Is it bad to constantly eat the same food

[Zac with no K]

I'm usually eating eggs and toast or quesadillas containing flour tortilla, eggs, cheese and meat. It's just the easiest and quickest things to make.

Lately I've been worried about what kind of harm eating the same foods over and over could be causing?

 

[alex_chris]

Monotonous eating can get you in trouble. The diet of your lacks in veggies and fruit, long term that would be a problem. But you should discuss this with a dietrician to see whether this will lead to certain deficiencies.

This is an interesting diet. For many Crohn's patients with some activity the heavy use of eggs might be a problem. Similarly the reliance on a lot of white bread is normally deemed problematic.

Re "easiest and quickest things to make" there are dozens of things that also are quick and easy to make from porridge to rice with chicken to noodles with a light sauce to boiled PEALED salad potatoes with a bit of lightly cooked meat to polenta etc. I'd try out a few things that your stomach feels good with.

 

[Ya noy]

I know college students who live on ramen noodles, but even they know it's not especially healthy.

It sounds like your diet is lacking in any fruits/veggies, which can cause certain Vitamin deficiencies, which can cause various health problems, lower the effectiveness of your immune system, etc. For example; vitamin C (oranges and other citrus fruits) deficiencies can cause scurvy, bleeding gums, loose teeth, vitamin D/calcium (milk) deficiencies can cause rickets, vitamin K deficiencies (leafy green veggies) can cause uncontrollable bleeding and underdeveloped bones, vitamin A deficiencies (carrots) can cause night blindness, conjunctivitis, etc.

All kinds of things could happen, or nothing at all. Really hard to say.

 

[Beach]

I suppose there are a couple ways to look at it - if concerned about your health being hurt by your diet, it's good to have an exam done, do some testing, finding out if by available means you are healthy. Hopfully that comes out well.

From a historical perspective, our ancestors tended to not have a highly varied diet. For example, one modern group that is often pointed out as having a very limited diet is the Irish. From what I've read, from the earlier recorded writings on the Irish diet they tended to live on meat products.

Later once the potato was brought to the country, and restrictive laws put in place limiting the movement and ability of the Irish to make a living outside of farming, the large majority of Irish only ate 3 foods, potatoes, dairy products and on Sundays would eat some meats. Despite the very limited diet, accounts at the time say the Irish were healthy in appearance and with few medical needs.

Ironically it wasn't till after the potato famine of the 1840s were a million Irish starved and another 1.5 million fled the country, that with fewer workers in country, the poor Irish's wages rose and with it the Irish poor were able to afford a more varied diet. In particular breads, and sugary items became popular and commonly sold. With the new foods added to the diet, accounts at the time say the health of the Irish poor deteriorated greatly.

 

[alex_chris]

The Irish also ate a lot of fish and there grain, cabbage etc. were common.

One difference to today's diets with people who lived primarily off meat (e.g. stone age people in Europe) is that they ate everything off an animal, from the meat we eat today to internal organs and even bone marrow. That is a bigger variety than the muscle meat we predominately eat today. ... Plus, people died earlier under a heavy meat diet...

 

[Beach]

I can't say I agree. Actually we don't know all that well how long people lived during paleolithic times, when hunting and gathering was done and more meat eating common. There are some skeletons found from that time, but not many. What is known is that meat eaters tended to be taller, have stronger bones and formed teeth with few cavities. It is believed that they were healthier than their farming relatives. We do know that Egyptians, Romans and those in the middle ages, which ate somewhat similar to us lived into their 20s and early 30s.

I guess the item researchers point out is that human females developed menopause, which is a rare trait to have in the animal kingdom. The majority of females are able to reproduce right up till death. At some point during hunter gather times human females were living long enough that menopause was an advantage to have.

The theory that I read on this from Professor Jared Diamond and his series of books has to due to raising humans being uniquely tiring. It became advantages to be and to have grandparents to help in the raising of children.

As for meat eating today verses vegetarians, there doesn't seem to be much difference in longevity in todays world.

"Mortality in British vegetarians: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC-Oxford)1,2,3,"

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2009/03/18/ajcn.2009.26736L.short

And not to over do it! But I remember also about the diet of the Irish and this mention from The Oxford Companion to Irish History - from the diet section I thought they had an interesting mention, page 147

"...Dietary changes were not always accompanied by improvements in nutritional standards. Paradoxically, at the lower end of the income scale the transition from a monotonous menu to more varied fare resulted in a fall in nutritional quality. The pre-famine potatoes and milk regime had been rich in almost all nutrients, but when it was replaced by cereals, bread, butter and tea, the nourishment was inferior. The new pattern was particuarly prevalent in towns where death rates from diseases of poverty were high. Contemporary commentators noted the deterioration in the nation's health and many ascribed it to poor diet..."

