Am I reading the nutritient balances wrong?
I always think of the balances as exactly that- a balance. Some scales should be slightly off center and the ideal placement is in the green zone.
That would mean that for potassium:sodium, if the arrow points sharply toward potassium in the white zone, I need more sodium in order to make that side “heavier” so the arrow would move right (toward the green). By contrast, if the arrow were on the right side of the green zone, the sodium side, I’d need more potassium to balance the scale more left.
however reading the blog, it seems opposite— am I wrong? And if so, why is it called nutrient balance if it doesn’t work like a balance?
Answers
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You are correct, the labels are very non-intuitive. They should really be reversed to be more intuitive.
As presented, they are a ratio value. so let's look at Omega 6 to Omega-3 for example. The ideal balance is virtually no Omega 6 and lots of Omega 3, so let's say 1 Omega 6 divided by 5 Omega 3 would be .2 (very near 0 as indicated on the left side of the bar) etc.
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Yes, I find them very unintuitive as well. Now the way I think about them is that each ingredient "push" the pointer away when I increase that ingredient.