During the week in India, I had meat twice. The total I had was about 3 ounces of chicken on a pizza. I would have guessed that I would be constantly starving, but the food is very filling, and very good. I haven't had vegetarian like that in the West. At a typical meal, I would have a carbohydrate (usually a flat bread), a vegetable, and a protein. Rice was always part of the meal. But the meals were very nutritious and healthy, so I plan to incorporate some of these meals into my normal diet.

Look at the energy needed to cook the food. Lentils, rice, spices and a pressure cooker.

To ride the long curve down - looking at what and how the 'poor' eat then cherry pick from that list now strikes me as good long term planning. Ideas like this:

http://www.geocities.com/%7Edmdelaney/scheffler-precis/scheffler-precis....

Or slogging here
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

(and if anyone can provide the link to a design contest winner that was planned/deployed for South America, used oil in a trough for heating, and touted how it would work with pressure cookers, I'd greatly appreciate the link.)