Wednesday, October 22, 2014

A Common Misconception: Moderation


Moderation. Moderation. Moderation. That is all I keep hearing from health magazines, yet why is this so contradicting to everything else these magazines publish? One article tells us to eat dessert to prevent a binge later, while the front page gives us the nutritional breakdown of said dessert in an attempt to convince us otherwise.
Today I came across an aggravating ad, not to mention an oxymoron. The article's description to draw readers in was, "it is fine to indulge once in a while but these offenders are just not worth it." The "offenders" included frosting, bagels, bacon, soy sauce, maraschino cherries, and jarred tomato sauce. A peculiar combination of foods that can never be consumed. The reasons for banning these horrific edibles included everything from calories, fat and sugar content, sodium and artificial flavors. Why were these specific foods singled out? If it comes down to grams of sugar, doesn't a cookie have more sugar than jarred tomato sauce? What about funnel cake? We can eat funnel cake but not maraschino cherries? 

There is no specific list of foods to avoid. The point of moderation is MODERATION for EVERYTHING. No foods are excluded in this statement. As one who has been in the recovery process for awhile now, it angers me greatly to see "health" magazines try to promote a balanced lifestyle, while publishing articles such as the one mentioned above. 

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