A Balanced Diet - But on Which Scale?
(Originally published in May 2026 in german only, translated in September 2026)
Just like Eat the Rainbow (in both versions), this piece of dietary advice is a splendid example of “hedging” - the precautionary insurance policy taken out in case the advice goes wrong. Whoever handed it out can always wriggle back out of it later: “Well, that clearly wasn’t balanced enough…”.
Spoiler alert: a rant.
What is balanced, exactly?
In English we say “balanced diet”. German says “ausgewogen”, which means the same thing but also translates literally as “weighed out”. Two languages, one and the same metaphor: a scale. Which opens the door to even more wordplay: are we talking about a balance scale whose two arms are level? Are those arms even the same length?
We all know that objects of very different weights can balance each other perfectly if they sit on arms of different lengths. Two children of very different weights can seesaw together without any trouble as long as they sit at different distances from the middle: perfectly balanced, a potentially very balanced game. Also, as I remember it, one where the balance tips rather suddenly (ouch).
But we don’t even have to go that far. We can just as well ask by which scale we are meant to balance that imaginary beam. The front-runners are “calories” versus “weight”: in which unit do we measure balance? What is being weighed against what? Nutrients and antinutrients? Oxalates and phytic acid?
As the illustration shows, a one-dimensional sculpture balances beautifully too: you don’t need two opposites weighed against each other at all. The feature image already demonstrates it: chocolate and nuts - weighed out and skilfully balanced into a stack.
It’s the dose that does it, everything in moderation
As instructions for weighing one thing against another, those two are a decent start. Sadly, they fall short as well: which amount? How much sugar do I weigh against how much cyanide (almonds, especially bitter almonds, for instance)? How much arsenic (rice) is moderate? How do zinc and the phytic acid that blocks its uptake (wholegrain cereals) weigh against each other?
Is the DGE recommendation balanced?
Careful, this is where it turns sarcastic:
Under the current recommendations of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung - German Nutritional Society, a largely government funded NGO, designated as appointed authority on nutritional matters, roughly 350 g of sugar per week are allowed, plus roughly 300 g of meat and sausage and 60 g of egg (one). Could the ratio of utterly unnecessary, Nonessential nutrients are those that the body can synthesise itself out of other nutrients. Therefor these do not have to be provided with food. substances (350 g) to those that carry Essential nutrients are those that the body cannot synthesise itself and must obtain through food – vitamins, essential amino acids, and fatty acids. nutrients (360 g) be the thing that is supposed to come out balanced on the scale? And if I ever eat a bit more sugar, can I balance it out again with a bit more meat? 🫣
The last bag of sugar I bought carries a best-before date of “August 2019” and is still sealed and unopened. How much of it should I eat now (and over what period) to land back at a balanced ratio?
Where’s the beef?
Seriously, though: what is it that people actually mean? There is, quite simply, no clear definition of “balanced” in nutrition. Of course there isn’t - because if there were one, it would be trivially falsifiable.
Hedging, that’s all.
My conclusion
Dietary recommendations usually come in the present tense: You should eat a balanced diet. My answer comes in the present perfect.
I will of course go with the most obvious reading - just as in Watch Your Weight: by far the most of the food I have ever bought was paid for by weight. So I am certain, and I have the receipts to prove it: my food - and with it, naturally, my diet - _has been weighed on a scale_(1). Balanced!
Tense as announced. Result as announced: perfect.
🫳 🎤
More hedging in the DGE recommendations
DGE Guidelines. A Contradiction?
Why the recommendations of the German Nutrition Society don’t actually contradict my completely different personal experience
Read more →