I'd say I prolly eat about ten foods day in day out.

Beef

Chicken

Sweet potatoes

White potatoes

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Cabbage

...that's by far the bulk of it. Sometimes fennel, zucchini, squash, pumpkin, fish.

Probably no more than ten foods for the bulk of my food. I don't see a problem.

I'm thinking that so much variety is way overrated and that our perceived need for so many nutrients is due to so many artificially-introduced antinutrients - acquired nutrient-deficiency syndrome. ANDS - you heard it first here.

Look at any other life form on the planet and none seem to need the variety that humans think they need or have come to need. Carbohydrates are probably are not even necessary at all.

Ed

Beef steaks, salad...leafy greens, bell peppers, avocados, hard white cheddar cheese, olive oil, tomatoes Yams, cucurmin, unsweetened chocolate, cinnamon, greek yogurt, bacon, eggs

I am not a recreational eater. It is just sustenance.

Herbs and spices count as food, yeah? So no...for me, 10 foods is a no-go.

But realistically, I like others, really only use a few staples to make up my meals.

Cannot be sure about minerals but my 10:

1. 4% lean Ground beef
2. Chicken
3. Shrimp
4. Salmon
5. Sweet Potato
6. Eggs
7. Broccoli
8. Cauliflower
9. Chicken Stock
10. Carrots

Wild Salmon (Copper River is my favorite) or Fish Oil Suplements
Pastured beef or bison
Pastured eggs
Pastured cream
Pastured Butter
Cocounut Milk
Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
Spinach
raspberries
GrapeFruit

EDIT

I think I would combine the two Dairy products into Whole Milk and use it to make butter and cream. Then I would add Cod Liver Oil or Viatamin D ( I leave in Washington state so very little sun)...

1. Porkchops
2. Eggs
3. EV coconut oil
4. Salmon
5. Butter
6. chicken (legs/breast)
7. Ground beef . olives
8. Green tea

9 and 10. Vegetables: mushrooms, cauliflower, spinach.(I know its not just one but I will say so anyway)

This is about all I buy, Give or take nuts, dried figs, and 86% dark chocolate. When I am naughty.

Dairy+tubers+liver/eggs will give you all vitamins and minerals in adequate quantities(if you use enough sweet potatoes you could even do it dairy free)

1. Kerrygold butter
2. coconut oil
3. eggs- can be hard/soft-boiled, scrambled, poached, made into frittatas/omelettes, etc
4. any fatty budget cut of meat (what you base your meals on). you can also get good bone broth from this.
5. any starch- esp root vegetables like sweet potatoes, purple yams. mostly for PWO-carb.
6. sea vegetables- for iodine. like dulse, nori, laver, alaria, wakame, kombu, etc.
7. liver
8. dark green leafies
9. macadamias
10. 99% dark chocolate

the last 2 are totally optional, just for extra gustatory pleasure and to be treated as treats. general rule= fill up on meat + fat first. that will cover your bases. use any veg as garnish.

things i do occasionally use are berries (blackberries, bluebs, strawbs), a good himalayan pink salt, sometimes herbs and spices to braise my meats. and also tabasco sauce if i ever get bored. splurges are coconut milk, bacon, and VERY RARELY fruit. there's no fish/ seafood here, but u can sub that for the meat portion if you want. i just go with beef as my meat bc it's cheaper where i live than most seafood options i have.

i believe the true answer to your question "what we need to be in good health," is basically avoiding PUFAs/ seed oils, fructose, refined carbs/ sugar/ wheat. just avoiding these means you wont have so many anti-nutrients inhibiting nutrient absorption. so even though you might "seem" to be running low on the vitamins/ minerals that Paleo peeps typically have trouble getting (magnesium, potassium, sometimes calcium) you'll be absorbing much more of it while eating Paleo than if you were consuming PUFAs, fructose, and sugar.

Sure you could do fine on ten carefully chosen foods.

Pasture raised beef Potatoes Various colors of vegetables Blueberries

So far my top 10 foods are....

1. Eggs, lot's of eggs.
2. Tuna
3. Almonds
4. oranges/grapefruit
5. carrots
6. Pork chops
7. Cauliflower Soup
8. Coconut Milk
9. Raisins
10. and Eggs:-)

I would really like to try eating organs (I sounds like a zombie!!!) but never have and I am a bit nervous...I guess liver would be the best to start with.

1. Ground Beef
2. Bacon
3. Eggs
4. Onion
5. Potato
6. Leafy Green things
7. Garlic (I'm good with 7 things, but to round out ten.)
8. Other Meat
9. Whatever veggies are on sale/in season.
10. Spices

What is truly necessary in the ancestor sense is survival. This necessarily means eating anything that can be digested. How many is more important than how few.

My top10:

1. Beef sirloin
2. Pastured Eggs
3. Mushrooms
4. Turkey Liver
5. Broccoli
6. Cauliflower
7. Beef stock
8. Avocado
9. Tuna
10. Shellfish

+1: Dill

WHERE ARE YOUR ONIONS PEOPLE?

1. Beef
2. Chicken
3. Fish
4. Onions
5. Eggs
6. Peppers/Chilis
7. Cauliflower
8. Broccoli (I could stop here.)
9. Heavy Cream
10. Almonds

This summer I was on a very restricted diet due to my working environment; back country with ADD/ADHD/Aspbugers/Autistic students. The camp I worked for fed them literally crap.... sugar, tortillas...SAD. I had to hide my foods as well, so as not to have the kids ask why they couldn't eat what I was, and I had no kitchen. So this is what I lived off of and came out of this summer in the best shape I have been in since I was in high school.
1. Fish oil ( 9 pills a day)
2. 6 tbsp coconut oil
3. Pepperoni
4. Apples ( two a day)
5. Tuna/Salmon packets (I know they have soy)
6. Eggs (once a week)
7. Bacon (once a week)
8. Peanut Butter (omega 3 enriched)
9. Chocolate covered Espresso Beans
10. Almonds

This diet lasted for three months, with 3 day breaks every fifteen days. On those breaks I would eat steak and eggs for breakfast each day, and as much meat and fresh veggies as I could. The fruit stand down the road sold Avocados ten for two dollars. So I would load up on good veggies and meat for three days, and then back to the diet. It worked well, especially with no prep time, and having to shovel the food in hiding behind a tree or laying in my hammock.

1). Beef/Bison Sirloin 2). Coconut Oil 3). Grass Fed Ground Beef 4). Eggs 5). Collard Greens 6). Wild Bore Bacon 7). Baby Broccoli 8). Blueberry 9). White Chocolate (melted) with shredded coconut. 10). Petite Women