Food Variety – A Catch 22

The buffet’s are treating me well here in vegas even though I’m downright abusing them. (it’s not a fair trade at all)

I can't stop eating prime rib in vegas!

Eating at buffets has reminded me of the inherent contradiction to the healthy eating mantra of eating a ‘variety’ of foods.

It’s pretty common to hear health/fitness marketers advise eating a diet with as much food variety as possible…the proverbial ‘everything in moderation is ok’ or ‘eat lots of colors’ etc.

But there is a catch 22 with this story…the more foods you have available the more chance you have to overeat. You could almost say that you get ‘full’ on one type of food or flavor/taste, but you still have room for other types of foods and flavors. (the ‘eat variety’ story should be qualified with ‘eat a variety of fruits and veggies’ specifically)

The reality is we need far less food variety then we might think. Most of our nutrients can be found in a few foods, and most of us (when we’re not lighting up a buffet in vegas) eat a routine selection of the same dozen or so foods. And this works perfectly fine for the bulk of the modern world.

You can easily make the argument that the option for eating a wide selection of foods has only become available since the modern industrial revolution anyway. So we’re not evolved to need the type of selection your grocery store offers (how the hell would someone in canada get access to a banana in the winter before the industrial revolution).

In other words, you can get by just fine with far less food variety than you think, and you most likely eat less food variety than any healthy eating mantra ever speaks of anyway. (try to think of all the different foods you’ve eaten in the past 7 days, I’ll bet it’s not as varied as you might like to think)

And that might not be such a bad thing. The more available and affordable different food choices are the more chance you will eat more of all of them.

Thanks for the suggestions on eating venues, I’ll try to check them out, but I gotta say that I’m having a hard time going anywhere besides the various buffets simply to eat prime rib and whatever else happens to be available!

John

Posted by johnbarban in Fat Loss, food, Nutrition
Tags: buffets, food variety, Overeating |7 Comments

7 Responses to “Food Variety – A Catch 22”

  1. Karmyn Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    I agree “variety” can be too much of a good thing. Eating simply is BEST.

    Have a great time! :)

  2. keith Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 6:09 pm

    Ya thats awesome, i love prime rib. How many buffetts did you hit so far, and which ones?

  3. Chris R Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 10:07 pm

    Oh god I love prime rib as well!! You will be posting your post-sloth measurements when you get back so we can all see the result of your piggery, correct?

  4. usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
    April 6th, 2010 at 4:31 am

    Hey John, I know you’re at Vegas and stuff, but I just joined the Adonis Effect program and have some questions I need answered before I start my workouts. Would really love it if you could spare a few minutes:

    http://www.adonislifestyle.com/index.php?/Reply-to/Adonis-Effect-Product-Questions-FAQ.html

    Thanks!

  5. usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
    April 6th, 2010 at 4:32 am

    Sorry, that was the wrong URL. This is the correct one:

    http://www.adonislifestyle.com/index.php?/Adonis-Effect-Product-Questions-FAQ/5054-Looking-for-13-answers-to-13-questions.html

  6. Six Pack Abs Blog Says:
    April 6th, 2010 at 4:07 pm

    I agree, variety in your diet is MASSIVELY overrated.

    Too much variety introduces chaos, and if you don’t control what you’re eating then you’re eating garbage.

    My partner Mike and I will typically cook 2 proteins, carbohydrates, and vegetables when we make our food for the week. It’s easy to make, and much better nutritionally. This is how we’ve achieved our goal of six pack abs, and it’s how we recommend everyone else do it too.

    -Dan

  7. The Homebody Says:
    April 6th, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    It’s a powerful thing these buffets. Every time I know I’m going to a buffet I tell myself I’m gonna go easy and have portion control. An hour and a half later, I’m waddling out of the place bloated beyond belief. And those Vegas buffets? Fuggedaboudit!

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>