Eat: More Food

Blasphemy. Utter blasphemy! How dare there be a blog post with the words eat more food.

Clearly, we’ve never met. Medical professionals look at a skinny man, and his age, height, and weight, and scratch their heads. What is going on?

To re-assure them, you, and everyone else, I present the following meal plan. According to choosemyplate.gov, I should eat 2600 calories consisting of the following food groups and servings:

Fruit (2 cups)
Vegetables (3 ½ cups)
Grains (9 ounce equivalents)
Protein (6 ½ ounce equivalents)
Dairy (3 cups).

To create a menu based on the above required some thinking. I created a table showing meals and food. Which group the food belonged to is indicated by the first letter of each group name (e.g., F for Fruit, V for Vegetable, and so on).

Below is a first attempt:

Breakfast: One slice of toast (G) with peanut butter (P), apple (F), one cup of milk (D), half cup of oatmeal (G)

Snack #1: One cup Greek yogurt (D) with a half cup of granola (G)

Lunch: Leftover two ounces chicken/beef/turkey (2 P) with one cup rice/potato/pasta/beans/peas (2 G) and one cup of broccoli/carrots or two cups of spinach (V)

Snack #2: Half an ounce of almonds (P), orange (F), 1 ½ ounces of natural cheese (D), one ounce of crackers (G)

Dinner: Two ounces chicken/beef/turkey (2 P) with one and a half cups rice/potato/pasta/beans/peas (3 G) and two cups of broccoli/carrots or four cups of spinach (2 V).

So far, so good. One can skew big to get the extra half cup of vegetables and half ounce protein.

Below is another attempt:

Breakfast: One egg (P) with a cup of mushroom/onion/bell pepper (V), apple (F), one cup of milk (D), one slice of toast (G) with peanut butter (P)

Snack #1: One cup Greek yogurt (D) with half a cup of granola (G)

Lunch: Leftover two ounces chicken/beef/turkey (2 P) with one cup rice/potato/pasta/beans/peas (2 G) and one cup of broccoli/carrots or two cups of spinach (V)

Snack #2: Half an ounce of Almonds (P), orange (F), 1 ½ ounces of natural cheese (D), one ounce of crackers (G)

Dinner: One ounce chicken/beef/turkey (P) with two cups of rice/potato/pasta/beans/peas (4 G) and one cup of broccoli/carrots or two cups of spinach (V).

How about a little meat to go with your mountain of rice? Having one ounce of meat at dinner seems almost not worth the trouble. Imagine someone consuming a 12-ounce steak over the course of four days (three ounces per day; two at lunch and one for dinner). Let’s slice the 12-ounce steak into two 6-ounce servings, and call that the protein allocation for the day.

That menu is below:

Breakfast: One cup of milk (D), one slice of toast (G) with butter, one cup of oatmeal (2 G)

Snack #1: One cup Greek yogurt (D) with half a cup of granola (G)

Lunch: Leftover one and a half cups of rice/potato/beans/peas (3 G) and two cups of broccoli/carrots or four cups of spinach (2 V)

Snack #2: One orange (F), 1 ½ ounces of natural cheese (D), one ounce of crackers (G)

Dinner: Six ounces of chicken/beef/turkey (6 P) with a half cup of rice/potato/pasta/beans/peas (G) and a cup of broccoli/carrots or two cups of spinach (V).

Let’s have spaghetti for dinner (and leftovers for lunch):

Breakfast: One cup of milk (D), one slice of toast (G) with butter, one cup of oatmeal (2 G)

Snack #1: One cup Greek yogurt (D) with half a cup of granola (G)

Lunch: Leftover three ounces of chicken/beef/turkey (3 P) with one cup of pasta (2 G) and one and a half cups of tomato (1.5 V)

Snack #2: One orange (F), 1 ½ ounces of natural cheese (D), one ounce of crackers (G)

Dinner: Three ounces of chicken/beef/turkey (3 P) with one cup of pasta (2 G) and one and a half cups of tomato (1.5 V).

How about a sandwich for lunch:

Breakfast: One cup of milk (D), one slice of toast (G) with butter, one cup of oatmeal (2 G)

Snack #1: One cup Greek yogurt (D) with half a cup of granola (G)

Lunch: Leftover three ounces of chicken/beef/turkey (3 P) with two slices of bread (2 G) and a cup of lettuce/tomato/onion (V)

Snack #2: One orange (F), 1 ½ ounces of natural cheese (D), one ounce of crackers (G)

Dinner: Three ounces of chicken/beef/turkey (3 P) with one cup of rice/potato/pasta/beans/peas (2 G) and two cups of broccoli/carrots or four cups of spinach (2 V).

None of the above menus took a great deal of time to create.

But, all the menus appear to have a lot of food. The challenge was figuring out how to achieve the grain allotments. I had to add oatmeal to most of the breakfasts in order to achieve 9 ounce-equivalents of grain. The vegetable allocations seem rather high, but that is to be expected for a "healthy" eating plan. There also seems to be a lot of dairy, and that is coming from someone who lives in Wisconsin. I don’t know about you, but having a slice of toast with one cup of oatmeal and milk on the side sounds rather filling. Then, two or three hours later having a cup of Greek yogurt and a half cup of granola?

Consider that I did select "30 to 60 minutes per day of moderate activity" as the physical activity level. If I had selected "Less than 30 minutes per day," the recommend calorie consumption would be 2400 calories, consisting of the following food groups and servings:

Fruit (2 cups)
Vegetables (3 cups)
Grains (8 ounce equivalents)
Protein (6 ½ ounce equivalents)
Dairy (3 cups).

See the difference? One half cup fewer vegetables, and one ounce equivalent less grain. The above menus don't really change. Maybe oatmeal is reduced or eliminated from the breakfasts.

Nonetheless, trying to eat that much food (even at the 2400 calorie level) seems like work. Maybe these plans assume that the individual is doing a fair amount of physical activity, even at the low end. Maybe people are really bad at knowing what they eat, and they underestimate how much grain and protein they consume. Granted, one should adjust the menus based on the results of the initial plan. There are also allergy and other restrictions that would force the use of soy milk, extra beans and nuts, and so on.

These plans are relatively easy if you're cooking for yourself, and are making relatively discrete meals (e.g., a meat dish, a vegetable dish). But, you'd have to break apart a pizza in your mind to determine how much would go to grain, dairy, etc. There's also common goods like cream of mushroom soup. There's a clear dairy component, but how much do the mushrooms count as vegetables? One can stare at ravioli or dumplings, and estimate how much is grain vs protein.

That raises the question: who actually follows these plans?