People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day • Hacker News Board

Re: People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

#141

Post by willsun » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 8:31 PM UTC

apo wrote: post #22

Article doesn't mention it, but I suspect one benefit is weight control. If you eat something different every day, it's hard to be mindful of consuming too many calories. Especially given the high levels of fructose corn syrup in just about everything. You can go broke even with a high paying job if you don't manage expenses. You can also get fat eating all the right foods but in too much quantity.

This is an insightful point, and has been demonstrated in several studies [1] - limiting variety simplifies and bounds the food decisions you have to regularly make.

[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2005.10...

Re: People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

#142

Post by jacobush » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 8:33 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #78

When my daughter was born during the recession, my wife and I went through a stretch where money was pretty tight. One obvious expense to cut was eating out for lunch every weekday. So I switched to bringing in lunch. For several months, I brought the same thing: granola, yogurt, and chopped melon. I love food and love variety, so I was really surprised to discover that I simply didn't get tired of it or resentful. E…

I felt kind of dizzy at first - your daughter... the 1930s?! Then I realised which recession you meant.

Re: People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

#143

Post by riku_iki » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 8:34 PM UTC

ArrayList wrote: post #132

charlesju wrote: post #109

I'm on a low carb diet for both losing weight and better budget. I've tried so many things over the years, but having a consistent routine every day seems to be the easiest for me to follow. I've found that having a "yes" list is WAY easier to manage mentally than having a "no" list. For those interested in my diet plan, I eat the following: 7am 3 cups of water followed by 3 cups of coffee. 10am 1 cup bone broth + 1…

Keto diets are sketchy science at best. I can't believe anyone still falls for it.

Why do you think so? It sounds as well studied already.

Re: People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

#144

Post by riku_iki » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 8:35 PM UTC

Okvivi wrote: post #40

I've eaten the same breakfast, and the same Sweetgreen salad for lunch (in 6-12 months streaks) for the past 5 years. The reason it works so well for me is the reduction in needing to make decisions every day, and feeling bad about having made the wrong choices. I like this because this is in a part of my day where I need to focus on work, and being productive, and don't need to be distracted by food decisions. I als…

What is your breakfast, if you don't mind to share?

Re: People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

#145

Post by danielbigham » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 8:35 PM UTC

There is a wise phrase, "more with less", that people may be familiar with. I think this article fits into that paradigm nicely. Imagine the difference in global outcome if person A ate out each day of the week for lunch, while another followed the pattern of eating the same thing for lunch and took the money saved, putting it towards something like clean water in developing nations. Even a single human being doing this would make a big difference.

Re: People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

#146

Post by ska » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 8:36 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #100

wahern wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fast food often uses fortified ingredients. Perhaps the most common is fortified flour. Some chains use iodized salt. Preservatives like ascorbic acid or vitamin E effectively provide fortification. Other than a lack of fiber and ease of consuming too many calories, one could do much worse than fast food--McDonalds, Taco Bell, etc. I think it's easier to get it wrong using a so-called whole foods diet. The ingredient…

Did you know if you only ate McDonalds for every meal of every day... you'd be underweight? A burger, medium fries and diet drink is 588 calories apparently. So three of those a day is only 1764 calories! A massive deficit for almost everyone.

Not really. I would file this under misleading-but-true (although when I checked your numbers I came up with 630, not 588, still a bit shy of 2000cal/day so a little low for most people.

However, it really relies on two things (three, if you count "no snacks at all or other drinks")

1 - diet drinks only. If you change your diet code to a medium coke you are now at 2500cal/day. So instead of a deficit, you have a surplus for most people.

2 - you picked the basic smallest burger. Even if you only change that to a 1/4 pounder, you're up at 2300cal. And it mostly goes (way) up from there (with some exceptions, but even the fillet-of-fish or mcchicken are >100cal more than the basic burger.

So if you change it to "if you only eat from a severely limited subset of the McDonalds menu 3x a day and nothing else, you might be underweight". Sure, that's true. I'd hate to be your GI tract with that severe lack of fiber and vegetables, but you could do it for a while.

If you eat anything like a "typical" order for breakfast/lunch/dinner there, you are likely to have a pretty severe surplus. Hardly surprising, really. Hell some of the breakfast offerings are > 1000cal by themselves.

Re: People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

#147

Post by catilac » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 8:36 PM UTC

I love monotony in the right places. I'm particular about food, but I never bothered to research whether eating the same thing is OK. Glad I can just plan a healthy meal, and eat it over and over again.

It's only when I'm with others when I end up doing something different. And that different meal option almost always ends up being something I don't really want to put into my body.

Monotony is a great way to save money too. If you're cooking the same meals there is a lot of efficiencies you discover every day. The only difficulty comes when/if you want to eat seasonally.

Sometimes the desire for variety is just that. A desire.

Re: People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

#148

Post by standerman » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 8:36 PM UTC

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #92

munificent wrote: post #78

When my daughter was born during the recession, my wife and I went through a stretch where money was pretty tight. One obvious expense to cut was eating out for lunch every weekday. So I switched to bringing in lunch. For several months, I brought the same thing: granola, yogurt, and chopped melon. I love food and love variety, so I was really surprised to discover that I simply didn't get tired of it or resentful. E…

As an aside, I save ~$1300 a year by bringing in lunch, and ~$550 per year in breakfast, in addition to controlling portions and nutrition. If I had been doing that for the past 10 years I could buy a new car by now, or put a pretty decent chunk into retirement. I now find it absolutely bizarre how many people at work go out for lunch.

It's really good for the economy to go out for lunch. You create a lot of jobs by doing that. If you're mindful of where you eat you can also support immigrant and minority owned businesses.

Re: People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

#149

Post by jpindar » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 8:36 PM UTC

ip26 wrote: post #90

saas_sam wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a ton of sugar and carbs to me with barely any protein...

Nuts & cheese contain protein. And whole pineapple chunks is not "just sugar", I thought it was pretty well established that whole fruit is not comparable to soda. Although I guess in fairness depending on the can you buy, some have a fair amount of added sugar in the form of juices & syrups.

I buy bags of frozen fruit pieces. One advantage is that you get just the fruit with no juice or syrup, and I think frozen fruits and vegetables taste better than their canned counterparts anyway.

Re: People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day

#150

Post by danielbigham » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 8:36 PM UTC

RobertRoberts wrote: post #98

I lived on the streets for a time as a teen. When I got off and had my first real place to live, I couldn't afford much. I had potatoes, butter (was like heaven) soy sauce and mustard. So that was my dinner for months. My co-workers thought I was crazy when I microwaved a potato and put soy sauce and mustard on it. I simply didn't have anything else. Later I got pickles and cheese (the greatest thing I had ever had u…

I absolutely love your sentiments. hug