Question about food variety and nutrition

Kiyomoo

So we're supposed to mix up our foods, not always just eat the same thing all the time, in order to make sure we're covering all of our needs.

My question is...Over what time period?

Can I safely eat the same exact meal for a week straight, then eat a different meal for a week straight, so on so forth? It's a "varied" diet, but weekly instead of daily.

Asking because I'm trying to get more into food prep, and food goes to waste slower if I eat it more quickly. I know I could freeze some stuff, but I find it easier if I don't do that.

neanderthin

We need essential amino acids, long chain fatty acids in the form of omega's, essential vitamins and minerals after that, it's how you achieve getting them. If you achieve these goals with the same foods, where's the problem. Of course, variety among those particular food groups where these traits are found can be mixed and matched, but there is no written rule and if someone says otherwise, they're probably trying to sell you something. Cheers

Kiyomoo

neanderthin wrote: »

We need essential amino acids, long chain fatty acids in the form of omega 3's, essential vitamins and minerals after that, it's how you achieve getting them. If you achieve these goals with the same foods, where's the problem. Of course, variety among those particular food groups where these traits are found can be mixed and matched, but there is no written rule and if someone says otherwise, they're probably trying to sell you something.

Sure, but what if you are eating something that doesn't have all of these things? Say you split everything you need across 3 different main foods - and then only ate one of these three foods for a week, then the second for another week, then a third for a third week?

(BTW - I am not looking for practical advice. I know I could get all my daily nutrients in a day if I tried. But I'm curious if it would be possible/healthy if I switched it up weekly instead.)

neanderthin

Kiyomoo wrote: »

neanderthin wrote: »

We need essential amino acids, long chain fatty acids in the form of omega 3's, essential vitamins and minerals after that, it's how you achieve getting them. If you achieve these goals with the same foods, where's the problem. Of course, variety among those particular food groups where these traits are found can be mixed and matched, but there is no written rule and if someone says otherwise, they're probably trying to sell you something.

Sure, but what if you are eating something that doesn't have all of these things? Say you split everything you need across 3 different main foods - and then only ate one of these three foods for a week, then the second for another week, then a third for a third week?

(BTW - I am not looking for practical advice. I know I could get all my daily nutrients in a day if I tried. But I'm curious if it would be possible/healthy if I switched it up weekly instead.)

I was basically commenting on your assertion "So we're supposed to mix up our foods"

Do we need any of these nutrients daily is what your asking. An interesting question. Which nutrients influence the body on a continual basis as opposed to periodically and how does that manifest itself over a lifetime, or what is optimal, is probably good homework for the nerd. I suspect the negative effects, if any, are probably minimal as opposed to missing an essential nutrient altogether.

cmriverside

I think you are fairly young (?) Honestly - I lived on caffeine, sugar, nicotine and alcohol when I was young. I'm now way past my youth and sometimes wish I had taken more care but I can't change the past! I don't seem to have suffered a whole lot of physical/health consequences due to my decadent younger days.

I say don't sweat the small stuff. Try to eat a few servings of fruit and/or vegetables daily. Some protein, some fat. If that is pizza, salad, and an apple for three days, so be it.

These days I eat a wide variety of foods weekly with different sources of plants and animal products. My current belief (backed up by nothing at all other than instinct and maybe a little iffy research) is that a healthy microbiome requires a lot of different foods. I'm going with that for now. However, like you, I often eat the same meal several times in a week due to prep/freezing/spoilage etc.

With that said, my macros are as close as I can possibly get them on a daily and weekly basis. I pay really close attention to protein, and I track a few other things that are important to me like calcium and iron.

Kiyomoo

neanderthin wrote: »

Do we need any of these nutrients daily is what your asking. An interesting question. Which nutrients influence the body on a continual basis as opposed to periodically and how does that manifest itself over a lifetime, or what is optimal, is probably good homework for the nerd. I suspect the negative effects, if any, are probably minimal as opposed to missing an essential nutrient altogether.

