Monotonous Diets And Our Health

A monotonous diet is a diet that requires its followers to continuously ingest a particular type of food for a certain period of time. While these diets are no stranger for those who adhere to them for health reasons, their popularity among the general population is only now rising for their potential as rapid weight loss schemes. Similarly to what happens with other popular nutritional strategies, monotonous diets have both proponents and critics, with the former strongly advocating their benefits and the former alerting for the risks associated with maintaining an unvaried diet. Let us now look at the evidence that supports both groups’ statements.

Examples of monotonous diets

First, we will present several most popular monotonous diets:

The Grapefruit Diet

This diet gained popularity in the mid-20th century. It involves eating grapefruit with every meal and restricting calorie intake. It claims to help with weight loss due to the fruit's purported fat-burning properties.

The Cabbage Soup Diet

The Cabbage Soup Diet is a short-term weight loss diet that revolves around consuming a low-calorie cabbage soup along with specific foods on each day of the diet plan. It's known for its monotony and rapid weight loss claims.

The Banana Diet

Originating in Japan, the Banana Diet involves eating a banana for breakfast and avoiding dessert after dinner. While it promotes the consumption of fruits and a simple eating pattern, it lacks variety.

The Potato Diet

The Potato Diet restricts meals to just potatoes, either boiled or baked, and occasionally includes non-starchy vegetables. It is extremely limited in terms of food choices.

The Lemonade Diet (Master Cleanse)

The Lemonade Diet is a liquid cleanse that consists of a lemonade-like beverage made from water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup. It's a very low-calorie diet and is often used for detoxification purposes.

Monotonous diets can be beneficial in weight loss

Investigators from the University of Buffalo and the University of Vermont conducted a study where they assessed what happened to people who ate the same lunch every day for a week. These people not only were consuming fewer calories by the end of the week, but they were also consuming fewer calories than the people who were given different meals during the week. The researchers responsible for this study note, however, that although monotonous, a meal should never be unbalanced or unhealthy. 

Another, a bit more specific investigation, reached very similar conclusions. The aim of this study, published in 2012, was mainly to assess whether monotonous consumption of fibre-enriched bread could influence subsequent satiety and food intake. In accordance with the hypotheses, replacing the participants’ breakfast with a monotonous consumption of fibre-enriched bread led to a decrease in the sensation of hunger during the morning. Moreover, repeated consumption of these types of bread at breakfast did not lead to decreased liking for the breads over the course of the study.

See Also: Staying Happy While Dieting

Monotonous diet may reduce severity of some chronic conditions

The benefits of monotonous diets may also very well extend past weight loss and actually impact certain health conditions, as one animal study suggests. Researchers at the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center in Texas, USA, examined if there was any association between alternating and persistent regular diets and the incidence of acute colitis in mice. They have found that the severity of colitis increased upon dietary alternation compared with the consistent control feeding. Obviously, this is a very basic study and cannot yet be extrapolated to the reality of the human body. Nevertheless, it is an interesting finding that surely deserves further attention.

Monotonous Dieting Is Associated With Potential Dangers

But not everything is roses with monotonous diets. More than potentially boring for the people who try to embrace them, monotonous diets can have an actual impact on their health. As mentioned above, if monotonous diet is not balanced in nutritional terms, it holds a big potential for inducing malnutrition.  

The Recommended Diary Allowance is the amount of a given substance that our bodies need every day to function properly. Naturally, if we are ingesting less than this amount of nutrients, we are jeopardizing our health.

Finally, there is also evidence suggesting that monotonous diet can interfere with sleep patterns. In a very curious study from the University of Pennsylvania, each individual's daily dietary intake was compared with his or her sleep patterns, in an attempt to verify if a relationship between food variety and quality of rest existed.

Individuals who slept the least tended to be short on protein and carbohydrates, along with nutrients like iron, zinc, and selenium. The mechanisms behind this effect? No one knows for sure so far.

For some, restricted diets are not an option but an obligation. Patients with renal impairment undergoing haemodialysis cannot consume certain foods due to their medical condition. Within these restrictions, there is still some dietary diversity among patients and some are more capable of balancing the rules with their nutritional needs better than others, while adjusting to the lack of appetite that is typical of renal disease. One recent study sought to identify if there was a relationship between nutritional intake and monotony in chronic haemodialysis patients. The findings were quite interesting: diet monotony strongly correlated with nutritional intake, i.e., patients with monotonous diets were ingesting less calories and less protein which is not at all a positive effect. However, patients with monotonous diets had a good appetite for several high-protein foods that they were not eating. Helping patients to identify and increase the intake of these foods may both enhance diet variety and improve nutritional status, thus helping to battle poor nutrition in this patient population.

Diet should be tailored to suit your health and lifestyle

Monotonous diets seem to be both good and bad. It all depends on your health status, physiologic characteristics and on what constitutes your diet.

See Also: 9 Of The Easiest Diet Tips Ever

Nonetheless, if you are looking to adapt your meals for a special purpose, be it related to your weight, a medical condition or simply as a part of a healthier lifestyle, it is always a good idea to consult a certified nutritionist. Health issues, life situation and a number of other factors will be taken into account to build a meal plan that fits your particular needs.