I love watching presentations by Jeff Novick. First he always presents great information that challenges the beliefs of the mass public and secondly he is very engaging and entertaining while doing so. I also highly recommend his lecture From Oil To Nuts: The Essential Facts About Fat Oils. You can watch a free section of it on YouTube, but it’s definitely worth getting the whole lecture on DVD. He also has a short excerpt from Going Nuts Over Nuts his 2012 lecture on YouTube.
One of the objections I often hear from readers and friends about a low fat vegan diet, is that everything in moderation is ok. They argue that oil, sugar, meat, dairy etc. should be fine in moderation and that an oil free low fat vegan diet sounds too extreme.
The problem with “moderation” is that it’s sure hard to moderate your intake when we are surrounded by food at home, at the store and restaurants, where it’s difficult to be aware of just how much of one thing you are taking in. We don’t have regular lean times in the winter anymore. We don’t need to load up on fat to keep warm for the winter and make it through on less.
Most of us in fact will never willingly skip a meal or even a snack, because the media tells us it’s bad to skip breakfast and we have a tendency to not just eat when we’re hungry, but when we’re bored or celebrating as well.
So is it even possible in a world of abundance to self regulate this moderation? I think it would be quite difficult. And though it sounds extreme, aiming to have zero oil or animal products in your diet gives you a better chance of having low amounts of these foods in your diet, as opposed to too many. If you regularly opt to eat these foods you will inadvertently consume high amounts over the week or month as it adds up. The only way to truly avoid certain foods 100% is by making all of your food every day from scratch and I doubt that many of us are doing that on a weekly basis, let alone for the rest of our lives. So that’s why I make oil free vegan recipes and aim for no oil, no meat, no dairy. Because occasionally when I do eat out, it’s a guarantee there’s going to be some extra oil or fat in that dish and I don’t know how much of it there is.
Let’s hear what Jeff Novick has to say on moderation.
So if you like to consume everything in moderation, how can you be sure you are consuming the proper amounts of fruits, vegetables, water and getting enough vitamins, minerals and fibre? It’s very difficult to consume enough fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains every day when you start trying to add in meat, cheese, oils, alcohol desserts and snack foods every day.
Has any of this information changed your perception of moderation? Discuss.
[…] If you missed out on The Myth of Moderation Pt 1: check it out here. […]