Last night the husband made me go to Ryan’s. I can’t stand Ryan’s. It is a buffet restaurant. I never eat enough at a buffet to feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth. But the main reason I don’t like to eat there is because it is all white food.

I try to eat a bunch of different colors of food at each meal. I first heard about this when I was in high school. My father was reading an article in the paper about a really old man. He was crediting his longevity to his strict vegetarian diet and Seventh Day Adventistism. He said that he made sure he had many different colors of food on his plate to make sure he got a balanced diet. I wasn’t a vegetarian at the time, just a meat hater, but it stuck with me for some reason.

It is pretty scientifically sound. Eating deep colored vegetables gives you lots of vitamins. If you eat several colors you get a variety. I don’t necessarily plan my meals by colors but I feel mildly uneasy if my plate is mostly pale or white. I try to add red or green peppers or some other loud vegetable.

So back to Ryan’s. They have the palest vegetables known to man. Here’s what I ate last night. A large iceburg lettuce salad with shredded cheese and black olives, nachos with cheese, mashed potatoes, and a slice of cheese pizza (heavy on cheese – light on sauce). They also have wonderful rolls with honey butter. That’s the highlight of the meal. They also have an extensive dessert bar. It is total carb overload. I feel like I’m overindulging in the worst foods I can think of but the sad part is that there are no other vegetarian choices.