FUnderstanding what to eat every day is a drain. If you know it for the whole household, it’s a triple drain. Do you eat? fun. Meal planning? Not so much fun.
That’s part of the reason why it’s so easy to get into the routine of eating the same thing every day. Maybe you can start the day with the same breakfast, including eggs, bowls of oatmeal, smoothies, etc. Then repeat the salad with the same handful of ingredients for lunch. (Maybe you go wild and switch dressings.) For dinner, it’s one of the seven recipes you remember, with minimal ingredients and effort. Maybe you will dust the cookbook on Sunday if you have more time. Can you be involved?
Now it’s definitely worth having a quick and easy eating weapon on your sleeve. And hey, who cares if you eat the same thing over and over again as long as you cover your nutrient base with each meal? However, this is a problem. According to gut health experts, eating the same food every day is not a very good idea, even for healthy foods.With a South Carolina-based gastroenterologist Fiber fuel Author Will Bullsiewicz, MD, even says that eating a variety of foods, especially plant-based foods, is the best action that can be taken from an intestinal health standpoint. “The only largest predictor of a healthy gut flora is dietary plant diversity,” he previously told Well + Good.
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Tim Spector, MD, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and a scientific co-founder of Zoe, a microbial health company, has seen first-hand how eating the same thing every day affects the intestines. I did. He saw it through his work with Zoe and his scientific research, and even the mini-study he did himself when he asked his son to eat only McDonald’s for 10 days saw it. rice field. “The experiment was conducted in 2015 and is still not back to pre-McDonald’s gut microbiota diversity levels,” says Dr. Specter.
Well, McDonald’s meal is one thing. But what if your “same food diet” is healthy? Here, Dr. Specter explains what happens in both cases and provides more information on why gut microbiota diversity is so important.
What happens to my body when I eat non-nutrient foods every day?
Let’s start by digging deeper into what happens when someone eats the same foods every day and the nutritional value of these foods is minimal. For Dr. Specter’s son, he began to notice major changes in his health just four days after the experiment. “He called me and asked if he could stop studying because he was so sick,” says Dr. Specter. “He was lethargic and his friend told him that he looked pale.” His son also conducted a microbiota test at this time, also for only four days. We found that we lost 30% to 40% of the bacterial diversity in the intestine. Then he had to continue for another 6 days.
Eating the same food every day not only minimizes the types of bacteria that live in the intestines, but the nutrient-poor foods are sugars, inflammatory oils, and additives that actually kill the good bacteria that live there. It is made and tolerates the bacteria that cause inflammation and instead thrives. Dr. Specter explains that this combination is harmful to health in the short and long term. In the short term, Dr. Specter states that eating the same low-nutrient foods can cause low energy, brain fog, and digestive problems. It also weakens your immunity and increases your chances of getting sick. In the long run, eating this way is scientifically associated with a long list of health problems, such as depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and certain types of cancer. This is exactly why easy access to nutritious foods is an important public health issue.
What are the best foods for gut health? Watch the video below to see the following:
What happens to my body if I eat the same health food every day?
Well, so the disadvantages of a long-term junk food diet are more obvious than sprites. But if the food is nutritious, is it really that bad to eat the same thing every day? “If you eat the same kale salad every day, you can’t get as many gut microbiota as you would if you ate different types of salads every day, such as one day’s cabbage salad or grain-based salad. I’ll put it in my bowl, “says Dr. Specter. Sure, you may have technically achieved your nutrient goals, but you can still do better in the gut health department.
“Nutrition health isn’t just about counting nutrients, it’s about nourishing the tens of thousands of microbes in the gut,” says Dr. Specter. Just as low gut bacteria increase the risk of depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and certain cancers, Dr. Specter says the opposite is true. Increasing the diversity of gut bacteria reduces these risks, even if you have enough protein, fiber, and other nutrients.
So how diverse should your diet be? “Scientific studies involving more than 11,000 people have shown that the sweet spot for maximizing gut microbiota diversity is to eat 30 different plants a week,” Dr. Specter said. say. It may sound like a lot, but if you actually sit down and list all the different types of plant-based foods out there, you’ll find that you can actually achieve it. Vegetables, fruits, grains, seeds, nuts, beans, legumes, soybeans and herbs are all ways to get there.
Some may wonder if eating the same food every day may increase their sensitivity to that food. For example, if you eat eggs every day, can you increase your sensitivity to eggs?Or maybe you wonder the opposite please do not You can eat certain kinds of food for a long time That Does it lead to sensitivity? Dr. Specter says the jury has not yet appeared in either case. “This is an anecdotal thing I’ve heard, especially about the difficulty of digesting in the future by not eating certain foods, but there is no solid scientific evidence for either situation,” he said. say. It doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. It is always important to listen to your body, especially if you feel that something is causing digestive distress.
Do you feel encouraged to get out of the cycle of repeating the same meal now? What new food will you add to your grocery cart the next time you come to the store? No matter what you land on, there’s no shortage of recipe ideas that Google searches. If it’s really hard to make, ask Well + Good’s Cook With Us Facebook group of over 15,000 people for ideas. After all, even the food you really love can get tired. “Kale is great, but if that’s all you had in your diet, it would be pretty scary,” says Dr. Specter. It’s true enough.
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