What is clean eating?
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Clean eating is avoiding foods which have chemicals and harmful substances. Many people are starting to go on organic or naturals, organic has no chemicals and they are not using pesticides in growing some fruits and vegetables. Processed food and junk foods are also unhealthy.
Please point me to a credible study that shows processed foods (as in all processed foods as your statement is a blanket one) is unhealthy.
Also, what do you define as junk? What harmful substances?
Also, everything has chemicals.
One definition of junk food is:
Pre-prepared or packaged food that has low nutritional value:
Another definition:
A popular term for any food which is low in essential nutrients and high in everything else—in particular calories and sodium. Junk foods are often highly salted—e.g., potato chips/crisps, pretzels—high in refined carbohydrates (empty calories)—e.g., candy, soft drinks—and high in saturated fats—e.g., cake, chocolates
I was asking the poster what they thought it was in reference to their blanket statement of 'unhealthy'.
Using the definition you gave low nutritional value =/= unhealthy (in the context of individual foods, not overall diet). I would argue however with the fact that refined carbs = 'empty calories'. Is pasta 'junk' food for example?
Yep and rice!
That's not to say I wouldn't eat them, but only if I'd covered my micro's and protein and felt I had some calories to spare!
Pasta and rice - nice food but in my book not bad not good just neutral!
So your definition of junk is something that has relatively low micronutrient content?
In comparison to calorie cost - yes
But I don't have an issue with junk food or the term!
I am not too sure then that the first poster in this string would agree, unless they think that pasta is unhealthy.
As I mentioned, I was trying to understand what the poster meant, and therefore understand what they thought was 'unhealthly' about 'junk', whatever their definition was, hence me quoting them originally and not asking a broad question to everyone (as everyone's definition is likely to be different).
ETA: it's not the term I have an issue with necessarily - we all use it in one way or another - it's the broad blanket statement being applied to it.
I'm sorry but I must have missed the bit where the op says junk food is unhealthy!
Edit: I have only skimmed the 4 pages, but maybe missed it!
Not the op - the poster who I initially asked the question of (the one I quoted)....see top - last sentence.0 -
Eating mostly foods with not a lot of processing or chemicals.0
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Okay my bad!Clean eating is avoiding foods which have chemicals and harmful substances. Many people are starting to go on organic or naturals, organic has no chemicals and they are not using pesticides in growing some fruits and vegetables. Processed food and junk foods are also unhealthy.
Please point me to a credible study that shows processed foods (as in all processed foods as your statement is a blanket one) is unhealthy.
Also, what do you define as junk? What harmful substances?
Also, everything has chemicals.
One definition of junk food is:
Pre-prepared or packaged food that has low nutritional value:
Another definition:
A popular term for any food which is low in essential nutrients and high in everything else—in particular calories and sodium. Junk foods are often highly salted—e.g., potato chips/crisps, pretzels—high in refined carbohydrates (empty calories)—e.g., candy, soft drinks—and high in saturated fats—e.g., cake, chocolates
I was asking the poster what they thought it was in reference to their blanket statement of 'unhealthy'.
Using the definition you gave low nutritional value =/= unhealthy (in the context of individual foods, not overall diet). I would argue however with the fact that refined carbs = 'empty calories'. Is pasta 'junk' food for example?
Yep and rice!
That's not to say I wouldn't eat them, but only if I'd covered my micro's and protein and felt I had some calories to spare!
Pasta and rice - nice food but in my book not bad not good just neutral!
So your definition of junk is something that has relatively low micronutrient content?
In comparison to calorie cost - yes
But I don't have an issue with junk food or the term!
I am not too sure then that the first poster in this string would agree, unless they think that pasta is unhealthy.
As I mentioned, I was trying to understand what the poster meant, and therefore understand what they thought was 'unhealthly' about 'junk', whatever their definition was, hence me quoting them originally and not asking a broad question to everyone (as everyone's definition is likely to be different).
ETA: it's not the term I have an issue with necessarily - we all use it in one way or another - it's the broad blanket statement being applied to it.
I'm sorry but I must have missed the bit where the op says junk food is unhealthy!
Edit: I have only skimmed the 4 pages, but maybe missed it!
Not the op - the poster who I initially asked the question of (the one I quoted)....see top - last sentence.
I'm not in the junk food is unhealthy camp.
My view is junk food is sometimes and mainly neutral neither unhealthy or that beneficial to health either!
It tastes nice and when you've covered your bases else where then they should be enjoyed!
I personal think they get a bad rap because people find it easy to over do there calories on them because they can calorie dense and very moorish.
As an addition I would lump most gluten free substitute products as junk!0 -
A way to feel more superior than others by avoiding processed foods.
Funny. Having been on this site a few weeks, the snarky comments from the 'non-clean' eaters seem to outweigh the 'clean' lot by approximately a thousand to one. Maybe it's more a case of you feeling inferior?
