The Clean Eating Delusion...
Hornsby
Posts: 10,322 Member
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-clean-eating-delusion/
In practice “clean eating” tends to be avoiding whatever food is the latest boogeyman in the pseudoscientific diet-advice industry. Today this often includes eating organic, avoiding GMOs, avoiding gluten, avoiding perceived “chemicals,” eating “natural” which can mean many things but often means avoiding processed foods and food additives, and sometimes eating raw foods.
It is important to emphasize that none of these food beliefs are science based. After 50 years of research there is no evidence for any health benefit to eating organic. After 20 years of research there is no evidence of any health risk to any currently available GMO foods.
About one percent of the population has true gluten sensitivity, called celiac disease. For everyone else there is no current consensus that gluten causes any problems. This story is more complicated, though, as there are also wheat allergies, and some people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are sensitive to FODMAPs, which are in many of the same foods as gluten.
Avoiding “toxins” includes a large category of claims, but essentially misses the point that the dose makes the toxin. Sure, there are toxins everywhere – substances that in high enough dose will cause adverse health effects. Water is a toxin if drunk in sufficient quantities. The important question is, what is the dose? It is easy to scare people, however, with the notion that there are toxins in their food or water, without putting that information into its proper context.
Closely related to this is the avoidance of “chemicals.” This is a particularly naive position, as everything is a chemical. Water is a chemical (H2O). You can give even common substance a long technical chemical name and make is sound scary, giving rise to popular memes in which the contents of a banana or blueberry are listed in scary chemical names.
In order to avoid “Food Babe” level ignorance on this issue (“if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it”), some have made the distinction between natural and synthetic chemicals. This is a false dichotomy, however. How much processing or change to a naturally occurring chemical makes it synthetic? Also, there is no reason to suspect that chemicals which happen to occur in nature have any greater tendency to be healthful than synthetic chemicals. This is just another manifestation of the appeal to nature fallacy.
There are legitimate reasons to be concerned about eating too much processed food, as it tends to contain lots of sugar, fat, and/or salt. This has to do more with trends in the food industry, rather than anything inherent to processing foods rather than eating foods prepared from scratch. This is where reading labels can be helpful, and there also needs to be pressure on the food industry to provide more transparency and healthful options. But avoiding processed foods is no guarantee of healthy eating either, as there are many unprocessed sources of excess fat, sugar, and salt.
Eating raw is nothing but pure nonsense. Cooking changes food, mostly for the better, making certain nutrients more accessible and digestion easier. Some types of cooking, or overcooking, (such as boiling vegetables) can remove nutrients from certain foods, but it is not necessary to eat raw in order to get adequate nutrition (and of course, microwaves are no better or worse than any other source of heat).
Raw eating often involves pure pseudoscience, such as the claim that it is better to eat food that is alive, and cooking kills food. Stomach acids also kill food, by the way. Raw claims vary from the pseudoscientific to the mystical, with claims about the essence of food.
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Good post!0
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In for awesome resources.0
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Wow, a rare breath of fresh air.0
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Awesome post!!!
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In.0
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Thanks for this!0
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Awesome @Hornsby
Oh and the article is good too.0 -
Need a like button. 0
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Now this is what logic is all about! Seriously, educating the self on whatever diet one wishes to follow is very important.0
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I keep laughing every time I read the "Food babe" part. I'm so stealing that saying
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"I again want to emphasize that I am not being judgmental here, just describing a psychological tendency that can lead to behavior that accomplishes the opposite of what it intends – health" lol, uhm no. but whatever.
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Of course I agree. And I'm glad to see voices of reason on this topic and others here on MFP. But making certain kinds of foods "the enemy" for a period of time, IMHO, is more helpful than harmful. Steels your resolve until you can make some new habits. Also agreed that extended food phobias are NOT a good thing.0
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Someone defining and then trashing the undefinable. ::yawn::0
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Why write this?
To bash other people's line of thinking? To prove that you are somehow fitness intelligent superior to those ignorant peons that choose to eat organic or gluten free? No you're weak minded and weak willed. Only willing to accept that eating whatever you think is healthy is the only way to "be healthy".
