‘Everything in Moderation’ is Ruining Your Efforts.

We’ve built excuses directly into our clichés; try these 3 tips to get control over your diet.

I suspect everything in moderation has been repeated throughout human history in one way or another. From the incoherent grunts above a woolly mammoth carcass to your forever-slim friend mentioning it just the other day, the words garbled by a mouthful of chips. The Greek poet Hesoid recorded the oldest surviving version of the saying:

‘Observe due measure; moderation is best in all things’ (c.700BC)

During the mid 19th century the famous writer, Oscar Wilde, gave us a clue that the clichéd saying needed a slight rejigging when he added:

“Everything in moderation, including moderation”

Here are my two cents:

Everything in moderation was a helpful mantra when local animal produce, seasonal fruits, and veg were the only foods available. When overindulgence of the particularly rich bits could leave you feeling nauseous and vulnerable. Nowadays, however, this cliché is undermining your chances of being healthy because it permits you to eat whatever the hell you like. The real danger is that you lose control. You’re being played, and need to cast this slippery, undefinable nonsense out forever if you want to take charge.

“..you’re more likely to put on weight and become metabolically unhealthy if your diet is diverse.”

‘Everything’ isn’t the same as it used to be

‘Everything’, when your choice was local, seasonal plants and animals doesn’t mean the same as it does today. Today, ‘everything’ is an incredible array of products from every corner of the globe. Thirty years ago, there was a lot less variety.

In 2020 you can choose from ten plus different ethnic cuisines—whatever that means to you—and only your fingers have to move to get them. This incredible diversity may seem like a cracking idea, but the more decisions you make, the more opportunity you have to make a bad one.

A study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE concluded:

“Our findings provide little evidence for benefits of diet diversity for either abdominal obesity or diabetes. Greater dissimilarity among foods was actually associated with gain in WC [waist circumference]. These results do not support the notion that “eating everything in moderation” leads to greater diet quality or better metabolic health.”

So, you’re more likely to put on weight and become metabolically unhealthy if your diet is diverse, and I agree with. Simplicity is underrated.

“..low in nutrients, almost completely unsatisfying, cheap and utterly addictive. And, this is no accident.”

This year marks my seventeenth year in the fitness/nutrition business, and I can tell you this; our memories are unreliable. We selectively forget eating those foods which we perceive as poor choices. In fact, nutrition research is plagued by this forgetfulness.

Ancient clashes with modern and you don’t notice

That ancient part of your brain would have you eating whenever you get the opportunity, an important desire that could mean survival. You may wish to believe that those parts of your brain are long asleep, but they’re still calling the shots, manifested in so many of our behaviours. You can keep instincts in check only if you allow them to come into focus consciously. Have you ever experienced discovering a biscuit in your mouth before you even decided to eat one? I know I have; where’s that last biscuit gone?

It’s not your fault

Today, we’re surrounded by convenience foods. Made in a factory, typically very high in carbohydrates with chemically extracted fats, and just the right amount of salt. They’re very low in nutrients, almost completely unsatisfying, cheap, and utterly addictive. And, this is no accident.

At a time when young American men were dressing head-to-toe in green and going off to Vietnam in droves, scientists were cracking the code to what has become known as the bliss point. Technically, it’s a bliss range where sugar, fat, and salt play together and trigger a crescendo of brain chemicals that make the designed food absolutely irresistible; literally addictive. A slight tweak to the formula and the food technicians even developed a bliss point for ‘diet’ products because, to the brain, sweetness is sweetness. There’s a reason why you eat the whole packet of biscuits instead of one or two. It’s not your inner monologue saying, the remainder will become stale, so I may as well eat them all now otherwise it’s a waste, and I can’t stand food waste anyway, and I’ll be good after that…

I have some tips for you that are as solid as if they were forged in the fires of Mount Doom, not really, but they can be powerful interventions when practised daily.

“Accept that you can’t fight the wave of neurotransmitters triggered deliberately by manufactured food..”

3 Tips to get control

1. Keep a food diary

One of the most powerful things you can do is to keep a food diary—here’s a free one. People hate filling these things in for some reason. Actually, I know the reason. It’s because the data is right there in black and white filled in by yours truly, and it clashes with your memories of what you ate. It can be unnerving. Also, it makes you preempt when and what you’re about to eat, which is like heading bad choices off at the pass. It’s also a great way of removing those sneaky snacks. I can’t eat this Millionnaire shortbread; I’ll have to write it down!

Use an app, a pen, and paper, or whatever works for you but try and remember to fill it in as you sit down to eat. Include all foods and drinks. Don’t bother counting calories — it’s impossible to get it remotely close, but that’s for another blog — get tracking for now.

2. Get real

Anticipate your perfectly human ability to fail when it comes to dietary self-discipline utterly. This is done simply by not buying those things you know are junk in the first place. Accept that you can’t fight the wave of neurotransmitters triggered deliberately by manufactured food so don’t even try. Say no one or two steps before you’re tempted, i.e. in the supermarket aisle. In my experience, it’s a lot easier to have no junk food than to have a little and then try and stop yourself.

3. Eat good meals, not snacks

I’ve written at length about the importance of eating real, whole foods, and to make sure you feel content and happy after each meal but the gist is this. Eat two or three nutrient-dense (foods born and grown) with enough fat and protein to make you feel satisfied. This is important because it balances your blood sugar, another mechanism of craving, and it’s actually quite hard to overeat real foods with lots of satiating macronutrients within.

The other oddly easily overlooked point, is that real foods are full of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Every process in your body and mind requires them. Fortified biscuits do not count.

“If your goal is weight loss I recommend you keep your diet simple until you have control over those addictions..”

Wrap up

In days long past this everything in moderation mantra may have provided sensible guidance, but today it’s not appropriate. Convenience foods dominate the supermarket shelves and advertising space. Their brightly coloured packages provide an almost nonstop subliminal effect on the part of your brain you don’t have so much control of.

For the majority of people, it’s important to step away from this unhelpful cliché. It gives the green light to all sorts of foods best left out of your daily diet routine. These junk foods have been designed, not grown, and not born. Put together piece by piece by an industry desperate for you to keep buying them and happy to chemically ensure that you do.

They care not if their products make you obese and unwell, because they hide behind another mantra; calories in calories out. This means they can blame you for eating too much and not moving enough. Don’t stand for it, it’s not your fault, but you will have to be proactive to break away from this.

If your goal is weight loss, I recommend you keep your diet simple until you have control over those addictions that have been forced upon you and that keep you snacking — eat a little an often, another damaging mantra I will address in due course.

Food diaries, being realistic about your inbuilt weaknesses, and feeding yourself properly at mealtimes are achievable tips and, once habitual, powerful devices to keep you on track and healthy. Go for it!