What's "Reasonable?" What's "Moderate?" What's "Sensible?"

We're all used to it -- the chorus of "Any diet that requires you to give up whole food groups is a fad diet." (So you're against vegetarianism, right?) "Gimmicks don't work. Moderation in all things! You just need to eat a sensible, balanced diet and control your portions." "The only long-term answer is to eat less and exercise more."

Uh-huh. Because the track record of calorie-controlled diets is so impressive, what with that more-than-95% regain rate.
But what I really want to know is what the heck is so "sensible" about eating less and exercising more, while continuing to eat "moderate" portions of carby junk and empty calories? Seems to me that the less you eat, the more you need everything you put in your mouth to nourish your body.

What these people are actually saying, "No, no, forget changing the content of your diet. Forget eating in a way that makes you feel full and encourages your body to burn fat. That's a gimmick. The sensible solution is to feel hungry for the rest of your life. Just get used to it."

That's what they're suggesting, really. You're supposed to accustom yourself to ignoring one of your body's three strongest biological drives, the other two being the urge to breathe, and thirst. You think telling a bunch of teenagers awash in hormones to simply resist having sex has a poor success rate? Hah. Sex drive is a mere tickle compared to the physiological imperative to eat when hungry. And we live in a time and place where food is everywhere, all the time.

But that's the "sensible" solution we're offered by officialdom. Not to eat a diet that keeps you full and gives your body access to its fuel stores so that it never gets "I'm about to faint" hungry. No, no. That's a crazy gimmick. Why would you work with your body when you can spend your whole life fighting it? That's what "sensible, moderate people" do.

My favorite example of this mindset was an article I read back in '03, in which a dietician was quoted as saying "That diet just works by making you less hungry," as if that were a bad thing. Apparently it's not a good, sensible, moderate diet unless you're suffering.

Working with your body? That's a gimmick.

Gosh, I love gimmicks.