{"id":257,"date":"2016-09-21T19:31:41","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T19:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/?p=257"},"modified":"2016-11-29T02:39:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T08:39:39","slug":"eating-in-moderation-can-mean-three-cookies-or-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/eating-in-moderation-can-mean-three-cookies-or-six\/","title":{"rendered":"Eating in moderation can mean three cookies, or six."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cookie\"<\/a>A popular phrase among some registered dietitians (RD) is \u201cAnything is healthy in moderation.\u201d Though other RD\u2019s will roll their eyes at that idea and softly mutter under their breath \u201cA small portion doesn\u2019t mean it provides optimal<\/span> nutrition<\/em>\u201d, Dr. VanDellen has some research to debunk the \u2018moderation myth\u2019. Dr. VanDellen is a researcher in the Psychology department at the University of Georgia and studies how people can be successful at self-regulation and self-control<\/span>1<\/sup>. Self-regulation and self-control are words often tossed around in the context of obesity research and understanding how people\u2019s interpretations of <\/span>moderate<\/em> amounts of food can help understand their behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. VanDellen explained that \u201cmoderation\u201d can take on different meanings, depending on when you ask questions related to moderation.2<\/sup> She went on to explain that the following two questions should have the same answer if a person is truly \u201ceating in moderation\u201d:<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. \u201cHow many cookies should you eat?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n
  2. \u201cHow many cookies would be considered \u2018a moderate amount\u2019?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    The results were conflicting; the answer to question (1) was \u201c2\u201d and the answer to question (2) was \u201c3\u201d. She went on to explain that, for her participants, \u201cmoderate consumption\u201d was consistently reported as a greater amount than what they actually consumed, if<\/em> they were prompted with the question after<\/em> they ate the cookies. Additionally, if you asked them question (2) before<\/em> they ate the cookies, the reported moderate” amount wasn\u2019t as consistent across participants, but it was always more than what they ended up eating as the intervention time progressed.<\/p>\n

    The perceptions of moderation justified their actions\u2014but their perceptions changed based on their scenario. Consistently with this, if more food was consumed during the study period, the more\u00a0food\u00a0subjects perceived they could eat it while still considering it \u201cin moderation\u201d. In a computer-simulated \u201cThanksgiving meal\u201d, VanDellen compared participants who were told to either build their Thanksgiving plate as they would on the actual holiday, or to construct a plate \u201cin moderation\u201d. In the latter scenario, they put more food on their plates!<\/p>\n

    Her take home message? Moderation messages are not reducing the number of calories people are consuming! <\/em><\/p>\n

    These findings present an interesting new construct for healthcare practitioners, especially RDs, to consider. According to Dr. VanDellen\u2019s research, participants consume more<\/em> food when they are told to eat foods in moderation and the definition of moderation depends on when people are prompted with the question. From the evidence she presented, \u201cmoderation\u201d is too abstract a concept to facilitate beneficial behavior change, especially if weight loss is the primary desirable outcome. A better option would be to teach people how to identify the amount of calories, fat and added sugars are found in specific foods, and providing them with the tools to assess how these foods can fit within their daily (or weekly) intakes.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Michelle VanDellen. University of Georgia. Internet: http:\/\/psychology.uga.edu\/directory\/michelle-vandellen<\/a>. Accessed 21 September 2015.<\/li>\n
    2. Michelle VanDellen. Counterintuitive Finding in How Nutrition and Health Messages Affect Consumption. University of Georgia. Department of Foods and Nutrition Seminar Series. October 7, 2015.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      A popular phrase among some registered dietitians (RD) is \u201cAnything is healthy in moderation.\u201d Though other RD\u2019s will roll their eyes at that idea and softly mutter under their breath \u201cA small portion doesn\u2019t mean it provides optimal nutrition\u201d, Dr. VanDellen has some research to debunk the \u2018moderation myth\u2019. Dr. VanDellen is a researcher in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2025,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2025"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/heal2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}