Eating clean?

Homemade bread?

newmeadow wrote: »

newmeadow wrote: »

Yeah, like fresh, red, ripe, strawberries. Like crisp, green, asparagus spears sautéed in fresh garlic and olive oil. Like a medium rare juicy steak ,grilled and succulent. Like a hot baked potato with butter and salt. Like a bowl of mixed, roasted salted nuts including pecans, filberts, cashews, pistachios, brazil nuts and almonds. Real joyless and crappy tasting endeavor it is, eating clean.

queenliz99 wrote: »

Like pizza, cheeseburgers, tacos, and macaroni/cheese. I make those all at home and they taste good and bring loads of joy.

AnvilHead wrote: »

Just about every one of those things would be considered "unclean" or "bad" by adherents to different eating styles (paleo, vegan, keto, etc.). Which further proves what a vague, ambiguous term "clean" is. Me, I'd eat every one of them.

Well, well then. Maybe these contributions have helped our friendly fitness pal OyChihuahua better understand why clean eating need not be tasteless and joyless. Especially when he's so kindly helping out new MFPers who are looking for help with the broad and ambiguous terms like clean eating.

That some would call each of those things not clean eating is a good reason for someone like OP not to worry about what's clean or not, since there's no answer and it's not meaningful anyway, and to simply focus on how they think is a good way for them to eat.

I mostly focus on cooking from whole foods, with some additions like smoked salmon or dried pasta or oats, that I find helpful and tasty, and I consider dairy and legumes and some whole grains (including locally-grown corn when in season) a tasty part of a healthy diet so I certainly don't follow paleo rules. I think worrying about whether I can really call that "clean" (I couldn't, IMO) is unhelpful and pointless. But I also think that it's an overall healthy diet is something that's helpful and makes sense to think about.

In a way focusing on "eating clean" is a diversion from a focus on what really matters for nutrition. Saying "oh, my, cottage cheese comes in a carton so can't be "clean" and thus I must not eat it" isn't a particularly sensible way to think about food. If you don't like cottage cheese, insert some other food you like.

Like everyone said clean eating idea initial depends on who you ask. I eat certified organic ingredients about 98% of the time. I make majority everything from scratch such as cheesecake, chili, jambalaya, chicken Alfredo etc. We rarely eat out because the food we make at home taste way better and it's cheaper.

We eat whole foods and avoid gmos, msg, high fructose corn syrup, processed foods, and artificial sweeteners. My kids and husband do sometimes eat those things but it's rare and I'm not the food police. Eating this way takes away my cravings and my hunger signals stop me from eating excessively.

Someone somewhere said that you can eat all the cake you want but you have to make it from scratch with all natural ingredients. My organic homemade cheesecake takes about 3 hours to make, so I only make it about once every couple of months.

Sorry for the long post but certified organic whole foods, no msg, no high fructose corn syrup, no gmo, no artificial sweeteners is my personal definition of clean eating.

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While I consider myself to have "cleaned up" my diet, I do not consider myself a clean eater. Here's how these guys define it: http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/food-health/food-and-health-news/what-is-clean-eating/

I'm about 75% clean according to that list. While I do avoid ultra processed foods with dozens of ingredients, I think limiting yourself to foods with only two ingredients on a label is silly.

kshama2001 wrote: »

While I consider myself to have "cleaned up" my diet, I do not consider myself a clean eater. Here's how these guys define it: http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/food-health/food-and-health-news/what-is-clean-eating/

I'm about 75% clean according to that list. While I do avoid ultra processed foods with dozens of ingredients, I think limiting yourself to foods with only two ingredients on a label is silly.

Somewhere they linked not eating ham or bacon or foods with sodium in it. I mean, seriously, I think the general idea is silly. Look above for silly and salad dressings. OP if you understand your goals and what you want from food you'll be less likely to 'need a list' of approved items. Best of luck.

Unfortunately, fitness and nutrition cannot be condensed into objective little checklists that everyone can just neatly follow and miraculously get in great shape. There are too many subjective factors at play, and the best thing you can do is run away from lists like “10 foods you should never eat”, “Eat these 5 things to be healthy”, etc.

If clean eating is the pursuit of food that is high quality, I think that is a good endeavor. Define food quality as you would any other product in your life – you make decisions everyday about the cost vs. benefit of paying more for something, and you generally get what you pay for. With food, that extra quality may mean food that doesn’t contain steroids, antibiotics, pesticides, food coloring, or other additives that do little more than make the food last longer on the shelf or appear prettier. If this is important to you, pay more and eat foods that are organic or some variation of “natural”.

kajalpoit wrote: »

Hi all!

Im new to MFP and was wondering if someone could explain what 'clean eating' involves and do you have an open diary as i would love some support and advice.
Thank you xx

You'll get so many different answers to your questions but the reality is all the same, the universal truth behind clean eating is eating foods that a wholesome and from the earth, in its natural form. If your a veggie that wouldn't include meat, if your a vegan that would be meat and animal products.

But it's still whole food you're eating.

JanetYellen wrote: »

Is organic skim milk clean? Curious.

If you're going to go for milk, I would go for whole. I follow this rule In pretty much every area of food--I never go "fat free" or "sugar free." Reason being, when fats are taken out, other toxic ingredients are added in. To me, the shorter the ingredient list, the better.

KaylaMurphy95 wrote: »

JanetYellen wrote: »

Is organic skim milk clean? Curious.

If you're going to go for milk, I would go for whole. I follow this rule In pretty much every area of food--I never go "fat free" or "sugar free." Reason being, when fats are taken out, other toxic ingredients are added in. To me, the shorter the ingredient list, the better.

What toxic ingredients do you think are added to skim or reduced fat milk exactly? Or any food for that matter?

stevencloser wrote: »

KaylaMurphy95 wrote: »

JanetYellen wrote: »

Is organic skim milk clean? Curious.

If you're going to go for milk, I would go for whole. I follow this rule In pretty much every area of food--I never go "fat free" or "sugar free." Reason being, when fats are taken out, other toxic ingredients are added in. To me, the shorter the ingredient list, the better.

None of the ingredients are toxic.

Also, nothing is added to skim milk.

I agree with the posts that have mentioned that homemade versions of some foods are quite different than commercial versions when considering the topic of "eating clean".

ndj1979 wrote: »

ForecasterJason wrote: »

I agree with the posts that have mentioned that homemade versions of some foods are quite different than commercial versions when considering the topic of "eating clean".

which has nothing to do with clean vs unclean

Others have already stated in this thread that eating clean can be subjective (such as chicken being unclean for vegetarians), so I would say it can depending on who you ask.