
People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day - sergeant3
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/03/eating-the-same-thing-lunch-meal/584347/
======
munificent
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. Every day, I looked forward
to having it.

Every now and then I would have a bowl of canned soup instead, but that was
literally the only variety I had. Like others in the article, I found the
peacefulness and simplicity of not having to stress out about where to go for
lunch more than made up for the monotony. In fact, knowing all day what I was
going to have for lunch led to a greater anticipation of it.

I think this worked for me because I was only doing this for _lunch_ and not
for every meal of the day. So this actually _increased_ the _meta_ -variety of
my eating: dinner meals were varied and lunch meals were not. So I got to
experience both repetition and novelty.

It was a really interesting experience that I'd encourage others to try. In
general, I think repetition and ritual tends to be undervalued in Western
culture, but has always been an important part of the human experience.

~~~
nzjrs
> One obvious expense to cut > was eating out for lunch > every weekday

Honestly amazed this is the default position for anyone. What situation of
living prompts this?

~~~
stevenwoo
If you work with a bunch of people who commute a long way into work and do not
cook and you want to fit in with your coworkers. Generally I would bring
something in but be available for lunch because it's nice if you like your
coworkers to hang out outside of work sometimes. This goes against my
instincts for frugality. This was long before company provided lunches and the
like, though, I've worked at places back then that were large enough to have
on site cafeterias and we still went out most of the time. Also might be an
age thing because we were all in our 20's and the veterans at those companies
almost universally brought in their lunch.

------
RobertRoberts
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 up till
then). But I was so grateful for having something the thought of feel anything
negative about it didn't even cross my mind. I couldn't afford snacks, so that
was my meal, my only food for hours before and after.

I think so many "problems" society has today is because we are all a bunch of
rich snobs. And I have to remind myself to remember how grateful I was when I
was really poor. I never want to lose that gratitude, it's protection against
all kinds of mental/emotional problems.

~~~
elagost
Even though it must have been very difficult, living a harder life seems to
have given you a super power to transcend the silly little things that
everyone else seems to care so much about.

Personally I find I get wrapped up in the little things quite often, and only
after do I really understand I wasted so much effort on something meaningless.
I'm not suggesting trauma tourism, but I am interested in a way to broaden my
horizons and understand this mindset. Is there anything you'd suggest one can
do?

~~~
appleiigs
I flog myself by hiking and running long distances. You gain a bit of
toughness when pushing yourself to the limit (exhausted and a bit hurt), while
in a thunderstorm, and you are still 1 hour away from finishing. (And while we
are talking about food. Intermittent fasting is a similar experience. Going
hungry for a while makes you appreciate food in a different way.)

~~~
RobertRoberts
I agree, I've had the same experience with exercise and food.

I consistently eat one meal a day right now. The reason is that I simply don't
need that much, and I am really hungry by dinner time. But if I want to eat
lunch I do.

The "appreciate food" angle was what really helped get into intermittent
fasting. The fact that my food tasted _so_ much better (the same food as
always) made me appreciate feeling hungry for an hour or more before meals.

If I am hungry, I know full well that dinner is going to be good, no matter
what it is.

Thanks for the reminder on this topic. I have taken a year off of running as
an experiment for weight control. I found food intake was the primary mover
for weight control, not exercise. I've lost a lot of weight with no exercise.
Looking forward to start running again this spring. :) (got a little giddy
from the reminder your comment gave me)

~~~
SpikeDad
>I found food intake was the primary mover for weight control, not exercise

Excellent point which people seem to not understand. The amount of calories
you burn running an hour can be equal to a very little amount of food - one
candy bar.

Naturally ignoring the fitness benefits of exercise a small reduction in
calories can equal a lot of heavy exercise.

~~~
RobertRoberts
It's a bit of a sensitive subject for some people. They just don't want to
face the fact that their appetites/habits are the single biggest obstacle to
good health and weight control.

A friend pointed out to me once "food has a lot of energy in it." I have never
measured a candy bar's actual effects, but I suspect it would take a few miles
of running to use one up?

------
codingdave
I eat the same 3 meals a day, 5-6 days a week. I spent a couple years refining
what meals give me the nutrition I need, with enough energy to code, and help
me keep weight off. When I stop this routine, I put on weight fast, so I try
to keep jobs that let me work from home and keep my routine. I will meal-prep
4 days at a time, consume those 4 days worth of meals, then have a day where I
take my wife out to lunch, buy the groceries for the next 4 days, and skip
dinner.

I fully recognize the non-typical nature of this routine, but if you find
something that works for you, go with it.

