Haha, the Stigler diet leaves out a couple of important items. Salt and yeast turn flour into bread, which is damn tasty. They're cheap, but not free, and should have been accounted for.
If you have a sourdough starter, then you don’t need to pay for yeast (though in my experience, I always end up pouring off excess starter, ie wasting flour).
It doesn't even need to be sourdough: you can make a starter for regular bread, too!
I mention this because I'm not typically a fan of the sourdough style, but I am a fan of starter-leavened bread.
- you manage what you measure (linear programming is really powerful, but also simplistic for this model)
- the human body is great at survival (general requirements are easily achievable, but surely something is wrong with the spoonfuls-of-flour approach)