Effect of eating same foods?

S

Sciencelovah

Registered Senior Member
Uhm.. what happened to our body if we eat same food (let say, maximum 5
types of foods) continuously for 2-3 months? Then after that the eating habit
goes back to normal (eat variety of foods). Whether because of the 2-3
months bad eating behaviour our body will experience permanent bad
effect? :confused:

I am looking forward to all of your response, thanks!
 
There are a lot of variables.
The person involved. Their health. The chosen foods. How those foods fit that person's body's needs. How well they complement each other?
 
Historically, the problem in a diet with limited variety has always been that our knowledge of nutrition was imperfect. The classic case of this was the impact of the Agricultural Revolution. As the ability of the land to feed more people increased dramatically, naturally the population increased dramatically with it. This resulted in dependence on a very small number of cultivated crops, especially wheat.

In the Mesolithic Era, hunter-gatherers fed largely on meat, which our metabolism is well adapted for, supplemented by seasonal fruits, herbs and nuts. The life expectancy of an adult who had survived the high mortality rate of childhood was, by some reckonings, in the 50s. In the Roman Empire, people fed primarily on wheat, with very little supplementation. Wheat is such a difficult source of nutrition that it has to be cooked before we can break down the cellulose and digest it at all, but furthermore it is very miserly in its assortment of vitamins and minerals, and most damning of all, it does not have a well-balanced assortment of amino acids so it is a deficient supplier of protein. As a result, life expectancy of that same adult two thousand years ago was in the 20s, and some sources put it as low as 23!

In my lifetime I have seen nutritional "experts" completely change their minds about ancient staples like milk, red meat, seafood, refined flour and soybeans, much less Chemistry's footnotes to the food pyramid like vitamin D, iron, magnesium and cholesterol.

Therefore, I would say that the risk of eating a low-variety diet is that you're not getting enough of something that scientists in the 22nd century will discover is essential to good health, and/or you're getting too much of something that those scientists will discover is bad for your demographic group or needs to be carefully balanced with something else.

That said, you're probably not going to hurt yourself if you only do this for two or three months and you assiduously follow the guidelines of respected nutritionists rather than a fad diet. I don't know what you mean by "five types of foods," but it won't be easy to devise a healthy, balanced diet with only five ingredients. So be careful. Unless you're my age and have a wife who's spent thirty years becoming an amateur nutrition expert, you'd probably better consult someone who knows more than you do before you try it.
 
Thx for the replies! Mmmm.. I posted a reply here but I already deleted it
because I dont want to confuse and terrify people, lol.

I am 29 and healthy and I am not undergo any diet, just thought to reduce food
expenses while I am in a new land. Foods is 3 times more expensive where I am
now, so I was thinking to just eat basic foods, I guess I was a bit shock with the
new finding. However I realize that it doesnt make any sense and that if I fall sick
healthcare is much more expensive. I just hate it that I have to pay 3 times for
the same thing I consumed somewhere else.

Thx again for the prompt responses.
 
Nothing will happen at all. Unless all you eat is twinkies. If you are really worried you can probably ship in a few cases of those canned nutrition drinks.
 
You can eat only twinkies for an entire month and be fine, a little sick at first, but you get used to it. One of my biology professors said that humans unlike many other animals a capable of eating and digesting just about anything that it can harvest nutrients from. For the most part you could probably eat whatever you want for a period of time and be fine. I have gone 2 months eating only donuts and brownies and I'm fine.
 
inzomnia said:
Uhm.. what happened to our body if we eat same food (let say, maximum 5
types of foods) continuously for 2-3 months? Then after that the eating habit
goes back to normal (eat variety of foods). Whether because of the 2-3
months bad eating behaviour our body will experience permanent bad
effect? :confused:

I am looking forward to all of your response, thanks!
Click to expand...

It depends on what you eat. Cheap does not necessarily mean bad.

You need

-complete protein: eggs, milk (can use milk powder, its relatively cheaper)
-fiber, minerals: tomato, banana
-carbohydrates: rice, bread, noodles

Sugar and butter are good for adding energy.

Rice adds bulk.

If you're cooking, beans/lentils with the rice are a complete meal.
Canned beans also work with bread
Eggs can be consumed with some vegetables like onion and tomato and make a meal with bread.

Have to warn you though, you'll eat less after some time due to the law of diminishing returns. ;)

Its not a novel notion though. A good way to detoxify is to go on an all fruit diet for a month.
 
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Fraggle Rocker said:
If you're a vegan you can simulate the protein from animal sources by combining wheat and rice with generous helpings of nuts and seeds. Each group has the essential amino acids that the other lacks.
Click to expand...