~~~
Mirioron
How do you know that you're getting enough of all the different
micronutrients? Humans can eat a deficient diet for a long time and not notice
serious side effects, so I'm wondering if you have some kind of good way of
figuring out whether the different micronutrient quotas are fulfilled
properly.

~~~
codingdave
You are 100% correct. I did get vitamin deficient a few years ago, and worked
with doctors to identify the deficiencies and resolve them, and have continued
testing to make sure I'm doing OK. This routine is a result of that experience
more than anything else. That is also one reason I go out to eat every few
days - to get some variety into the mix.

~~~
ksec
>This routine is a result of that experience more than anything else

And I would just like to add everyone's body is a little different. People may
have different level / type of deficiencies, and for me that is Vitamin B. So
I guess you cant really have meal that works for you and works for everyone
else. It is important for everyone trying this to do it themselves and test it
out with your body. Not to mention you get to think about how to cook your
favourite food.

I personally did something similar for 6 months, but due to different
circumstances I can no longer do meal prep. During that time I had an idea
about making a web app that help you select your meal prep. You input foods
that you like and loath, input regional location so that we know what you can
get and and not, and price range, how much it would cost per meal ( Not
everyone is rich and well off ) It will hopefully have a List of Meal prep
that you may like, along with instructions and where to buy those ingredients.

------
apo
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.

~~~
minikites
I lost around 60 pounds nine years ago and the main way I keep it off is by
eating roughly the same thing every weekday. I've "tuned" it over time to keep
me full and avoid overeating and snacking.

~~~
vorg
Sounds like my story too (lost 25kg about 7yrs ago and kept it off). I
generally rotate on a 1-week cycle. The only daily rules I follow are (1)
never eat noodles more than once a day, and (2) eat some green vegetable/s
once a day. I also never keep food in my apartment to easily avoid snacking,
so some days when the weather's bad I'll only eat twice. When I go to an
eatery (restaurant or canteen stall), I usually have the same meal every time,
but there's about 10 different places I eat at, so I'm making the choice of
what to eat when I choose which eatery to go to.

------
Okvivi
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 also LOVE food - so dinner, and weekends, are times where I actually love
making decisions about where to eat, what to eat.

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

~~~
liveoneggs
not OP but I've eaten two eggs on toast every morning for a lot of my life

~~~
hu3
For some time now I've been tempted to start eating eggs on a toast for
breakfast daily so I'm curious: has this impacted your bad cholesterol?

~~~
Aramgutang
The notion that dietary cholesterol affects blood cholesterol is outdated, and
is not supported by evidence (with some exceptions, e.g. for diabetics).
Modern nutrition advisories no longer recommend limiting cholesterol intake.

Not OP, but I've been eating 3-4 eggs (usually hard- or soft-boiled, but
occasionally scrambled with bacon or sausage, never with bread/toast though)
almost every weekday morning for the past 5 years, and all my recent bloodwork
has shown cholesterol levels in the healthy range.

~~~
barry-cotter
Dietary Cholesterol, Serum Lipids, and Heart Disease: Are Eggs Working for or
Against You?

However, large-scale epidemiological studies have found only tenuous
associations between the intake of eggs and cardiovascular disease risk. Well-
controlled, clinical studies show the impact of dietary cholesterol challenges
via egg intake on serum lipids is highly variable, with the majority of
individuals (~ 2/3 of the population) having only minimal responses, while
those with a significant response increase both LDL and HDL-cholesterol,
typically with a maintenance of the LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio.

------
charlesju
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 protein shake if I'm still hungry

12pm 2 cups of salad + 1 avocado + 2 eggs + 1 keto cookie (Fat Snax, they're
delicious)

4pm 1 protein bar (Keto Collagen Protein Bar) or 1 30g of Macadamia Nuts

6pm 500 calories of meat + 2 cups of salad + 1 ChocoZero (Keto Chocolate)

This is about 1,800 calories a day which puts me at a steady pace to lose
about 1 lb of fat a week assuming I don't cheat.

I really like this diet plan because I can bulk buy most things at Costco and
the snacks on Amazon. The best hack has been pre-packed hard boiled eggs,
that's reduced my lunch into a 2 min prep for just the advocado and putting
everything together. My lunch requires no meal prep so I only have to think
about dinner. And I've reduced dinner down to just a meat which I can cook up
in a bunch of different ways twice or 3 times a week.

It has helped me save money, save time, keep fit. Great for post-holidays.

