10 Foods I Couldn’t Live Without
If you had to subsist on ten foods for the rest of your life, which ten would you choose? That was essentially the question posed to me by a reader email. In it, Jamie made an elaborate setup: having been chosen to man a mission to Mars in the near future, I have to program my Food Machine for the trip. The Food Machine is a wondrous piece of technology that can create any Earth-based food from scratch, but the catch is that it can only store ten “recipes” and the programming has to take place before we leave. Once I’m up in the shuttle, I can’t change my mind. I’ll have to live with these foods for ten years (and maybe longer – who knows how things will go down). More than simply survive, I’ll have to thrive on these foods. I’ll have to get all the essential vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, so I had better get it right.
It was hard to choose. Obviously, it’s just a thought experiment, but I really tried to balance flavor/pleasure and nutritional completeness. Sticking to Primal foods, this usually takes care of itself, but, well, it’s ten years.
1. Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon with Extra Thick Skin
To me, skin-on sockeye salmon gives you two foods in one. The flesh is great stuff, no doubt – flaky, delicate, delicious – but the skin is perfection. Crispy sockeye skin is like bacon of the sea, and yet people avoid it. I don’t understand why. I go crazy for the stuff. In fact, I’m never one to eat off of others’ plates, except when skin-on salmon is served. People eat around it, they scrape the meat off, they push it aside so it hangs off the plate, forgotten. But not by me. I will eat your salmon skin if you don’t appreciate it. So, yeah. Endless amounts of salmon skin bacon? Sure, I’ll brave the red planet for that.
Salmon takes care of selenium and omega-3s, and it gets me part of the way there for vitamin D. The skin is particularly fatty and nutrient-rich.
2. Bone-In Grass-Fed Cowboy Ribeye
Nothing can replace the basic human urge to eat the occasional massive slab of animal except actually eating a big massive slab of animal, and the bone handle that comes attached to the cowboy ribeye is perfect for low-gravity situations.
It’s a great source of quality animal fat (including a modest amount of omega-3s), protein, B-vitamins, and – because the “grass” the cow “fed” on “grew” in nutrient-dense soil – minerals.
3. Grass-Fed Butter
The rich golden goodness of butter is tough to beat, and I can slather it on just about anything. For the fatty acid profile (including CLA), vitamin A, vitamin K2, and omega-3s, grass-fed butter makes the cut. But let’s be honest. This is mostly about the taste: the creaminess, the richness and the mouth-feel that satisfies like nothing else.
4. Broccoli
I need my cruciferous fix, and broccoli is that fix. The absorbent tops do a decent job of soaking up meat juice, sauce, and butter.
5. Blackberries
A good blackberry is good. I mean, who doesn’t like biting into a plump one and feeling all those tiny bulbs explode, releasing their juices into your mouth. Because they’re so physically imposing compared to the other berries, I can eat blackberries one at a time and be totally satisfied, whereas with really good blueberries or raspberries I find myself shoveling them in.
Blackberries are good sources of soluble fiber (gut flora food), vitamin C, and deliciousness.
6. Pasture-Raised Eggs
It came down between grass-fed lamb liver (see Honorable Mentions below) and eggs, and eggs won out. Poached, fried, baked, scrambled, hard-boiled, and even raw at times, I love eggs just about any way they’re served. And hey, they pack a healthy dose of selenium, iodine, phosphorus, molybdenum, choline, lutein, vitamins A, B2, B5, B12, E, D and K. Add to this 5.5 grams of protein per egg and essential fatty acids, and you’ve got yourself a delicious and decadent powerhouse food.
7. Spinach
Spinach offers calcium and magnesium in spades, pairs well with meat of any kind, can be sauteed, steamed, thrown into soups, or eaten raw, and provides roughage when I’m into that sort of thing.
While there’s some concern over excessive consumption of oxalates in spinach leading to kidney stones, I won’t be eating it exclusively nor in massive quantities. I can’t say the same for the vegetarian dude who gets stuck with me as a crew member.
8. Okinawan Sweet Potatoes
I’ve really grown enamored of these purple beauties. Best of all, using the Food Machine means I won’t have to settle for those light lavender-ish “purple” yams I sometimes get at the Asian markets. Instead, I can make sure I get the deepest, purplest potatoes around.
Okinawan sweet potatoes take care of any blue-related antioxidant compounds I might be missing by skipping on blueberries.
