£10.00 per week for food Help please

Doom_and_Gloom

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Whilst you may be correct about the friend only being able to afford a vegan-style diet, your plan looks to be deficient in several nutrients. At a guess, fat and possibly total calories as a result, essential fatty acids, total protein and probably individual amino acids, calcium and vitamin B12. If the OP is going to attempt a vegan diet I'd suggest a book from the library.

One of the cheapest and most nutritious food to add into a plan such as the one above is pilchards canned in tomato sauce (65p for 425g) - you can get four to six meals out of one can, an excellent source of protein, essential fats, calcium and B12. I wouldn't waste money on white rice or potatoes as these are pretty much 'empty' carbs, switch for dried pulses which will supply carbs, protein, fibre and minerals.

HTH.

The yellow split peas (a legume) with rice/potato are complete protien. Some countries can only afford this as their protien source and do very well on it. You could also use the bread you buy/make (that I also said he could get) in the morning (or any other time) with some of the split peas as a kind of beans on toast.
Potatoes also contain a useful amount of iron if the skin/peel is left on - 1.8mg per 100g so for a man would contain

B12 would be achieved by the milk or soya milk they buy that I haven't added on but said he could buy and would also add to calcium quite a lot (250ml of basic soya milk has 300mg of calcium needs and all of your daily B12 and a 1L carton costs 60p). As an added bonus it naturally contains omega 3 and 6!

If he managed to buy a lot of the food reduced to give himself more money left over I would say get blackstrap molasses (although it can be rather expencive) as it contains high amounts of iron (over 2mg/tablespoon) and calcium (around 117mg/tablespoon) and can be used with water to make a sweet-ish drink.

A guy only needs 8mg of iron (less than a woman) and calcium needs are around 800mg I believe. However a guy also needs 1,800 calories at least(600 more than a females lowest :eek:).

Startches such as rice, potato bread are very good in the diet and help to add to the calorie content in ones diet. 75g of rice (dry weight, so enough for a portion) contains around 270 calories. 200g of potato should do a portion and contains just over 150 calories and as stated are a good source of iron.

Breakfast of porridge (100g of oats) would contain around 385 calories so a good start to the day and contains 4mg of iron in one go!

Lunch - 150 calories for 200g of potatoes
- 40 calories for 100g of carrots
- 85 calories for 100g of sweetcorn
= 275 calories

Dinner
Curry - 59 calories for 50g split peas
- 140 calories for half a jar of curry sauce
- 80 calories for 200g of onion
- 39 calories for half tin of tomatoes
- 40 calories for 100g of carrots
- 270 calories for the rice
= 628 calories

Hrm it is low in calories for a male yes at 1288 calories. Shows you I'm used to doing meals for woman as I am one . There again he could always use some of the extra money that I haven't used up to get the extra 512 calories that is missing above. Also it would be a vegetarian menu as the curry sauce contains milk! However as most people will tell you a vegetarian diet is A LOT cheaper than an omnivorous one. It may be lacking in things for a while but once you have the basics built up it would equal out and wouldn't.