What does 'clean eating' mean?

It seems pretty silly to me to avoid eating things just because you are ignorant of chemistry.

The whole "clean eating" craze is a bunch of nonsense in my opinion.

Not if the so-called "additives" are actually vitamins.

Anyone who buys their meat at a butcher or grocery store is buying "processed" meat. Anyone who buys a tomato from a grocer is buying a "processed" tomato.

This is why the whole "don't eat processed foods" and "eat clean" are so silly and why it's a "throwaway pejorative" as was stated in the beginning of the thread. Ignorance is ignorance.

I like you. It's nice to finally meet someone else who doesn't scream and run away from the meaningless "scary food words."

@Kaydana123, yes I did get your point, quite clearly. And that's why I said it was extrapolation at it's finest. You are taking something and seeing too much into. This thread is about what people think is "clean eating", and when people refer to processed foods they are referring to prepackaged foods; clearly people use the wrong terminology, and god forbid, so do I, we're not all perfect.

What I AM trying to say is that you are extrapolating what he said. Just because you can "pronounce" a word, doesn't mean you know what it is or understand it, and I think what the person who ORIGINALLY said that (note, it wasn't me) was trying to say that instead.

And I think you have me all wrong. I'm tried of hearing about the whole fad diet thing is, and I"m not all into clean eating. Do I prefer eating fresh fruits and veggies, or a homemade soup over a canned soup; absolutely. I then KNOW what is in it.

As I said, I got a little sidetracked. And I admit that my first example was a poor one, I believe the pasta and frozen veg example illustrates the point better as they are both pre-packaged foods. But I'm not extrapolating anything, I was simply interpreting the statement in the way someone who knew nothing about clean eating might and attempting to prevent the spread of false information.

You and I may understand perfectly well what someone means when they say to go with the foods with the least ingredients, or when they say to only eat foods you can pronounce, but to someone who doesn't know what clean eating is, to the person who started the thread, that advice means exactly what it says and nothing more. Fad diets are often utterly ridiculous (hello, lemonade diet!), it doesn't take a huge stretch of the imagination to imagine a fad diet based around the literal interpretation of that statement.

I may think clean eating is unnecessarily extreme, I may have no desire to ever follow a clean diet, but that doesn't mean that I want the people who ask questions about it being given false information.

As stated several times above: the answer varies on the person. But basically just by way of extremes. It could be anything from simply cutting fast / junk food & preparing your meals in healthy manner to eating paleo in my book.

Personally, I do a happy medium. I do still go out to eat on occassion - but i shoot for the leanest / healthiest option.

It's what your grand-parents or great-grandparents used to call "Food". Basically one ingredient items alone or combined. Non processed. Apple has one ingrediant, its an apple. Big Mac...not so much

It's what your grand-parents or great-grandparents used to call "Food". Basically one ingredient items alone or combined. Non processed. Apple has one ingrediant, its an apple. Big Mac...not so much

It's a reverse dysphemism and rather strange way to judge food and try to categorize food between "clean" and "unclean".

The BigMac in the example above is somehow shown to be "dirty" and "bad" and "processed". We see a fight against modernity and an attempt to return to the sources. Simplification to "one ingredient". An apple. Oh, the biblical significance.

And yet, the BigMac is a reasonable source of protein (sans sauce) and not dirty or unclean.

That apple was sprayed, watered and transported and within its ingredients it has cyanogenic acids. Deadly stuff. And yet it is "clean". Go figure.

My point is not that apples are bad, they are not, in normal quantities. But the value judgement around "clean food" should be challenged and refined.

ETA: I find it funny that the banner above this thread on my machine shows a pringles can.

It's what your grand-parents or great-grandparents used to call "Food". Basically one ingredient items alone or combined. Non processed. Apple has one ingrediant, its an apple. Big Mac...not so much

It's a reverse dysphemism and rather strange way to judge food and try to categorize food between "clean" and "unclean".

The BigMac in the example above is somehow shown to be "dirty" and "bad" and "processed". We see a fight against modernity and an attempt to return to the sources. Simplification to "one ingredient". An apple. Oh, the biblical significance.

And yet, the BigMac is a reasonable source of protein (sans sauce) and not dirty or unclean.

That apple was sprayed, watered and transported and within its ingredients it has cyanogenic acids. Deadly stuff. And yet it is "clean". Go figure.

My point is not that apples are bad, they are not, in normal quantities. But the value judgement around "clean food" should be challenged and refined.

ETA: I find it funny that the banner above this thread on my machine shows a pringles can.

One cannot account for every variation or opinion.

just a little sidenote to help here. i read a saying i liked a while back in an article about clean eating. (paraphrasing here) " look at the ingredient list, if it has one ingredient it's good, the lower the amount of ingredients the better, if you can't pronounce an ingredient you shouldn't be eating it."

Exactly

But a lot of "not being able to read the ingredients" is simply a lack of education. After Googling a lot of these "non-pronouncable" items, I found out they were actually the scientific name for something that was a common, ordinary item.

Thank you!

I hear people say they 'eat clean'. What does this mean? Is it a popular diet plan? Is the phrase only used on mfp, or would the average woman on the street understand its meaning? Am I the only clueless person in the world on this?

Clean generally means unprocessed. In my opinion, it's a categorization that has some ambiguity to it and in some cases causes problems (not problems from eating clean, but problems related to dieters stressing out over categorizing their foods). I'd check out the following:

http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-and-nutrition/the-dirt-on-clean-eating/
http://body-improvements.com/resources/eat/#cleandirty

Truth ^^^

I had never heard that term before MFP and have found that most of the so-called "clean eaters" are a walking contradiction in terms of what's ok to eat and what's not. I think it's better to simply get enough protein and fat, stay within your calories, eat plenty of veggies, get some form of exercise on a regular basis, and eat the things you enjoy eating.