Pizza And Ramen Are Hurting Your Startup

This is a tough one but I have several thoughts:<p>1. Fact is, in your teens and early 20s your body can digest pretty much anything. Eat a bowl of cereal in the morning (and I mean something like oatmeal or raisin bran rather than some sugary crap) and it barely matters what else you eat (other than calorific content);<p>2. Eating the same thing every day gets real old real fast;<p>3. There is an investment required in cooking in terms of equipment, etc;<p>4. Cooking takes time between shopping, cleaning and the actual cooking. That's time that could be better spent doing many other things.<p>5. Even getting something for lunch can be a huge time sink and minimally takes half an hour unless you're eating out of a hot dog stand right outside your office.<p>This is why I'm a huge fan of companies providing a cafeteria or some find of catered meals. Of course, this requires both being a certain size and obviously costs money but, I would argue, the cost is well worth it in terms of:<p>- variety of meals - not needing to shop, cook or clean - time saved in not going out for lunch and other transit - time that can be spent talking over work-related stuff while eating with your colleagues - other intangible benefits such as the team-building aspects of socializing with your colleagues<p>These benefits are so huge I think that it'd be worth having everyone chip in to pay for something like this and would probably be an economic form of eating.<p>Now I'm lucky enough to work somewhere that has almost legendary catered meals (Google), which must cost them a fortune (eg dinner was steamed mussels, beef stroganoff, garlic whipped potatoes, green beans, steamed broccoli and a pineapple and blueberry salad, and that's just what I had) but IMHO they make their money back in terms of employee satisfaction and saved time on all of the above things.<p>Fact is I have more variety of food than I'd ever cook myself (or probably even buy).<p>That of course is a cafeteria type situation. Like I said, on a smaller scale, catered meals are a cost-effective doing this on a smaller scale. Your best bet would probably be to hire a cook rather than outsourcing the entire process (eg someone in or just out of culinary school).

Relatedly: I hate, hate, hate going to the gym. However, it is the most productive use of one hour a day I can think of. I have more energy and get more done when I go, and the benefits appear to compound in those months when I'm very consistent about going. (Can one of you guys invent a way for this to suck less? I'll pay you money. At the moment I just give myself EpicWin points for going, trying to trigger the WoW neurotransmitters...)

I totally agree with the argument. I totally disagree with the cost estimates. Unless you're actually going to the grocery store every day (and you need to incorporate that into the amount of time involved), vegetables go bad.<p>For example, the amount of cilantro they sell at the grocery store is for a dozen servings of this meal.<p>I just finished throwing out pretty well every ingredient (except the chicken) given in that recipe, because I was away for 3 days!<p>Cooking for one sucks!

This is something that doesn't get stated enough. Great link.<p>For example, Richard Branson credits working out and staying in shape with much of his success.<p>I kind of see physical fitness on two sides--internal and external.<p>Internally, if you're in better shape you're capable of performing better for longer periods of time. Less time sick, etc.<p>Externally, there is a lot of social science that thinner, i.e. more attractive, people are viewed as more disciplined, get better promotions, make more money, etc.<p>That doesn't mean you can't be successful as someone that's not attractive or thin, but all things constant, why put yourself at a disadvantage? I say all of this not as someone who is thin, but someone who's taken a prolonged approach to being in better shape. When I graduated college I was at 255, and now I'm at 200. I could stand to lose some more weight, but the effects of eating better, working out and sleeping better have been of immeasurable benefit.

<p><pre><code> As a note, I love unhealthy food. It’s delicious and I’m not saying it’s evil. I’m just saying it’s not a productive addition to a 14-hour, high stress work day. </code></pre> Also: don't do 14h of high stress work a day on a regular basis.

Kind of a dearth of facts here... "The biggest reason is by only fueling your body with shit, you’re also fueling your brain with shit" I'd like to see some kind of evidence to support that.<p>I'd be all for preparing the meal he suggests, but with shopping, prep, cooking, and cleanup it's a significant time investment compared to pizza so I'd like evidence it's doing my startup better.

The habit of cooking your own healthy meals is a fine way to improve your productivity in just an hour or two a day plus saturday mornings at the farmer's market. The problem is the hour or two a day, not the cost.<p>There are a million ways to spend an hour a day on something to improve your startup.

Personally I ate nothing but processed, microwaveable meals for 3 years during university. I find it hard to believe that this significantly affected my performance since I still managed to get the best result in my year (twice) and second best (once). I also failed to get fat or develop any health problems at all.<p>So you can colour me sceptical about the true value of eating "healthy" or freshly-cooked food.

very true. but all the shopping and prep (despite the claim that it is easy) is a big pain in the ass. I'd gladly pay twice as much for healthy fare that was convenient as fast food.<p>Fortunately, the company I work for provides incredibly fresh organic salad that's as cheap as fast food.

