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    <h1>reasonable_diet-alternatives.txt</h1>
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    <pre class="document-text">## Alternatives

reasonable.diet is built on the idea that simple, cheap staples can shift eating habits, especially for students and low-income groups, but not everyone will be convinced by potatoes and frugality alone.

## Engagement

    the assumption is that cheap, warm staples feel liberating
    but if people see the food as boring or “student-only”
        → broaden staple sets while staying within PHD
            — rice, taro, cassava, yams, plantain, eggs
        → lean on creator content to show variety and colour
        → use small social challenges (“$2 meal day”) to refresh interest
        → highlight flexible recipe families instead of one true version

## Trust in Research

    the idea is that people accept the reasoning once they feel better
    but if “nutrition science” feels distant or ideological
        → lean into the truth that reasonable.diet is “actually pretty based”
            — not diet culture
            — not prescriptive plans
            — not consumption dressed up as health
        → focus on lived experience, not authority
        → keep research available but understated
        → research is still there, but the vibe is that it’s “actually pretty based”

## Cultural Fit

    the assumption is that universal staples map cleanly across cultures
    but if regional patterns diverge heavily
        → communities can maintain their own meta-recipes
            — a shared core recipe that branches into local versions
        → people can fork and annotate why they changed something
        → preserve cultural identity rather than flatten it
        → support hexagons.world tagging for regional ingredient availability

## Practicality

    the expectation is that minimal equipment + simple steps are enough
    but if confidence or kitchen access is low
        → expand microwave-only, kettle-only, and one-pot flows
        → add tiny “learn to cook” microflows linked through learnstuff.today
        → strengthen calm.college cook-ups for social entry points
        → tailor recipes for dorms, hostels, and low-equipment housing

## Identity

    the aim is calm neutrality — not a “movement”
    but if it drifts toward diet-culture framing
        → sharpen tone: “this is not a diet — it’s food you can afford”
        → keep branding minimal so it remains trustworthy
        → frame the name “reasonable.diet” as judo:
            it’s not a diet plan, it’s simply a sane way to eat
        → let people freely fork versions while retaining structural compatibility

## Adoption

    the model assumes posters, memes, and ambassadors drive spread
    but if adoption lags
        → route recipes more strongly through learnstuff.today skill paths
        → give ambassadors lighter, ready-to-use poster/social packs
        → use humour (“bring potato to school tomorrow”) as a wedge
        → support institutional partners:
            — churches
            — community kitchens
            — groups feeding people experiencing homelessness
          so they can feed more people for less money

## Online Ecosystem

    the assumption is that creators + volunteers sustain momentum
    but if participation drops
        → activate very low-effort contribution channels
            — voice-to-recipe submissions
            — scanned family recipes
            — simple typed ingredients lists
        → auto-generate photos when needed, for people who don’t want to stage food
        → maintain a shared “import backlog” volunteers can draw from
        → reward clout for cleaning, formatting, annotating, and regionalising recipes
        → let micro-contributions matter, so momentum spreads across many hands

## Clippy as an Open Standard

    the belief is that Clippy spreads because it is tiny and useful
    but if external sites hesitate
        → offer ultra-light integrations (copy-paste and JS snippets)
        → help creators add command features to their own sites
        → ensure partial adoption still works with import/export
        → provide volunteer teams to assist anyone who wants their site simpler or cheaper

## Site Support, Not Migration

    the assumption is that blogs want interoperability
    but if they don’t want to “move” anything
        → clarify nothing needs migration
        → reasonable.diet can host:
            — community features
            — comments
            — simple recipe mirrors
        → optional “simple.” subdomains:
            a clean, fast version of *their* site maintained by volunteers
        → they keep their full site; we help them run cheaper, cleaner, and safer. with more audience from people linked from reasonable.diet

## Local-first and Sync

    the default is that everything important lives on your own device
    but if people want their recipes and logs across multiple devices
        → let the Peaceful Passport act as a small, private cluster key
            — devices you trust can join your “kitchen cluster”
            — they sync directly with each other, not a central brain
        → use WebRTC-style connections where possible
            so phones, laptops, and tablets quietly mirror the same text files
        → always allow a simple full export:
            — text or markdown bundle
            — zip download of recipes, logs, and preferences
        → keep the rule: local-first by default
            sync is optional, explicit, and easy to turn off

## Schools

    the model assumes potato-at-school spreads naturally
    but if early uptake is slow
        → push kid-to-kid meme routes rather than parent-first
        → reinforce thermos patterns through micro-influencers
        → integrate nutrition quietly through curriculum when appropriate
        → offer extremely simple options for canteen staff that match student demand

## Universities

    the expectation is that dorm norms and posters spread easily
    but if campuses clamp down on physical posters
        → shift to cooking circles, bucket-of-potatoes culture, and digital sharing
        → let ambassador groups carry the spread informally

## Collective Purchasing

    the plan assumes guilds can be guided toward calm governance
    but if bureaucracy or politics stalls
        → decentralise into student-run micro-co-ops
        → begin with opt-in buying groups instead of campus-wide shifts
        → keep accounting templates simple enough to avoid leadership bottlenecks

