What is the minimal list of vegetables that could be grown in a garden and that would provide the entire gamut/spectrum of vitamins and minerals required for healthy body function?
Not talking quantity of vegetables here, just the list of the veggies themselves.
Looking at the answers here so far, not impressive. I know I was flippant earlier but these are genuinely bad and highly incomplete answers.
While I’m not qualified to give a full answer and probably absolutely nobody here will be, broadly speaking a good start is to consider what your diet absolutely must have to live a reasonably healthy life. Theoretically you could source vitamin B12 from untreated water from ponds, lakes, and streams (look it up if you’re skeptical). Let’s just pretend you won’t have issues with that vitamin. You’ve got something figured out.
Some of the core things you’ll need to think harder about are:
Protein-I’d go with soybeans. More bioavailable than other plant sources of protein and a better protein to carb ratio since a lot of legumes are extremely starchy.
Fat-avacados and a nut/seed of your choice. You need plenty of fat. Plenty.
Calcium-go with kale or spinach. Soybean also covers this to some extent.
Vitamin K-the kale or spinach cover this well in the form of vitamin K1 but I’d consider growing cabbage to ferment to obtain vitamin K2 specifically. Research seems to indicate that dietary intake of vitamin K2 could be important all on its own.
Iron and vitamin C-Im pairing these because on a “strictly from the garden diet” it’s important to consider pairing sources of these deliberately since vitamin C works synergistically with non-heme iron (the type of iron in plants) to increase the absorption of that type of iron. A combination of the greens mentioned above, some type of grain (I’d recommend oats or rice, probably oats), and peppers will cover your iron needs.
Vitamin D-either get plenty of sunlight, or if this cannot be relied upon, “grown in the sun” mushrooms, dried and stored for wintertime use, can supply your needs here.
Iodine-this is the trickiest to reliably obtain. If your soil is iodine rich some of it will end up in your vegetables but you could easily run deficient since there aren’t many great plant sources of this.
This is not going to be a complete picture by any stretch but it’s a bit better than “potatoes and spinach”.
Vegetables you can grow in your garden…..carrots, onion, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, peppers, cucumbers, swiss chard, peas, kale, and spinach are good choices….and if you ate only these vegetables you would be quite fit and healthy…..especially the leafy vegetables like chard, spinach, and kale….they are the nutrition champions…..
Plug your diet into the Cronometer app & you may find that it’s nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of B vitamins from food alone for unless you eat something such as fortified breakfasts cereals- which of course is just vitamins added to it & not natural occurring .
There is so much misinformation in these comments…
Edit: Op you’re better off talking to a nutritionist. If you plan to solely live off of minimal vegetables you will be lacking in a lot of vitamins and minerals. You will not get enough B12 from plants alone, and it’s vital for optimal physical and mental health. Fortified vegan/vegetarian foods will have more of these vitamins and minerals, but a lot of chemicals so you’re better off with animal based proteins or supplements, and fats outside of the garden like butter, coconut oil.