores that sell at higher prices.  You might still have a chance at getting dry/can goods.  But do it NOW! End babbling.  
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23 comments:

  1. “The potato is ALMOST the perfect food, containing all but some vitamins and minerals. Fry up a potato, and get a dark green veggie, and you pretty much can survive on just that.”



    Well, actually, turnips are the near perfect food. And you can kill two birds with one stone, by considering the following. In addition to the nutrient dense, high carb tuber portion, you also have the nutrient dense greens. In fact, some people grow turnips just for the nutritional greens. Turnips are one of those foods that were looked down upon by the upper classes, and were thought of as nothing more than animal fodder in times past. Farmers actually grew large amounts, and wintered their animals over with them, by storing them in cellars. I do believe that there is also a way to preserve them for longer periods, by leaving them in the ground, and further covering them over lightly with earth. But the details escape me at the moment.

    And growing turnips is easier than a budding starlet, getting high-er up in hollyweird, with a little help from her friendstein. :D

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  2. Right. I am trying to build up a lot more spices and seasoning items. I am hording more of the powdered gravy mixes as well. My favorite is tony cachere green cardboard shaker of spicy times seasoning. Yum. It will help when basicly everything becomes hobo stew of what nots thrown in a pot. I envision pigeon, cat, dog, rodent, long pork donner party types of cuts, etc as mainstay rations post collapse. Seasonings and even those commercial jugs of MSG flavorings will make the difference.

    And a morning report from Vegas as well. Stores are being stripped as is everywhere. The leos need to get on a tactical schedule to staff up now, and national guards had best be roll calling and issuing out weapons and ammo as well. Not that a lowly Minionite would know anything about these things. Stay Frosty, really.....

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    1. Just waiting on the Great Grape Soda Riots Of 2020. Any day now. Popcorn?

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    2. Rural King is the god of inexpensive spices. Big plastic bottles for a dollar. For gravy: put a 2 big spoonfuls of flour in a DRY frying pan and keep it moving with a wooden spoon, don't take your eyes off it. When it gets to the proper browness, stir in a cup of water. Crush up a beef bouilion cube and stir that in there. Stir in some sage, dehydrated minced onion, some dehydrated minced chives, pepper. Once you get the recipe right you'll be able to make your own gravy and not have to rely on the packets that have trash you don't need in them. Do the same for chicken gravy but don't brown the flour so long and use chicken boullion. Remember, corn starch will thicken up loose gravy asap. Lastly, if you have real meat drippings Bob's your uncle.

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    3. I only bother with gravy if I use the drippings. But, the NOL has as sensitive of a gall bladder as I do a stomach, so we stick with packets.

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  3. Another local Beer flu update.
    Volusia county just declared a state of emergency...
    Yeah , with a hundred thousand Harley freaks in Daytona right now. A little late eh ?
    Still no reports here in Brevard...x

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    1. It must pay the gov to be a day late and a dollar short

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  4. Roughly 30 years ago the wife and I went through a rough financial spot that left us with pretty much nothing but eggs, bread, potatoes and Top Ramen for about 3 months. To this day I have not been able to eat Top Ramen, I dont even store it for emergencies. Oddly, I never stopped eating any of those other things, and still do to this day.

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    1. Why do I store Ramen ( half dozen cases-nothing extreme )? It will taste good by the time I get tired of the other staples. Otherwise, yeah, blech.

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    2. I like Ramen, but then I don;t have any horror stories about it either. Know what I like better than Ramen? Those little tubs of oriental noodles that are single serve in a variety of flavors. Just pour in a cup of boiling water, re-lid, wait. I had one this afternoon. I like the spicy ones. I usually dump some mixed dehydrated vegs in with them. Once, I combined 2 diff packs in a larger container. One was hot n spicy and the other was Kung Pao with kimchi. Jayziss. I almost went blind. And couldn't blow a load for 3 days! That was the worst part. But dam that shit was good.

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    3. Hell, I can't even handle mild salsa anymore-battery acid on the tummy

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  5. Ominous news at http://www.woodpilereport.com/

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    Replies
    1. What am I looking at here? Is it the wife passing?

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  6. The Thurston and Lovey Howell prep pantry:

    50 lbs Progresso Italian bread crumbs
    100 lbs tenderized chicken and veal cutlets
    12 cases farm eggs
    1000 lbs of linguine
    20 liters extra virgin olive oil
    10 lbs fresh basil and oregano
    2 cases red Muscato
    15 lbs parmigiana cheese
    20 lbs Stella d’ Oro anisette toast

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  7. I believe so.
    I think this is the 2nd time he's been down this road.

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  8. Stopped by the local Walmart just to people watch. I have never seen the shelves so empty!

    Went to a local/regional store to do my shopping and stock up on the St. Paddy's Day loss leader on potatoes (bought 50 pounds to top off what was already in the root cellar). Cashier said that the TP on the shelf was it for a while -- supplier was out.

    Idaho Homesteader

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  9. beri-beri is caused by vitamin b1 (thiamine) deficiency, as well as the wernicke-korsakoff idiocy in alcoholics.

    protein deficit causes kwashiorkor/hunger edema: malnourished africans with grotesque water bellies.

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  10. King Dingo gave a live press conference today (Sunday). He nearly lost it, nearly started crying. We're f***ked.

    My family think it's all a nothing burger. There's fights breaking out at the shops over food.

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    1. The gov will power up the Replicators to restock the shelves. Don't be too hard on your family for their progressive thinking. Just remember that you cannot beat them with a stick thicker than your thumb.

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    2. And I agree we are hosed. How can you ever hope to restock to a previous level, nationwide? I hope I'm overlooking something, but I think we will see the elephant shortly.

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