Food: Can Variety Breed Indulgence?

No variety can stall weight loss, too.

This is the exact opposite of Seth Roberts' (of Shangri-La Diet fame) thinking. He actually recommends randomly mixing spices to change tastes every time you eat for variety, since he feels that the obesity crisis is partially caused by food that tastes the exact same way each time you eat it (such as microwave meals and chain fast food). He gives the example of sprinkling cinnamon on your pizza (assuming you don't usually eat it that way).

Of course, contradictory advice is par for the course in the dieting world.

I try to do a more non-dieting thinking there, of eating exactly what I want. It may be the same oatmeal for breakfast a week in a row, and it may be just an apple for breakfast instead, or eggs. I know the apple is not as good a breakfast as the oatmeal or the eggs, but if that is what I want at that day, why not? I feel I eat less this way than if I force myself to have the oatmeal, cause then, half an hour later, I'll go and get the apples since that left me unsatisfied.

In his book, "Mindless Eating", Dr. Brian Wansink documents the studies he did in which people who were offered a large variety of food, did eat more than those who had less variety (see http://www.mindlesseating.org/). He did lots of other studies---a very interesting read!

I think the key is to find a good balance between planning and variety. I know that I am successful with maintaining my weight when I plan, yet I do tend to get bored with the same foods. And, when boredom sets in, I tend to make poor food choices.

So, I try to plan for a little variety. I'm constantly reading magazines and searching the 'net for healthy new recipes to try. There are ways to keep variety in your diet and keep it healthy...you just have to plan for it!

"Failing to plan is planning to fail!"

On the bad side, if you love food and cooking as much as I do, too much of the same thing will eventually lead to an epic splurge.

I think it does come to, as you said, PLANNING the diversity.

I have lost over 60 pounds by balancing the need for a little bit of variety with eating basically the same breakfast and lunch every day.

I think that, as with everything in life, the answer lies in moderation.

One does need to be careful, though, that a lot of variety doesn't lead to too many bad food choices.

Brian

I'm always concerned that if I eat the same food too much I will get sick of it. In middle school I *loved* hash browns. I ate them every day. Then one day I set my lunch tray down at the table, looked at my hash browns and wanted to barf. It was like I'd reached my hash brown quota for my life. I developed a mental block against them couldn't eat them again for years.

I eat the same thing for breakfast every single day and I eat very similar dinners and snacks every day as well. Why? Because I know how many calories there are in it and I don't have to think much about it. I don't think I'm missing any key nutrients, since my choices are very balanced. I take a calcium supplement and a multivitamin just to make sure, but I think if I had to choose different things all the time, I'd get sloppy and probably eat more than I should.

Jen said:
In his book, "Mindless Eating", Dr. Brian Wansink documents the studies he did in which people who were offered a large variety of food, did eat more than those who had less variety (see http://www.mindlesseating.org/). He did lots of other studies---a very interesting read![...]

I think there is a difference between variety in one meal, which is what this study is talking about and the yogurt one too, and variety in your diet. Eating one type of yogurt today and one tomorrow is not the same as eating the 2 types at once, which would def. make you more likely to overeat. It is the "buffet effect". If you get a bit of potatoes, a bit of rice, a bit of pasta, a bit of chicken, a bit of steak, some carrots, some green beens, you'll overeat much more than if you got steak, carrots, pasta.

Eating the same meal pretty much everyday would make me sick of it though.

Great post and excellent ideas in the comments. I agree with a lot of the comments... a basic structure for your diet which ticks all the health boxes and within that, variety and quality as much as possible.
Cheers ~ Mike.

I'm with you on breakfast. I have about 3 or 4 possible breakfasts, and I'll eat one of them for months on end before I switch. I'm on auto-pilot in the morning and can't be bothered to think about options.

As for other meals... I tend to not offer myself a variety of foods at any one meal. I'm a fan of one pot meals, wraps, casseroles, things that don't need side dishes. Meals with lots of side dishes remind me of family holidays and I tend to overeat. But I think it's smart to eat a variety of foods throughout the week, so you've got all your nutritional bases covered and your brain feels satisfied by the amount of variety.