Yep, that's what I'm asking, had trouble figuring out how to word it! Thanks for your thoughts

Kiyomoo

cmriverside wrote: »

I think you are fairly young (?) Honestly - I lived on caffeine, sugar, nicotine and alcohol when I was young. I'm now way past my youth and sometimes wish I had taken more care but I can't change the past! I don't seem to have suffered a whole lot of physical/health consequences due to my decadent younger days.

I say don't sweat the small stuff. Try to eat a few servings of fruit and/or vegetables daily. Some protein, some fat. If that is pizza, salad, and an apple for three days, so be it.

These days I eat a wide variety of foods weekly with different sources of plants and animal products. My current belief (backed up by nothing at all other than instinct and maybe a little iffy research) is that a healthy microbiome requires a lot of different foods. I'm going with that for now. However, like you, I often eat the same meal several times in a week due to prep/freezing/spoilage etc.

With that said, my macros are as close as I can possibly get them on a daily and weekly basis. I pay really close attention to protein, and I track a few other things that are important to me like calcium and iron.

I'm surprised you didn't suffer a lot of health issues because of that. Do you mean just mean permanent consequences, or do you mean you also didn't notice anything off during that time either? Our bodies sure are strong!

This is my second round at weight loss. My first round was focused purely on calorie reduction rather than caring about what I was putting into my body. This time, I am paying more attention to what I'm putting in my body, and I feel much more radiant than I used to before, so making sure I'm eating enough veggies and protein and less processed food is definitely making a difference!

penguinmama87

If you don't have a very specific need for a particular nutrient, I definitely think you can be more flexible. I always eat a lot of produce, but it varies by season, or I'm eating preserved versions of things in the offseason that can have a different nutritional profile than freshly harvested. There are weeks/months where we eat a lot of a couple things because it's just what's available. As far as I know, the only risk is boredom!

Children are different than adults, but as an example, our pediatrician has always recommended taking a weeklong view of nutrition instead of day to day. These are rapidly growing little people who eat almost nothing one day and are bottomless pits the next. But I don't worry about it, and they're healthy.

My instinct is that we're not designed to eat the same things 24/7/365. The fact that we store excess fat at all would seem to indicate that. So yeah, I wouldn't sweat it, if you feel good/your blood work is good/whatever metrics you're using.

(If you're really worried about micronutrients, there's always multivitamins.)

cmriverside

Kiyomoo wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

I think you are fairly young (?) Honestly - I lived on caffeine, sugar, nicotine and alcohol when I was young. I'm now way past my youth and sometimes wish I had taken more care but I can't change the past! I don't seem to have suffered a whole lot of physical/health consequences due to my decadent younger days.

I say don't sweat the small stuff. Try to eat a few servings of fruit and/or vegetables daily. Some protein, some fat. If that is pizza, salad, and an apple for three days, so be it.

These days I eat a wide variety of foods weekly with different sources of plants and animal products. My current belief (backed up by nothing at all other than instinct and maybe a little iffy research) is that a healthy microbiome requires a lot of different foods. I'm going with that for now. However, like you, I often eat the same meal several times in a week due to prep/freezing/spoilage etc.

With that said, my macros are as close as I can possibly get them on a daily and weekly basis. I pay really close attention to protein, and I track a few other things that are important to me like calcium and iron.

I'm surprised you didn't suffer a lot of health issues because of that. Do you mean just mean permanent consequences, or do you mean you also didn't notice anything off during that time either? Our bodies sure are strong!

This is my second round at weight loss. My first round was focused purely on calorie reduction rather than caring about what I was putting into my body. This time, I am paying more attention to what I'm putting in my body, and I feel much more radiant than I used to before, so making sure I'm eating enough veggies and protein and less processed food is definitely making a difference!

Well, I *may* have used just a tiny bit of hyperbole in my post.

Obviously I ate other stuff - but it was nowhere near any kind of a balanced life or balanced nutrition. I was skinny as a rail, too. And, yeah, I felt like death warmed over on a lot of mornings, but - living large, ya know?

neanderthin

Kiyomoo wrote: »

neanderthin wrote: »

Do we need any of these nutrients daily is what your asking. An interesting question. Which nutrients influence the body on a continual basis as opposed to periodically and how does that manifest itself over a lifetime, or what is optimal, is probably good homework for the nerd. I suspect the negative effects, if any, are probably minimal as opposed to missing an essential nutrient altogether.

