A fair question about "eating clean"

why post this? is it that hard to just worry about your own diet and not what everyone else is eating?

Please read previous posts.

I did, I guess I'm just not buying that your intentions are as noble as you say they are! But hey, I'll take your word for it!
To actually answer your question, I am trying to eat *cleaner* (I don't care what you call it) and I've been making protein shakes lately as well as eating a lot of protein rich foods (because I like them)! I'm probably getting more protein than I actually need, but I'm full all day and everything I eat tastes good to me.

I don't go around claiming to eat clean though, but I am working on eating an 80/20 which of course leaves a little room for indulgent food. A lot of people follow that, maybe they count their protein powder in with the 20%?

Idk, it's processed obviously, but I feel a lot different after drinking my protein shake (I make it with skim milk, greek yogurt, a banana and a scoop of chocolate protein powder) than I do after eating taco bell (which I love also but am trying to cut down)!

Well and my question about the protein supplement/powder is also a personal one.

I have Type I/ "Juvenile" diabetes and have since I was 15. I have had some concerns about early signs of kidney damage.

Overloading on protein is a concern for me because it can make what are now small problems much worse.

I was intrigued by the idea because it is such a common topic on the forums-then when I started some of these new Pilates routines, the creator of the website is big advocate of eating clean.

But I know me, and I know I'd struggle too much with never eating any processed foods (like I mentioned, blue corn tortilla chips with salsa or pico de gallo...one of my true weaknesses), so I know I could never go completely 100% clean...

A protein shake in the morning (berries, protein powder, greek yogurt, etc) sounds like a fantastic idea for me to try to eat before I go to work/after I work out in the morning...but again, the idea of getting large amounts of protein would worry me a bit because of my kidney issues.

Thank you for taking my question seriously. I'm not sure how I could have phrased it that people would not have had one severe reaction or another.

Thanks.

To be fair, I assumed you were trying to start something because a lot of people on the forums do that on purpose and not just because of how you worded it, so sorry for assuming!

I don't have any health issues that require me to closely watch my diet, I'm just (recently) trying to eat less processed food to see if it gives me more energy and helps my weight loss. One thing I will say, I get to eat a lot more this way! lol

I know one whole "clean eater" who consumes protein powder. His definition of "clean" doesn't mean unprocessed. Or he would never eat flour, or meat, or sauces, or any vegetables he didn't pick out of his own garden. His deal is with additives that he doesn't deem necessary. Whatever protein powder he uses only has a couple ingredients and he knows what they are and what they do.

Not that I actually believe this isn't "bait" of some sort. But I can pretend this is purely an educational discussion, too

Well I'm grateful you don't believe it's a bait like some people do. It's a legitimate question.

I didn't say it was bait. I said, "It looks like bait." It doesn't help matters when you alternate honest, well-intended questions with rhetorical, leading questions as if you are coming from a specific food paradigm and suggesting that people somehow defend their positions to you. Even the question in the topic heading has the term "clean eating" in quotations as if you are being grammatically sarcastic. Again, this is about how you worded it, not the actual content of the question. I believe you when you say you are being earnest. You wondered why you didn't have the glut of responses you expected and I was giving you a possible explanation.

You are correct when you say it defines a variety of eating patterns. I guess my big issue with posts like this is that they're sort of unnecessary unless you're looking for either confirmation bias or an argument. A thirty second Google search will tell you everything you need to know about this subject and will probably be more objective than soliciting personal anecdotal accounts here in the forums. The concept of clean eating is self-defined. Because of this, there is no singular cohesive set of criteria and as many possible variations of definition exist as there are people. Therefore, this argument will probably never die.