Fad Diet Alert: Is The Meal Monotony Diet Next?

I've read several research studies in the past few years which suggest overweight and obesity are due not only to food availability, but to the sheer variety of food from which to choose. Here's a link to a recent article on this topic, this time from The Independent online. It's based on a study published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (you can read the abstract here).

The theory goes like this: When you eat the same food over and over again, you become habituated to it. That is, it becomes boring, so you eat less. Since you're now eating less, you'll lose weight.

From an epidemiological standpoint, this makes sense. If you lived in Northern China five hundred years ago, your diet would have consisted of a comparatively limited number of food items. For that matter, a research study I read back when I was in college observed that women who cooked at least four days a week rotated between about eight recipes. It wouldn't be too hard to get bored eating the same eight meals two or three times a month.

That said, I'm not convinced. For starters, this theory fails to explain why I can mow through a bag of pita chips, or a container of cashews--no problem! The flavor never changes; how come I never get bored?

In fact, I was just telling my kids that when I was in high school, I worked at a deli for about six months. We served sandwiches, salads, sides, cookies...and gelato. Mmm, that gelato! My mom, who worked in an ice cream parlor after high school, assured me that eventually I'd tire of it. I didn't. After trying everything else on the menu, I focused exclusively on the rum-raisin gelato, and ate only rum-raisin gelato. To this day, I'm still looking for a rum-raisin gelato that measures up to my memories. (Given that I gained a few pounds eating rum-raisin gelato nearly every day, perhaps that's for the best!)

Maybe I'm the exception to the rule, but I suspect there's far more to weight management than variety versus boredom, at least in practice. After all, if boring diets really worked, the grapefruit diet and the cabbage soup diet would have done the trick decades ago. I'm willing to predict that the Monotony Diet will end in dieters faithfully eating one or two or three foods for a few weeks...and then bingeing at their favorite buffet.

In fact, I'm willing to go out on a limb and suggest that caloric intake is far more dependent on other factors than habituation versus variety. What do you think? Do you believe food choice is influenced by variety, but other factors play a greater role? Or are you on board for the Monotony Diet?