Have you ever tried clean eating?

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  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    Mandygring wrote: »
    unprocessed, whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and no artificial ingredients, preservatives, sugars, saturated fat, and trans fat.
    Yes, no dairy, fruit, sugar or grains. I ate 1lb of veggies, "clean" meats, "good" fats, low carb. I'll do it for a period of time as a metabolic reset. But it's not a constant lifestyle. I did that for 3 months and lost 30lbs. I didn't even cheat once, nor did I want to. I felt completely satiated!

    Huh? Fruit and grains are dirty foods?!? I thought highly processed, low nutrition food was considered "dirty". Minimally processed whole grains and fresh fruit are dirty? Everything I know about food is a lie! :o:(:s
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    jenilla1 wrote: »
    Mandygring wrote: »
    unprocessed, whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and no artificial ingredients, preservatives, sugars, saturated fat, and trans fat.
    Yes, no dairy, fruit, sugar or grains. I ate 1lb of veggies, "clean" meats, "good" fats, low carb. I'll do it for a period of time as a metabolic reset. But it's not a constant lifestyle. I did that for 3 months and lost 30lbs. I didn't even cheat once, nor did I want to. I felt completely satiated!

    Huh? Fruit and grains are dirty foods?!? I thought highly processed, low nutrition food was considered "dirty". Minimally processed whole grains and fresh fruit are dirty? Everything I know about food is a lie! :o:(:s

    She did low carb, fruits and grains are usually carb heavy.
  • tazzylouise
    tazzylouise Posts: 7 Member
    I was clean eating for a while until life got busy & I went for 'easy' options. Clean eating is simply unprocessed or minimally processed foods. I was going for fruit, veges, meat & complex carbs. I cut out sugar & all white/ processed forms of carbs. I was still having treats, but they were raw, not processed & homemade. You don't have to sacrifice much & I found it non-restrictive.
  • Redwineandmuscles
    Redwineandmuscles Posts: 46 Member
    I think that when I try to eat at a calorie deficit or at maintenance, I end up "clean eating" most of the time anyway in order to meet my goals.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    https://groceries.morrisons.com/webshop/product/Morrisons-Classic-Coleslaw/210784011?from=search&tags=|105651&param=coleslaw&parentContainer=SEARCHcoleslaw

    That's a lot of ingredients for Mayo, cabbage and carrots.

    Here's the Mayo...
    https://groceries.morrisons.com/webshop/product/Morrisons-Mayonnaise/122307011?from=search&tags=|105651&param=mayonnaise&parentContainer=SEARCHmayonnaise

    I'm speculating that they're using their own Mayo for the coleslaw. Ingredients are down the page.

    What's the love canal?
    And, who is the food babe sunnybeaches mentioned?

    ? That coleslaw you linked is one of the most tame ingredient lists I've seen linked by a "clean eater". I'm gonna go with what bpetrosky said and ask you what you think is in there is bad. The things in parentheses are what the thing in front of it is made of, fyi. There's only 5 things in there: cabbage, mayonaise dresssing (in parentheses what's in the mayonaise, nothing special, oil, water, egg, spices and something to keep it all together), carrots, single cream (in parentheses what's in it, again nothing special, milk, spices, extra lactic acid which is already found in milk and potassium sorbate also found in plants for preservation), colour (beta carotene which is extracted out of carrots).

    The least "natural!" thing in it is xanthan gum which is produced by bacteria out of sugars. Everything else is either straight up a whole food or made with natural ingredients, if you're into that.

    Of course you'd only know that if you took the 5 minutes to check, or knew beforehand. But fear mongering is so much more productive.
  • Ty_Floyd
    Ty_Floyd Posts: 102 Member

    ? That coleslaw you linked is one of the most tame ingredient lists I've seen linked by a "clean eater". I'm gonna go with what bpetrosky said and ask you what you think is in there is bad. The things in parentheses are what the thing in front of it is made of, fyi. There's only 5 things in there: cabbage, mayonaise dresssing (in parentheses what's in the mayonaise, nothing special, oil, water, egg, spices and something to keep it all together), carrots, single cream (in parentheses what's in it, again nothing special, milk, spices, extra lactic acid which is already found in milk and potassium sorbate also found in plants for preservation), colour (beta carotene which is extracted out of carrots).

    The least "natural!" thing in it is xanthan gum which is produced by bacteria out of sugars. Everything else is either straight up a whole food or made with natural ingredients, if you're into that.

    Going by that logic every single food in the world could qualify as 'natural', unless someone has ingredients from outer space that they're not telling about...
    Personally I prefer my coleslaw without the xanthan gum and potassium sorbate… and what's with the sugar? (Who puts sugar in home made coleslaw?)

  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    Why do you prefer it without it? Does it taste worse? Do you think it's somehow bad for you?
  • FunkyTobias
    FunkyTobias Posts: 1,776 Member
    Ty_Floyd wrote: »

    ? That coleslaw you linked is one of the most tame ingredient lists I've seen linked by a "clean eater". I'm gonna go with what bpetrosky said and ask you what you think is in there is bad. The things in parentheses are what the thing in front of it is made of, fyi. There's only 5 things in there: cabbage, mayonaise dresssing (in parentheses what's in the mayonaise, nothing special, oil, water, egg, spices and something to keep it all together), carrots, single cream (in parentheses what's in it, again nothing special, milk, spices, extra lactic acid which is already found in milk and potassium sorbate also found in plants for preservation), colour (beta carotene which is extracted out of carrots).