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

~~~
aviv
I agree. Keto is the most dangerous dietary trend today.

------
randomacct3847
Honestly I think this is partially why Blue Apron failed...they overestimated
how many people desire variety in dinner choices.

Someone build a blue apron except for ingredients for weekly meal prep.

~~~
JohnFen
> they overestimated how many people desire variety in dinner choices.

And here I thought it was because they are pretty seriously overpriced, not to
mention environmentally questionable.

~~~
rootusrootus
For me it was mostly price, but also work. If I'm going to pay that much for
food, I don't want to have to work too hard to build the meal.

~~~
nwsm
Their marketing seemed geared to people who wanted to learn to cook something
nicer than the basic meal. You have a nice recipe card and all the right
ingredients.

However after you've done it for 2 months you have a ton of their nice recipe
cards and can just go buy ingredients yourself.

------
tristor
I like routines, and I am the type of person that becomes a "regular" at
various businesses. But, food is one area of my life where I love to explore.
There are so many different foods and cultures in the world which express
their history in some way through food, to be so bland and banal as to eat the
same thing every day. I do almost the same thing every day, I could set my
clock by my lifestyle, but when it is time for a meal I always seek variety.

But I don't judge those who do this, because I understand the relaxation of
decision points, the ease of calorie consciousness and weight management, and
the ability to balance nutrition that comes with a standard meal.

------
skilled
Once you start investing in healthy eating, you quickly realize that there are
3 types of food: healthy, sugary, and sluggish.

You always get to choose which one you want, but it's exactly that: a choice!

~~~
kbutler
Sluggish?

~~~
skilled
Yeah, a "nice" and slow dinner.

------
analog31
When I was in grad school, I lived on oatmeal for breakfast, a cheese sandwich
on homemade bread for lunch, and a small stir-fry on rice for supper. I never
got sick of it.

Now my spouse is vegetarian, and the kids don't eat beef (long story). If we
eat meat, it's just a nice little bit of chicken or pork that the kids and I
can put on our portion. And due to a health scare, I have replaced the cheese
sandwiches with hummus on bread.

Recently my family went on a trip and I had to stay behind. So, on the first
day, I went to store and brought home ... a steak!

When it came time for me to make my supper, I looked at the little steak, then
proceeded to chop it into bits and turned it into ... a small stir-fry on rice
for supper. The beef was a treat, and I spiced it up more than usual.

During the remaining five days of my family's trip, I lived on oatmeal for
breakfast, a hummus sandwich for lunch, and a small stir-fry on rice for
supper.

~~~
refurb
That hilarious, we had a very similar meal plan. I used to have oatmeal for
breakfast since I was a teenager. A simple sandwich for lunch and a stir fry
for dinner.

I would cooked 5 portions of the stir fry on the weekend and have dinner for
M-F. I did vary it up with different types of meat and vegetables, but
otherwise it was the same.

Never got sick of it.

~~~
analog31
My daughter went to college this year. But I still cook the same amount for
supper, meaning that I get a nice lunch for the next day!

------
ozzyman700
I have 5 bottles of soylent a day, I absolutely love it and don't see myself
stopping. I dislike preparing, eating, and cleaning up so I just avoid it.
Every month I get a shipment of soylent and that is all my food related chores
done for the month once I bring the boxes up to my room.

~~~
blue4
Sounds like some of my own work, I hypothesized that the body doesn’t need
food itself, merely the chemicals and elements it contains. So, what if I
consumed only the raw ingredients the body uses for energy? Soylent was the
obvious choice because our bodies do not need food.

~~~
inertiatic
I don't think I've read a more absurd thing in my life. I chuckled.

~~~
ozzyman700
IV feeding would seem to be a similar concept to what gp is talking about

------
jimhefferon
One of the enjoyable things about surfing is when you find there are other
people like you.

Almost every day since the mid-80's, I have what I call a Tarnower lunch: half
a can of pineapple chunks, half a can of mandarin oranges, a dollop of cottage
cheese and a few walnut pieces, along with a small bran muffin. Tastes fine,
not too bad nutritionally, and no congnitive overhead.

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

~~~
ip26
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.

~~~
jpindar
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.

------
manigandham
Variety in taste is just a luxury, it's a few seconds of pleasure while eating
that your body doesn't care about. People spend way too much time deciding,
cooking, eating, and usually choosing unhealthy meals because of this.

As many comments here show, you realize just how unimportant it all is when
finding your next meal is a struggle.

