How Bad Is It to Eat the Same Thing Every Day?
Meal planning becomes much easier when you can eat the same food every day. On the other hand, diversity is one of the cornerstones of a healthy diet . So how bad is it if you eat the same food all the time?
Beware of nutritional deficiencies
Variety is important because each meal can make up for what the other is missing. For example, ramen does not contain vitamin C , but almost every fresh fruit or vegetable contains at least some of it. Vegetables do not contain vitamin B12, but eat a little meat or nutritional yeast from time to time and you will feed pretty much. With so many different types of food available to us, it is difficult, but possible, to become deficient in vitamins or minerals by limiting what we eat.
Another possibility: If you eat a plant-based diet and eat the same foods over and over, you may not be getting enough of all the essential amino acids. Meat, animal products, and some vegetarian sources such as tofu contain all nine, but most plant proteins are deficient. This is usually not a problem because different plant sources balance each other out.
For example, rice is low in lysine and beans are low in methionine, but a bowl of rice and beans balances this out. You can even eat rice and beans separately. But if you’ve ever eaten only rice and haven’t gotten enough other amino acids in your diet, you may eventually develop a protein deficiency .
Be aware of the mercury content if you eat a lot of fish.
Fish and shellfish can contain mercury, which can be a problem if you eat a lot of it. The EPA and FDA have guidelines for children, and for women who are pregnant or pregnant. They suggest limiting the number of servings of fish each week depending on the type of fish.
Most grocery store fish, including salmon, tilapia and pale tuna, are in the Least Risk category, with a recommended limit of 2-3 servings per week if you are pregnant. White tuna and mahi mahi are medium risk, only one serving per week is recommended. Shark and swordfish are in the category with the highest levels of mercury and are not recommended at all if you are pregnant.
For non-pregnant people, there is no set number of servings to strive for, but the EPA recommends that older adults and “people who eat more fish than the average person” pay attention to mercury levels. If you eat fish every day, choosing foods that are low in mercury will be more sensible, and you might want to mix foods with chicken or other proteins.
I cannot think of another contaminant that is both common and especially dangerous if you eat it all the time, but if you find yourself eating a really huge amount of the same food, see what it contains and if there are any. risks associated with this. … You may find some surprises; For example, an overdose of black licorice is possible . So look for your favorites just in case.
How to eat the same things over and over and stay healthy
These issues shouldn’t get in the way of your food preparation, but you should think about how to achieve some variety, even if all your meals follow the same formula.
Prepare meals in the same way, but change specific ingredients
Instead of eating the same food all the time, come up with a formula where you can change ingredients from week to week or season to season. For example, brown rice + chicken breast + broccoli is a popular choice if you want a lot of food that is high in protein and fiber. But you can also think of it as brown rice + chicken breast + wild vegetables. Maybe this week the vegetable will be broccoli, but next week it could be roasted peppers, and a week later it could be carrots.
Or expand the formula to something like carbohydrates + proteins + vegetables, and sometimes replace salmon or turkey with chicken, and replace potatoes or pasta with rice.
Look for other places to add variety. Maybe you love oatmeal for breakfast, but you can add something new every week. Blueberries, walnuts, raisins, and sliced apples are some great ideas.
And try this easy way to eat your rainbow of fruit and vegetable nutrients. Different colored foods contain different types of phytonutrients, so go to the store early in the week and buy something from each of the USDA ‘s five color categories :
- Dark green vegetables (such as spinach)
- Starchy vegetables (such as potatoes)
- Red and orange vegetables (such as carrots)
- Beans and peas
- “Other” vegetables (anything that doesn’t go with the above, such as cauliflower, lettuce, and eggplant)
Add them to food throughout the week. Frozen and canned are fine .
Reduce the amount of food you eat
If you know you’ll be eating a lot of the same, no matter what, use an app like Cronometer to see if anything important is missing . Enter your daily meal, making sure each food has data for all its micronutrients (some entries only have calories and macros, so check again) and see what happens. If anything is above the recommended daily allowance, it is probably normal; these numbers are the minimum, not the maximum. But if a nutrient is only present in very small amounts in your daily meal, consider adding it elsewhere. For example, if you are very low on vitamin A, it is easy to fix it with carrots or sweet potatoes.
Take a vitamin if you want, but don’t rely on it
Vitamin supplements are often viewed as insurance against poor nutrition, but the evidence does not support their use in this way . Different people have different nutritional needs, but not in the way the individual vitamin companies want you to think. To accommodate the differences, the RDA is set at a level more than adequate for the average person.
If you know you are not eating enough, it makes more sense to correct your diet than to buy pills. And if you’re healthy and not at risk of deficiency, chances are good that you don’t need the vitamin anyway.
If you are pregnant or may become pregnant, taking prenatal vitamins is recommended. And if a healthcare professional has ever told you that you need a specific supplement like iron or vitamin D, make sure you follow their advice. If in doubt, check with your doctor or dietitian if you are concerned about your diet.