The referenced article and blog was good, and extensive, and includes a number of tips on how Cubans get by, along with numerous recipes that sound pretty darned good. It appears that the rationing program provides calorie crops and staples like dried beans and rice, and some meat/soy. The citizens then supplement that with fresh produce from their garden or neighborhood farmers market or coop.

Living on beans and rice, supplemented with local fresh produce, just happens to be the normal daily diet of billions of people on the planet. Some cultures replace rice with corn or sago, but the rest of the menu is the same.

I once took a three day expedition to a small island in the South China Sea (Pulau Tioman) that had a single small village on it. We stayed in the villagers "guest accommodations" -- screened-in pavilions on the beach -- just a wood frame and floor with a corrugated metal roof and screens all around, and wooden bunk platforms with no matress. The local villagers brought us food twice daily, morning and evening, which was exactly the same food they ate virtually all their lives -- it consisted of a significant mound of rice on a banana leaf, with several small smoked fish on top of it, some cucumber slices, a boiled banana (plantain), and some small sliced chilis. We ate six of these meals in a row. We drank coconut milk and hot tea made from a small pile of tea leaves they provided (which we presumed they grew themselves,) which we just dumped in the hot water (from a waterfall.) If they can do it, so can we. These people did not appear to be malnourished.

When I was in Papua New Guinea, the standard daily diet of the natives was fresh fruit, sago pancakes, and smoked fish accompanied by greens, potatoes, squash and other root vegetables. When there was a celebration a village would kill and serve a pig, but meat wasn't very common -- only smoked fish (which was everywhere.)

When I was in Borneo everybody ate soup, which was essentially hot water with greens blanched in it, and some small pieces of meat if they had it -- used mostly for flavoring. They also ate some root crops.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is frequently different for ten or twenty meals in a row. We chow down on copious amounts of flavored cereals, beef, pork and chicken, have different breads (burger buns, toast, sandwich bread) and a few vegetable condiments or a potato. Americans don't eat much fruit. We have more than a dozen drink choices at most restaurants and also usually from our own refrigerator.

We really need to pay more attention to our expectations...and our health. The Cuban diet doesn't sound so very bad at all.