9. Grass-Fed Greek Yogurt
I need something fermented, and I think I’d get sick of kimchi or sauerkraut after awhile, so Greek yogurt it is. But not just any regular old Greek yogurt, though Fage is a great brand. I’d program the Greek yogurt from Papa Cristos in Los Angeles, a Greek restaurant/grocer that makes their own Greek yogurt on the premises. Ironically, it’s a Bulgarian dude that actually makes the stuff, but in the Greek fashion. This is thick, rich yogurt with more tang (and therefore probiotics) than Fage.
Good Greek yogurt (not the 0% fat nonsense) is rich in healthy dairy fat. And, since this is my fantasy, this particular Greek yogurt would be made from A2 casein milk cattle raised by the Masai on fertile grassland, so I bet you’d get some vitamin K2 in there somehow.
10. Macadamia Nuts
I just ran the previous nine items through Cronometer, and I hit the RDAs with ease, so this one is pure pleasure. Macadamia nuts are perfectly nutritious – good source of monounsaturated fats, ultra low in polyunsaturated fats – but, as far as nutritional requirements go, they weren’t required. Besides, I can’t truly enjoy my Greek yogurt without macadamias and blackberries mixed in (seriously, try it; it’s insanely good).
Honorable Mentions
Grass-Fed Lamb Liver - While beef liver is often described as nature’s multivitamin, lamb liver is pretty similar nutritionally but with a milder flavor. I honestly enjoy beef liver. I just think I could eat lamb liver on a regular basis, and never feel like it was a chore. Lamb liver takes care of tons of micronutrients: folate, selenium, choline, vitamin A, copper, all B-vitamins. Really it was a toss up between liver and eggs for me, and eggs won out.
Cheese – I thought about swapping out the broccoli for really great cheese but couldn’t pull the trigger. But dang, would I miss it…
Bacon – The presence of sockeye salmon skin made this an easier choice that it would have been otherwise. Sorry, bacon.
Bone Broth - While many have tried looking into the specific nutrient composition of bone broth, there has never really been a definitive answer given. Regardless, the stuff is tasty, makes a nice warm drink for those cold Mars winters, and definitely contains something worthwhile. I’m not talking your standard variety six-hour bone broth, mind you. I’m talking three-day epic bone-disintegrating broth with Sally Fallon herself manning the stock pot while being presided over by the spirit of Weston A. Price. Broth that solidifies at room temperature. Broth that doubles as shoe-gel inserts. Broth that, though nutritious and satisfying, still didn’t break into the top ten.
Other Berries – I love all berries, usually equally, but blackberries got my vote today because I’ve been wolfing them down and they’ve been particularly good this season. Ask me in a couple weeks and I might say raspberries.
Cabernet Sauvignon – I wasn’t sure if I had to include this in the foods or if I could sneak it in with the water. If not, I might end up swapping out the nuts for the wine. Eh, since this is a thought experiment, I’ll just go ahead and think that the latter is true.
Of course, I could live without all of these foods. Oh, but how I would suffer. Fortunately, I won’t be headed to Mars anytime soon and I can enjoy the rich bounty of whole foods that are part of the Primal Blueprint eating strategy from my terrestrial station.
So, that’s me, but what about you? Which ten foods would you program into the Food Machine to be eaten exclusively for the rest of your life? How would you ensure that you both survive and thrive on a diet of only ten foods? Let us know in the comment section!
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
Bone-in Ribeye steak
Eggs
Greens- turnip, collard, spinach
tomatoes
bacon
coffee
butter
blueberries
shrimp
chicken thighs
What about sea salt?
I’m going to pretend that water, seasonings and spices are included on the ship and don’t count against the ten.
All wild, grassfed, organic, pastured.
1. Beef
2. Asparagus
3. Berries
4. Eggs
5. Garlic
6. Coconut Oil
7. Salmon
8. Bacon
9, Mac Nuts
10. Garnet Yams
(Wish I could have included dairy, but I’m intolerant. If I weren’t, I’d definitely add the butter in there somehow.)
Hm, if we ever dined on salmon together, we’d be fighting it out over other people’s salmon skins. I adore the stuff.
My own list:
1. Salmon (I actually tend to go for steelhead trout, but that’s an environmental/conservation concern.)
2. Grass-fed ribeye
3. Grass-fed lamb liver (I’ve been eating livers and kidneys for breakfast this week; awesome stuff!)
4. Tomatoes
5. Cherries (Note to self: please do not eat your weight in cherries this year like you did last year.)
6. Spinach
7. Broccoli
8. Bacon (I’m counting rendered fat as a package deal; I’m completely and utterly dairy intolerant, so this is my cooking fat of choice.)
