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Clean eatings dirty secrets
Kdp2015
Posts: 519 Member
in Debate Club
On bbc I player - worth a watch 
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Replies
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I saw this too. Was sort of gob smacked how this clean eating fad was fueling eating disorders. It's a multimillion pound business and a bit of a cult too. There was also another good BBC programme called the truth about healthy eating which was worth a watch too. I think the Mediterranean diet is the best and has been proven to be healthy. The Italians have it right!! X4
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fatkittin2014 wrote: »I saw this too. Was sort of gob smacked how this clean eating fad was fueling eating disorders. It's a multimillion pound business and a bit of a cult too. There was also another good BBC programme called the truth about healthy eating which was worth a watch too. I think the Mediterranean diet is the best and has been proven to be healthy. The Italians have it right!! X
But what is ones idea of "clean eating" is the Mediterranean diet?6 -
The dirty secret of clean eating is that it means nothing and usually is a self-congratulatory way of describing eating habits that are really quite similar to the ones many of the rest of us have.21
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fatkittin2014 wrote: »I saw this too. Was sort of gob smacked how this clean eating fad was fueling eating disorders. It's a multimillion pound business and a bit of a cult too. There was also another good BBC programme called the truth about healthy eating which was worth a watch too. I think the Mediterranean diet is the best and has been proven to be healthy. The Italians have it right!! X
"The Mediterranean diet" is a construction just like "clean eating", and not much better. A number of countries bound the Mediterranean sea, and each region of each country has their own cuisine, and each family have their own traditions. The trouble with these "diets", is that they give some people the idea that there is a "best" way of eating, which is totally wrong. Eating healthfully is getting everything you need, but not too much of anything, and enjoying your food. Not very complicated, but extremely complex.13 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »The dirty secret of clean eating is that it means nothing and usually is a self-congratulatory way of describing eating habits that are really quite similar to the ones many of the rest of us have.
Amen!1 -
Yay! I will watch this! I have been trying to understand what clean eating is for a long time and there is just no consensus, which has led me to believe there is no such thing. Can't wait to watch this special. Thanks for posting!1
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For those who don't have time for a 40-minute show, here's a piece written up by Eve Simmons from the video. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/e9b2d28a-3bd0-4f98-9829-c59788b5ed3c
This paragraph sums up the spirit of clean eating for me: needless restriction and fear of food.
"I’d managed to convince myself that gradually restricting my diet was merely a way to ‘make healthier choices’. I’d preach to anyone who would listen about the amount of added sugar in bog-standard lunches. I resorted to baking my own ‘delicious’ sweet treats, jam-packed with the most tasteless seeds and nut-powders that I could find in Holland and Barrett. When I found out by some idiotic, unqualified food blogger that dried fruit ‘isn’t actually that healthy’, I would chop three apricots up into teeny tiny pieces to avoid ‘over-doing it’."
@KetoneKaren have you seen this thread yet? http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10337480/what-is-clean-eating/p1
The first post does a great job of showing how many different ways there are to interpret the idea of eating clean. If you skip toward the end of the thread (p 29 or so?) there's a Clean Eating magazine excerpt and the list of ingredients Panera deems "unclean," so you can see how a couple of different "authorities" on the topic define it. But at the end of the day, there is no definition. There's just people making restrictive lists for what they're allowed to eat, and in some cases it can be extremely dangerous to their health.2 -
Thanks!0
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The med diet was fresh veg pasta fish bit of what you fancy eg wine. Didn't exclude any food group unless you have a medical reason. There is so much information overload out there.2
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That's exactly how I eat, but I don't call it anything.fat2thinkitten wrote: »The med diet was fresh veg pasta fish bit of what you fancy eg wine. Didn't exclude any food group unless you have a medical reason.
This is so true.There is so much information overload out there.2 -
I've given up trying to "label" my diet. I'm just eating what I want for a healthy lifestyle and counting calories to lose weight. I don't think anyone should tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat (unless for medical reasons) as we're all different and all make our own choices and have to live by those choices.8
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Ask ten people what "clean eating" is and you'll get twelve different answers.15
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CipherZero wrote: »Ask ten people what "clean eating" is and you'll get twelve different answers.
