Everything in moderation, it’s that bit of advice that everyone likes to give. You may have been told by your friend or colleague to enjoy sweets in moderation. Or when you over consume a healthy item such as fiber and get bloated, you're told to not overdo it and eat everything in moderation.  But what exactly is moderation and how does it apply to our food and physical activity? 

 

What is Moderation?

Moderation to most means avoiding extremes and adopting a balanced approach to nutrition and physical activity. Pretty simple and straightforward right? Unfortunately it is never that simple.

Take for example the advice to eat sweets in moderation. What would that advice from your friend mean to you? Can you enjoy a few cookies here and there, one cookie a day, or one cookie per meal? Maybe they meant only one cookie per month?

The problem with moderation

Moderation is not a quantitative term and does not really have any meaning to it without context. It is essentially the average of 2 extremes, but there are a couple problems with that. 

1. You have to know the extremes first to decide what moderation is for a given food or activity.

2. Some foods or activities do not have a lower extreme as they are not essential to our health and fitness.

Take the cookies example: there is no minimal required intake of cookies to promote good health. But there is a maximum amount of sugar we should consume in a day (<30 grams). 

So you could say we shouldn’t exceed a total of 30 grams of sugar per day and figure out how many cookies you could eat within that limit. But that is no longer moderation, it is limiting your intake to avoid going over the limit. 

Let’s use the fiber example next: you recently heard that fiber is good for you and your GI tract. It keeps you regular and your gut bacteria happy. So you decide to ramp up the fiber and consume 20 grams in one day. The next day you complain to your friend that you’re feeling very bloated and keep passing gas. They tell you to eat everything in moderation, even the healthy stuff. 

How would you take the friendly advice from your friend? Would you eat less fiber from now on?

Opposite of the cookies, fiber does have a minimum required intake to keep us healthy (25g/day women, 30g/day men). There is also no set maximum intake of fiber. The person in our example only consumed 20 grams, which is below either minimum. 

Due to the nature of fiber, it must be increased gradually and each person will have a different level of sensitivity to it being increased. If you increase your fiber intake too rapidly you will end up bloated and gassy. However, had the person in our example increased their fiber intake gradually to the minimum, they would not have experienced these side effects. 

Although increasing your intake of fiber gradually would be considered moderation, there is no set amount to it. Instead, it is best to figure out your current intake and calculate how much you should increase your fiber per week to reach the minimum daily intake. 

What to use in place of moderation

As you saw in the two examples, moderation without context is a pretty useless bit of advice. Although it comes with good intentions, it is context that is the key here. When it comes to food and physical activity, it all depends on the context of each. 

So, the next time you find yourself thinking you may be overeating or undereating something apply this question:

• Is this a food that my body needs to stay healthy and strong?

• If no - then figure out what the limit is and stay below that.

• If yes - figure out what the minimum is and strive to achieve that amount regularly.

If you want one-on-one coaching and help with figuring out what and how much of a given food or physical activity you should be having or doing, contact me at dietitian2go@gmail.com or schedule a video chat or phone call with me.

Written by: Adam Skowyra MPPD, RDN, LD