I have to concur with the middle of the road folks. I like to plan for my variety, as I get sick of the same thing day after day, but I do tend to overeat at buffets etc., so I think that's true. I think its easy to misinterpret the mindless eating research. As someone pointed out, there is a difference between eating three types of yogurt in a sitting and eating yogurt every day, but different types. It is to our evolutionary advantage to eat too much (just in case of famine) and to eat all the different types of food when it is available, because different foods provide different nutrients. This is one reason we overeat at buffets.

I always take my breakfast with lot of interest and try to keep it as healthy as I can. I would always want healthy choices in my breakfast and other meals during the day.

Thats why when I come home for the holidays and my mum cooks different things all the time, I tend to overeat. Its because when I have too much variety, my attitude to food becomes unhealthy, I begin to have an insatiable desire to have variety and good taste all the time, which means I'm unsatisfied most of the time and I'm in search of the perfect taste that will satisfy me at last. But it never happens, I end up eating a lot of stuff.
If in the other hand, I eat more or less the same stuff every week, I rarely overeat because my attitude to food becomes that of providing my body with fuel. I think that the best attitude towards food is to think of it as fuel most of the time (albeit, tasty fuel) and to treat myself occasionally with things like chinese, indian food.

I think that eating simple food is a good way of losing weight or being satisfied with a lot less. True satisfaction for me comes from tasting everything in the food, whereas complicated food (ie food that takes long to cook) tends to be overdone and it loses its goodness and becomes heavy on your stomach.

Variety is good, if its a moderate portion. If you have a small bit of everything on your plate, then thats fine.

Ancient Spartan warriors ate black bread and bean soup three times a day for all the years of their training. And look what kind of shape they were in!

It was the ultimate in choice limited diets. All the other Greeks said that eating the same thing year in and year out is what made Spartans so mean.

The moral of the story is that restricting our diet choices too radically might be good for the waistline but bad for the soul. :)

Create a list which include the food combination for everyday,take some time to fill the list with the nutritional food combination,and print out,everyday,just select a combination,and update the list periodic....

"The moral of the story is that restricting our diet choices too radically might be good for the waistline but bad for the soul. :)"

Binko-I love this quote! I think you captured the essence of the argument. My body might be healthier if I ate the same thing everyday, but my mind would be miserable!!

Personally I find variety helps me stick to my diet. Yesterday I had salmon with brocolli and today carrot sticks with hummus for lunch. For breakfast I always have cereal - usually a high-fibre one like all bran, porridge or weetabix. Dinner is always something light. The key for me is to plan what I'm going to eat before entering the kitchen because otherwise it always ends up in 'picking' and a semi-binge which I always regret! This week I've lost 6lbs!

My breakfast varies between three completely different things...sometimes lasting weeks at a time. I too, listen to what my body wants.

But 'flavoured yogurt'...eeewww...never. Pure yogurt for me, no 'flavours' , fillers or sugar or other ingredients in it. I add and do what I want with it myself.

I think variety is important in general for the main meal. It helps one cover the nutritional needs of the day, and that adds up by the end of the week as to how healthily one has eaten.

Weight Loss Easily said:
Create a list which include the food combination for everyday,take some time to fill the list with the nutritional food combination,and print out,everyday,just select a combination,and update the list periodic....[...]

This type of thinking sounds too obsessive to me, no offense. It sounds borderline disordered.

I think it's the flavour point diet that recommends limiting variety of flavours - but just per day. So you have a 'pineapple' day, a 'tomato' day. Say, on "tomato day", for example, you'd have tomato, basil and feta omelette and toast for breakfast; cherry tomatoes and hummus as a snack; tomato and black-bean salad with pitta for lunch; corn chips and salsa as a snack; pasta with marinara sauce and garlic bread for dinner.

I think the aim is to reduce 'food addiction' and also prevent over-stimulating your tastebuds, thus helping you lose weight.

Binko said:
Ancient Spartan warriors ate black bread and bean soup three times a day for all the years of their training. And look what kind of shape they were in![...]

http://entrepot.wordpress.com/2006/04/22/2-faces-of-greece-athens-and-sparta/