What’s cooking for breakfast? What’s for lunch? What’s the dinner menu tonight? These questions consume all of us several times a day, each and every day of our adult lives. And very often they are not easy to answer satisfactorily. Just ask the parent, spouse or flatmate whose carefully cooked meal evoked a frowning “not again” from someone on the dining table. There is a very practical and simple solution to this daily dilemma: eat the same food every single day. “Many people enjoy the comfort of eating the same meal each day as it saves time in decision making, makes prepping and cooking easier and is also convenient,” says Madhura Paroolkar Behki, a nutrition expert at Cult Fit.
Is it healthy?
Most believe not changing meals is unhealthy because it lacks nutritional diversity. “Eating the same meal every day can be healthy if it is nutritionally complete and provides adequate protein, healthy fats, carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins and minerals,” weighs in Bhakti Samant, chief dietician, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai. I eat papaya and a cup of black tea for breakfast, two mixed grain rotis, large helpings of two different vegetable preparations and a bowl of dal for both lunch and dinner since the lockdowns ended. I also add a protein shake smoothie with a banana, yoghurt and nuts if I am in my gym phase. Yes, there are the occasional digressions whenever I am traveling or stepping out with friends, but I have mostly eaten the same meal for close to five years. As Behki explains, “As long as the meals are balanced and you meet the daily nutrition requirements there are no issues in eating the same meals.”
While eating the same meal every day is not always unhealthy, but eating a nutritionally narrow diet every day can be, warns Deepti Khatuja, Head Clinical Nutritionist I Fortis Memorial Research Institute Gurgaon. “For example, a meal containing whole grains/millets, pulses or another protein source, vegetables, healthy fats and appropriate portions can be nutritious,” adds Khatuja. However, your diet becomes nutritionally narrow and deficient, hence unhealthy, when your daily meals are dominated by deep fried foods, ultra-processed item, don’t include whole foods, fruits and lack variety.
Since various foods provide different micronutrients and beneficial compounds, variety within the same daily meal remains an important principle of healthy eating. A great way of sticking to the same meals everyday is to rotate the vegetables, fruits, grains, pulses and protein sources while maintain a consistent meal structure, suggests Samant. There is nothing inherently unhealthy about routine, provided the overall diet remains balanced, varied enough and appropriate for the individual’s nutritional requirements for a balanced diet.
Strike a balance
It’s not merely convenient, rescues you from decision fatigue or saves time, sticking to a well-balanced unchanging meal also makes eating healthy a whole lot easier. “People often repeat meals because it simplifies decision-making and makes healthy eating easier to manage. Busy schedules, meal-prepping, budget considerations and familiarity can all encourage repetition. Having a predictable meal also reduces the temptation to choose highly processed or calorie-dense foods. For others, repeating meals helps with portion control or maintaining a particular nutritional target,” explains Sawant.
A set and predictable meal pattern can make healthy eating easier to follow consistently, says Khatuja. “Familiarity may also feel safer or more comfortable. So, eating the same breakfast every morning isn’t necessarily a bad habit,” she adds. There are more advantages of this kind of food monotony, still. A smaller grocery bill in these inflationary times is one such benefit as is tracking portion sizes and calories. “Buying a few staple ingredients repeatedly can be more economical than purchasing a wide variety of foods. Repeating meals can also help make portion control and calorie tracking simpler too,” says Behki.
Despite all the advantages and benefits, this approach to food and nutrition has its shortcomings. The most obvious and biggest flaw, all three experts concur, is the lack of variety and dietary diversity. And it becomes even more concerning when an individual randomly decides on the meal without understanding the nutritional needs. “It becomes concerning when the repeated meal is nutritionally incomplete or when it displaces other important food groups. For example, eating the same meal every day that is very low in vegetables/fruits, protein, fibre or is high in carbohydrates, sodium, sugar and ultra-processed foods,” warns Khatuja.
A big risk with even a seemingly healthy meal is that it may not provide every nutrient the body needs in adequate amounts when eaten repeatedly over a long period. “Different fruits, vegetables, whole grains, pulses, nuts, seeds and protein sources offer different vitamins, minerals, fibre and other beneficial compounds. Repetitive eating can become restrictive and may reduce enjoyment of food,” says Samant.
No matter what, such food monotony should be avoided for children, older adults, pregnant women, athletes and people with medical conditions. While consistency is useful and the freedom from decision fatigue is welcome, it should not come at the expense of nutritional variety and balance.