Thinking about what to eat each day can create an extra source of anxiety in our already busy daily lives. When planning our meals, it's important to have all the necessary ingredients on hand and for these meals to be healthy and nutritious. As a result, practices like meal prepping, where weekly meals are prepared in advance , or daily meal planning have become a life-simplifying method for many people. While consuming the same foods daily can make planning and calorie control easier, reduced dietary variety can lead to micronutrient deficiencies and a decrease in the enjoyment of meals. Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of eating the same meal every day from a health perspective.
Why is it preferable to eat the same meal every day?
One of the biggest advantages of eating the same meal every day is that it saves time and energy. Thinking about what to eat requires both mental and physical effort for at least three meals a day. Repeating the same meals reduces mental fatigue, while methods like meal prepping, where all meals for the week are prepared in a single day, eliminate the need to cook every day. This provides a practical option for busy people and those who want to control their meal intake.
Eating the same salad, oatmeal bowl, or vegetable dish every day also makes weekly shopping much easier. This way, you can work with a clear shopping list instead of constantly having to create elaborate meals with ingredients already in the fridge.
Having a defined meal plan eliminates the need for choice. When we're tired, don't have ingredients to cook at home, or can't decide what to make, ordering takeout becomes a very easy option. This can lead to regret later, especially for those aiming for healthy eating, trying to lose weight, or counting their daily calories.
While eating the same meal every day might seem practical based on this information, can we say the same for our health?
What are the advantages of eating the same meal every day?
One of the biggest health benefits of eating the same meals every day is that it makes it easier to develop healthy habits. Maintaining healthy eating requires sticking to the decisions we make to cut out ultra-processed foods or sugar from our diet.
Repeating the same meals every day can greatly help in the process of turning these resolutions into a habit. Having a rigid plan makes it harder to deviate from it. However, when you chase after new recipes and creative meals every day in the name of healthy eating, it becomes quite difficult to maintain these resolutions after a few days.
If you're trying to increase or decrease your daily calorie intake, counting your daily protein intake, or have multiple restrictive factors in your diet that require attention to your health, planning your meals in advance makes it easier to follow later. Whether you're building muscle, losing weight, or adapting to various food intolerances, adopting a plan where you repeat the same meals every day can be beneficial.
What are the disadvantages of eating the same meal every day?
Gut health is crucial for digestion, the immune system, and mental health. A rich gut microbiome requires a variety of nutrients to maintain a healthy balance. In a diet where we eat the same things every day, even if the foods we consume are healthy, the lack of variety can negatively impact our gut health. The bacteria in our gut need different nutrients to maintain a beneficial and balanced population.
Not only our digestive system, but also our metabolism is negatively affected by eating the same meals every day. Because metabolism adapts quickly to dietary habits, meals lacking variety can reduce metabolic flexibility, slowing down the processing rate of different foods consumed in the future.
Eating the same two or three meals every day without changing them will deprive you of vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, and proteins that you could otherwise obtain. For example, if your recurring meals aren't rich in fiber, you may experience digestive problems later on. Similarly, various vitamin and mineral deficiencies can lead to fatigue, a weakened immune system, and an increased risk of illness.
Most importantly, eating the same things every day will become quite boring after a while. This monotony turns eating and nourishment into an automatic activity. Yet eating is one of our ways of communicating with our bodies. When eating becomes a monotonous activity, it can weaken our connection with what we crave, with new tastes, and with the positive feelings that come from nourishing ourselves.
What can we do?
While repeating the same meals every day has significant advantages in terms of developing healthy lifestyle habits, it also has some disadvantages that need to be considered in terms of gut health and nutritional diversity. However, we can adjust this eating pattern in a way that supports health with small steps.
Even if we eat the same meals every day, we can integrate a variety of vitamins and minerals, which are crucial for our health, into our diet. Including at least three fruits or vegetables of different colors in each meal will help ensure you don't miss out on essential nutrients.
Another way to create vitamin and mineral diversity is to make small, effortless changes, even when eating the same meal. For example, if you eat salad for lunch every day, you can occasionally add a different ingredient to your existing recipe. This way, you achieve variety without changing the entire recipe.
To support your gut microbiome, incorporate fermented foods into your daily meal plan. By including foods like pickles, yogurt, and kefir in at least one meal, you can take steps to support your health.