~~~
defterGoose
Found the robot. No seriously, maybe we should all just be eating bachelor
chow. Actually, just hook me up to one of those feeder tubes like in the
matrix. Yeah.

~~~
manigandham
You can do whatever you want. We're not all alike, but yea I have better
things to do and am grateful I can afford to get get a meal whenever I want.

------
angarg12
One of my companies had subsidized lunch (you could also buy dinner for cheap)
with 5-6 options available. As most bulk food, options were generally greasy
and unhealthy, with one unchanging exception: roast chicken. For over a year I
ate roast chicken and salad both for lunch and dinner every workday.

I do love food and cooking, but the sheer convenience, speed and cost saving
was impossible to ignore. I've never been leaner and healthier in my life, and
I would still indulge myself cooking my favorite meals on the weekends.

10/10 would repeat.

------
saltybytes
When I announced the birth of my child the company I worked with fired me
instantly and living off one income (my spouse was still working) was tough.
Money got so short that I started looking for cheap but "healthy" food
options. I decided on organic potatoes. For the last 2 years I have been
boiling 5 potatoes for lunch (exactly 32 mins on the stove), serving it with
white balsamic vinegar, sunflower oil and salt. I feel with all the junk food
around full of crappy soy and corn sirup this is the least bad alternative. It
is always a challenge to feed myself especially when I train for a Marathon. I
do lose weight during this period and very often I go to bed extremely hungry
only to wake up at 4am for yet another training run. I stay focused and try
not to spend any money on anything for me. Temptations are everywhere though!
I only spend money to feed my child.

What I learned over the last 2 years is important: don't ever eat crap out of
convenience - there's lots of healthy alternative options out there even if
you live in a very expensive neighborhood (like I); never ever through out
limp vegetables! You can still throw it in a pot with broth and make
"soup/stew"; invest into your future (your kids) and don't be ashamed to admit
your days are counted ...

I take this as a life lesson. Once I have a job again, I will appreciate food
even more.

~~~
dbancajas
wow. what's your job and current household income?

------
Knufen
I've eaten the same thing everyday ever since I got old enough to understand
lunch as a concept. Food is just not important to me, it just has to fill me
up and cover my macro nutrient. I think this is pretty common, at least here
in Scandinavia

~~~
sridca
Do you eat the same lunch every day? Or do you eat the same thing for
breakfast, lunch and dinner (and eat that every day)?

------
giardini
Reminds me of

"The Norwegian art of the packed lunch, Matpakke - Most Boring Lunch in the
world - Ever?"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlNmeVK_zLg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlNmeVK_zLg)

~~~
Bluecobra
BBC also ran an article not too long ago about this... I wouldn't mind it once
in a while!

[http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190103-the-norwegian-
art-...](http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190103-the-norwegian-art-of-the-
packed-lunch)

------
KozmoNau7
My view on food is relatively simple: Life is way too short for boring food. I
could not imagine eating the same thing every day.

That's not to say I eat a completely new-to-me meal every day. When I was
single, I would cook and then eat the same meal 3-4 days in a row, but I would
change it up every week.

Now, what we (my girlfriend and I) usually do is cook and bake on Sundays,
then freeze about half and eat the rest during the week, interspersed with
meals from the freezer, from previous weeks. We like to cook big portions,
especially soups, curries, stews and such.

Baking-wise, we prefer to bake sourdough bread or slow-raised bread with
minimal yeast. We also make homemade ice cream and bake cakes.

I can understand that some people think it takes way too much time and effort
that they would rather spend on other things, but we consider it quality time
spent together, doing something we both love to do.

~~~
ASalazarMX
> Life is way too short for boring food

I think it's not that life is way too short, but that you enjoy new food. For
me, sometimes the food decision tree feels like too much time lost to food
while other more interesting tasks could be done, and then I choose a
tuna/chicken salad and get over with it.

~~~
KozmoNau7
It's not that I only like new food, I absolutely love comfort food as well. I
just love food in general, including good tuna/chicken salad :-)

------
TACIXAT
Like the person mentioned in the story with food allergies, I eat the same
meal everyday for the same reason. I found a restaurant that will take care of
cross contamination, and foods that don't make me feel sick. I'm going to milk
this opportunity for as long as I can. I eat 3 beef patties, 2 chicken
patties, and fries. For dessert I have some greasy corn tortilla chips. On the
weekends I cook steak, brazilian cheese bread (Brazi Bites), and some
broccoli.

The alternative is going from restaurant to restaurant, hoping they know about
food allergies and take prep seriously, scrutinizing ingredients, then still
ending up sick a few times a month. I'll happily take monotony for gains in
health.

~~~
ricardobeat
Are you sure you have gains in health, considering you’re eating burgers,
tortillas and fries only, every day?

