Does a Perfect Meal Exist?
While researching micronutrients of the foods I eat regularly, I stumbled upon Nutritiondata.self.com, a website that lets you combine foods into recipes and then provide you with a breakdown of the micronutrients. Being the perfectionist I am, I sat tinkering with this tool trying to create a single day’s meals which would provide me 100% RDA of all micronutrients with a minimal caloric total. The goal was to greatly reduce the number supplements I was taking. I succeeded.
What is this magic meal?
While using any food other than grass-fed beef, it becomes ridiculously hard to get all RDA micronutrients without an ungodly amount of food. Avoiding dairy, gluten, and grains proved to make this task even more difficult. I had to add an avocado mainly for for vitamin E and potassium. Broccoli Raab contributes heavily to calcium and vitamin K. Butter, because I cook with it.
Nutrition Overview
To the left is the daily micronutrient breakdown and nutritional information according to nutriondata.self.com, without spices, salt, etc. With just over 2000 calories, this leaves a lot of room for added calories, especially since the foods are highly anti-inflammatory and very low in carbohydrates. Low protein for my current goals, but as a standard maintenance meal, it should be adequate for everyone. Cholesterol being high is a non-issue as long it is grass-fed beef and butter from grass-fed cows. From my previous butter trials, I know this diet, will raise cholesterol, but keep triglycerides low. This is actually a good thing, as your brain will function better with a higher cholesterol supply and as long as your triglycerides are low, there will be no artery clogging issues… quite the opposite actually.
Macronutrient Ratio
Calories overall are low for a daily amount and those from carbohydrates are predominantly fiber meaning insulin sensitivity and gut health should be in promoted. The majority of calories come from fat, 1186/2006 - 59% not bad. Protein makes up 664/2006 - 33%. This could be higher IMO. Carbs are 157/2006 - 8%. Fine. Overall, this meal gives a great baseline to work off of giving adequate protein, fats, fiber and limited carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates
For a baseline meal, I am comfortable with such low carbohydrates and decent fiber levels. Make a note, glucose should be added on days of intense exercise… with rice, sweet potato, etc… not by much… but still needed.
There is a full amino acid profile. Leucine is low IMO, but whey can boost that up while increasing overall protein intake. Strong arginine, tyrosine, alanine, and a whopping 4 grams of aspartic acid put a big smile on my face. DAA raises testosterone levels.
Fats, Vitamins and Minerals
Choosing Quality Foods
One issue with this meal, is that 24oz of grass-fed beef is pricey, especially at Whole Foods. To save money, try ordering your meat online from U.S. Wellness Meats. They are probably one of the best online suppliers for grass-fed beef and lamb, and you can order lots of things you can’t find at the store like grass-fed liver, kidney, etc.
Organic avocados and raab is really a toss-up and in reality doesn’t matter that much. You never know if organic is really organic… a company can claim to have organic soil as long as pesticides have not been used for 20 years… but pesticides can have a half life of over 100 years… so in that case, organic really doesn’t mean anything. For the avocados, the skin protects from chemicals. Organic avocados are much smaller but contain more vitamins and minerals… think the same stuff, but in a smaller package. So non-0rganic are cheaper and you get more calories for the dollar because they are larger. For the Raab, same deal. Wash your food and be sure you are eating your raab/broccolini with lots of grass-fed butter, olive oil, or MCT oil.
Part 2 will include a breakdown of the workout day micronutrients and commentary.
Great meal! Ever think about only using Kerry Gold grass fed butter? It will add micronutrients and short-chain triglycerides. Also, for increased copper, manganese, selenium, magnesium, and more, unsulfured blackstrap molasses in some water or coffee is great. Maybe some coconut oil in there somewhere for the mct’s?
Absolutely, I cook with coconut oil and butter… kerry gold or other grass-fed varieties. I splash pure MCT over my veggies… I didn’t account for the MCT’s or cooking oil because MCTs are absorbed straight to Ketones, so I’d rather not count those calories since they will not be stored as fat. Great suggestions overall, I havent heard of blackstrap molasses, what is the fructose/sucrose/ make up of it?