Mono eating is something that many people have done albeit having never heard of the term. Mono, in Greek translates to “alone or single”. When applied to eating, mono eating simply means eating one type of food per serving. To count as a true “mono meal”, it also means that one isn’t drinking anything during the meal. For instance, if you decide to have a bowl of mangoes alone that would be a mono meal: most people have had a mono meal when consuming things like fruits or bread without any spread on top. A particular time when humans have mono meals is during the weaning off process as babies. Most parents will start the solid food feeding with one type of food (usually a specific piece of fruit). In this case, the mother's intuition informs her that it is not best to give a lot of combined foods to a baby.

Moreover, when we look into nature, wild animals often mono eat and certainly don't drink while eating. Fruitarians (those who live mainly on fruits), like myself, also mono-eat during (almost) every meal.

Benefits of Mono Eating

Mono eating has many benefits but here are just but a few.

Better Digestion

Mono eating results in better food digestion and absorption because eating one kind of food allows the food to be properly mixed (as it travels down the digestive canal) with the right enzymes and the body to produce the right hormones and engage in only those specific digestive processes needed for that particular food.

Better absorption means we are less likely to develop any mineral or vitamin deficiencies as most deficiencies are linked to improper food digestion. With better digestion, it also means we are not tired after each meal. What happens when most people eat a meal at lunch? Productivity at the workplace drops since most people will feel tired and sleepy.

Usually this is a sign that you’ve over worked your digestive system by eating foods that do not mix well together hence the body needing to expand more energy to complete the digestion process.

Mono Eating For Better Health

Many people suffer from food allergies and food sensitivities and can go on for years without knowing exactly what is happening besides the fact that they get sick after eating certain meals. Others suffer from severe migraine attacks (often after eating) and they are always left puzzled since they cannot seem to predict when these will occur. To solve this mystery, you can start eating mono meals. When we eat one type of food at a time, we become better at detecting which foods we are allergic to or have high sensitivity to. Also, by using this approach of mono eating, we can start detecting which food items or ingredients trigger migraine attacks or other health issue one might have.

Mono Eating for a better Food Experience

Those not familiar with mono meals will find it difficult to imagine how mono eating translates into better food experience. When we are used to eating foods prepared with so many ingredients and combination of so many food items, our tongues get used to this new taste and loses the taste of the individual foods. But ask anyone who has ever eaten a watermelon alone in the heat of summer months and they will tell you how refreshing, delicious and exciting it was. This unique experience happens every time I eat any fruits as a mono meal. For instance, when I used to eat cooked foods, I had trouble eating slices of pineapples, as they were bitter. But now, living on almost a fruits diet with mono eating (almost) at every meal, I can eat an entire pineapple alone as a meal and they taste great to my tongue now.

Imagine eating a meal of only baked potatoes. At first it might seem odd but once you get used to it then you start appreciating the taste of sweet potatoes. It is similar to experiences to that of those who only drink plain coffee! They do enjoy each. Interestingly, they appreciate the coffee more as they can tell what type of coffee it is and often they can even tell the origin of the coffee because their tongues can really differentiate the coffee qualities.

Simplified lifestyle

Mono eating has another benefit that one only discovers after adopting this lifestyle. Simple life! No need to worry about fancy recipes. No need to spend more time in the kitchen trying to cook different dishes. At each meal, all you have to do is decide what the single food item you want is. This can work very well for those who are very busy or less skilled in the kitchen.

In concluding, its important to note that those who are against mono eating will always advance the argument that we need to eat balanced meals. From my experience, I can say that mono eating is healthy as long as we rotate food items we consume at different meals. Just like in nature, wild animals might eat berries at one meal and nuts on the next meal. The key is to eat a variety of foods but not necessary at the same meal.

By Olivier Masabarakiza, Health Coach at www.FatOliver.ca

After going through my own health journey of losing 50 pounds and healing some of my chronic conditions, I have been helping others achieve great health results with their weight loss and chronic conditions.I am very active on social media where I share daily inspirational and educational posts. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram as Olivier Masabarakiza