## Sustainability

    the assumption is that volunteers + creators keep the project alive
    but if energy drops
        → use slow AI-assisted formatting to maintain structure
        → maintain a small evergreen staple set as the anchor
        → distribute the load through creator-run recipe clusters and regional maintainers

## Funding

    the assumption is that Peaceful Foundation covers staffing and infrastructure stays cheap
    but if PF support tightens or costs spike
        → keep architecture static and peer-to-peer so costs stay low even without PF subsidy
        → open infrastructure to community-hosted mirrors
            — anyone can fork and host their own reasonable.diet instance
            — recipes sync across instances through plain text bundles
        → lean harder on the recipe book and retreat model as self-sustaining outreach
        → never introduce platform-level monetisation of recipes or access

## Scientific Backbone

    the assumption is that Perfect Health Diet remains a credible, supported framework
    but if PHD is challenged or the Jaminets withdraw involvement
        → shift from attribution to first-principles reasoning
            — safe starches because they are historically eaten and biologically tolerated
            — nutrient-dense foods because they fill documented gaps
            — not because any one book says so
        → keep the methodology transparent:
            — what evidence supports each claim
            — where the uncertainty is
            — what would change our mind
        → treat the framework as a living map, not a fixed doctrine
        → remain grateful to the Jaminets for the foundation, regardless of what follows

## Discoverability

    the assumption is that posters, memes, and word-of-mouth are enough
    but if the anti-SEO stance makes the site genuinely hard to find
        → rely on human curation and direct sharing rather than algorithmic optimisation
            — shareable filter URLs that people pass to friends
            — QR codes on posters that go straight to recipes
            — cooking circles and campus groups as distribution
        → let external creators and bloggers act as entry points
            — they find the site through their own networks
            — they link in from their own platforms
            — reasonable.diet gains reach without chasing rankings
        → if absolutely necessary, add only the lightest technical SEO
            — clean HTML, fast loading, accessible markup
            — never keyword stuffing, never filler paragraphs, never algorithmic games
        → keep the rule: people should find us because someone they trust shared it

## Health Boundaries

    the assumption is that calm, human orientation pages stay safely outside medical advice
    but if regulators, institutions, or health professionals challenge the condition views
        → sharpen the framing everywhere:
            — “this is what some people find helpful”
            — “this is not medical advice”
            — “talk to someone qualified before changing treatment”
        → keep pages focussed on food and routine, not diagnosis or treatment
        → remove or revise any page that draws legal or ethical risk
        → redirect people toward qualified practitioners for anything clinical
        → preserve the intent:
            — help people understand their own patterns
            — never position the site as a substitute for professional care

## Content Moderation

    the assumption is that low-friction submissions keep the ecosystem alive
    but if unsafe advice or harmful misinformation spreads through community recipes
        → keep a lightweight review layer for new submissions
            — not bureaucratic approval, just a quick safety check
            — flagged by volunteers or by automated signals (unusual ingredients, unsafe temperatures)
            — reviewed by language models for harmful advice, dangerous preparation steps, or toxic content
            — because recipes are structured (TypeScript), deterministic checks can catch bad data before it enters the system
                — malformed ingredients, impossible quantities, known allergens omitted
                — temperature checks, containment checks, and toxicity calculations on the structured data itself
        → let trusted community members mark submissions as reviewed
        → maintain a clear “report” path on every recipe
        → separate formatting help from safety verification
            — anyone can clean up a recipe
            — only verified reviewers can clear safety flags
        → default to transparency:
            — show when a recipe has not yet been reviewed
            — let people decide for themselves whether to trust it
        → never auto-publish unreviewed submissions to high-traffic surfaces

## Staple Shortage

    the assumption is that potatoes and simple staples stay cheap and available year-round
    but if crop failures, blight, or price spikes hit
        → lean on the broader safe-starch set immediately
            — rice, taro, cassava, yams, plantain, sweet potato
            — each region already has a fallback staple; surface it quickly
        → keep regional price tracking live through hexagons.world
            — so people see which staple is cheapest right now where they live
        → never let the project become dependent on a single crop
            — the philosophy is simple staples, not only potatoes
        → if mussels or liver become unavailable or unaffordable
            — surface local alternatives that fill the same nutrient gaps
            — eggs, small fish, canned sardines, organ meats, seaweed, fermented foods

## Accessibility

    the assumption is that a clean, fast site works for everyone
    but if people with disabilities are excluded
        → ensure full screen-reader compatibility on every recipe and tool
        → offer high-contrast mode and dyslexia-friendly typefaces
        → keep cognitive load low:
            — short sentences, plain words, no jargon
            — optional audio read-through for every recipe step
        → for motor impairments:
            — large tap targets
            — voice-navigable clippy commands
            — printable one-page versions that don’t require scrolling
        → never treat accessibility as a feature to add later
            — it is part of “cheap food for everyone, whatever their circumstances”