9. Roasted goose and its attendant offal and fat (Delicious and an amazing comfort food; my family’s always eaten goose rather than turkey for Thanksgiving.)
10. Roasted and salted pumpkin seeds (Another family-memory comfort food; we’re a long way from home, after all!)
1. Wild Salmon
2. Ntrate Free Bacon
3. Free Range Chicken
4. Grass Fed NY Strip
5. Blueberriess
6. Spinach
7. Eggs
8. Avocados
9. Coconut (milk & oil)
10. Broccoli
Wow it was hard to narrow it down to just 10 favorite foods!
I just purchased a whole sockeye salmon yesterday…looking forward to cooking it in tinfoil on the BBQ!
That sounds like my weekly menu + quite a few other things. Glad to hear I am meeting all my nutritional requirements! But Mark, how could you leave bacon off the list??!!
I live in Maine so I will have to go with the following:
1. Venison
2. Moose and moose liver
3. Wild Blue berries
4. Lake trout
5. Lobster
6. Fiddle heads
7. Sun Chokes
8. Dandelion greens
9. North Atlantic salmon
10. Goat milk
1. BACON (I’d never tried baking it in the oven until recently–revolutionary.)
2. Eggs
3. Broccoli
4. Blueberries
5. Venison sausages
6. Apples
7. Spinach
8. Avocado
9. Almonds/Walnuts
10. CHOCOLATE.
1. grass-fed ground beef
2. almonds
3. pastured eggs
4. EVOO
5. wine
6. chocolate
7. coffee
8. um… more beef
9. ” ”
10. ” “
oh geez… what a nightmare mission that would be… I forgot my beloved hot sauce!
Salmnon is perpetually on sale, here in Vancouver.
Those Okinawan yams are called ‘Kumara’ in New Zealand and they’re a Maori staple food. They make great fries!
I was so happy when i found an Asian supermarket that stocks them!
Is that what you call it, Okinawan sweet potato? We call it “camote” or sometimes, “Japanese potato” same thing. You can slice those real thin and fry them in coconut oil, very tasty! You can also bake them and slather coconut oil on top
.
I’m gonna try that…sounds delicious!
Hmmm… In no particular order:
1) chard (swiss)
2) coconut milk
3) local, grass-fed beef steaks (any, just not minute steak)
4) local double-smoked bacon (how I love thee!)
5) red onions
6) broccoli
7) eggs
8) olives (I’ve become addicted to garlic-stuffed green olives)
9) blueberries
10) red peppers
Okay, I’ve decided I can’t actually live with only 10. I need at least 15, having to add: mushrooms, cabernet-sauvignon, Mill St. Organic (beer), field greens, and… garlic, perhaps?
Get rid of my bed? No problem. Reduce 800 books down to 75? Done. Eliminate a huge chunk of my wardrobe? Happily. Etc etc. But don’t ask me to reduce or eliminate foods. I just can’t. It hurts my soul to even contemplate it.
Please excuse me. I have to go hug my asparagus now. It knows I’ve excluded it from the above lists and I can feel its passive-aggression radiating from the fridge….
lol @ the asparagus (:
Love the addiction to garlic stuffed green olives myself….the perfect side condiment to any meal.
1. Eggs: I eat them every day
2. Salmon: I’d eat it every day if I could afford to do so.
3. Grass-fed beef. I typically get it from a farm in Iowa that I found through Eat Wild.
4. Peanut Butter: I don’t think PB is technically primal but I eat it like it’s going extinct.
5. Sweet Potato: I still can’t believe something that tastes this freaking good is really healthy. Actually scratch that, this is true for most primal foods.
6. Spinach: I like Kale but not as much
7. Almonds: sometimes you feel like a nut. When I feel nutty it is almost always for almonds.
8. Garlic: the key ingredient in my morning eggs every day. 1-2 cloves depending on the mood and size of the cloves.
9. Grass-fed bacon: crispy, meaty, sweet and salty goodness. As far as I’m concerned bacon combined with peanut butter is a delicacy.
10. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
I couldn’t live without sweet potatoes either. I typically indulge in them once a week after sprinting. It’s like a big ol’ hunk of candy. Especially with pastured butter!
I had both wild alaska sockeye salmon, baby spinach, and greek yogurt (Fage Total) for lunch – this is funny! I agree with all of your picks. I am surprised though that chocolate does not get an honorable mention?
I like how blackberries are a good source of ‘deliciousness’ in your post today, Mark. Definitely an important nutrient for anyone living the good life.
