The truth is you certainly won't actually going to eat only one meal all your life, this is more of a curiosity question. This question should be ask in a different way.
For instance if we were a planet devoid of personal interests/ tastes and only cared about ultimate sustainability and health. What would we eat each meal?
A McDonald's burger with a diet coke won't be the answer lol. However, on a more serious note - You will get a lots of sarcastic answers to this question. I've actually thought of this in my head so many times. If I could choose it would be a meal with each of the best anti-inflammatory foods from different categories with a variety of bright colors (polyphenols): 1) carbs- purple/red/Japanese sweet potato 2) protein - sockeye salmon (high omega 3 low mercury) 3) cruciferous veggie like broccoli or bok choy 4) wild blueberries for desert. All organic of course. Well if something's all natural, it's automatically good for you. You know, like Hemlock, or Nightshade, for example. Really good natural plants.
But, if you have to eat all organic for the rest of your life, it could eventually lead to high amount of contents in your body. Like they say "too much of everything is bad". Not everything consider being organic impacts nutritional content or healthiness. There’s lots of research indicating that nightshades actually contribute to inflammation of the body, though. Besides higher risk of E. Coli infection, especially from the family of nightshades, yes. Nightshade itself can kill you.
Organic plants has a major impact on the body. The quality and health of the soil have significant consequences for the micro biome of your gut.
Healthier Soil = Healthier Gut
It's a one to one relationship. While there is a lot of evidence that points to how organic vs GMO are actually approached differently, is not as simple as organic = good and GMO = bad. You wouldn't actually believe dump of a lot of pesticide on crops and still fall under an 'organic' label, and you can have a GMO where literally no pesticides or herbicides are applied.
Also, organic is important because they do not irradiate food which rips them of nutrients especially in dry herb form like cinnamon. Organic produce also uses less wax. Most produce especially fruit have wax all over it. Next time you're in the market look how shiny the conventional apples are vs the organic apples. You are looking at wax. With organic its essentially what's NOT on the food. The Swedish studied families who ate convention foods and they measured the glyphosate in their blood. They then switched them to organic and the glyphosate drastically reduced.
It is scary that all foods we eat this century are GMO. You know where I get most of my organic produce? My garden. Where I know damn well what was and wasn't sprayed on the crops.
I'm speaking of personal experience. Personal trial and error. Personal journals and months of effort. And don't call it all a costly placebo. Go try endometriosis, chronic migraine, and major aphthous stomatitis for a few months. Controlling inflammation is key to managing symptoms. And doing so with food is a very cheap solution indeed.
You should try as much to avoid GMOs. If you are a person allergic to salmon, the second best alternative would be chicken. However, you certainly can't be allergic to all fish. Black cod and sardines are very high in omega 3. Not everyone agrees with chicken as there's not too much nutrients in it. If not salmon you could choose wild elk (hard to get but thinking technically) or grass fed buffalo. All fish and seafood. Chicken is at least feasible to purchase in a normal grocery store and thus more attainable for the average person to consume. It’s good to know you don’t have to spend a lot of money to obtain the ingredients needed for vital processes such as building protein or synthesis of hormones and neurotransmitters.
Speaking of optimal meals, besides the importance of let’s say a Mediterranean-diet type meal for it’s anti-inflammatory benefits, I’d say the most truly nutritional meal would have to be lentils with rice which contains all the essential amino acids. The amino acids lacking in one, the other provides. However, several diets (Whole 30, I think, and another I can’t recall) suggest giving up lentils.
Well, the truth is the whole 30 is an experiment to test yourself for food sensitivities and allergies. It's not implying all the foods are "bad". Just that you clean your system of them for 30 days, then introduce one at a time and take note of how you feel. However, that’s a very restrictive diet, Whole 30. And can cause serious problems for some. Plus its only an elimination diet meant to remove “potential” food sensitivities for 30 days. Nutritional advice should be individualized and probably why nutritionists (with actual degrees) have to take chemistry classes. I clearly recalled from a study that a simple bowl of lentils and rice contained all the essential amino acids and equated that to the most nutritional meal if one had to narrow down a meal down to a few basic ingredients. I’d never consider it as the only source of food or one to be eaten daily.
