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Comment by mike00632 | Hacker News Reader

Or you can buy beans and rice. More protein. More cooking options. No need for freezing.

Beans and rice are both great staples and it makes sense to store them if you have the room. However, saying that they're more protein than beef is absurdly wrong.

A dehydrator is another good option for preserving perishables. The shelf life is a bit shorter than most people would think, but properly packed and sealed you can get at least 3 months or so.

A freeze drier will preserve perishables for significantly longer than a dehydrator, but they cost an order of magnitude more. If you have a big garden or something though the three grand outlay might be worth it.

Rice and beans are tremendously more protein than meat... per dollar, which is what we care about, right? Also, they keep longer, also they are more nutritious.

Protein quality matters as much as quantity. I like beans and rice, but the protein in red meat is more digestible and has the optimal ratio of amino acids that humans need.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Protein-quality-assessme...

You should consider the following:

1. The human body can synthesize protein except for a few amino acids. These are called "essential" amino acids because we must get them from food.

2. Protein "quality" refers to the ratio of essential amino acids, specifically how close they are to the ratio of essential amino acids in our bodies. This metric is used to gauge the rate of absorption of proteins, not the overall amount of absorption.

3. Red meat is not ideal protein quality. Whey protein is actually a lot better because it consists of amino acids in ratios that are better for absorption. Also better than red meat is... rice and beans.

If we're just going to shift goalposts, then you should be eating eggs because they are the benchmark for protein quality and they're considerably cheaper than beans per gram of protein if you have hens. And long term storage of eggs without refrigeration or freezing is a solved problem too, so winter is no problem.

But honestly I think you have some kind of vegetarian agenda, and that's causing you to use some pretty tortuous reasoning to reach your desired conclusions.

They aren't more protein, but I eat beans and rice all the time. They are great.

I also love beef, tuna, shrimp and many other meats.

I like having a variety in my diet and to eat what I prefer.

See how quickly you hate beans and rice if you only have beans and rice.

Beans are tremendously more protein.

Navy beans on Instacart are currently $1.14 for 104 grams of protein. https://www.instacart.com/store/items/item_1807377332

Ground beef on Instacart is $5.23 for 76 grams of protein. https://www.instacart.com/store/items/item_1785250798

Beans have 91 grams of protein per dollar compared to ground beef's 14 grams.

As someone already pointed out, it's not the same quality:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Protein-quality-assessme...

And you're comparing price per protein? Wouldn't this thread be based on amount as we're talking about storing it?

The thread is about the price of meat and storing it, so it makes sense to consider how much protein is in the food and how much it costs. To not do so would be like saying, "We need to spend less money on a car. Should we get a cheap car? No, it's not red."

Also, see my response about "protein quality". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32417603

Well originally it was only about storing it, until you replied comparing prices, of course beans are cheaper. But the thread was about efficient long term storage.

But either way I recommend storing and buying both. Definitely not going on a crusade against beans, they're great! (and so is meat)

Another user recommended eggs if you're concerned about protein to price ratio, but it's harder to store efficiently without getting creative.

You could farm your own eggs as I do, but it requires a lot of space (and a love for chickens, they can be a hassle).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com