The concept of moderation can be a very effective method of approaching a dietary regimen. It is important to remember that it is intended to be applied to healthful, natural foods.
Although well-intentioned, applying the concept of moderation to unhealthful eating does not work in theory or in practice. Attempting to moderate unhealthful choices succeeds only in drawing attention from the real issue: that there are good and bad foods, projecting the concept that all food is good food, and that we can eat whatever we want without consequence as long as it is limited.
Unfortunately this is not true. Everything that we eat has a consequence, whether positive or negative, and however potentially minute. For example, moderation would say that it is okay to eat a hamburger, as long as you trade the fries for a salad and the soda for some juice. By following this logic, all we are accomplishing is the drowning out of our unhealthful food choice with a high percentage of healthful food choices. Although partially effective, and of course better than the option which included the french fries and soda, we are ignoring the real issue. Our efforts have not changed the fact that the hamburger has a negative impact on our health. We have lessened the impact, but not changed the truth: hamburgers are bad for you.
Ignoring that the idea of moderation is inherently flawed, we can discuss the average practice of moderation. True moderation of food allows its occurrence in our diet much less often than we would like to believe. For example, moderating something like chocolate may place it in our diet once a week, or even less often. The average person instead uses moderation as a rationale for making constant unhealthful choices. Using this “once in a while is okay” attitude leads us to constant, although perhaps different, unhealthful choices.
Applying the concept of moderation to food-like substances that do not provide solid nutritional value is ineffective at best. Instead of spending time justifying the consumption of unhealthful foods focus on making reasonable, permanent changes.
