Day Two

Our current daily intake for each of us is as follows: 1 small pot of tea, 1 cup uncooked (3 cups cooked) brown rice, 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar (mixed in water and taken as a cocktail), and 1 cup of miso broth. I failed to mention yesterday that I bought a few broccoli and alfalfa seeds for sprouting. The sprouts take about three days to grow and will give us live food packed with nutrients. Again, we have about $10 leeway in the budget to add a couple of things.

The protein question has come up several times. There is a lot of debate among nutritionists about how much protein we really need. The mainstream thought is that each person needs 60-70 grams per day. Many raw foodists and those who follow a macrobiotic diet suggest that we only need 15-35 grams of protein per day. This site has some interesting history on how we evaluate protein and our dietary needs: http://www.rawfoodexplained.com/proteins/how-much-protein-do-we-need.html.

My friend Sean makes a good point: "In rural Haiti, $.50 can get a person a decent amount of greens (spinach, cabbage, and a few other things I don't know the English words for), but once you start talking protein it's a whole different story. Nearly everyday we saw children "eating" a bowl of "soup" with three or four beans in it. This is an enormous problem as protein deficiency is the main cause of malnutrition (a global epidemic, no matter how you slice it). When one hears statistics that more than a billion people live on less than $1 a day, you can be sure that a decent percentage of those same people live on less than $.10 a day."

I think the question is not, are Kelly and Ryan getting enough protein, but what about the nutritional intake of the one billion people who survive, not just feed themselves, on a dollar a day. And, what should we be doing about it. When it's all said and done, I have the luxury of consuming as much protein as I think I need, while others don't. This is the very gap that we are exploring.

Thanks for the support, concern, and encouragement.

Kelly