I am generally reluctant to spend much money on luxury consumables (e.g., eating out) because these experiences are typically fleeting with all the hedonic value extinguished within a mere few moments, rather than something that provides a constant source of enjoyment (e.g., a speaker system). However, I also follow the general strategy of min-maxxing investment x yield, and as with most activities there are some low-hanging fruit worth exploiting. Note also that many consumables constitute basic living necessities (such as food), or advisable lifestyle interventions (such as supplementation1), in which case I am usually optimising for enjoyment, effort, health, or price (inclusive ‘or’).
Food
- Monosodium Glutamate (aka: MSG)
- Unless you have direct sensory experience to the contrary, always add MSG to savoury dishes (and sometimes sweet).
- Nutritional yeast
- Aka: vegan crack. I like to dust my plate with a thick coat of this stuff before drawing cute tessellation patterns with siracha sauce.
- Pickled jalapenos (sliced) & high-tahina hummus
- I eat a lot of hummus, and have come to believe that hummus is always improved by adding jalapenos (in varying quantities). Something about the zingy flavour just hits the spot every time – just be careful to avoid hot pepper hands.
- Seeds (usually a mixture of sunflower, pumpkin, and sesame)
- Find an old condiments bottle and fill it with seeds. Add seeds as a garnish to all of your cooked foods & slowly eliminate based on what doesn’t work. I predict that most of the time adding seeds will either not significantly change the taste or it will improve your dish. Seeds are good for you! Eat seeds!
- Marmite & tahina
- Something about this flavour combo works and I have yet to meet others irl who have converged upon this observation (probably because it is unintuitive). Works great in a toasted sandwich or on crumpets, especially with added vegan cheese & seeds.
- Hulled tahina (highest quality possible)
- If I were to ever start a religion, tahina would be a sacremental item for eating & non-eating rituals. For real tho, this delicious nutritious paste should be added to most meals – sweet or savoury. Its super versatile, and I am quite frankly disappointed in the west for not adopting tahina as a staple food product. Hard recommend.
Supplements
High confidence
- Magnesium Malate, 400-800mg
- Before bed for muscle relaxation – especially after a workout!
- Zinc, 15mg
- 1-2 hrs before or after food. If taking copper, take together.
- Vitamin C, 100-500mg
- Water soluble, so take on empty stomach. Helps with iron absorbtion, so if eating iron-rich foods, take 20ish mins before.
- Creatine, 3-5g
- Before or after workout mixed in water & with carbs. Double dose if I haven’t had it in a while.
- Vitamin B12 (Methylcobalamin), 20-1000mcg
- 3-5 times a week, good to chop pill in half and take a few hours apart to increase absorption. Sublingual if possible, or oral on an empty stomach.
- Melatonin, 0.3-0.5mg
- 2-3 hours before sleep. See SSC Post.
Low confidence
- Vitamin D3, 2-5,000iu
- Fat soluble, so take just before eating.
- Vitamin K2 (MK-4 or MK-7), 100-150mcg
- Also fat soluble. Split AM/PM if possible, or between meals. If taking calcium take with D3.
- CDP Choline (Citocholine), 500-750mg
- 2-3 times a week, in the morning on an empty stomach (with coffee).
- Chanca Piedra, 750mg
- Twice a week with food. Prophylactic against kidney stones. (QCN post on this topic incoming)
Monster
Up until 2023 I hadn’t drunk a single energy drink in my life due to a trapped prior about sugar = bad. But the gravity well of social norms I have recently become exposed to has resulted in my acquiring a taste for the sugarfree lineup of Monster energy drinks, which are actually pretty tasty and plausibly not very harmful (at the very least, the productivity gains outweigh the minor harms). As with all stimulants I recommend avoiding the tolerance trap of daily consumption – half a can usually does me better than the equivalent caffeine content of coffee (thank you taurine), and you can leave it in the fridge overnight with a slip of tape over the mouth hole to avoid oxidation. Here is a tier list I created outlining my preferences:
- Note: these are drawn from my private obsidian note based on past research that I did not log. Our organisms all have different biological parameters that will determine how we respond to nutrition supplements, so unless you are my clone please don’t take any of this as health advice. ↩︎