How important is it to "eat clean"

Timshel_

Hi all,

How important is it to eat "clean"?!

The question should be how important do YOU think it is. You can lose weight eating dirty or clean. There are other supposed benefits that are personal preference.

43mmmgoody21

I don't want any vegetables, thank you. I paid for the cow to eat them for me.
Doug Coupland

;D

I'm going to have to remember this one. And add it to one of may fav. quotes from the Simpson's :

"You don't make friends with salad"

jmv7117

Except it's a known fact that these foods are created to manipulate our body and brain chemistry to find them most pleasurable.

Most food is created in an effort to make it most pleasurable. That's what learning to cook teaches you how to do. That's every bit as true about traditional home-cooked meals as marketed stuff, and most people will agree with me that really good home-cooked or restaurant food, cooked to their taste using fresh, whole ingredients (and, sure, butter) is much tastier and harder to resist than packaged stuff or fast food, I expect, although obviously taste is subjective.

It just sounds scarier if it's some big corporation doing that, vs. mom or Julia Child.

If anything, a lot of the additives in packaged food and fast food is because they are trying to make them tasty on the cheap, and as indicated above they still generally don't taste as good. Compare a frozen pizza to a pizza cooked at a really good local pizza place or home-cooked by someone with the right equipment.

If you are claiming that transfats or HFCS or whatever are as addictive as truly addictive drugs, provide the evidence. It's certainly not my experience.

Ignorance is bliss. I'd go into more details but you obviously don't care so fine. You're absolutely right in every way.

I like you!

nomorebingesgirl2014

Bump

jetlag

Except it's a known fact that these foods are created to manipulate our body and brain chemistry to find them most pleasurable.

Most food is created in an effort to make it most pleasurable. That's what learning to cook teaches you how to do. That's every bit as true about traditional home-cooked meals as marketed stuff, and most people will agree with me that really good home-cooked or restaurant food, cooked to their taste using fresh, whole ingredients (and, sure, butter) is much tastier and harder to resist than packaged stuff or fast food, I expect, although obviously taste is subjective.

It just sounds scarier if it's some big corporation doing that, vs. mom or Julia Child.

If anything, a lot of the additives in packaged food and fast food is because they are trying to make them tasty on the cheap, and as indicated above they still generally don't taste as good. Compare a frozen pizza to a pizza cooked at a really good local pizza place or home-cooked by someone with the right equipment.

If you are claiming that transfats or HFCS or whatever are as addictive as truly addictive drugs, provide the evidence. It's certainly not my experience.

Ignorance is bliss. I'd go into more details but you obviously don't care so fine. You're absolutely right in every way.

Ignorance definitely is bliss. Having survived an actual drug addiction, I can say, hand on heart, that anyone claiming food is as addictive as drugs is ignorant. Yes, they may be contrived to tick all the right pleasure boxes, but they are not addictive like drugs are. Ever seen anyone try and peel the skin off their own face because they can't get their hands on mars bar? No, me neither.

Meerataila

Except it's a known fact that these foods are created to manipulate our body and brain chemistry to find them most pleasurable.

Most food is created in an effort to make it most pleasurable. That's what learning to cook teaches you how to do. That's every bit as true about traditional home-cooked meals as marketed stuff, and most people will agree with me that really good home-cooked or restaurant food, cooked to their taste using fresh, whole ingredients (and, sure, butter) is much tastier and harder to resist than packaged stuff or fast food, I expect, although obviously taste is subjective.

It just sounds scarier if it's some big corporation doing that, vs. mom or Julia Child.

If anything, a lot of the additives in packaged food and fast food is because they are trying to make them tasty on the cheap, and as indicated above they still generally don't taste as good. Compare a frozen pizza to a pizza cooked at a really good local pizza place or home-cooked by someone with the right equipment.

If you are claiming that transfats or HFCS or whatever are as addictive as truly addictive drugs, provide the evidence. It's certainly not my experience.

Ignorance is bliss. I'd go into more details but you obviously don't care so fine. You're absolutely right in every way.

Ignorance definitely is bliss. Having survived an actual drug addiction, I can say, hand on heart, that anyone claiming food is as addictive as drugs is ignorant. Yes, they may be contrived to tick all the right pleasure boxes, but they are not addictive like drugs are. Ever seen anyone try and peel the skin off their own face because they can't get their hands on mars bar? No, me neither.

Nicotine is a drug, too, though, and I've never heard anyone claim it isn't addicting, yet some foods are definitely harder for some people to avoid than cigarettes.

jojokmack

I don't know about eating 'clean', though I am off to google to look it up after this!

I do know that I have started eating foods closest to their natural state that I can do. I am not obsessive about it, for example I don't like brown/wild rice or pasta (wild pasta??? lol) so I eat white. I make all meals from the basic ingredients and never touch processed or pre-made meals.

I have logged in to MFP for 40 days today and I have noticed that I feel better for it. My energy levels have increased and I feel healthier. I also find that it is a LOT easier this way. I can eat a lot more food and still lose weight.

That said,.......one week we were out and I grabbed a Subway Turkey Sub and it didn't upset my system too much. I guess that as long as you meet your calorie goals you will be OK.....but you may not FEEL as full or as healthy.

lemurcat12

I don't know about eating 'clean', though I am off to google to look it up after this!

I do know that I have started eating foods closest to their natural state that I can do. I am not obsessive about it, for example I don't like brown/wild rice or pasta (wild pasta??? lol) so I eat white. I make all meals from the basic ingredients and never touch processed or pre-made meals.

I have logged in to MFP for 40 days today and I have noticed that I feel better for it. My energy levels have increased and I feel healthier. I also find that it is a LOT easier this way. I can eat a lot more food and still lose weight.