I'd like to add, I don't eat 'clean' in any way, though am trying to transition to more 'healthful' eating.
To answer the OP. In very simple terms, it's about eating more whole foods and keeping processed to a minimum. If something comes in a tin or a packet, a good way to get a feel for how 'processed' it is is by checking its ingredients. The more ingredients, usually the more processed. Especially if you don't recognise 90% of them.0 -
Eating mostly foods with not a lot of processing or chemicals.
No chemicals. No food for you.
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ProjectionA way to feel more superior than others by avoiding processed foods.0 -
Following the 5 second rule for dropped donuts?0
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Hmm. Not to me. "Clean" isn't about demonizing or eliminating to me."The term is dumb. Yes. Eating healthy is not. Perhaps we could talk about eating healthy?"
Yes, this has been my consistent point. OP did not ask what we thought eating healthy was, she asked about our understanding of eating "clean."
I don't think eating "clean" is just an irritating way to say eating healthy, though. To the extent it means anything at all, it's an assertion that it is better to eliminate than eat "unclean" food in moderation (depending on what it is moderation could end up meaning once every couple of months, and of course this doesn't apply to foods that you just don't care about much -- i never eat pop tarts, but it would be absurd to claim I've eliminated them). I think it can be healthy for an individual to choose to eliminate foods based on personal reasons, but to say that's the essence of a healthy diet, what we should focus on, seems backwards to me. We should focus on eating a balanced healthy diet with lots of nutrients, a variety of vegetables, adequate protein, etc. "Clean" eating, with the focus on individual foods being good or bad or the red herring of processing (lots of good for you foods are processed) seems to me to focus on the wrong things.
Or, you know, just be a trendy marketing label for diet books and plans.
Well, you also agreed that the term was dumb, so maybe you aren't really the person I'm talking about. (I've always thought you seemed pretty sensible.) My question is why use a stupid term that focuses on eliminating foods rather than actually talking about healthy eating, something that many people who aren't interested in "clean eating" or find the term pointless and unhelpful also are interested in.
But it seems so often that really getting into what's healthy isn't interesting to people--they just want to adopt a silly label or focus on giving up items (often items that most of us don't think about or have any reason to give up, since we don't eat them).My diet isn't based on what I don't eat, but rather what I aim to eat. I would imagine, for many who've been doing it a long time, that's the case. But even if someone's plan IS based around what they don't eat, I don't get why that rumples people's panties so much. Why is what they eat any more an indictment of what others eat than IIFYM? When I see folks saying: I'm trying to cut back on sugar, or cut out the soda. The reply is invariably: I eat whatever I want nom nom nom. Followed by silly gifs and a dog pile.
Well, I don't make fun of people cutting back on things for their own personal reasons or even cutting it out. I don't cut out foods (I just don't eat them if they don't happen to fit my goals), but I can understand why people might, and I certainly have cut back on things. (I don't see how that's not perfectly consistent with IIFYM, but I'm not promoting IIFYM anyway.)
What bothers me about the "clean" thing is that I think it tends to equate healthy eating with cutting things out and needlessly labels groups and segregates the conversation. The excitement about "clean eating" plans and cookbooks and groups and so on bother me in the same way that any pre-set diet plan seems pointless and silly to me, plus it seems to suggest that non-"clean" cookbooks exist, as if normal cooking involves packaged cookie dough or whatever. Normal cooking IS cooking with whole foods and this is NOT some new special thing invented by the marketing types who created the "clean" eating label. My mother cooked that way, I've always cooked that way, I'm sure my grandmother and great grandmother did, and yet no one ever pretended it was some super special way of cooking. It was just cooking. (Okay, my mother used lots of canned veggies and I wouldn't, although I might well use frozen at times, but this idea that you are in a special group deserving of a label because you actually buy food that needs to be prepared is SO bizarre to me, and yet that seems to be part of the premise of a lot of the "clean" folks around here.)
Also, why assume that you only can have useful discussions about nutrition with those who have given up processed food or whatever thing it happens to be, and assert that non clean eaters are just about eating pop tarts or corn dogs or the like 24/7--which most certainly is something I've seen often here from the biggest "clean" eater proponents.
Also, I just find it so ironic that people who get all excited about eating "clean" often don't seem to realize that their diets contain just as many non-"clean" foods as most of the people they are arguing with, under their own definitions. And then when they get into "oh, well, I define what's clean to me," the question becomes then why use the silly label and thus define all the foods that you rather arbitrarily decide not to eat as "unclean." I don't call foods I don't like or don't eat "unclean" or "not clean," that seems to me self-evidently obnoxious and unnecessary.0 -
Processed food and junk foods are also unhealthy.
You'd need to define "junk" foods before making that claim.
So why is my Fage 0% unhealthy?0 -
My view is that clean eating is eating food that is as close to nature as possible. Get the most unprocessed, natural state food possible. Lean cuts of meat, lots of fruits and veggies.
