Curiosity pole about percentages in your diet
I read the article Dave posted by Dr. Spock. He said 25 to 30% of the diet should be vegetables. Can you estimate the percentages?
Protein...15%, perhaps 20%. This is down from 30 to 35%, I just don't need it.
Vegetables...some days it is over 50%, always at least 30%. I HATE LETTUCE, so 0% that.
Fruits...10% more if there is melon on offer. I am not a big fruit eater (I am counting tomatoes are veggies)
Grains...10% or less. Days go by when I don't touch any of it. I am somewhat intolerant of them, less is better for me. When I eat them, it is whole grain.
Beans...over a week it is running 50% of my proteins eaten just as beans, plus soy stuff.
Junk...stuff we all tend to do and wish we didn't. Mine is soda. I have switched to ice tea lately, which was a good switch. I do not eat cookies, cakes, pies, chips because I don't like them (why am I so fat, exactly?).
Just curious. It is all worth thinking about. My lack of grains right now is partially because it is summer and so hot. I will say that during the winter I eat more whole bean things and more grains because it is cold and these things keep me warm. Eating locally is good and so is eating seasonally. Cabbage, bulgar and beans in the winter for a meal is as perfectly acceptable as fruit plate, spinach salad and grilled tofu is in the summer. Nutrition is not made or broken in a day, it is built over a lifetime of good habits.
This changes seasonally.
Protein... 15% When I think about eating protein my stomach hurts, so I have to push myself to get 15% by using things like rice protein powder sprinkled onto my yogurt (which is how I take my vitamins, also).
Vegetables... 10% I'd eat more if I could afford them. What I eat includes bell peppers, lettuce, onions, and tomatoes (they're a veg, right?)
Fruits... 40% peaches, apples, blueberries, goji berries, grapefruit, oranges... I eat more fruit during the summer because it gets to be close to 100F inside my house on some days. I freeze fruit and make smoothies to help stay cool.
Grains...5% or less Grains are another thing that upsets my stomach just thinking about. I don't like grains in general, so I sprout them and top my salads with beans and grain sprouts. I can easily eat protein and grains in soups (not sure why), which I eat during winter months.
Beans... 25% fava and black beans, mostly
Junk... 5% I'm sure something slips through that I can't think of right now - probably the suger in my yogurt. I have such a slow metabolism that I can't eat junk. Well, I can eat it and know I will if I buy it, so I don't buy it. For myself, I consider junk to include the obvious. I don't drink soda or fruit juice. Plus, I include things like nut butters, refined flour products (pasta and bread), and rice in this category.
Just an overall guesstimate of my typical eating patterns, of course it varies wildly by season/moods/sales at the store:
Beans/other protein: 15% (soups, sandwich fillings, patties, breakfast scrambles, in salads. . .)
Vegetables: 30% (may increase if there are great sales on produce; right now about 1 serving of this is leafy greens, I’m trying to up that to 2-3 servings per day)
Fruit: 20% (mostly in my morning smoothies, sometimes as a snack or dessert; probably higher in summertime)
Whole grains: 20-25% (sometimes millet, quinoa, amaranth, or oatmeal for breakfast; brown rice as a side at dinner, more rarely whole wheat pasta or corn tortillas, home-made whole wheat bread or sprouted grain English muffins for sandwiches or toast)
Nuts/seeds/other fats: 5-10% (2tbsp ground flax in the morning + other nuts/seeds, usually raw, an occasional avocado, oil to sauté vegetables)
Junk: 5% (may be much higher percentage on holidays; usually home-baked goods that I take to a party and eat outside the home, use a small amount of blackstrap molasses or agave nectar to sweeten hot breakfast cereals, sometimes buy fake sour cream/cream cheese/soy yogurt/vegannaise for a particular entree, sometimes soy ice cream for a special treat....oh yeah, and corn chips)
I would say that veggies and tofu make up most of my diet. So I'd say about 60% (in the summer, this goes up because of our garden), roughly. I started eating more beans (lentils, split peas, ect). I'd say those are around 10% still (but I'm working on that). Fruit, about 5%. I should eat more, but I don't. And 10% goes to "fake meat." And 10% goes to "ready-made" vegan food. The kind you just pop in the microwave for work, like Amy's, or fake lunch meat. I buy those for those 10 hour work days and I don't feel like cooking or for an easy lunch at work. I don't bake, or eat sweets, so that's 0%.
I find it hard to estimate for myself because of two reasons: I can hardly remember what my last meal consisted of (I graze and forget), and I don't know how these percentages are counted. Is it by weight? Calories? Volume?
I eat a lot of green lately but they fall apart when I cook them so they end up looking like very little even though the meal probably has 1/2 cup cooked millet, some spices, soy sauce, and canola oil, and an entire head of kale.
Just to take part in this guesstimation after all, I am going to assume that going roughly by calories I get 70% of my calories from some sort of grain food (wheat, barley, millet, quinoa, rice, flour, etc.), 10% from added oil, 10% from refined sugar, 5% from fruits and vegetables (they don't add much calorie-wise), and 5% from food eaten for protein (lentils, nutritional yeast, soy products, beans, etc.).
And this is what I would want it to be: 40% from grains, 10% from added oil, 20% from fruit, 10% from veggies, 10% from protein foods, and 10% left for "other"
Then again, these are just numbers and I'm not sure what they really translate to inside my head regarding actual volumes and meal.