Hi everybody this is Monica Reinagel and you're listening to the

nutrition divas quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous and

today's show is about variety, why we need it in our diets, plus at least

one potential downside.

Josh writes, I eat a healthy diet, but I tend to eat the same foods over and over again.

For example, I eat spinach every day for lunch.

I know a varied diet is supposed to be best.

Can some healthy foods be bad for you if you consume them too frequently?

Josh is right, a varied diet is usually touted as the ideal.

But why? After all, the ability to choose from a wide

variety of foods no matter where we live or what time of the year it happens to be,

is to a certain extent a modern luxury. Many of our primitive ancestors thrived

an extremely limited diets that might have included just one or two protein

sources, a single type of grain, and a small selection of local

seasonal fruits and vegetables.

And in fact, these indigenous diets are often held up as being far superior to the modern diet with all its variety.

So why is there all this emphasis on a varied diet?

For those who would prefer to keep it simple, couldn't you just come up with one healthy meal plan and eat it every day?

Although it's clearly not essential, a varied diet does offer at least two advantages.

First, eating a variety of foods helps ensure that you're covering

your bases nutritionally. Green peppers, for example, are a terrific source of

Vitamin C, but don't offer that much in the way of Vitamin A, whereas carrots are the other way around.

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