I'm not God, and I'm not smart enough to play God by creating GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD, or to conduct scientific experiments to prove whether or not they are safe. But I'm smart enough to guess that using super powerful pesticides that kill a huge portion of insect life probably has some effect on me. I'm smart enough to infer that maybe the food industry has a monetary interest in making sure we don't know exactly what effects GMOs have on humans.After 20 years of research there is no evidence of any health risk to any currently available GMO foods.
Regardless, if I decide to eat organic or not, *kitten* off why do you care? If the "healthiness" of organics is completely placebo, why does it affect you? More importantly, the vast majority of Americans are not unhealthy because of their internal debate over organic or GMO, it's cause they eat *kitten*.
Making that statement is powerful, “if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it”. For a person who knows nothing about nutrition, about what is healthy and what isn't, the simplest and most effective way of eliminating bad stuff from your diet, is pronouncing what's in your diet.In order to avoid “Food Babe” level ignorance on this issue (“if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it”), some have made the distinction between natural and synthetic chemicals. This is a false dichotomy, however.
And you're argument? Some chemicals are good in certain portions, which I decide upon. Great, tell that to the fat woman who's shoving twinkies down her pie whole that some of the chemicals in that twinkie are only harmful if consumed in large quantities.
There is this constant struggle to dictate what is healthy: eat GMOs they're good for you, eat organic GMOs kill you, eat raw vegetables because it's alive, eat steamed veggies cause it's easily digestible.
How about minding your own business, learning about the benefits and negatives of an eating style that you can accept to improve your own life?
....Well that wouldn't be as much fun as arguing on a forum: Carbs make you fat, eat Ketogenics.0 -
I think someone is hangry. 0
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Why write this?
To bash other people's line of thinking? To prove that you are somehow fitness intelligent superior to those ignorant peons that choose to eat organic or gluten free? No you're weak minded and weak willed. Only willing to accept that eating whatever you think is healthy is the only way to "be healthy".
I'm not God, and I'm not smart enough to play God by creating GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD, or to conduct scientific experiments to prove whether or not they are safe. But I'm smart enough to guess that using super powerful pesticides that kill a huge portion of insect life probably has some effect on me. I'm smart enough to infer that maybe the food industry has a monetary interest in making sure we don't know exactly what effects GMOs have on humans.After 20 years of research there is no evidence of any health risk to any currently available GMO foods.
Regardless, if I decide to eat organic or not, *kitten* off why do you care? If the "healthiness" of organics is completely placebo, why does it affect you? More importantly, the vast majority of Americans are not unhealthy because of their internal debate over organic or GMO, it's cause they eat *kitten*.
Making that statement is powerful, “if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it”. For a person who knows nothing about nutrition, about what is healthy and what isn't, the simplest and most effective way of eliminating bad stuff from your diet, is pronouncing what's in your diet.In order to avoid “Food Babe” level ignorance on this issue (“if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it”), some have made the distinction between natural and synthetic chemicals. This is a false dichotomy, however.
And you're argument? Some chemicals are good in certain portions, which I decide upon. Great, tell that to the fat woman who's shoving twinkies down her pie whole that some of the chemicals in that twinkie are only harmful if consumed in large quantities.
There is this constant struggle to dictate what is healthy: eat GMOs they're good for you, eat organic GMOs kill you, eat raw vegetables because it's alive, eat steamed veggies cause it's easily digestible.
How about minding your own business, learning about the benefits and negatives of an eating style that you can accept to improve your own life?
....Well that wouldn't be as much fun as arguing on a forum: Carbs make you fat, eat Ketogenics.
How DARE he try educating people about the scientific realities of what we're eating instead of feelings. How DARE he tell me my diet isn't sent by the gods of nutrition to make me better than those dirty **** eaters.0 -
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stevencloser wrote: »How DARE he try educating people about the scientific realities of what we're eating instead of feelings. How DARE he tell me my diet isn't sent by the gods of nutrition to make me better than those dirty **** eaters.