~~~
TACIXAT
Yea, besides the glib answer of me no longer wanting to die because of chronic
sinus pain, I do think I'm better off.

I was very much living on sugar before. So I'm no longer making my pancreas
work overtime. The repeated inflammation of sinuses was probably going to give
me cancer [1], so I'm better off there too. Cutting out gluten (celiac) means
my small intestine isn't getting destroyed and I'm probably absorbing way more
nutrients than I did before.

My big risks right now are colon cancer when I'm older. I've been eating more
vegetables on the weekends to make up for it. As I age I'll also phase out red
meat. I don't see any immediate negatives now.

No question I have health gains. Every negative, body destroying thing I was
eating is out. I feel great. Now it's just mitigating long term risk.

1\. [https://www.cancernetwork.com/colorectal-cancer/chronic-
infl...](https://www.cancernetwork.com/colorectal-cancer/chronic-inflammation-
and-cancer)

------
ChuckMcM
I'm one of those people who can eat the same PB&J sandwhich every day for
lunch and be fine with it. My wife on the other hand really goes crazy if she
doesn't get enough variety.

I can't think of an evolutionary advantage of desiring variety, it seems
(although I don't know if there is any studies to the effect that it is true)
typical that various fauna have a 'typical' diet that they forage for and
rarely vary. Even omnivores who are able to forage on a non-seasonally
variable food stock.

From an economics point of view, as a single eater, having a limited
variability, allows bulk purchases to take advantage of the economics of scale
and reduces landfill waste (fewer containers overall).

~~~
ppseafield
An evolutionary advantage: having multiple, varied food sources is a
protection against one of them going extinct. If the apple snails die out, so
do the apple snail kites.

Humans are indeed pretty unique in that there are so many things we can eat.
It has likely helped us as a species through various natural disasters.

~~~
ChuckMcM
That's a solid point. No doubt our ability to eat pretty much anything is a
selectable for as a positive survival trait.

------
debatem1
I do this. Every day for lunch I have two soft-boiled eggs in soy sauce and
some higher-grade instant ramen. It's a great way to get a mix of salts, fats,
carbs, and proteins in you at low cost (I spend about $2/day on lunch all in)
and high speed (I can make and eat my lunch in 20min). It's enjoyable and lets
me walk my dog or play a game for a few minutes instead of waiting impatiently
at a restaurant.

Two other factors may contribute: I do tend to enjoy rewatching TV shows and
movies (so it may be a broader personality trait) and I dislike having people
serve me in restaurants, which I view as being beneath their dignity (so
restaurants aren't as fun for me as they are for most).

------
jwally
I eat the same thing for lunch everyday because it’s one less thing I have to
worry about.

I used to be religious about what I ate and would weigh everything, calculate
ratios, make adjustments, and making the same thing (grilled chicken, brown
rice, black beans, steamed veg) was just easier. I did this for 4 years
straight until I changed jobs and started working near a chipotle.

For the next 5 years I’d get the same thing from chipotle for lunch (burrito-
white rice, black beans, double chicken, side of salsa) because it was kind of
healthy, cheap, the staff got to know me, and I learned what times to avoid.
One more thing I put on Auto pilot.

------
KeepTalking
I did the same thing for a year before I got married. I ate my lunch and
dinner at a Panera bread next to work place - 5 days a week. I ate half a cup
of tomato soup, half a vegetarian sandwich and an apple. I lost nearly 20
pounds over a 1 year period. Infact the team at Panera knew me personally so
many times, by the time i paid for my meal it was ready for me to eat. I had a
fixed workout/running and meal routine.

My wife hates the monotony but i love the daily structure. I have put on 35
pounds.

------
rogy
Growing up in the north of the UK I had the same 2 lunches every day at
primary school (4-11) without even batting an eyelid, cheddar cheese, sliced
between white bread, packet of crisps. Or the same sandwich with a slice of
processed ham if it was a good week.

It was only once i got to highschool (11-16) and students started taking
notice of how bland, unbalanced and repetitive this was. In my world it was
totally normal.

------
CM30
I could probably be included in the list of people who eat the same thing
every day (at least for breakfast and lunch), and from what I've seen, it
seems many of my coworkers are the same.

As for why? Well personally, it's probably a mix of the following:

1\. It's easy to not have to worry about what you're going to eat and what
it'll taste like.

2\. Choices of places to eat are limited in many areas. This isn't so much the
case now, but it certainly was for some roles in the past, where the office
was pretty much nowhere near a major shopping area/main street.

