How many different foods do you eat?
Posted by kathryn in Uncategorized
This week on Limes & Lycopene I want to talk about one of the fundamental principles of good nutrition: eating a variety of foods.
Almost everywhere you look, health and nutrition bodies recommend variety as one of the key dietary guidelines.
So this week I’m going to be talking about why it’s important and what variety actually means. I’ll end the week with the most important part – how to increase the variety in your diet. Some simple and practical suggestions.
But first a question: how many different foods do you eat in a day?
While most people would say they were eating different foods all day, often when you scratch the surface it’s the same fundamental ingredients over and over again.
Say you breakfast on Weet-bix. milk and a banana. Have a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch, and a couple of biscuits mid-afternoon. Then finish the day with pasta, sauce, parmesan and a side salad.
While you may think you’re eating different foods, the same basic ingredients pop up in each meal:
- Wheat is in the breakfast cereal, the bread at lunch-time, the biscuits and it’s the main ingredient in pasta.
- There’s milk for breakfast, but also a couple of doses of cheese – which are based on milk.
- Tomato is found in the lunch-time sandwich, but it’s also the most likely base for the evening pasta sauce.
- On top of these three there’s a banana, sugar in the biscuits, ham, a few vegies in the salad and pasta sauce, as well as some salt.
If this is your daily diet, then you may only eating about ten different foods a day.
Keeping track of how many foods you eat
Over the next few days I’m going to keep a track of the number of different foods I eat. And I’ll report back. Update: I’m posting my daily food lists "here":/blog/2008/05/15/the-variety-of-foods-i-eat.
But I’d also really like to know how many different foods you’re eating. It’s not a competition – I’m just endlessly curious about what people eat.
I’m looking for basic ingredients. Don’t worry too much about food additives, it’s the fundamental components of your diet that I want you to track.
So, how many different foods do you eat each day?
Photograph by Svacher under the terms of a creative commons license.
13 May, 2008
Comments
I really try to keep a variety of food in my diet. There are some things I intentionally try to eat daily, like yoghurt, for health reasons.
I think eating seasonally can help with variety, too, even though it technically limits what you can buy. I feel like the process of eliminating foods, however, really makes you explore what options are still there… and there are definitely plenty of options in today’s world!
Cool idea for blog discussion…
Interesting that you have posted on this today as I have just posted the contents of what today’s 2&5 box for animal vegetable mineral so that people can see the potential variety in a week’s diet, even when sticking to seasonal fruit and veg.
Fruit and veg boxes, while sometimes pricey, are an awesome way of forcing variety and making yourself to try new things. That looks like a fabulous variety of goodies :) I think the process of choosing and making your food is as important as the eating, and if paying a little more is what forces you to have that variety and give you the inspiration to experiment with different foods, then I’m all for the few extra dollars/pounds to do so. It’s all about a positive relationship with your food, so far as I see it…
on the contrary, boxes provide an economical way to eat a variety of foods. To buy in a store would involve having to buy retail quantities of each item – certainly more than $30 ($25 if more than 1) per person.
It really depends on whom you chose for your box supply and what the ethos of their business is.
I get a box of fruit and veg too and I agree it does force you to eat things you would not think to buy.
I don’t know if I do eat a variety of food though I do try to eat well so this will be an interesting challenge. I will keep track for a few days and report back!
hmm interesting question – I actually think blogs make me eat different foods because I get inspired by seeing what other people are eating! I think the eating a variety of grains is more of a challenge for me than eating different vegetables but I am improving at that
Today wheat (with a little rye) bread for breakfast and lunch, oats at lunch, rice at dinner, some root veg in the bread, leek and tomato, milk at lunch, chickpeas, brussel sprouts, pumpkin, potato, cauliflower and tomato at dinner and some apples, mandarin and banana – wow – that is a good day for variety, I think! Sugar, oats, fruit, wheat and of course chocolate in my snacks! And raspberry jam on the toast at breakfast! Takes a bit of thinking to list all this!
I like the ‘what colour is your diet’ book (can’t remember the author) because I think a variety of colours helps but maybe I need to think variety of textures with grains! Am looking forward to your posts.
Oh wow, interesting post. I think I do pretty well in terms of variety, but my 2 year old daughter is a totally different story. I try hard to get a variety of foods into her diet, but she eats the same things over and over again.
Anyway, I’m gonna keep track (for both of us). Thanks for inspiring me.
Kathryn, I am very excited about this topic and am looking forward to reading more about it. I like to include a variety of foods in my diet but have never kept a tally so really have no idea if I’m doing as well as I’d like to think I am. You’ve inspired me to get the food journal out this week and keep track. This will be very interesting!
Kip – you’re exactly right about eliminating foods forcing you to be more adventurous and use a wider variety. Seems counter-intuitive doesn’t it? But it’s either that or go crazy with the boredom of eating the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again.
Grocer – thanks for linking to the pictures of your vegie box. We used to get one every week and yes, it did encourage me to eat more widely. Now I make a conscious effort to buy different foods at the greengrocers.
Sue – thanks for taking part, look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Johanna – I agree with you about blogs encouraging wider eating. I’ve been having a lot more quinoa recently and can directly relate that to Ricki’s posts at Diet, Desert & Dogs. Blogs also remind me about foods I haven’t had for a while. Puts the suggestion in m brain.
Tiny Morsels – it is often hard with kids. Keep track for a couple of days thought, you may be surprised.
Cassie – thanks for taking part. It’s a slightly different way of looking at what you eat, from the conventional diet diary.
All – I’ve started noting down my foods this morning and I’ll post my tally at the end of the day.
My first day total:
Which I think makes 31 foods. I’ve had the same food in a couple of different forms, eg sesame seeds & tahini; wheat in bread & tortilla, milk in yoghurt & cheese.
How did you go today?
I’m going to post all my daily food lists here.
thanks a lot. never seen such a inspiring food blog. any suggestions if you are on a budget. bcos i buy food in bulk when they are on sale. so end up with same food for a week. any suggestions pl
thank you
Hi there Suzy, thanks for your comment. I’ve written some posts on eating frugally, eating from the cupboards and what I’ve cooked.
You might also be interested in the Cucina Bella US$7 dinner challenge which I’m going to take part in next week.
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