Basically, all foods containing protein are seen as nutritious for the body. Consider administering sweet potato until satiated. Repeat until forever. Potatoes and eggs in combination have the highest biological value. Add some brokkoli or other veggies and a little bit of oil and there you go. Potatoes have all the nutrients you need to stay alive except for fat and they are easy to grow...even on Mars. It's how much protein (proportionally) from the food you’re eating that your body can actually absorb and use.
However, from a macronutrient perspective going with any one meal you’ll miss trace minerals or other micronutrients in the long run. You would get pretty bore as well.
Other source of protein you can try is red meat. Red meat contains all the amino acids we aren’t able to make ourselves. Meat has all of the essential amino acid, I mean fresh red meat's. However, with eating animal meats you should be careful with some of the organs. I have done much research on animal livers, and the fact is they are dangerously high in Vitamin A. For certain animals, yes. Not sure if that's the case for cows but I know if you eat a polar bear liver you'll die, lol.
Fortunately, grass fed meat has omega 3 in it. On a bed of Kale or Spinach with walnuts, berries and hemp hearts. Maybe some over medium eggs on top of the steak and use the yolk as the dressing. Literally just Google grass fed beef liver wherever you live.
If we are speaking scientifically, then vegetables such as Spinach, Broccoli, avocado should be added with your meat's drowned in olive oil. if you were to disregard taste and choose a single meat, beef liver by far is one of the most nutritious food on earth. But even then liver has its context and should not be eaten every single day, especially considering that an entire bull yields a single liver weighting around 5kg out of more than 100kg of edible meat. ironically, I'm not sure if eating only it for the rest of my life would be "optimal"
Diversity of food is too important. And it depends on your personal genetics, in any case. However, whole foods are better, it's better to get vitamins and minerals through whole foods instead of processed means. For digestion at least. A whole foods diet should be rich enough in vitamins and minerals to not need supplementation. As most people thought a whole food diet must be but one meal, isn't true. That’s not easy to achieve. The only way I can think of that would hit all our needs perfectly in one meal would be supplementation.
Honestly, there isn’t any optimal meal. i can't imagine any meal that would give you proper amounts of ALL micronutrients. Like I said before, a diverse diet with foods containing various micronutrients is best. From a macronutrient perspective though: grilled chicken, rice, and vegetables. All cooked without too much oil with a variety of plant based whole foods.
Also, eating one optimal meal for the rest of your life, scientifically this question doesn’t work, because it doesn’t exist. People's needs greatly differ and therefore what would be optimal also differs. There would be many combinations. At this point it would be about choosing the right foods and food combinations for your specific body type. Then maybe eating local and seasonal also has a benefits for your health from a microbiome perspective. Maybe also adding spices to enhance digestion and therefore enhance assimilation of nutrients.
Most optimal meal to eat health wise if “taste wasn’t a factor” should only cared about ultimate sustainability and health”. Some things to consider: Biodiversity is important for sustainability. Biodiversity includes plants, animals and a variety of microorganisms. In a healthy and sustainable ecosystem, there are a greater number of life forms towards the bottom of the food chain and a small number at the top (apex predators). Our ecosystem can only sustainability support a large number of humans if they eat a more widely available and less resource intensive diet (e.g. plant and microorganism based). For optimal human health in general, you just want to get the proper amount of macro and micronutrients, which can come from a variety of organic material. On an individual level, other factors can come into play such as allergies, sensitivities and metabolic differences.
The best advice - Don't just lookout for optimal meals. Option in always for healthy diet that are rich for the body, than just optimal meals - this meal doesn't exist. It also really depends on what you do. A bodybuilder needs more protein than someone working at an office job. Diet such as the mediterranean diet is supposed to be one of the healthiest at least providing the longest life...its basically much full grain carbs, lots of veggies, milk products, fish, olive oil and red wine. The optimal meal would be based on multiple factors that would vary from person to person. What is optimal for me may not be optimal for you. Example someone active all day would not need the same nutrition as someone Indoor.
Health doesn’t boil down to a single meal but is the outcome of consistently sticking to a good habits. To hit all your nutritional requirements in one meal would require so many different sources of food.
In terms of one nutrient, for me it would be something high in potassium=cucumbers, fruits, peanuts, and some type of meat/protein/fat, eggs, chicken, fish, beef, cheese. I mean, technically we'd get into a bioavailability discussion there, but yeah if there was a pill combined with a shake that could provide perfect nutrients in the appropriate ratios that would be awesome.
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