Balanced Diets Include a Variety of Foods
“Eat a variety of foods.” This is one of those recommendations that gets thrown around a lot, but isn’t specifically addressed. It’s also something that is much easier said than done. We all get in food ruts, eating the same foods or fixing the same recipes for months on end. This is especially true towards the end of the winter months. Not only is eating the same foods over and over again boring, it can also lead to an overall lower quality diet. An aspect of the “food rut syndrome” involves getting so bored with what you’re eating that apathy sets in, going to the grocery store to buy those same old foods just isn’t cutting it, and you increasingly find yourself at the fast food drive-thru window on your way home.
So what can you do to get variety back in your life? Here are some food rut boredom busters you can try:
Pull out some of your old cookbooks and peruse for a recipe that makes your mouth water. If you’re over your old cookbooks, go out to your favorite bookstore and treat yourself to a new one!
Be spontaneous. Go to your favorite grocery store or farmer’s market and try a new food. A place to start may be the produce section. Pick out a fruit or vegetable that always looked interesting to you, but you have no earthly idea of what it is or where it comes from.
Try fixing some of your favorite foods different ways. Try asking your friends and extended family members how they fix some of their favorite foods. What you’ll find, is that there are so many easy and tasty recipes out there just waiting to be fixed. The key is just getting introduced to them.
In-line with the previous suggestion, sign up for a cooking class with a friend. Or organize a “theme-based buffet” get-together with your friends once a month. It’s fun to come up with a food theme and have everyone bring a food that fits into that theme. It could be an ethnic theme such as “Thai foods” or something as simple as “lunch bag specials.”
Make a commitment to yourself that you won’t eat the same food(s) for breakfast twice in one week. If that seems too threatening, try at least to add a different jam to your toast once in awhile. Try different combinations of the cereals with different fruit toppings for variety.
Lastly, instead of the fast food drive-thru, try a new ethnic restaurant. Be adventurous! Grab your significant other, don’t tell them where you’re going, and take them somewhere neither of you have been. There may be many benefits to this one!
Eating is something we all have to do to survive so might as well enjoy. Remember, variety is the spice(s) of life!
Adapted from an article by Michele M. Doucette, PhD
