Clean Eaters. Your experience.

I think clean eating sufferers the same problem that a lot of things do in that the term itself conjures up a very moralistic "right vs wrong, clean vs dirty" kind of image, and that (coupled with the occasional but highly vocal minority of elitists who think their way of eating is the only "right" way) can set a lot of people's teeth on edge. So topics like this are always going to bring up some (sometimes justified) knee-jerk reactions, no matter how innocently intentioned.

To answer your actual questions: I label what I'm working towards "clean eating" but the more accurate title would really be "eating as many home made products as possible while trying to minimize the amount of processing or actual physical distance between me and the source of my food and cutting out as many unnecessary dietary variables when I can because I'm trying to understand my body and its relation to food better and I can't isolate and identify the effects of many additives in my food on my personal well being so it's better to work with as minimal variables as possible while still enjoying my food".

As you can see, "clean eating" rolls off the tongue a little better. My reasons are mostly because a.) I love cooking and feel I should do more at-home meals, b.) I an scientifically-minded and in the process of trying to understand the effect that different types of food have on my physical, emotional and mental well being and therefore unexpected or unquantifiable variables can skew my data, and c.) I want to try to eat more locally grown/produced foods and that means more basic ingredients like local honey, locally caught fish, local bakeries, local produce, etc.

And ultimately I want to broaden my food horizon, and eating traditional fast food or "junk food" fare only encourages me to stay inside my own preset food boundaries because I" trust" them more. I honestly don't think there's anything wrong with white sugar in general or with earring things like Wendys, but for me, unless I make a goal to step outside of those areas on a regular basis than I fall into a routine that leaves me ultimately restricted and unhappy. I think it's bull **** when people try to say their way of eating is better than anyone else's, though, so I understand that the way I'm trying to eat might make someone els miserable or feel restricted in the same way that too much prepackaged food makes ME feel miserable and restricted.

Physically I've found that eating more like how I've outlined has really strong effects on my mental stability. When I eat that way, I'm less prone to bloodsugar crashes and I'll feel physically stronger/more stable (which makes me feel emotionally more stable). I have no clue if it's having any more or less effect on physical changes than if i aye the normal SAD with the same caloric deficit, but that's not why I do it anyway, so I don't really care about that.

I'd never heard of a macro before joining this site. I'm going to look at what those are about next.

Macro nutrients are your basic Protein, Carbs and Fat.
After calories, I would suggest they are next most important thing to focus on when planning what you are going to eat.

Clean eating in my opinion is eating 100% natural.

What makes a food 'natural'.

What if I make burgers mincing my own steak, then add 8 herbs and spices. Is that clean.
What if I stick two more herbs in and put a label on it? Is that not clean?
What if I buy the exact same thing from a shop?

I thought i was eating clean before, but then took it up a notch and really decided to eat clean, and ive never felt better or with more energy.

Protein selections:
Lean beef, eggs, seafood, chicken

Carb selections:
No salt canned diced tomato, sweet potato plain, kashi go lean high protein cereal, oatmeal, spinach, any green veg, almond milk, ezekiel bread

Fats:
Peanut butter, some cheese, oils

I dumped the protein powder 2 yrs ago and feel better. I like eating quantity so eating cleaner allows for more volume of food. Oh and, i get 30-50g fiber in this diet, what a joy that experience is!

The bottom line for most basic theories on clean eating is that if all the ingredients are natural (meaning it can be found in nature - it came from an animal, plant, fungi, etc.) then it's natural. Doesn't matter if you hand made it or bought it, or put a label on it. It's ALL about the ingredients - labels and handmaking vs. buying are again just quick guides; most things you'd buy in a grocery store that have labels won't be clean, so it's a handy tool for those learning or who just need to do it quickly.
So for your examples, steak, herbs, spices, etc. are all natural - they are made entirely from plants and animals. Some of the higher/stricter end of clean might look for only organic, grass fed, pesticide and hormone free, etc. in their meat and produce, but for the basics of clean eating it's really just about whether or not your ingredients are natural. I don't care if there's 50 ingredients; if they're all natural, it's clean.

Thanks for giving your definition, but I feel like I've heard about 10 definitions at this point, and not yet one that explains to me why this term--which I find grating and self-righteous--exists. Why not just say you try to eat whole foods or some such? In particular many seem to want to use "clean" to mean healthy in a broader sense.

In a lot of ways I personally eat in a way that could be defined as clean (but not by those who would mean by it eliminating meat or restaurant food or wheat or all sugar or frozen foods or anything in a package, such as smoked salmon or sardines, etc.). But I don't feel compelled to call the food that diverges from my usual "dirty" or to create some purity thing around food, which is what I think this really comes down to. Plus, in reading these arguments, sure there are those who explain that fast food or packaged foods fit in their life on a more routine basis, but it seems more like most on one side are saying it's an occasional thing, they are concerned with eating nutrient dense foods, but don't think it's healthy to eliminate foods and demonize them vs. others mostly saying they try to set a particular way but don't all the time and often really didn't in the past. So if you look at how people actually eat and not the labels they like, it seems to me the differences are overstated.

For what it's worth, I don't eat most packaged food because I don't like it. I prefer my own cooking. I also prefer small local restaurants, supposedly authentic ethnic joints, and the kinds of restaurants that like to tell you the farms they buy from to fast food. It's cause I'm into food, probably. And yet these were all true when I was managing to get 100 lbs overweight, so labeling my preferences "clean" and patting myself on the head would be pretty stupid.

I didn't create it, but since it seems to generally describe my thoughts on food (though as has been said there are of course different ways to go about clean eating) I'll use it because it's faster than describing what I do (less processed food, focus more on natural nutrient dense food, etc. etc. etc.). That's what labels are for really; instead of having to be longwinded every time you try to describe how you think about food or go about eating, you can use a single word or phrase and people will get the general idea.

Personally I don't find the term clean eating self-righteous or grating at all. In fact the only people I've seen describe food that doesn't fit most clean eating plans as dirty are those who are against clean eating.

Similarly, the only ones I've seen BE self-righteous in their views (religiously fanatical, to use ideas that have popped up in this thread) are those who are against clean eating.

I'm trying to be as healthy as I realistically can for myself, and for me that means more natural food, less processed / highly added to food. I do think the differences between clean eaters and those who don't call themselves clean eaters but who try to eat generally healthy are very few - in fact I'd say a lot of people who've bashed clean eating could themselves be called clean eating, just as you said you could probably be called a clean eater. Which is why I don't quite understand why some have issues with the term - if all it means is trying to eat as healthy as you can (for your own circumstances), and in this case defining healthy more in terms of how natural the food is vs. being processed / man-made, etc. then what's to dislike?