In that case, it was 'eat the one thing you find palatable in the canteen or
get a train/bus/drive/cycle to a place with shops'.

3\. My personal tastes are very plain and somewhat picky, to the point of
disliking pretty much anything with extra sauce, relish, mayonnaise, spices,
etc.

Either way, all of these things are likely reasons for many others too. Many
people on the autistic spectrum for instance are rather picky in terms of
favoured foods, and will generally stick to the same meals as much as
possible. Many people are based in locations where choice is limited/a hassle
in general.

And there are other reasons too:

1\. Some people like having a routine (as mentioned in other comments) 2\.
Some like to know exactly how healthy their diet is, which is easier with a
limited choice (also mentioned in other comments) 3\. Quite a few people
probably prefer eating at their desk while browsing Hacker
News/Reddit/YouTube/the internet in general, which precludes going far for
shopping. 4\. If you're a workaholic, it's easier to stick with one type of
meal rather than having to prepare different ones/go shopping.

There are many reasons really.

------
nkg
Being from the rural part of an emerging country, I have heard countless
stories about how "when I was your age, all we could afford to eat was this
and that". Here, varied meals have become a way to express your (good) taste,
how open-minded you are, and how much foreign food you can afford. I could
hardly settle for any of the diets described above.

------
wasabiketchup
Every evening for 4 years :

Pasta + Ketchup + Wasabi.

I just love it, and feel no need to change that!

------
JoeAltmaier
Knew a couple, had a stack of frozen dinners delivered every week, put them in
a standup freezer. Whoever got home first had to take the top two dinners, put
them in the oven for dinner. No picking thru the stack; no arguing over who
got what. Does that count as 'the same dinner every day'?

~~~
NullPrefix
Frozen food sounds like poverty dinner.

~~~
mikemac
and your blood pressure would be through the roof in no time

~~~
JoeAltmaier
naysayer. What if they were boutique frozen Trader Joe's dinners? And don't
say 'salt' because that's not actually a thing.

------
jniedrauer
I cycle through about 5 different meals, with almost no meat consumption, and
whole grains and slow carbs like whole wheat bread and quinoa. Buying the same
things every time makes shopping easy. For most of the last decade, I've also
been on an OMAD/intermittent fasting routine. It's helped me become extremely
well fat adapted, kept my weight under control, and kept my teeth in very good
condition.

Fair warning, it did reduce my BMR noticeably. On days when I'm not active,
1400 kcal is maintenance for me. This, and extreme fat adaption, has
advantages for me as a long distance hiker since I can carry less food. But if
you like to eat, long term OMAD might be a bad idea.

------
Moto7451
My breakfasts and dinner tend to be formulaic. Oatmeal and cottage cheese or
yogurt for breakfast with the very occasional pause if I choose to grab
breakfast with someone (though, I may just order the same thing at the
restaurant), whip up some weekend pancakes, or eat the office breakfast. For
dinner I keep it light and it’s usually salad or just some yogurt.

Mostly this is due to the reasons espoused in the article. They’re quick,
healthy, and I am handling some of my specific health issues without thought.
I suppose most important is that I like it.

Lunch is a party though. I’ll put way more effort into making that an
adventure meal to balance things out.

~~~
arethuza
I've been having the same breakfast (muesli, natural yoghurt and fruit with a
gallon or so of black coffee) for over 30 years.

My lunches tend to be fairly similar - though they do vary.

