“Everything in moderation” no longer applies
"Everything in moderation" - a common go-to phrase of many health professionals. While on the face of it, it seems like harmless advice, used to soften the blow so people don't feel they have to give up all the things they've slowly become addicted to, it's actually an unhelpful approach.
Here are my thoughts:
What is a moderate amount? This is subjective so will change from person to person. For one person, it might mean that a takeaway meal is a once-weekly treat, but for someone else, it could be a daily intake.
When we talk about eating things in moderation, we’re usually referring to junk foods. But, these foods have been designed to be addictive. Lacking nutrients, we don’t feel as satisfied as we would eating the same amount of natural food, so we continue to eat more of it.
It might have worked in a time when food availability was different and people lived more active lives, but today junk food is easily available, consumed on a daily basis and inactivity is one of the driving factors behind our health conditions. Figures show that ultra-processed foods make up over 50% of the UK population’s energy intake (1, 2). It’s not uncommon to see many people drink Red Bull for breakfast, a soft drink with lunch, and ice cream for dessert.
It might have been helpful advice when we ate seasonally. For example, when certain fruits were only available for a couple of months in a year, people would have enjoyed those foods well, knowing they were in short supply and for a limited time only. But now, when we can get most foods all year around, does the advice “eat in moderation” still apply?
To notice a radical shift in a person’s current health state, they might need to be informed that that a particular habit, behaviour, or food needs to be eliminated. It may not be what the person wants to hear but practitioners have a duty to be frank with clients about the impact of certain lifestyles and behaviours on their health outcomes. It also delivers a message of encouragement, that the person has the potential and ability to make healthier choices and achieve better health.
Continuing along the moderation path can keep people in a particular health situation, or they can find certain symptoms just don’t shift. In this way, it prolongs a certain state, ruining our efforts, and means we avoid some important decision-making for ourselves.
Maybe I have a skewed view because I’ve worked most of my nursing career with people who have addictions or life circumstances that they have little control over at the time (homeless; poor access to food or cooking facilities). In these cases, moderation wouldn’t even be safe because of the impact that certain substances and behaviours have had on the person’s health already. But, it also applies to people with long-term conditions (diabetes, colitis, hypertension etc) where moderately consuming foods they consider a treat, could impact their health negatively in quite a severe way. And then it makes me ask why much of society encourages consuming these products in the first place.
While the intentions of the phrase “everything in moderation” might be good, we have to be honest with ourselves as to whether it’s helpful or just an excuse to validate what we want to carry on with.
My take on it? Stop consuming food that doesn't love you back. I debated whether to write this, and it might sound preachy but my intention was to remind us that everything we consume can be understood on a scale of it being nourishing for us or not. What we eat, what we watch, what we listen to, who we spend time with, where we spend our time, what we think...If it's not nourishing us, then it's depleting us.
References:
Rauber et al., 2019. Ultra-processed foods and excessive free sugar intake in the UK: a nationally representative cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 9
Yanaina Chavez-Ugalde et al. 2024. Ultra-processed food consumption in UK adolescents: distribution, trends, and sociodemographic correlates using the National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2008/09 to 2018/19. European Journal of Nutrition, 63