FWIW, when adjusted for inflation, $39.93 (the total annual cost of Stigler's 1939 diet) is approximately equivalent to $712 in 2018 US dollars(1). Still a paltry sum, though, for a year's worth of food for most people in the US, I think.
Obviously they aren't comparable, I just think it's cool you could live in perfect health for a year for $2,000
- you manage what you measure (linear programming is really powerful, but also simplistic for this model)
- the human body is great at survival (general requirements are easily achievable, but surely something is wrong with the spoonfuls-of-flour approach)
I mention this because I'm not typically a fan of the sourdough style, but I am a fan of starter-leavened bread.
Edit: Okay, I figured it myself. Around $1850 Canadian, where I live. Still works out to $153 per month, which is almost exactly what I was spending on food during my frugal student days, about 3 years ago. I ate better than the pretty boring diet described here (though not by much) and I'm also quite a bit smaller than the human described in the question. Still, it's good to know that I couldn't have done much better than I did.
Numbers and assumptions: https://imgur.com/a/udCL3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_basket#Consumer_basket
There are a lot of ways to measure inflation. It's tricky because some categories of goods or services didn't exist decades ago, but do now.