Dinner varies a lot depending on season and what I fancy cooking and eating -
I do like a lot of variety in evening meals, maybe as I am awake by then!

~~~
el_cujo
>a gallon or so of black coffee

Is this hyperbole or do you actually drink a gallon of coffee every day?

------
catilac
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.

------
52-6F-62
These days I’m trying [hard. Very hard] to maintain a low calorie diet for the
next few months to a year.

For the past while I’ve either skipped lunch or it’s a tin of tuna and a slice
of bread and a black tea.

Every morning after my workout I make breakfast for my girlfriend and I and
it’s always six (give or take) scrambled eggs with fried scallions, red
pepper, and spinach. Along with a buttered or dry piece of toast and two cups
of coffee—black pen with homogenized dairy or almond milk. I probably look
forward to that meal more than any other all day. I’d double it up if I could!

------
danielbigham
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.

------
jordanpg
It simply doesn't matter to me very much what I eat. I find dwelling on the
specifics of food to be incredibly tedious (even if cooking itself is
occasionally fun).

Some things I like more or less than others, but taste and variety is a
distant second to tasty enough and fast.

When choosing where to get lunch, my primary criteria are usually (1) is the
expected wait negligible and (2) is there at least one thing on the menu I
know for certain I'll like.

------
thedaveoflife
I've eaten the same meal for lunch almost everyday for the last two months:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/comments/8trml3/one_pan_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/comments/8trml3/one_pan_mexican_quinoa/)

I did it for health and weight loss reasons but it's also very tasty, easy to
prepare and cheap! Highly recommend!

------
mark_l_watson
I get this. I am a food enthusiast (I maintain my own cooking web app
Cookingspace.com) but there are two meals that I eat very often, find the food
soothing, and never get tired of them: Ramen soup with a ton of vegetables and
some extra seaweed, and whole wheat pita filled with beans, humus, and chopped
Romain lettuce. For some reason those two meals are ‘comfort foods’ for me
that I keep eating many times a week.

------
kylek
For the last month or so, my lunch/dinners have mostly been quinoa+bone
broth+eggs and either fruit or a salad. Fairly bland, sure. I've never felt
better. And when I do go out and "splurge", it really feels like a treat. I
find that I'm incredibly sensitive to sugar/salt/caffeine now (I cut out
coffee for green tea months ago).

------
k_sze
I wonder if HN readers just have a higher tendency to not care about fancy
food. I’m that kind of person. I also don’t care about varying my clothing
unless absolutely necessary for the occasion. I’d rather save my money for
other things that I care about, such as decent portable and home audio,
vintage fountain pens, and the occasional computer gear.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
If lunchtime at my tech workplace is any indication the opposite is true.

Lots of variety. Few regularly bring a lunch and those that do don't seem to
bring the same thing regularly.

------
Magi604
I've enjoyed reading about other people's quirky eating habits!

As for myself I have eaten the same thing for lunch for the past 2.5 years!

Chick and rice. Cooked in a crockpot in a 2-3 day batch. Before I used to use
all kinds of sauces and spices and vegetables in it. These days I just use
half a bottle of barbecue sauce. I do mix up the sauce every week though.

------
SubiculumCode
I'd think that the body might prefer having a largely stable, predictable diet
that is overall nutricious, so that body optimizes itsself for it, while being
supplemented to a smaller degree with a variety of smaller foods that can help
cover any nutrition gaps.

------
JohnFen
I tend to eat the same meals on the regular (although I'm not strictly
dedicated to doing so or anything), mostly because it eliminates the need to
spend any time on meaningless decision-making.

------
fierro
When I was in college, I didn't eat the same meal every day. I ate the same
ingredients every day. I did not know how to cook.

For dinner, I'd just each an entire package of sausage. That's all.

------
m23khan
For me: 1989-1998 -- exact same school lunch

1998 - 2009 -- exact same school lunch but different from 1989 - 1998.

1998 - 2016 -- exact same breakfast 7 days a week

2019 - exact same breakfast for last 2-3 months

------
astura
This is what Jared Fogle did at Subway to lose weight: 6-inch turkey sub and
potato chips for lunch and a foot-long veggie sub for dinner.

Now he's eating prison food.

------
peteretep
Doesn’t pretty much everyone who eats breakfast eat the same breakfast every
day? Seems odd to make a thing of people extending that to lunch as well

------
SubiculumCode
On the weekend I cook several large meals which I then eat as lunch throughout
the work week. Usually beans and rice, and vegetable stirfry.

------
rabi_penguin
Obligatory link to a BBC article about the Danish matpakke:
[http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190103-the-norwegian-
art-...](http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190103-the-norwegian-art-of-the-
packed-lunch)

I personally end up eating the same thing everyday quite a bit. Lunch is there
to make me feel good and give me fuel to continue my day, so I feel like I
can't really risk trying something out of the ordinary, at least on a workday.
There's too high of a risk that I'll be hungry or cranky in the middle of the
afternoon when I have things to do!

