The 40-Euro Monthly Diet: 2,200 Calories and 100 Triglycerides

Eating for 40 euros a month: cereals, peanuts, and 2,200 calories

Can you eat healthily for 40 euros a month? The proposal, circulating for over a decade, claims yes, with itemized costs: breakfast cereals, milk, fifteen packs of peanuts, half a kilo of fruit daily, yogurt with oats and honey, and three cups of green tea. Total: 40 euros monthly, averaging 2,200 daily kilocalories and triglycerides dropping from 350 to 100, according to its author. The original headline mentions 36 euros; the sum of items adds to 40. This is the first discrepancy.

The breakdown: seven euros of peanuts and twelve of fruit

Breakfast consists of six packs of multivitaminated corn flakes (6 euros) and six 0.55-euro milk bricks (3.5 euros), totaling 400 kilocalories. Lunch includes 200 grams of unsalted peanuts daily—fifteen 400-gram packs, 7.5 euros monthly—providing 1,000 kilocalories and described as an energy bomb. Afternoon snack: half a kilo of mixed market fruit at 0.80 euros per kilo: 40 cents daily, 12 euros monthly. Dinner: yogurt with oats and honey (4 euros yogurt, 3 euros oats, 2 euros honey). Plus 0.50 euros green tea and 1 euro for salt, baking soda, and oil. The sum reaches 40 euros.

Those who cook can alternate peanuts with bean stews and rice with vegetables, oil, and salt: same caloric intake, according to the proposal. The complete breakdown, with calorie distribution per meal and item prices, supports the entire thesis. This is also the first point of contention.

Is a 2,200-calorie peanut-based diet healthy?

The author does not claim this is due to financial necessity. He eats this way by choice—avoiding ultra-processed products found everywhere—identifies as an ovo-lacto-vegetarian and Taoist, and reports two blood tests showing no deficiencies. He also mentions, in response to a dismissive comment, that he takes antidepressants and benzodiazepines prescribed by his psychiatrist.

The rebuttals were harsh. Warnings were issued that excessive peanut consumption can cause goiter, a warning without sources; the variety was debated, and excessive carbohydrates and protein shortages were pointed out. The most repeated comparison was to dog feed: it has everything you need, they said, along with two liters of water daily. Covering 2,200 kilocalories does not equate to covering nutrients, which is the core of the criticism.

Eggs, rice, and legumes: what would be cheaper

Some responses argued that the basket can be cheaper and improved by eating eggs daily, with more nutrients and less expense. From there, alternatives accumulate: rice combined with cheap vegetables, onions, garlic, carrots, and cabbage; chicken, turkey, or pork as side dishes; and using leftovers in soups, meatballs, and croquettes. In contrast, those trinc a vegan diet with organic products admit paying three to four times more than with conventional food.

Fruit prices fluctuate the most. Some buy oranges at 0.30 euros per kilo in season, others calculate the average kilo at 0.80, and in a city without an orange tree within 300 kilometers, it appears at 0.50. Basic basket prices act as a thermometer for purchasing power in each area, and this disparity was used to refute the calculation.

The menu that does not withstand the passage of time

Years after that proposal, a later estimate places the same menu above 150 euros monthly; another raises it to 200. These are not verifiable calculations, but they mark the point: what was once a frugal eccentricity now resembles a subsistence basket. Hence, the topic returns periodically, now labeled as food sect and with the comparison of someone living on fried potatoes and eggs to afford a mortgage.

The author, meanwhile, described a short routine life: not leaving home past ten PM, bed at eleven, no alcohol, borrowed internet, and a low-consumption laptop. Plus the resource of the village, where asparagus omelets and mashed olives do not pass through a register.

There remains the comfort of the grandfather’s chickens and the mountain asparagus, which do not antiestéticature in price indices. If anyone finds a way to eat 2,200 kilocalories for 36 euros without relying on the village house, let them know: there is a legion of mortgage holders waiting for the recipe book.