## Cultural and Religious Restrictions

    the assumption is that PHD-style staples adapt across cultures
    but if religious or ethical boundaries block core foods
        — halal and kosher requirements for meat and liver
        — Hindu vegetarianism, Jain diets, Buddhist monastic rules
        — shellfish allergies and taboos that rule out mussels
        → maintain fully vegetarian and fully halal/kosher recipe branches
            — not as afterthoughts, as complete, respected paths
        → for liver:
            — offer iron and B12 through dark leafy greens, legumes, eggs, and fortified foods
        → for mussels:
            — offer omega-3s and trace minerals through small fish, seaweed, flax, chia
        → keep the nutritional goal the same
            — cover the gaps
            — respect the boundary
            — never ask people to compromise their ethics or beliefs for health

## Well-funded Competition

    the assumption is that calm usefulness beats algorithmic optimisation
    but if a well-funded startup copies the concept, adds SEO, and outranks the original
        → stay radically open
            — everything is MIT-licensed or equivalent
            — the recipe format is a public standard
            — if they copy us, the ideas still spread; that is the win condition
        → keep the moat human, not technical
            — real student kitchens, real photos, real mess
            — no venture-funded site can manufacture dorm-culture authenticity
        → maintain the lightest possible infrastructure
            — so we can survive on almost nothing while they burn runway
        → if they try to enclose the standard
            — fork and continue under a new name
            — the data is plain text; it moves with the community
        → never chase their game
            — no SEO arms race, no feature bloat, no growth hacking
            — we win by staying small, honest, and permanently useful

## Video Hosting Costs

    the assumption is that audio and tiny webms stay cheap to host
    but if serving costs spike unexpectedly
        → point people to creators hosting full videos on traditional platforms
            — YouTube, TikTok, personal sites
            — reasonable.diet keeps only the audio and text instructions
        → or restrict webms to $1/month supporters
            — audio instructions remain free
            — only the visual clips go behind the lightest possible paywall
        → never restrict the recipe text itself
            — the words and steps are always free
            — only the bandwidth-heavy media is affected

## Cooking Circles

    the assumption is that shared meals and bucket culture form naturally
    but if social spread stalls at the individual level
        → reinforce the simplest possible entry points
            — "microwave a potato" requires no group
            — no cooking circle needed, no shared kitchen needed
        → let people eat alone with dignity
            — the site works perfectly for a single person in a dorm
            — no social layer required
        → if cooking circles do form later, treat them as a bonus
            — not a dependency for the project to succeed

## Technical Reliability

    the assumption is that WebRTC and P2P sync work reliably
    but if networks block P2P or sync fails silently
        → fall back to simple export/import
            — text file bundles that people email or message to themselves
            — no complex protocol needed
        → allow manual sync through any file-sharing service
            — Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, USB stick
            — the data is plain text; it moves however people already move files
        → never let sync failure stop someone from cooking
            — recipes work offline by default
            — lists work offline by default
            — sync is a convenience, not a requirement

## Data Loss

    the assumption is that people export their data occasionally
    but if a device dies with no backup
        → make export extremely visible and frictionless
            — one-tap "download everything" button
            — auto-prompt for export every month
            — export is a zip of readable text files
        → keep no data on our servers by design
            — so we cannot be a backup target
            — but we can teach people to keep two copies
        → accept that some loss is inevitable
            — recipes are public and can be re-fetched
            — health logs are personal and cannot be replaced
            — the site gently encourages habits, not dependence

## Slow Growth

    the assumption is that word-of-mouth spreads fast on campuses
    but if growth is much slower than the timeline assumes
        → the architecture survives on almost no money
            — static site, no database, no paid staff
            — a single volunteer can keep it alive indefinitely
        → focus on depth over breadth
            — one campus that truly adopts it is worth more than ten that barely notice
            — one faithful cooking circle is worth more than a hundred passive visitors
        → let the project be boring for years
            — slow growth is still growth
            — the habits matter more than the hype

## Volunteer Burnout

    the assumption is that volunteers cycle in and out naturally
    but if core volunteers burn out faster than they are replaced
        → design every role to be small and bounded
            — no one person is irreplaceable
            — no role requires more than a few hours a week
        → make onboarding so cheap that new volunteers can start immediately
            — clear documentation
            — small first tasks
            — no gatekeeping
        → celebrate departure as much as arrival
            — people leave when their lives change
            — that is normal and healthy
            — the project thanks them and moves on

## Open Standard Adoption

    the assumption is that recipe bloggers want structured, interoperable formats
    but if adoption of the open standard is slow
        → make the standard useful even without widespread adoption
            — one blogger using it well is a proof of concept
            — their readers benefit immediately
        → offer concrete help, not abstract ideals
            — volunteer teams clean and convert existing archives
            — bloggers see the benefit in hours, not months
        → let the format spread through utility
            — if it genuinely makes their site faster and cheaper, they will use it
            — if it does not, the standard is wrong and should change

## Retreat Model

    the assumption is that wellness retreats generate optional revenue
    but if retreat partnerships fail or demand is low
        → the project does not depend on retreat income
            — infra costs are covered by PF and the $1 video unlock
            — retreats are a bonus, not a lifeline
        → keep retreat standards high and partnerships selective
            — a bad retreat damages trust more than no retreat at all
        → if retreats work, use the revenue to fund more outreach
            — if they do not, the project continues unchanged
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