That's exactly my point.the scientific realities of what we're eating
Only in MFP forums could you say scientific realities without providing any scientific evidence. #fatlogicFTW0 -
Why write this?
To bash other people's line of thinking? To prove that you are somehow fitness intelligent superior to those ignorant peons that choose to eat organic or gluten free? No you're weak minded and weak willed. Only willing to accept that eating whatever you think is healthy is the only way to "be healthy".
I'm not God, and I'm not smart enough to play God by creating GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD, or to conduct scientific experiments to prove whether or not they are safe. But I'm smart enough to guess that using super powerful pesticides that kill a huge portion of insect life probably has some effect on me. I'm smart enough to infer that maybe the food industry has a monetary interest in making sure we don't know exactly what effects GMOs have on humans.After 20 years of research there is no evidence of any health risk to any currently available GMO foods.
Regardless, if I decide to eat organic or not, *kitten* off why do you care? If the "healthiness" of organics is completely placebo, why does it affect you? More importantly, the vast majority of Americans are not unhealthy because of their internal debate over organic or GMO, it's cause they eat *kitten*.
Making that statement is powerful, “if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it”. For a person who knows nothing about nutrition, about what is healthy and what isn't, the simplest and most effective way of eliminating bad stuff from your diet, is pronouncing what's in your diet.In order to avoid “Food Babe” level ignorance on this issue (“if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it”), some have made the distinction between natural and synthetic chemicals. This is a false dichotomy, however.
....Well that wouldn't be as much fun as arguing on a forum: Carbs make you fat, eat Ketogenics.
LOL
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Why write this?
To bash other people's line of thinking? To prove that you are somehow fitness intelligent superior to those ignorant peons that choose to eat organic or gluten free? No you're weak minded and weak willed. Only willing to accept that eating whatever you think is healthy is the only way to "be healthy".
I'm not God, and I'm not smart enough to play God by creating GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD, or to conduct scientific experiments to prove whether or not they are safe. But I'm smart enough to guess that using super powerful pesticides that kill a huge portion of insect life probably has some effect on me. I'm smart enough to infer that maybe the food industry has a monetary interest in making sure we don't know exactly what effects GMOs have on humans.After 20 years of research there is no evidence of any health risk to any currently available GMO foods.
Regardless, if I decide to eat organic or not, *kitten* off why do you care? If the "healthiness" of organics is completely placebo, why does it affect you? More importantly, the vast majority of Americans are not unhealthy because of their internal debate over organic or GMO, it's cause they eat *kitten*.
Making that statement is powerful, “if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it”. For a person who knows nothing about nutrition, about what is healthy and what isn't, the simplest and most effective way of eliminating bad stuff from your diet, is pronouncing what's in your diet.In order to avoid “Food Babe” level ignorance on this issue (“if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it”), some have made the distinction between natural and synthetic chemicals. This is a false dichotomy, however.
And you're argument? Some chemicals are good in certain portions, which I decide upon. Great, tell that to the fat woman who's shoving twinkies down her pie whole that some of the chemicals in that twinkie are only harmful if consumed in large quantities.
There is this constant struggle to dictate what is healthy: eat GMOs they're good for you, eat organic GMOs kill you, eat raw vegetables because it's alive, eat steamed veggies cause it's easily digestible.
How about minding your own business, learning about the benefits and negatives of an eating style that you can accept to improve your own life?
....Well that wouldn't be as much fun as arguing on a forum: Carbs make you fat, eat Ketogenics.
God didn't create the clothes you wear or the transport you drive or ride around in either so I fail to see your point there.
On the Organic side, Organic farmers use chemicals strong enough to kill pests also, so again I don't see the point you are trying to make.
On the carbs make you fat point, they don't. I ate more carbs then I ever have when I had a BMI of just 14.60 -
A lot of things on here I can't pronounce.
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I disagree. Microwaves are only good for reheating food previously cooked using a better cooking method. And ramen.0
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I this post. 0
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