Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton lost four pounds and a lot of equilibrium when he spent a week trying to live on a poverty diet.

“I had to skip a few meals and I ate a lot of ramen soup,” Stanton told the Star this week.

“You have to make choices: No desserts. You can’t buy in bulk if you only have $29 a week to live on. It was very difficult but, look, I only had to live through it for a week.”

Stanton had accepted a challenge from the Arizona Community Action Association (ACAA) and the Valley of the Sun United Way to see what life was like on the budget of someone receiving U.S. food stamps, which works out to $4.16 a day per person.

By Day 4, he wrote in a Facebook blog: “I’m surviving on an apple and handful of peanuts, and the coffee I took to the office until dinner. I’m tired, and it’s hard to focus. I can’t go buy a sandwich because that would be cheating — even the dollar menu at Taco Bell is cheating.

“If I were doing this with no end in sight, I probably wouldn’t be so pleasant.”

Stanton said “as a policy-maker” he decided it was important to see how the 1.1 million Arizonians who rely on food stamps get by.

“I’m the mayor of all the people, no matter what socio-economic background,” he said.

“So many families who were solidly middle class are living on food stamps now. Kids have to be well nourished to pay attention in school. I’m concerned about struggling families being able to send their kids to school well-fed and ready to learn.”

Stanton criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommendations for people on food stamps, pointing to its suggested breakfast of orange juice, cooked rice cereal and toast.

“There’s no protein in that meal and the ‘fruit’ is juice — that’s not going to stick with you.”

He admitted his week was “mostly symbolic” but said it did affect his way of thinking about food policy and how people collecting food stamps also need to depend on food banks run by charities.

“We need to rethink everything about our support programs.”