Yep, that's what I'm asking, had trouble figuring out how to word it! Thanks for your thoughts

Your welcome.

Off the top of my head I remember reading a few studies that show that breaking down daily protein should be equally distributed throughout the day which has to do with maximizing protein synthesis, as opposed to mostly in one meal, which apparently is quite common to see most of the protein at the evening meal. Also is seems logical to have some fat with every meal to expedite the absorption of essential vitamins (A,D,K & E) as opposed to be just flushed down the toilet, for example. Cheers.

DFW_Tom

Kiyomoo wrote: »

So we're supposed to mix up our foods, not always just eat the same thing all the time, in order to make sure we're covering all of our needs.

My question is...Over what time period?

My understanding, but I'm no expert:
A mix of different types of food is healthy for all of us. Even more so for those on a plant based meal plan to ensure they get enough of the 9 essential amino acids that our bodies can't produce by itself to form necessary proteins. Since amino acids and proteins aren't stored for any length of time in our bodies (as proteins), and our system can only metabolize a limited amount of proteins at each feeding, a mix of different sources at every meal is important. I would assume a mix of minerals and vitamin sources would be beneficial too.

Intermittent Fasting and One Meal a Day type meal plans work very well for many people, but seems to be a contradiction to the above. As others have said - find what works for you. For me, spreading out my protein and fiber intake from different sources over 4-5 times a day is what works. I'll eat some things every day: Flax seed, Chia, Avocado, Blue Berries, Whey, Spinach, nuts of some sort, and one portion of meat or more. I get the variety I want from the other foods I eat: other vegetables, whole grains, dairy, beans and change up the meat sources each day/meal.

AnnPT77

Kiyomoo wrote: »

So we're supposed to mix up our foods, not always just eat the same thing all the time, in order to make sure we're covering all of our needs.

My question is...Over what time period?

Can I safely eat the same exact meal for a week straight, then eat a different meal for a week straight, so on so forth? It's a "varied" diet, but weekly instead of daily.

Asking because I'm trying to get more into food prep, and food goes t o waste slower if I eat it more quickly. I know I could freeze some stuff, but I find it easier if I don't do that.

I think you might be overthinking or overworrying here. Maybe.

Humans are adaptive omnivores. Us moderns in the lucky parts of the world have lots of affordable good nutrition right at our fingertips. Do you think our ancestors often had quite monotonous diets? I'm pretty sure they did. (Even my father's low-income subsistence-farming family got down to mostly beans by the end of Winter when young, and they mostly lived into their 80s in pretty good health.) Clearly, our ancestors lived long enough to reproduce, or we wouldn't be here.

With modern foods available to you, you should be able to get plenty good enough nutrition on average while eating the same things for a week, if you give even moderate attention to the nutrition.

You're probably fine eating the same thing for a whole week, especially if you're planning on easing your way into more varied methods. Variation and prepping are not enemies. If you have a freezer, you can use that to spread some meals or ingredients you've prepped over more than one week. You can prep something like a "big protein" then use it day by day with similar but varied veggies/sides on different days.

If you're not starting out with some diagnosed deficiency, you have some time to dial in a good routine, besides.

Think first about the essential macronutrients, which are protein and fats. Fiber's also important. Get enough of those, from good-quality sources. Include a range of varied, colorful fruits and veggies in ample quantities. Frozen ones are fine.

Just my opinion, but I think you'll be fine.

P.S. Personally, I'd go bananas if I had to eat the same thing for a week. But I'm not you.

Rockmama1111

As a budget-conscious person who lives alone, I would say I do a variation of this. I pick the produce that’s on sale and then use the heck out of it for a week. There’s really no other alternative unless I want to spend more. Some weeks are spinach heavy, sometimes squash, sometimes potatoes. I like to think the nutrients balance out.