That said,.......one week we were out and I grabbed a Subway Turkey Sub and it didn't upset my system too much. I guess that as long as you meet your calorie goals you will be OK.....but you may not FEEL as full or as healthy.

Just to be clear, since this is a long discussion. I don't think anyone disagrees that what you eat affects health or how you feel or that focusing on whole foods and cooking (and vegetables, of course) can be a good way of cutting calories and making your diet more healthy if you weren't. What bothers me are (a) the term clean, which is so vague as to mean nothing and thus primarily working as a way to claim that your diet is superior to those of people who occasionally buy processed foods (like yogurt or baby carrots or, sure white rice and Subway--ugh, how unclean!--it's rude); and (b) the in accuracy of a claim that too much X is bad, so the only way to be healthy is to cut it out entirely and thus clean is the same as healthy. Why not ignore the clean thing and just focus on a healthy diet that meets your goals?

Beyond that, if you actually try to be logical and consistent about cutting out processed foods, it's hard to justify for healthy reasons. I eat stuff like yogurt and frozen fish FOR health reasons. Cutting them out would be dumb. Similarly, if I have a lunch place that makes healthy foods from good ingredients, why is that worse than making lunch myself always? Especially if it saves me time so makes it easier for me to eat well? And finally, I hate the minimalist clean argument, that it's just about cutting out TV dinners or ding dongs or what not. It's entirely possible to be fat and not eat these things (many people get fat despite cooking from whole foods, etc), so the idea that it's a special diet to just not eat them also seems odd to me.

Okay, summary of points made earlier over!

yogicarl

Personally, if I eat a 300 calorie meal of brocolli, carrots, peas and beans, - you get the idea - then I'm full for longer and I don't crave to eat again until the next meal is due.

If I eat 300 calories of millionaire shortbread, then I'm craving to eat another 300 calories of millionaire shortbread in the next 20 minutes.

Junk food contains high amounts of sugar and salt with fat which are all addictive and in combination even more so, whereas "clean" foods do not trigger such acute cravings.

J72FIT

Hi all,

How important is it to eat "clean"?!

It is as important as you decide it is.

eric_sg61

Personally, if I eat a 300 calorie meal of brocolli, carrots, peas and beans, - you get the idea - then I'm full for longer and I don't crave to eat again until the next meal is due.

If I eat 300 calories of millionaire shortbread, then I'm craving to eat another 300 calories of millionaire shortbread in the next 20 minutes.

Junk food contains high amounts of sugar and salt with fat which are all addictive and in combination even more so, whereas "clean" foods do not trigger such acute cravings.

Are fruits clean? Cause they trigger my hunger more than any "junk" food ever could. I guess fruit is addictive.

yogicarl

Personally, if I eat a 300 calorie meal of brocolli, carrots, peas and beans, - you get the idea - then I'm full for longer and I don't crave to eat again until the next meal is due.

If I eat 300 calories of millionaire shortbread, then I'm craving to eat another 300 calories of millionaire shortbread in the next 20 minutes.

Junk food contains high amounts of sugar and salt with fat which are all addictive and in combination even more so, whereas "clean" foods do not trigger such acute cravings.

Are fruits clean? Cause they trigger my hunger more than any "junk" food ever could. I guess fruit is addictive.

If you find it addictive then yes, I guess - for you - maybe.

KelGen02

Don't worry so much about what the "rules" are. Eat stuff, write it down, pay attention to how you feel immediately, a few hours later, the next day. Recognize patterns. Adjust.
[/quote]



^^^^ this

nomorebingesgirl2014

Bump

Meerataila

Personally, if I eat a 300 calorie meal of brocolli, carrots, peas and beans, - you get the idea - then I'm full for longer and I don't crave to eat again until the next meal is due.

If I eat 300 calories of millionaire shortbread, then I'm craving to eat another 300 calories of millionaire shortbread in the next 20 minutes.

Junk food contains high amounts of sugar and salt with fat which are all addictive and in combination even more so, whereas "clean" foods do not trigger such acute cravings.

Are fruits clean? Cause they trigger my hunger more than any "junk" food ever could. I guess fruit is addictive.

In your case, clean or not, they're probably a bad idea. But wait, is that your real picture? If so, I bet there are days a little extra hunger is good for you. To fuel whatever the heck you're doing to look like that!

We need a new definition of food. Instead of clean or junk or whatever, we need a nice shiny word that means compatible with a particular person's health, calorie goals, and satiety signals. Someone invent a new term!

Individually Optimal?

Nah, sounds silly and too many syllables. Humans don't like too many syllables.

likitisplit

Personally, if I eat a 300 calorie meal of brocolli, carrots, peas and beans, - you get the idea - then I'm full for longer and I don't crave to eat again until the next meal is due.

If I eat 300 calories of millionaire shortbread, then I'm craving to eat another 300 calories of millionaire shortbread in the next 20 minutes.

Junk food contains high amounts of sugar and salt with fat which are all addictive and in combination even more so, whereas "clean" foods do not trigger such acute cravings.

Are fruits clean? Cause they trigger my hunger more than any "junk" food ever could. I guess fruit is addictive.

In your case, clean or not, they're probably a bad idea. But wait, is that your real picture? If so, I bet there are days a little extra hunger is good for you. To fuel whatever the heck you're doing to look like that!

We need a new definition of food. Instead of clean or junk or whatever, we need a nice shiny word that means compatible with a particular person's health, calorie goals, and satiety signals. Someone invent a new term!

Individually Optimal?

Nah, sounds silly.

If it fits...something that describes or measures health/goals/satiety... Maybe?