Why are lean cuts of meat less processed than fattier cuts of meat? In at least some cases the opposite is true. I tend to buy my meat from a local farm, and as a result I eat more fat than I likely would if I just picked out meat based on how low the calories are (because of lower fat content) from my grocery.
I also am in favor of eating lots of fruits and vegetables, but there is nothing particularly "clean" about that. I have a CSA share and like local and seasonable when possible (for personal reasons), but I would find it LESS healthy to stick to that--although the alternative requires processing or the like (carting produce around the world)--when where I live has a lengthy period when you really can't get fresh locally grown fruits and veggies.
Plus I like bananas and coffee.0 -
To me, it's basically eating foods that have been minimally processed and made with ingredients that are as close to their natural state as possible. No added sugars and absolutely no processed food and pre-packaged foods (with certain exceptions).
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A way to feel more superior than others by avoiding processed foods.
Funny. Having been on this site a few weeks, the snarky comments from the 'non-clean' eaters seem to outweigh the 'clean' lot by approximately a thousand to one. Maybe it's more a case of you feeling inferior?
I'd like to add, I don't eat 'clean' in any way, though am trying to transition to more 'healthful' eating.
To answer the OP. In very simple terms, it's about eating more whole foods and keeping processed to a minimum. If something comes in a tin or a packet, a good way to get a feel for how 'processed' it is is by checking its ingredients. The more ingredients, usually the more processed. Especially if you don't recognise 90% of them.
Amen. More than 90% of the snark here comes from people who follow IIFYM.0 -
Simple meals. Nothing processed.
Protein, veggies/fruit, minimal carbs.
For me anyway.0 -
I thought it meant eating after you bathe... Because I tend to eat dirty.0 -
A way to feel more superior than others by avoiding processed foods.
Funny. Having been on this site a few weeks, the snarky comments from the 'non-clean' eaters seem to outweigh the 'clean' lot by approximately a thousand to one. Maybe it's more a case of you feeling inferior?
I'd like to add, I don't eat 'clean' in any way, though am trying to transition to more 'healthful' eating.
To answer the OP. In very simple terms, it's about eating more whole foods and keeping processed to a minimum. If something comes in a tin or a packet, a good way to get a feel for how 'processed' it is is by checking its ingredients. The more ingredients, usually the more processed. Especially if you don't recognise 90% of them.
Amen. More than 90% of the snark here comes from people who follow IIFYM.
That's a rather sweeping statement and has as much confirmation bias as people 'on the other side' making similar sweeping statements.0 -
Clean eating is a term coined by body builders. Can be difficult to follow but is very healthy. Cook from scratch with fresh ingredients, mostly organic. NO processed foods. Recipes by Jillian Michaels, Jeannette Jenkins etc follow these guidelines
"pure"
"unprocessed"
"whole"
"clean"
"unchemical"
"non-toxic"
"no white breads"
"no junk food"
Lesley in Tasmania0 -
Foods that come from the ground
No processed foods
This is a little too simplistic. In my profile I make reference to fritos being clean - it's a tongue-in-cheek poke at clean eating, but it's also fairly accurate, Look at a bag of frito-lay's fritos - they contain 3 ingredients; corn, corn oil, and salt. They are a whole grain food with no added colors, preservatives (other than salt), flavorings, etc ... I would argue that they are clean. I would not however argue that they are health food. They can be part of a healthy diet, however. Fritos arent bad - just a lot of fritos are bad .. just like anything else. Cape Cod chips are the same: Potatoes, Oil, Salt. But on no, Junk Food!!!!
If you take strawberries and make all natural jam, and some company uses the exact same recipe and sells it, is their less clean than yours?
That's what gets me about "clean"0 -
To me clean eating is eating fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats and dairy. Going easy on the boxed or canned foods and easy on the so- called stereotypical "junk" food (cakes, cookies, etc.). But that is just my take. "Clean eating" means something different to everyone and has no real definition. Neither is it necessary for weight loss. It's simply a buzzword.0
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A way to feel more superior than others by avoiding processed foods.
Funny. Having been on this site a few weeks, the snarky comments from the 'non-clean' eaters seem to outweigh the 'clean' lot by approximately a thousand to one. Maybe it's more a case of you feeling inferior?
I'd like to add, I don't eat 'clean' in any way, though am trying to transition to more 'healthful' eating.
To answer the OP. In very simple terms, it's about eating more whole foods and keeping processed to a minimum. If something comes in a tin or a packet, a good way to get a feel for how 'processed' it is is by checking its ingredients. The more ingredients, usually the more processed. Especially if you don't recognise 90% of them.
Amen. More than 90% of the snark here comes from people who follow IIFYM.
Interesting. What mathematical equation did you use to come to that percentage?0 -
Why is it that more often then not (not always of course) the "clean eaters" are the ones with the closed diaries? Maybe you're not as "clean" as you'd like to think?0
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