It's true that the concept of moderation doesn't prescribe specific targets. It only excludes extreme targets.
The two rules that you really can bank on are that calorie intake is directly linked to weight loss/gain, and you need a certain amount of protein and fat to maintain or build muscle. That being said, protein needed for survival is minimal. Other dietary parameters will affect long-term health, but laypersons are so inundated with misinformation that it's better to eat a variety of foods in moderation than to adopt extreme diets or novel nutritional theories.
Why are those "one weird trick" ads so profitable?
I have a hypothesis that people focus on magic pills (like fish oil) and conspiracy theories (like sugar toxicity) because it is a welcome distraction from an ugly truth: that in order to achieve their ideal body composition, they just need to be extremely disciplined and hardworking in their dietary and exercise habits, and for the sake of long-term health, they should lay off the junk food. There's no "trick". People already generally know what they have to do, but they pretend to themselves that they don't, because if they know what they have to do and fail to do it, that's indicative of personal weakness. It's cognitive dissonance.
The two rules that you really can bank on are that calorie intake is directly linked to weight loss/gain, and you need a certain amount of protein and fat to maintain or build muscle. That being said, protein needed for survival is minimal. Other dietary parameters will affect long-term health, but laypersons are so inundated with misinformation that it's better to eat a variety of foods in moderation than to adopt extreme diets or novel nutritional theories.
Why are those "one weird trick" ads so profitable?
I have a hypothesis that people focus on magic pills (like fish oil) and conspiracy theories (like sugar toxicity) because it is a welcome distraction from an ugly truth: that in order to achieve their ideal body composition, they just need to be extremely disciplined and hardworking in their dietary and exercise habits, and for the sake of long-term health, they should lay off the junk food. There's no "trick". People already generally know what they have to do, but they pretend to themselves that they don't, because if they know what they have to do and fail to do it, that's indicative of personal weakness. It's cognitive dissonance.