Today’s nutritional information contains more contradictions than consistencies, even among nutrition and health professionals. These contradictions have led to a great deal of skepticism about nutrition science.

One common theme, however, addresses the vague recommendation to eat a balanced diet. Understanding how this message evolved to become misunderstood, may help you make better food choices for your health.

QUESTION: What does a balanced diet really mean?

ANSWER: Pre-1970s, food recommendations were all about eating a variety of foods in adequate quantities to meet essential nutrient needs. Scientists had determined what specific food components (nutrients) are absolutely required by the body for growth, maintenance of the body and staying healthy.

After the 1977 Dietary Goals report by the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, the focus changed. Meeting essential nutrient needs took a back seat to recommendations to decrease or eliminate foods and ingredients that had come to be associated with increased risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease. Some foods became undeserving villains.

The first victim of this undeserved character assassination was the egg. The decrease or elimination of this single food changed how people thought about food. Because eggs were an integral ingredient in many food products, this demonization changed the composition of many foods, replacing nutrient-rich egg yolks with a variety of low-nutrient substitutes.

Shortly thereafter, the reputation of many other foods and ingredients that provide key nutrients became tarnished due to correlation studies linking high consumption of them to increased chronic disease risk.

Foods were now categorized as “good” or “bad,” rather than how they fit into the overall diet to help meet essential nutrient needs.

Q: Was it unfair to target eggs as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease?

A: Even though cardiovascular disease had declined dramatically with decreases in smoking, dietary cholesterol, primarily from eggs, became the next risk target. In the 1970s, there actually was adequate scientific evidence that dietary cholesterol has little or no impact on blood levels except in a very small number of genetically prone individuals. Cholesterol has many important functions. In normal health, the body regulates cholesterol levels precisely allowing for the synthesis of vitamin D, testosterone, estrogen and other critical chemicals.

Regardless of the facts, eggs which are a rich source of essential nutrients, especially choline, were replaced with oil or newly synthesized egg substitutes. This resulted in low choline in the diet which can cause abnormal fat deposits in the liver, resulting in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. A single egg yolk contains about one third of the required choline needed daily by an adult.

Step one of any balanced diet is that it must include a combination of foods that meets all of the essential nutrient needs.