I was trying to keep to 5 cheap foods. :p
 
Thanks a lot for all input!! (hola, Sam, how are you?? ^^) I think all info above
will be useful for me.
 
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A question:

What about supplements? Like vitamin pills, mineral pills ...?

If a person eats a poor diet, as far as food itself is concerned, how much can this really be fixed by taking supplements?
 
S.A.M. said:
I was trying to keep to 5 cheap foods.
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Sorry, I lost track of the "cheap" part of the specifications. Too many years working on government projects. :)
greenberg said:
A question: What about supplements? Like vitamin pills, mineral pills?
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In general, as a scientific answer to a scientific question, they work pretty well. I'm lactose-intolerant so I take 150% of the MDAR in calcium tablets. Despite my attempts to be a good boy and eat a healthy diet I just can't stand the taste and texture of a lot of vegetables and besides I really like "comfort food," so I take not only multivitamin-mineral tablets but extra portions of some of the problematic ones like magnesium and antioxidants. But this has been an arduous process and every few years they change the rules.
If a person eats a poor diet, as far as food itself is concerned, how much can this really be fixed by taking supplements?
Click to expand...
If the reason you're eating a poor diet is that you're obstinate enough to refuse to eat what's good for you, like I am, then obviously it can work, especially if your wife nags you a lot. If the reason is that you live someplace where the foods necessary for a balanced diet are not available, but by some strange quirk of economics and international trade agreements you can buy vitamins and minerals at a reasonable price, then again you can probably do it.

But if you're avoiding nutritious foods just to save money, it absolutely has to cost you far more money to buy industrially-packaged supplements, than to just buy the right food in the first place. After all, even canned vegetables retain a significant portion of their nutrients--especially if you don't discard the water!--and frozen vegetables are quite high.

I can't promise this for certain, but I'm confident enough that I would definitely bet you an equal amount of money. :)

You're betting your health, which is not nearly as good a deal. :(

Taking supplements is not easy, not just a matter of counting out pills and popping them into your mouth. Some vitamins are fat-soluble and if you don't have enough fat in your diet at that time of day they'll just pass right through into your sewage. (Septic tank pumpers talk about the huge volume of undigested vitamin-mineral pills they find in their sludge.) Some minerals, like magnesium have to be taken in the right proportion with other minerals. Some vitamins, like D, and some minerals, like iron, can be toxic in doses that are not impossible to achieve by carelessness or overzealousness.
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
But if you're avoiding nutritious foods just to save money, it absolutely has to cost you far more money to buy industrially-packaged supplements, than to just buy the right food in the first place.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it is so in the US.
Europe is going crazy with prices of food. Buying a month's vitamin and mineral supplements costs around as much a 2-3 pounds of fresh tomatoes, for example. To boot, the vegetables are most likely of poor quality, quickly grown stuff that was picked green and left to ripen in boxes.


Taking supplements is not easy, not just a matter of counting out pills and popping them into your mouth.
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Yes. This is something that worries me a lot. Taking supplements requires a lot of knowledge - but what of it, when science changes its stance on it every few years!
 
the key to taking mineral and supplements is that they are easily absorbed which means something has to allow their absorption into the system, something like yogurt or these vitamins need to be in liquid form.
 
Does anyone vary the type of food they buy for their cats or dogs? Or they eat the same thing year after year?
 
kmguru said:
Does anyone vary the type of food they buy for their cats or dogs? Or they eat the same thing year after year?
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well this woman I live with has 4 kitties and they eat 1/3 what they are given (dry cat food junk) and 2/3 what humans eat and drop for their kitties...so in that aspect they get the fish the meat, some veggies, so yes it varies.
 
kmguru said:
Does anyone vary the type of food they buy for their cats or dogs? Or they eat the same thing year after year?
Click to expand...

I remember I used to feed my pitbull our dinner's leftovers. She freakin' loved it! Once she got used to the food we ate, dry dog food was never touched by her again.

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Anyway, I'm just curious: are protein supplements (as in protein powder) safe in the long run? I take it after every workout, but I'm curious if it could potentially be harmful. So far, it's done nothing but help me out.
 
Kadark said:
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Anyway, I'm just curious: are protein supplements (as in protein powder) safe in the long run? I take it after every workout, but I'm curious if it could potentially be harmful. So far, it's done nothing but help me out.
Click to expand...

well its tough on kidneys I hear.
 
kmguru said:
Does anyone vary the type of food they buy for their cats or dogs? Or they eat the same thing year after year?
Click to expand...

No, it's not good to change the diet of cats, it makes them fussy. I don't know about dogs, they're omnivorous.
 
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