LOL this ...
clean eating is the most idiotic thing every invented...well besides stone washed jeans...1 -
I believe in clean eating.
You should always wash your food before eating it.7 -
I've given up trying to "label" my diet. I'm just eating what I want for a healthy lifestyle and counting calories to lose weight. I don't think anyone should tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat (unless for medical reasons) as we're all different and all make our own choices and have to live by those choices.
This is precisely why I swapped Weight Watchers for MFP. The new smartpoints program really punishes you for any sugar intake. Sure, I don't think I ought to be double-fisting C&H Pure Cane Sugar all day long. But when I'm on the go and grab a protein bar, I take exception to it being a third of my "daily points allowance" versus less than a quarter of my calorie target for the day.
Some folks do great cutting out all sugar, and I bow to them. But if you told me it was the only option for weight loss, I would have to really think hard about whether it would be worth it. Same is true for other restrictive "clean" programs. Maybe I'll get there someday. Not there today. 80/20 rule is better for me.7 -
I've always seen clean eating as eating a balanced diet while ensuring to not exceed my daily intake of sugar, carbs, fat and protein.1
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My idea of clean eating is not eating things that fall onto the floor.
Oh, and not carrying my lunch into a bathroom. Saw someone the other day who walked into a (very filthy) public bathroom eating a hamburger. That's just super nasty.6 -
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I've always seen clean eating as eating a balanced diet while ensuring to not exceed my daily intake of sugar, carbs, fat and protein.
That's not the typical meaning of clean eating (sounds basically like a version of IIFYM, instead), but the more it just becomes a pointless synonym for healthful eating or some such, the happier I will be. It already has no consistent meaning at all.
Now, I don't happen to think there's any reason not to exceed one's MFP goals (depending on how set and why) of carbs, fat, and protein (won't get into the sugar thing here, as my view on the best way to ensure moderate sugar intake is all over various sugar threads), but if one thinks that's healthful eating and therefore that it = clean, that's cool.
I eat in a way I consider healthful (more about appropriate calories, fiber, adequate protein, sources of fat, and lots of vegetables than carbs vs. fat or not exceeding my protein limit), so I suppose I too could define my eating as "clean," but "I try to have a healthful diet" works better for me. Clean is too loaded and liable to be misunderstood.2 -
It's like the term "junk food" what I class as "junk food" others wouldn't and what some people class as "clean eating" others wouldn't.0
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True.
I think of junk food as having a more consistent meaning, though -- high cal, low nutrient -- although what people put in the category differs. Also, we all understand it as slang without a consistent meaning.
"Clean" gets used as if it did have a consistent meaning when it does not, and increasingly the meaning is all over the place -- mostly "not processed" (although people seem not to understand that processed actually does have a meaning and, yes, protein powder and cheese are processed), but sometimes "in accordance with the diet I am following" and increasingly just "in a way I think is healthy." Plus, there's the inherent religious/Biblical connotations -- non kosher being unclean and all that.
That's why I find it more annoying. (And yeah, I know, call me Don Quixote.)1 -
These clean eating threads amuse me. People get so bent out of shape at the term when most terms on these forums have various meanings. I've even seen differing meanings for "vegetables" and 'fast food".2
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My idea of clean eating is: Wash the cow poop off the vegetables before chopping, weighing, and cooking them. If something does fall on the floor, pick it up, rinse off any visible floor stuff that stuck to the food, and put it in the pot because nothing survives cooking.2
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pandahead76 wrote: »I've given up trying to "label" my diet. I'm just eating what I want for a healthy lifestyle and counting calories to lose weight. I don't think anyone should tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat (unless for medical reasons) as we're all different and all make our own choices and have to live by those choices.