I love this thread. Mainly because I am a total food geek.<p>I have to say that yes, getting started is a pain, and yes, the easy way seems, well, easier, but better food is a HELL YES reason to overcome the first two.<p>Just like your startup, starting to get a healthy kitchen going requires a lot of investment before you start to see any outcome. Deep Breath. You're going to need to go... Shopping.<p>But, once you're boot strapped with supplies, regular top ups is all that's required. I feel better when I eat crap less then I eat well. It's sorta annoying, but not once you get into the rhythm of it.<p>Provided food is a great idea if it's good quality. Providing junk at the workplace just exacerbates the issue. That said, it's not too hard to prepare extra meals at home and bring them to the office, especially if you can convince your founder/self to install a chest freezer. Sure, fresh stuff is usually better, but don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.<p>Microwaves rock when you don't use them as a magic-1-button-make-hot machine. You can cook grains, make sauces, steam things and even do some poaching in a Nucleonic Oven, as long as you're not totally impatient. If I can stand to wait, you sure as hell can.<p>Not having greasy fingers helps prevent your keyboard and mouse from getting manky, and stops colouring leaching out of where your wrists rest on your lappy:P

Nice article. If you want something cheaper than Raman that is better for you, just go to the Asian grocery store. You can get a pound of bok choy for less than $1. Pick up some tofu and some chicken broth (and noodles). Boil all that for about 1.5 minutes and now you have yourself a sodium free, healthy meal that costs less than the disgusting Cup of Noodles or any fast food you might be eating.

<i>$4-7 per meal</i><p>I agree with you and all, and am working hard on eating healthy myself, but do you have any idea how much ramen $7 can buy you?<p>I'm certain there are people out there who would have trouble affording $4-7 per meal &#38; funding the early stages of a company. And don't forget you have to own the facilities to cook properly- ramen can be made in a paper bowl with a $5 water heater or $20 microwave.

Is pizza that bad? I home cook all pizza ($1-$2 per pizza), and it doesn't seem too bad if you look at the ingredients. Pizza + salad seems perfectly healthy.<p>Flour + tomato + cheese + onion + garlic + olive oil + whatever you put on your pizza.

Site has been slashdotted/fireballed/ycombinatored... Anyone have a mirror?

It should seriously not take much more time than it takes to warm up a nasty styrofoam cup of noodles to cook something cheap, easy and - above all - tasty.<p>The first step is to get a rice steamer. The second step is to realize that you can, in fact, prep your vegetables, meats and sauces ahead of time and just leave them in the fridge. Feeling hungry? Pour a little oil into a pan, toss in some ingredients, and voila - stirfry in no time at all. Grab a bowl, stuff some rice into it, and top it over - lunch!<p>It's more cost-effective than takeout, at the very least. Timesink may be an issue - if you aren't working with one or two cofounders. If you are, the minimal amount of competence to use a rice steamer and heat up pre-prepped ingredients means you /should/ be able to safely rotate cooking duties without excessive risk to your health.<p>Or, at least, less risk than a diet of salty ramen and oily pizza.

"The biggest reason is by only fueling your body with shit, you’re also fueling your brain with shit."<p>You are what you eat.

Unfortunately, this just made me want some ramen and pizza.

I like the recipe in the article; it's easy to cook, and it's what I often have for dinner: lightly fried meat and vegetables, although I usually have rice rather than beans. But for things that I plan on heating later, I prefer things that taste as good when heated up later, like borscht and other dense soups, beef stroganoff, curry (I'd sent my Japanese curry recipe to enough people that I put it on github: <a href="https://gist.github.com/57898" rel="nofollow">https://gist.github.com/57898</a> ).

your server going down is hurting your startup

What's wrong with pizza? It's essentially bread + toppings. Bread can be a fine healthy food, and if you pick healthy toppings, you can have a healthy pizza.<p>I think this would be better advice. First, spend a weekend reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. The take away from that is the healthy eating is a systematic thing, not a matter of individual ingredients.<p>Second, watch a lot of episodes of "Good Eats" on the Food Network.

NY Times article about cooking quickly, simply, and economically: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/weekinreview/02bittman.html?_r=1" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/weekinreview/02bittman.htm...</a> (With recipes.)

This could be useful: <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/bachelorchef/comments/ewcua/pdf_thought_you_guys_might_like_the_reddit/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/bachelorchef/comments/ewcua/pdf_thou...</a>

We are working on a startup that directly solves this problem of needing to eat healthy food, yet too busy to cook, and too tired to order or eat out.<p>See <a href="http://gomunchery.com" rel="nofollow">http://gomunchery.com</a>

And TV, and playing too many games, and commenting too much on HN.. oops..

Absolutely agree: eating a healthy diet is worth both the money and the time. Longevity is extremely important. Life is a marathon even if you only see it as a series of sprints.

pg's Rice and Beans for 2n comes to mind:<p><a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/ramenprofitable.html#f1n" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/ramenprofitable.html#f1n</a>

I would through in some red meat too for the protein