Restricting Variety

[wosnes]

In Mindless Eating Wansink mentions how the less variety we have, the less we eat.

In another post today:

Contrary to popular opinion we are well-served by limits!

Blueskighs

I'm currently reading The Blue Zone: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest by Dan Buettner. He's studied four different groups of people: the Sardinians, the Okinawans, the Seventh Day Adventists in and around Loma Linda, CA, and the Nicoyans of Costa Rica. With the exception of the Adventists who have more diversity in their lives and diet, I'm struck by:

1. The simplicity of their diets.
2. The lack of variety in their diets -- not to mention the lack of processed and convenience foods.
3. The fact that all these people put the locavore movement here to shame. Most of what they eat comes from their gardens or their community. Very little comes from more than a couple of miles from their homes.
4. The lack of meat in the diets. The Sardinians and Nicoyans eat meat or poultry no more than 1-2x/week. The Okinawans eat it just a few times a year. Many of the Adventists are vegetarian.

What struck me most was the simplicity of their meals and the limited variety. Limits served them well.

Reading about their meals reminded me of the dinner I made earlier this week. It was simple, tasty and extremely satisfying:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008 ... ecipe.html

[BrightAngel]

I think that "Intelligent Defaults", which do tend to limit variety, are excellent,
however, except for those, I find I need a large variety of foods and tastes
in order to be able to stick with any kind of food plan or diet.
When there is a lot of variety in the foods I eat, I find I feel much more satisfied with eating less,
and when I eat the same foods over and over,
I find it takes much much larger quantities of food to make me feel satisfied.

[palomayombe]

.............

[blueskighs]

1. The simplicity of their diets.
2. The lack of variety in their diets -- not to mention the lack of processed and convenience foods.
3. The fact that all these people put the locavore movement here to shame. Most of what they eat comes from their gardens or their community. Very little comes from more than a couple of miles from their homes.
4. The lack of meat in the diets. The Sardinians and Nicoyans eat meat or poultry no more than 1-2x/week. The Okinawans eat it just a few times a year. Many of the Adventists are vegetarian.

What struck me most was the simplicity of their meals and the limited variety. Limits served them well.

Wosnes, nice points! I find for me that especially during the week, simplicity, routine, a few of my favorite easier to prepare meals build the foundation.

With No S I have found it much easier to "get my variety" on the weekends, i.e. S days. I have more time to deal with food, etc.

Also point no.4. I am a vegan/vegetarian. HOWEVER, I do not beleive that this is the right choice for everyone, HOWEVER I firmly believe that REDUCING the quanitity of meat that we as a species consume, i.e. not eating it every meal, and/or not eating eating every day, or even not eating it every week, is a great idea and I would encourage anyone on that path!

Blueskighs

[wosnes]

In The Accidental Vegan by Devra Gartenstein, she mentions the need to be creative when going from being an omnivore to vegan. She says (and I paraphrase) that when poets stick to the sonnet or composers to the sonata, the restrictions force them to be more creative. I look at the restrictions like this.

I think a lot about restricting my food choices to what's available locally, but think the best I can do is probably 70% local -- and that's when local produce is abundant!