~~~
nkurz
You illustrate in interesting psychological effect. Given that the title of
the article is "The Norwegian art of the packed lunch", the subtitle is "Could
we all learn something from Norway's culture of ‘matpakke’?", and the first
sentence is "Every day, across Norway, something strange happens", and even
the visible link includes the word 'norwegian', how did you accidentally write
Danish instead of Norwegian? Or is it not an error?

~~~
rabi_penguin
Whoops, that's embarrassing. I was thinking it was Denmark and then copied and
pasted the article and typed out my response while I was doing something else.
People good at multitasking: not me.

------
kkarakk
Man as an indian i can't relate at all, i literally have something new for
every meal forget every day

------
tamalesfan
1800 word exercise in navel gazing, and it attract 200+ comments and growing.

If you read this wall of text and then spent a good chunk of Friday writing
one or more lengthy comments about it you should know something; you're living
in paradise. Actual paradise. You have nothing to complain about because
you've been entirely liberated from any significant burdens or risks. You've
won.

Congratulations.

------
jchoca
I wonder what effects the lack of variety might have on someone's gut
bacteria.

------
notadoc
I'm more surprised that people find this surprising than anything else.

------
a_lieb
I've found a way to take this formula and make it into a very effective
weight-loss diet. I've been at it for almost a year and have lost 20 pounds so
far, and it doesn't seem like I'm going to have any trouble keeping it off.
Granted, I'm not anywhere near the traditional 5-year mark used in studies to
evaluate whether someone has relapsed. But it does feel like something that I
can sustain, even for the rest of my life if that's needed to keep the weight
off.

There are some trends coming together in recent research that suggest that the
most sustainable way to lose weight not to follow any specific regime, but to
find a set of food restrictions that you can live with but which still lower
your overall "food reward" to a level that you can sustain without giving up.
(See this book review at Slate Star Codex [1] for more on these ideas.) It's
like a much more fine-tuned and personalized version of the fad diets that
don't have calorie-counting but add some restriction so that you don't want to
eat as much, like the Atkins Diet or the grapefruit diet.

It turns out what works for me is to limit myself to 3-4 specific meal
categories a day, only changing something up every few months. Currently it's
Grape Nuts Flakes and milk in the morning, a homemade turkey and roast beef
sandwich (or even 2) for lunch, and homemade burritos or Barilla Plus pasta
for dinner. No beverages except water. No sides, except there are a couple of
low-reward foods that I'm allowed to eat all day (currently Spring Mix and
steam-in-bag veggies).

Crucially, these are actually some of my favorite foods–and some are pretty
high-calorie–but if they are the only things that I am allowed to eat every
day, my food reward starts to drift down and I want fewer calories.

I don't put any limits on anything, so I'm never physically hungry and my
willpower isn't being drained every day by trying to limit myself. I let
myself eat pretty much whatever when I go out socially, but otherwise
absolutely no cheating.

We'll see how it works out in the long run, but overall I'm just as happy as
before. Any boredom from the diet itself is mostly cancelled out by the
benefits mentioned in the article (saving money, not needing to think about
making your meals, etc.) Not to mention the whole "losing weight" part!

[1] [https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/04/25/book-review-the-
hungry...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/04/25/book-review-the-hungry-
brain/)

------
YUMad
'Zerocarb' here. I don't insist on eating the exact same thing, but what I eat
is quite limited - meat, animal fat, salt and water.

I started this because of health issues, but I grew to like the simplicity of
it as well. I can eat one large meal and not feel hungry or exhausted the
whole day, and I can easily find adequate food without being fussy in most
environments. For example, McDonalds burger patties are 100% beef.

~~~
ArrayList
That is insanely bad diet. Hilarious. How are your numbers? Btw, meat causes
cancer[0].

0\. [https://www.who.int/features/qa/cancer-red-
meat/en/](https://www.who.int/features/qa/cancer-red-meat/en/)

~~~
YUMad
Lol, I checked your posting history and you're a vegan glorifying tofu as
protein source.

It is pretty obvious that your smear attempts on keto and zerocarb are
ideologically motivated.

------
razorbladeknife
I survive on One Meal a Day Diet

Which consists of

a) Oatmeal b)Green Tea c) Coffee

I've been going strong

On weekends I drink protein shake.

I've gained much muscle and focus back through this diet.

~~~
parliament32
This will definitely cause nutrient deficiency if you try to follow it for
more than a few months... but if you added in some fruits and vegetables and
you'd be fine.

------
m33k44
According to yog and aayurved, the recommendation is to limit(not avoid)
fibre-based, protein-based and fat-based food. Too much fibre and protein is
bad for the digestion system and too much fat is bad for the body. Two
tablespoon of Ghee(i.e. pure butter) everyday is recommended and is enough for
the body. Also, the recommendation is to wake up at 4:00 am, mediate and/or
exercise, drink a glass of warm(not cold) water before lunch, have lunch
before 7:00 am, stomach should be max 2/3 filled after lunch, eat fruits and
dry fruits the rest of the day whenever you feel hungry, drink warm water
whenever you feel thirsty, have lite dinner before 5:00 pm, and sleep at 8:00
pm before doing some meditation.

That is the recommendation for a calm, refreshing and healthy life.