This is precisely why I swapped Weight Watchers for MFP. The new smartpoints program really punishes you for any sugar intake. Sure, I don't think I ought to be double-fisting C&H Pure Cane Sugar all day long. But when I'm on the go and grab a protein bar, I take exception to it being a third of my "daily points allowance" versus less than a quarter of my calorie target for the day.
Some folks do great cutting out all sugar, and I bow to them. But if you told me it was the only option for weight loss, I would have to really think hard about whether it would be worth it. Same is true for other restrictive "clean" programs. Maybe I'll get there someday. Not there today. 80/20 rule is better for me.
I don't bow to them, I feel sorry for them. Being able to still eat things I enjoy just for the shear joy of their taste (in moderation) sounds way better than having to cut them out entirely.4 -
The_Enginerd wrote: »pandahead76 wrote: »I've given up trying to "label" my diet. I'm just eating what I want for a healthy lifestyle and counting calories to lose weight. I don't think anyone should tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat (unless for medical reasons) as we're all different and all make our own choices and have to live by those choices.
This is precisely why I swapped Weight Watchers for MFP. The new smartpoints program really punishes you for any sugar intake. Sure, I don't think I ought to be double-fisting C&H Pure Cane Sugar all day long. But when I'm on the go and grab a protein bar, I take exception to it being a third of my "daily points allowance" versus less than a quarter of my calorie target for the day.
Some folks do great cutting out all sugar, and I bow to them. But if you told me it was the only option for weight loss, I would have to really think hard about whether it would be worth it. Same is true for other restrictive "clean" programs. Maybe I'll get there someday. Not there today. 80/20 rule is better for me.
I don't bow to them, I feel sorry for them. Being able to still eat things I enjoy just for the shear joy of their taste (in moderation) sounds way better than having to cut them out entirely.
I do that, and my daily sugar intake almost never exceeds 5g. It's almost like some of us don't like sweet things, or something.
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Exactly. Most consider eliminating sugar as clean eating whereas I don't because I put it in healthy whole foods like oatmeal, juice and smoothies etc. In fact I use up nearly 3 lbs of sugar per month.CipherZero wrote: »Ask ten people what "clean eating" is and you'll get twelve different answers.
And of course, it has to be Turbinado/Raw cane sugar. I stopped using bleached white sugar because...ew..that's not clean eating (excessive processing) lol.
Also, my definition of clean eating for ice cream is it has to have less than 7 ingredients. Anything more than that is pure junk food. Can't have that! Gotta eat clean.
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Gallowmere1984 wrote: »The_Enginerd wrote: »pandahead76 wrote: »I've given up trying to "label" my diet. I'm just eating what I want for a healthy lifestyle and counting calories to lose weight. I don't think anyone should tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat (unless for medical reasons) as we're all different and all make our own choices and have to live by those choices.
This is precisely why I swapped Weight Watchers for MFP. The new smartpoints program really punishes you for any sugar intake. Sure, I don't think I ought to be double-fisting C&H Pure Cane Sugar all day long. But when I'm on the go and grab a protein bar, I take exception to it being a third of my "daily points allowance" versus less than a quarter of my calorie target for the day.
Some folks do great cutting out all sugar, and I bow to them. But if you told me it was the only option for weight loss, I would have to really think hard about whether it would be worth it. Same is true for other restrictive "clean" programs. Maybe I'll get there someday. Not there today. 80/20 rule is better for me.
I don't bow to them, I feel sorry for them. Being able to still eat things I enjoy just for the shear joy of their taste (in moderation) sounds way better than having to cut them out entirely.
I do that, and my daily sugar intake almost never exceeds 5g. It's almost like some of us don't like sweet things, or something.
Most people making threads about this topic on here do like them though.0 -
If you don't eat sweet things because you don't really like them, that's not really cutting it out. I don't eat McD's or most fast food because I don't care for it -- it would be odd for me to claim I cut it out when I never ate it and don't think of doing so. Similarly, I never cut out cold cereal or canned tuna -- I simply don't eat them because they are terrible.3
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