How long could I conceivably keep the following plan, setting aside
issues of taste due to repetitive identical meals:

Eating 3 slices of plain cheese pizza and a daily vitamin (Adult
Centrum) for each meal, ice water for beverage.

Some sub-questions along the same vein:
What other _vital_ nutrients not found in an Adult Centrum tablet
would I technically need to retain reasonably good and/or optimum
health?  Would this be a healthy practice if opted merely every other
month (for a solid month at a time)?

---

Clarification of Question by thehomeland-ga on 10 Aug 2004 13:33 PDT

For those with cognitive impairments or otherwise incapable of
recognizing a simple misplacement of an open parenthesis:

Three pizza slices for each meal, ice water as a beverage. Also one
daily adult vitamin (adult Centrum), used as directed.

What ELSE would be necessary to make this identical-meal-concept be
balanced, with suggestions and/or recommendations of
supplements/substitutes for such missing necessities.

This diet = almost no fiber and no enzymes.  Would not be recommended
by most health authorities.

There are a billion starving people who would love some cheese pizza right now.

You can live 100 years on that diet.  You could also get heart disease
and die.  Not all cheese pizza is the same, some is much greasier. 
Not all crusts are the same either, especially in regard to fat
content.

And don't eat a vitamin with every meal, only one a day.

The ppl who choose to comment here are merely offering their advice,
not answers (although I've seen comments that do answer questions).

A google answerer will do more research for you.

That said, I'm very interested to read the google answer to your
question.  I know a few ppl who do not eat healthily (in my opinion)
and would like to know what they can do to supplement their diet.

Cheers.

thehomeland -

The comment was simply offering some "shelvable," anecdotal,
opinionated input, which implicitly suggested "fiber and enzymes" as
"what else."  For example, it is well known that the US government
suggests 5-7 helpings of fruits and vegetables for "the basics" of
health maintenance.  These contain enzymes and fiber among other
things.  There are a lot of factors involved with regard to health
other than what you eat.  Genetics, emotional stability, metabolism,
exercise; these all play a role in one's health.

jbf777

This might go some way towards helping you with part of your quest:

http://www.meadmaker.com/joke/beer/diet.html

The main problem I see is that you will get weak bones because both
pizza and Centrum are low on calcium and phosphate, which are the two
minerals that make up bones (Centrum only has 11% and 5%, repectively,
of the daily recommended intake. Calcium is also necessary for muscle
contraction, etc. Other than that, there is not a major problem with
the diet in terms of dying from lack of enough nutrition. However, the
major health problem with it is the ratio of
fat/cholesterol/protein/carvs/sodium/etc.

The usda says an active adult male should have about 2800 calories per
day, and the upper limit of grams of fat is 93, with no more than 31
grams saturated (p. 32 of 44 on the pdf version of the following
website: http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/DietGd.pdf ). Looking at this
website http://www.calorieking.com/foods/food.php?category_id=21&brand_id=1&food_id=54849&partner=
we see that the avg. of all brands for a slice (1/8) of pizza is 16g
fat, 15g saturated. So if you had 3 slices 3 times a day you'd have
435% of the daily allowance of saturated fat. That, in addition to the
300% of the daily allowance of sodium (which directly increases blood
pressure) would probably kill you in less than a couple years. Plus,
there are a couple essential amino acids (which are what make up
proteins... and essential means that your body can't make them-- you
have to eat them), and cheese and bread only have low amounts of
protein, so you might not even get enough of the proper amino acids
for building up tissue, etc. Your muslces would atrophy. That, in
addition to a weak skeleton, and you would basically become a blob.

P.S.-- the essential amino acids are 
Histidine 
Isoleucine 
Leucine 
Lysine 
Methionine (and/or cysteine) 
Phenylalanine (and/or tyrosine) 
Threonine 
Tryptophan 
Valine 

I'm sure if you looked long enough (such as on
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/dga/index.html) you could find pizza's
content of each of these. If anything, you should eat pizza with meat
on it-- even though that gives a higher fat content, it would be
better for you because of the amino acids that your body needs. Well,
I'm not actually sure which would kill you first. Hm.

"That, in addition to the 300% of the daily allowance of sodium (which
directly increases blood pressure) would probably kill you in less
than a couple years."

If that were true, I would have died long ago.

Well, I hope you're not eating 435% of the DA of saturated fat and
300% of the DA of sodium, but if you are, you're one lucky fellow to
be alive. You're right, it may be several years, or even decades I
suppose for some people. Either way, your heart is just going to poop
out one day. Oh, but to finish the question, if you are intent on
following the "pizza diet," I would recommend Calcium supplements,
amino acid or protein supplements, fiber pills (helps with digestion),
and statin drugs. ha ha. I don't know why you'd do this to yourself
though.