What would happen if you eat the same food all the time?
Eating the same foods every day or repeating meals and ingredients throughout the week can help you lose weight or maintain your diet. Research has shown that greater food variety is associated with fat and increased body weight.
Researchers believe that the different flavors and textures may encourage overeating. When study participants gave only one snack option, they tended to eat less.
It doesn’t mean that diversity will automatically add inches to your waistline. A variety of fruits and vegetables are essential for supporting your body and improving your health. But eating the same thing every day can help eliminate the overwhelming number of unhealthy or less than a stellar meal or snack options.
Do you generally have the same shopping list week and stick to your favorite ingredients and essential recipes? You might be inquiring if this is the healthiest thing to do.
Steph Lowe, natural nutritionist and author of Low Carb Healthy Fat Nutrition is setting the record straight.
The Pros And Cons of Eating the same food all the time
Pro – 1: Food Preparation
Two practical food concepts that could change your life are “cook once, eat twice” and “power time.” It means that especially if you cook twice as much every dinner in the middle of the week, you will also take care of lunch the next day.
Then you’ll have a healthy option at your fingertips to fuel your workday and avoid the temptations of the high levels of refined carbohydrates available when your time is short.
The “power hour” concept sets aside an hour to prepare the following week’s meal. Some quick, easy, and nutrient-dense examples are soup, a roasted vegetable platter, and a frittata.
You may eat the same foods, but you will save time and money and make healthy choices throughout the week.
Pro – 2: Sustainability
Eating the same foods all the time can be fantastic for the environment because waste is minimal. However, the opposite can be when you buy ingredients for a recipe, only to throw away so much new food later at the end of the week.
A straightforward example is buying a whole chicken and roast on Sunday, using the left-over meat for protein during the week.And saving the carcass to make a slow cooker chicken casserole. Simple and highly durable.
Pro – 3: It’s Better for your Back Pocket
Scheduling food preparation time and minimizing food waste are two of the best ways to ensure your health goals don’t break the bank.
The apology that “Healthy Foods are too expensive” doesn’t apply when you plan, shop smart, buy in bulk, and maximize critical ingredients in multiple meals.
Con – 1: Boredom
However, one of the problems with consuming the same foods can be boredom. We all overate even our favorite foods and had to take a break for a while until we weren’t tired anymore, right?
One way to avoid this is to eat similar foods for a week and then change them the following week. You still cook your food and make sustainable choices, but instead get variety throughout the month.
Meal planning can be beneficial here, as you can double batch your favorite curry and eat half of it the first week of the month and freeze the rest to eat again in the third week.
Con – 2: Lack of Diversity
You’ve possibly heard a lot about Gut Health lately, and it’s more than just drinking kombucha.
One of the most fundamental goals for a large microbiome is to eat a diverse diet rich in prebiotic fiber such as onions, garlic, asparagus, cashews, hazelnuts, and flax seeds.
So if you keep your food list relatively small during the week, make sure you eat at least one or two of these foods to feed your beneficial bacteria and support your microbiome health.
Eating the same foods can be a great way to ensure that healthy food is easy to prepare, affordable, and good for the environment. With a few simple adjustments, you can avoid food boredom and support your gut health goals, making it the best of both worlds.