 

[kiny]

If you get all your macro and micronutrients you can keep eating the same stuff without issues. I have been on EN for months at a time, as long as your body gets the nutrients it needs it doesn't matter, it's all the same to your body.

 

[wild_one353]

read some nutritional science books and make sure you get everything you need. if you have a somewhat extreme limiting diet, as i do, i have created my own regimin, so i get the stuff i need, lots of supplements to do this, and foods that are hard to tolerate, i eat very sparingly but try to never cut them out. even though they have classified certain chemicals and minerals as vitamins or vital to health, there are maybe thousands of other chemicals in plants that are also needed.

 

[hugh]

Lately I've been worried about what kind of harm eating the same foods over and over could be causing?

I'm of the paleo persuasion, and eat the same foods quite alot by choice.
Most paleolithic diets would have been repetitive, often very repetitive.

All foods contain nutrients and anti-nutrients,
The main problems are either that specific nutrients are lacking [1] or that specific anti-nutrients are building up faster than they can be eliminated[2].

To generalise -Eating the same foods again and again will not cause problems so long as they cover all your needs, and they do not contain too many anti-nutrients[3] (for YOU to process).

I put grain in the 'food like product' category although their harmful effects can be minimised by proper preparation

[1]for example - http://www.marksdailyapple.com/5-co...cies-and-what-to-do-about-them/#axzz2QOBv6nQV
[2]for example - http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-grains-are-unhealthy/#axzz2QOBv6nQV
[3] this is extremely personal, as some people will eliminate or tolerate what another cannot......
" Metabolic food reactions are due to inborn or acquired errors of metabolism of nutrients, such as in diabetes mellitus, lactase deficiency, phenylketonuria and favism.
Pharmacological reactions are generally due to low-molecular-weight chemicals which occur either as natural compounds, such as salicylates and amines, or to food additives, such as preservatives, colouring, emulsifiers and taste enhancers. These chemicals are capable of causing drug-like (biochemical) side effects in susceptible individuals.
Gastro-intestinal reactions can be due to malabsorption or other GI Tract abnormalities.
Immunological responses are mediated by non-IgE immunoglobulins, where the immune system recognises a particular food as a foreign body.
Toxins may either be present naturally in food, be released by bacteria, or be due to contamination of food products. Toxic food reactions are caused by the direct action of a food or substance without immune involvement.
Psychological reactions involve manifestation of clinical symptoms caused not by food but by emotions associated with food. These symptoms do not occur when the food is given in an unrecognisable form. "
Wikipedia

 

[britt]

if you're eating solely carbs and meat and pretty much excluding all vegetables from your diet this can be very bad for your kidneys actually. with all that protein they have to process without the support of of the nutrients vegetables, over time can cause long term damage to the kidneys not to mention vitamin deficiencies. You need the vitamins from the vegetables to keep your body strong and able to fight or manage ibd even if that means juicing the vegetables to rid the fiber from them. if i'm not mistaken that was one of the main problems with the original atkins diet, it didn't include nearly enough vegetables to sustain what your body needed and it had to later on be modified. However, if you do make a lot of quesadilla try slipping some vegetables in with them such as spinach with your eggs, so long as the stems are cut off, or an avocado which is always good. just make sure they're well cooked before you eat them or your body may not tolerate them well. Since you do maintain the same type of diet it may take some time for your body to adjust to the vegetables so make sure to take it slow adding them in each day, don't just jump into eating a vegan diet daily!

Best of Luck!
Britt

 

[Beach]

Oh, there was a study not that long ago that looked at the Atkins diet and kidney health. Seems there isn't much trouble for the kidneys as some used to believe.

"Are low-carb diets safe for the kidneys?"

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/06/01/are-low-carb-diets-safe-for-kidneys/

&

"Seven Myths About Low Carb Diets"

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarb101/a/lowcarbmyths.htm

I would say the greatest concern for maintaining kidney health would be to avoid developing diabetes, and ended up on a dialysis machine. A high sugar/ carbohydrate diet is the bigger problem in this regard.

 

[britt]

low carb diets arent bad so long as you balance out the vegitables. =) i used to low carb diet but you have to find the right median

 

[hugh]

yup,
low carb doesn't mean low veggie,
vegetable juice is a good option

like that link, Beach
"Seven Myths About Low Carb Diets"