1. Trout, Bass and Oysters
2. Grassfed Meat of any kind
(Pork, Elk, Rabbit, Chicken, Goat, Lamb, Cow)
3. Grassfed Butter
4. Lard, Kidney fat
5. Raw Goats Milk
6. Eggs
7. Bone Broth and Bone Marrow
8. Organ Meats
9. Lettuce of any kind
10. Blueberries
(11. Celtic Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt and all fresh Herbs)
Bacon wouldn’t ever come off of my list.
BACON IS A KEEPER… But I really liked the rest of your selection. lol
I’m including red wine under medical supplies
Nice choices there.
I think I’d have to programme bacon in there two or three times, just to be safe
Nice list- Perfect list in fact. Greek Yogurt has always been a favorite of mine but this no fat BS is now personal. The major supermarket in my area ( I shope the perimeter only and less and less now that farmer’s markets are here ) stopped selling the Fage full fat “Total” version claiming that Fage stopped making it. Of course fage hasn’t and claims that this supermarket still sells it- they don’t. I stopped buying Fage and from a different brand vermont’s Cabot (the cheese people)- not the same but good and half the price. Lots of protein fro strength training months and all the good fat. Fage has been less than helpful but I thank them for letting me discover another product. Eat your full fat folks
I can’t believe that bacon didn’t make the cut. That is pure blasphemy! Add bacon to ANYTHING, and it becomes 10X better…
I can’t think of 10, but here’s my list:
#1 Bacon
#2 Mushrooms (Morels are king, but are only available 1 month each year. I’d settle for shiitakes or even portobellos)
#3 Mangos
#4 Peppers of any kind
#5 Tomato
#6 Chocolate
#7 Ribeye Steak
#8 Eggs
“I’m talking three-day epic bone-disintegrating broth with Sally Fallon herself manning the stock pot while being presided over by the spirit of Weston A. Price.”
Ha! Loved this! I’m picturing a cauldron at Stonehenge and druid robes.
Best line of the post. Made me chuckle (:
Who says a whole animal isn’t a “food”?
1) Whole pastured cow
2) Whole pastured pig
3) Whole pastured chicken
4) Raw whole pastured cow’s milk
5) Pastured chicken eggs
Which gives me meat and offal from my 3 major meat animals, as well as all forms of pastured dairy (cheese, butter, ghee, and yogurt, yogurt, yogurt!)
6) Asparagus
7) Broccoli
8) Spinach
9) Blueberries
10) Pistachios (my very favorite nut, raw or roasted, but unsalted please!)
Brussel sprouts, butter, coconut oil, leg of goat roast, kale, radishes, beets, pork shoulder, chicken livers, & bacon to wrap around.
(must have: sea salt, garam masala, & garlic in the seasoning allowance)
Coconut oil
spinach
wild salmon
eggs
peppers/onions
berries
chicken
dark chocolate
almonds
avacados
1. Salmon
2. Beef
3. Heavy cream
4. Broccoli
5. Blueberries
6. Kale
7. Yukon Gold potatoes
8. Okinawan sweet potatoes
9. Dark chocolate
10.Bacon
Love this post!
Pastured eggs (in my dream world they’re from my dream chicken)
Avocado
sweet potato
bacon
apples
spinach (seriously)
grass fed beef (for grass fed burgers)
blueberries
carrots (of the baby variety)
dark chocolate (ditto the 70% or greater)
mark, if water is provided you can go ahead and simmer those ribeye and sockeye bones for some kick-ass stock!
an endless supply of pastured raw milk is #1 on my list. a little patience, a little skill, and voila! raw cream, clabber, farmer’s cheese, yoghurt, cream cheese, and whey. (as a bonus, once whey is in the culinary arsenal so are fruit and vegetable chutneys, preserves, wine, and vinegar. now we’re talking!)
2. coffee, whole bean french roast
3. whole coconut (meat, milk, and oil)
4. washington blackberries (kudos, mark!)
5. raw sunflower honey
6. cabbage, red and green
7. sweet potatoes
8. whole pastured chickens (skin, meat, organs, bones, heads, and feet – but i’ll pass on the feathers, thanks!)
9. whole wild alaskan salmon (skin, meat, organs, bones, heads, and tails)
10. whole pastured cows (i just can’t bring myself to commit to muscle meat versus organ meat, so i’ll butcher the dadgum things myself!)
i’m also bringing the following medical supplies: my entire herb garden, garlic, and chocolate (in case of dementor attack.)
For the salmon skin, does it matter whether there are scales still on it? They seem really thin and pretty soft, but I’m not sure if it’d be advisable to eat them. They’re usually mostly removed, yet there are also usually quite a few stragglers still on the skin.