My opinion on the semantics battles of Clean Eating threads here.

_John_ wrote: »

Sure, they get crazy. I'm going to try to break it down as I see it.

First off, I feel like a lot of times "clean eating" does get most things right, but for the wrong reasons. If one eats nothing but fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, nuts, seeds, legumes, no sugar added dairy (I don't take it to the extreme of having to be organic) calorie counts are often kept lower than someone coming from a straight SAD diet because the food has more fiber, protein and is just more filling.

So it "works" because total calories are (usually) kept in check. Also, and especially if one eats a variety of foods, most nutrients are taken care of. The "all or none" aspect of "I'm going to eat clean" if you are used to eating foods you enjoy can (IMO) lead to some binging (more to that, but trying to push this post too far into TLDR)

CICO is probably more important for losing weight though, and often "clean eating" works despite neglecting some oversight of caloric intake. So for most people it makes more sense to them to track everything (we are afterall on a calorie tracking site) and make allowances for the "non-clean" foods. And if one is educated about what nutrients different food have, it is not hard to end up eating a snickers, piece of pizza, ice cream, pop tart, or some other "unclean" food and still overall hit your macronutrient goals while having a diet that is rich in healthy foods with adequate nutrition.

Many of us have personal experience with cleaning up our diets, getting obsessed and then binging when we get that first bite of a "naughty" food. We're also forum nerd types who know that so many of these discussions are beneficial to the peanut gallery even when there's a "war" between unmoving sides in the thread itself.

I would like to see less discouragement of folks eating healthy foods as a focus, as that is important to health. But, I don't feel that "food avoidance" is overly healthy either, and I'd like people to use these boards to find new foods, ideas, so they can become knowledgeable enough to be accountable to themselves in the food and amounts they eat. Instead of "what foods to avoid" I'd rather people have the knowledge to think "if I eat this, what will I need to eat elsewhere to make my overall diet work".

Just my ramblings.

_John_ wrote: »

Sure, they get crazy. I'm going to try to break it down as I see it.

First off, I feel like a lot of times "clean eating" does get most things right, but for the wrong reasons. If one eats nothing but fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, nuts, seeds, legumes, no sugar added dairy (I don't take it to the extreme of having to be organic) calorie counts are often kept lower than someone coming from a straight SAD diet because the food has more fiber, protein and is just more filling.

So it "works" because total calories are (usually) kept in check. Also, and especially if one eats a variety of foods, most nutrients are taken care of. The "all or none" aspect of "I'm going to eat clean" if you are used to eating foods you enjoy can (IMO) lead to some binging (more to that, but trying to push this post too far into TLDR)

CICO is probably more important for losing weight though, and often "clean eating" works despite neglecting some oversight of caloric intake. So for most people it makes more sense to them to track everything (we are afterall on a calorie tracking site) and make allowances for the "non-clean" foods. And if one is educated about what nutrients different food have, it is not hard to end up eating a snickers, piece of pizza, ice cream, pop tart, or some other "unclean" food and still overall hit your macronutrient goals while having a diet that is rich in healthy foods with adequate nutrition.

Many of us have personal experience with cleaning up our diets, getting obsessed and then binging when we get that first bite of a "naughty" food. We're also forum nerd types who know that so many of these discussions are beneficial to the peanut gallery even when there's a "war" between unmoving sides in the thread itself.

I would like to see less discouragement of folks eating healthy foods as a focus, as that is important to health. But, I don't feel that "food avoidance" is overly healthy either, and I'd like people to use these boards to find new foods, ideas, so they can become knowledgeable enough to be accountable to themselves in the food and amounts they eat. Instead of "what foods to avoid" I'd rather people have the knowledge to think "if I eat this, what will I need to eat elsewhere to make my overall diet work".

Just my ramblings.