Rubicon - you and Polar just have to stop using such technical terms. I'm having difficulty following them. Use your terms in moderation.

I know some are challenged in their ability to evaluate medical literature, tell the material based on double blind placebo controlled peer reviewed studies vs material based on anecdotal and personal experience. Some don't understand that an opinion piece by 4 doctors does not equate to a well documented meta-analysis nor to a comprehensive literature review. But if you choose to accept an article like the one cited for this thread as being authoritative and important, perhaps that is a choice you can make with comfort. Others, some of whom have privately messaged me, appreciated my pointing out that this dietary recommendation is not made by the NIH and giving information on the author of the piece. I never said the advise was bad, I said it was not authoritative as it would have been if it were indeed made by the NIH. I think, my opinion, that is an important distinction worth pointing out. Sorry if you disagree.

I speak fluent English and fluent German and I think that "Eat in moderation" means pretty much the same thing for most people with common sense. Eat a little of this and a little of that and mix it up every now and again. Don't go overboard. Yep, I think we get it. Most of us anyway!

I agree Frau..

Don't go overboard. Don't be ALL or nothing. See the big picture. Not falling outside of what is generally accepted by society in general..

Once in awhile and now and then having something completely off the diet won't kill you and SHOULDN'T make you feel guilty.

Being jittery and worried about doing something perfectly all of the time isn't good for anyone and isn't healthy and is stressful. Feeling the need to talk about your diet isn't what most people do...for years...it isn't a moderate way to live. It is extremely out of the ordinary.

Taking pills to restore your health, no matter what your diet and lifestyle is not being a failure either. Science is a wonderful thing and many good men and women labored hard with the best intentions to develop a way to make us healthier. That doesn't mean that big business hasn't made a lot of money on medications, but to turn away from pills of any kind is very extreme. It isn't moderate. It could be very dangerous too.

moderation...slightly pregnant :shrug:

I've never heard any woman describe herself as moderately pregnant. :confused:

there are wonderful meds for instance for asthma and there are many others that can not be controlled with any diet

But diet related meds let's for example let's just look at two meds that are widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs (the #2 number of prescriptions written in the US. )
And blood pressure like Diovan etc

Modifying your diet and lifestyle to restore your health without the side effects of meds. May be a better option

You make a very important point. Even if a drug can't be eliminated entirely, the dietary change made by modifying (and moderating) may be sufficient to allow the dosage of a drug to be reduced.

And now we can eat eggs again. If you are old enough you can remember when milk was bad for you, then it wasn't just not bad, it was good for you. Now we can have red wine and dark chocolate and drink coffee. The moral to this story: eat eggs and dark chocolate and drink milk, wine and coffee. Before they change their minds again.

Thanks for the intelligent comment. I can tell you really put a lot of thought into it. Of course you didn't explain how anyone would know what moderation is for someone else.

But we still don't know how many fish Polar Bears need for survival.

I put exactly the amount of thought into it that was warranted. And very few others in the world need the word 'moderation' explained to them.

As far as I can tell, "everything in moderation" is a phrase intended to give support to the processed food industry and to those who are addicted to processed foods. Under the "moderation" banner the following processed foods can be eaten, but the word moderation doesn't explain how much or how often. I'll give a partial list:

Pizza: (would moderation be one per week, one per month, or once a year?) (One slice, one medium pie or one large pie?)

Soda: (would moderation be once or twice a day, once or twice a week, once or twice a month, or a few times a year?)

Pastry: (would moderation be once a day, once a week, once a month or a few times a year?

Salty snacks like potato chips: How often can you have them in moderation?

Ice Cream: How much? How often?

Bread: How much? How often?

Candy: How much? How often?

What do they do in the church of moderation? Don't they evangelize too? Oh, you just don't recognize it as such?

If reporting or having a discussion about health is considered evangelizing, the media do this all the time. When do we consumers get an opportunity to talk back to all that the media throws our way in the form of advertisements and news articles? We're not living in Russia, are we?