Clean diet ??

It's worth running a search, there was a thread on this in the last two days.

Would bleached rice and bleached flour be clean? They've been bleached...

Hello there Platypus,

Here is my opinion on clean eating:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/822501-halp-my-sandwich-isn-t-clean

I always considered a "clean diet" a diet free from processed foods.

So what exactly is a "clean" diet? I feel like it's different for everyone, but I was wondering if there were actually guidelines for a clean diet. For me personally, I view a healthy vegan diet as being a clean diet.

IMHO, it's simple food snobbery. just like low carb diets, or low fat diets, or paleo diets, etc.

any diet that identifies certain foods as "good" and certain foods as "bad" is food snobbery in my book.

a calorie is a calorie.

nutritionally, it may make sense to eat the bulk of your calories from certain foods to meet your macro needs. that's fine.

however, pizza is no better or no worse than spinach, when eaten in moderation.

life is after all meant to be enjoyed!

IMHO, it's simple food snobbery. just like low carb diets, or low fat diets, or paleo diets, etc.

any diet that identifies certain foods as "good" and certain foods as "bad" is food snobbery in my book.

a calorie is a calorie.

nutritionally, it may make sense to eat the bulk of your calories from certain foods to meet your macro needs. that's fine.

however, pizza is no better or no worse than spinach, when eaten in moderation.

life is after all meant to be enjoyed!

You would need to eat 3 pounds of spinach for it to be the same caloric value as 1 slice of pepporoni pizza. Add in the amount of sodium you'll be consuming eating said pizza vs. the spinach and you'll have a great time comparing the two. Not saying don't eat pizza ever, just don't get the idea that just because it fits your macros it's going to be a healthier or just as healthy as other alternatives.

IIFYM =/= calorie is a calorie. In fact its actually the opposite, it recognizes that all calories are NOT the same therefore splits calorie intake into Protein/Carbs/Fats.
Please note that even people who follow IIFYM eat healthy, micro-nutrient dense foods 90% of the time. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that just because it fits your macros you can eat pizza and poptarts all day and be healthy.

Before anyone responds please understand this... I'm not a stating a position for or against IIFYM so don't bother starting the "Clean Eating vs. IIFYM" ****storm with me, I'm simply promoting a better understanding of the subject before applying it to your lifestyle (if you so choose to).

For real, when I hear it I think of organic, non antibiotic treated, non poison treated stuff... that seems clean to me, and I cannot afford it...

Honestly, the verdict is still out on the negative effects of processed foods. Processed foods are seen to have negative health effects but if you look at the nutritional label, they are loaded with simple carbs and way more fats than a person needs in a day.

A clean diet really should be a full spectrum of various vitamins and minerals along with a healthy ratio of no more than 20% calories from fats (saturated or non-saturated actually does not matter), and 40% or more from proteins and the rest from carbs. All this while staying in your target caloric intake.

It's a bit silly how processed foods are looked down upon as the causation for negative health effects when people totally disregard the nutritional profile of the foods. A bad nutritional profile is a bad nutritional profile, the food being processed or not means very little. You can have processed foods which are incredibly healthy. Same thing with natural sugars and high fructose corn syrup, it makes no difference as its chemically the same and your body treats the stuff the same which at the end of the day, too much sugar is too much sugar.

nothing processed and no refined sugars.

IMHO, it's simple food snobbery. just like low carb diets, or low fat diets, or paleo diets, etc.

any diet that identifies certain foods as "good" and certain foods as "bad" is food snobbery in my book.

a calorie is a calorie.

nutritionally, it may make sense to eat the bulk of your calories from certain foods to meet your macro needs. that's fine.

however, pizza is no better or no worse than spinach, when eaten in moderation.

life is after all meant to be enjoyed!

You would need to eat 3 pounds of spinach for it to be the same caloric value as 1 slice of pepporoni pizza. Add in the amount of sodium you'll be consuming eating said pizza vs. the spinach and you'll have a great time comparing the two. Not saying don't eat pizza ever, just don't get the idea that just because it fits your macros it's going to be a healthier or just as healthy as other alternatives.

IIFYM =/= calorie is a calorie. In fact its actually the opposite, it recognizes that all calories are NOT the same therefore splits calorie intake into Protein/Carbs/Fats.
Please note that even people who follow IIFYM eat healthy, micro-nutrient dense foods 90% of the time. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that just because it fits your macros you can eat pizza and poptarts all day and be healthy.

Before anyone responds please understand this... I'm not a stating a position for or against IIFYM so don't bother starting the "Clean Eating vs. IIFYM" ****storm with me, I'm simply promoting a better understanding of the subject before applying it to your lifestyle (if you so choose to).

actually a calorie is a calorie.

it's a unit of energy. it doe not vary whether it's 1 calorie of pizza or 1 calorie of spinach or 1 calorie of butter.

a calorie (or in our case really, a kilocalorie) has a precise meaning and has nothing to do with nutrition at all. to conflate the two issues is to misunderstand completely what i posted above.