Eating healthy and eating trendy in my words

Two days down, three days left as I Live #BelowtheLine, spending only $1.50 per day on food and drink to raise awareness of extreme poverty and to raise funds to support the work of Opportunity International. As I survey the food that I am subsisting on this week, there is a glaring absence of brand names, well known trademarks, and the like.  Also, words like “organic,” “whole,” “free range,” or “craft” are conspicuously lacking.In other words, when you are eating for survival, eating trendy goes out the window.  And so does eating healthy, I’m afraid.  For a couple years now I’ve been using the MyFitnessPal app, initially to assist with weight loss, and now to maintain a healthy weight.  On Monday (Day 1) when I hit the button signifying that I was finished eating for the day, the app gave this warning message in red letters “Based on your total calories consumed for today, you are likely not eating enough.”  Ya think??  The app then advised me that for a man trying to lose weight, 1200-1500 calories per day is the minimum range.  I’m eating 1093 calories each day this week.  The app concluded with the exhortation to “focus on nutrient-rich food and beverages.”  Then I threw my iPhone across the room 

Two days down, three days left as I Live #BelowtheLine, spending only $1.50 per day on food and drink to raise awareness of extreme poverty and to raise funds to support the work of Opportunity International. As I survey the food that I am subsisting on this week, there is a glaring absence of brand names, well known trademarks, and the like.  Also, words like “organic,” “whole,” “free range,” or “craft” are conspicuously lacking.   In other words, when you are eating for survival, eating trendy goes out the window.  And so does eating healthy, I’m afraid.  For a couple years now I’ve been using the MyFitnessPal app, initially to assist with weight loss, and now to maintain a healthy weight.  On Monday (Day 1) when I hit the button signifying that I was finished eating for the day, the app gave this warning message in red letters “Based on your total calories consumed for today, you are likely not eating enough.”  Ya think??  The app then advised me that for a man trying to lose weight, 1200-1500 calories per day is the minimum range.  I’m eating 1093 calories each day this week.  The app concluded with the exhortation to “focus on nutrient-rich food and beverages.”  Then I threw my iPhone across the room (it survived, Otterbox). It gets worse when I pull up the app’s breakdown of the nutrition I am receiving this week.  In relative terms, I am eating too many carbs and not enough fat.   Of the major nutrition/vitamin categories, the only thing I’m eating in sufficient quantities is Vitamin A.  I’m deficient in fat, potassium, total carbs, fiber, sugar, protein, Vitamin C, calcium and iron.  Heck, I’m not even getting enough salt!     Potassium deficiency? When I’m eating two bananas a day?  Wow.  Can you imagine the long term health effects of eating like this?  Think how hard it would be to perform manual labor (likely the only work available to the extremely poor) on a diet like this. But for me, it ends Friday at midnight.  For the extremely poor, it never ends, not unless we do something about it. I have it so easy, even this week.    More to come …