    The least "natural!" thing in it is xanthan gum which is produced by bacteria out of sugars. Everything else is either straight up a whole food or made with natural ingredients, if you're into that.

    Going by that logic every single food in the world could qualify as 'natural', unless someone has ingredients from outer space that they're not telling about...
    Personally I prefer my coleslaw without the xanthan gum and potassium sorbate… and what's with the sugar? (Who puts sugar in home made coleslaw?)

    Bobby Flay, for one.
    http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/creamy-cole-slaw-recipe.html
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,399 Member
    I will only answer if @diannethegeek lays out her findings of what clean eating is. I know she has tried to define it, but don't think it has worked so far.


    I like food. I eat some minimally processed food, some highly processed food, and some in between the two. I wash all of it. It's clean.
  • JaneSnowe
    JaneSnowe Posts: 1,283 Member
    edited July 2016
    Ty_Floyd wrote: »

    ? That coleslaw you linked is one of the most tame ingredient lists I've seen linked by a "clean eater". I'm gonna go with what bpetrosky said and ask you what you think is in there is bad. The things in parentheses are what the thing in front of it is made of, fyi. There's only 5 things in there: cabbage, mayonaise dresssing (in parentheses what's in the mayonaise, nothing special, oil, water, egg, spices and something to keep it all together), carrots, single cream (in parentheses what's in it, again nothing special, milk, spices, extra lactic acid which is already found in milk and potassium sorbate also found in plants for preservation), colour (beta carotene which is extracted out of carrots).

    The least "natural!" thing in it is xanthan gum which is produced by bacteria out of sugars. Everything else is either straight up a whole food or made with natural ingredients, if you're into that.

    Going by that logic every single food in the world could qualify as 'natural', unless someone has ingredients from outer space that they're not telling about...
    Personally I prefer my coleslaw without the xanthan gum and potassium sorbate… and what's with the sugar? (Who puts sugar in home made coleslaw?)

    No. Just, no. Either you have a real reason why you never want to consume xanthan gum or potassium sorbate, or you're ill-informed and happy that way.
  • Ty_Floyd
    Ty_Floyd Posts: 102 Member
    edited July 2016
    From the Center for Science in the Public Interest:
    uy2wpd5dvytb.jpg

    Food Additive Safety

    Many people presume that some federal agency is overseeing the safety of the ingredients in our food supply. That's reasonable, because that is actually what the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is supposed to be doing, and what Congress told it to do in a 1958 law.

    But since 1997, FDA has punted on that core responsibility, allowing companies to make their own secret determinations of a substance's safety for use in our food.

    The legal standard is supposed to be that an ingredient is "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS. That originally applied to things like oil and vinegar-foodstuffs that are widely accepted as safe to consume. Now the loophole is swallowing the law: companies are deciding in secret that almost anything they want to put in food is GRAS, and FDA is letting them.

    If companies decide a new ingredient is GRAS, they don't have to tell FDA what their investigations show about safety or even tell the government what or how much of anything they have decided to add to food. In short, the food industry—not FDA—is in charge of what you eat.
  • JaneSnowe
    JaneSnowe Posts: 1,283 Member
    Ty_Floyd wrote: »
    From the Center for Science in the Public Interest:
    uy2wpd5dvytb.jpg

    Food Additive Safety

    Many people presume that some federal agency is overseeing the safety of the ingredients in our food supply. That's reasonable, because that is actually what the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is supposed to be doing, and what Congress told it to do in a 1958 law.

    But since 1997, FDA has punted on that core responsibility, allowing companies to make their own secret determinations of a substance's safety for use in our food.

    The legal standard is supposed to be that an ingredient is "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS. That originally applied to things like oil and vinegar-foodstuffs that are widely accepted as safe to consume. Now the loophole is swallowing the law: companies are deciding in secret that almost anything they want to put in food is GRAS, and FDA is letting them.

    If companies decide a new ingredient is GRAS, they don't have to tell FDA what their investigations show about safety or even tell the government what or how much of anything they have decided to add to food. In short, the food industry—not FDA—is in charge of what you eat.

    You still didn't address potassium sorbate or xanthan gum.

    If you don't like how the FDA handles things, how about EFSA?

    https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/4144
  • geneticsteacher
    geneticsteacher Posts: 623 Member
    Ty_Floyd wrote: »

    ? That coleslaw you linked is one of the most tame ingredient lists I've seen linked by a "clean eater". I'm gonna go with what bpetrosky said and ask you what you think is in there is bad. The things in parentheses are what the thing in front of it is made of, fyi. There's only 5 things in there: cabbage, mayonaise dresssing (in parentheses what's in the mayonaise, nothing special, oil, water, egg, spices and something to keep it all together), carrots, single cream (in parentheses what's in it, again nothing special, milk, spices, extra lactic acid which is already found in milk and potassium sorbate also found in plants for preservation), colour (beta carotene which is extracted out of carrots).

    The least "natural!" thing in it is xanthan gum which is produced by bacteria out of sugars. Everything else is either straight up a whole food or made with natural ingredients, if you're into that.

    Going by that logic every single food in the world could qualify as 'natural', unless someone has ingredients from outer space that they're not telling about...
    Personally I prefer my coleslaw without the xanthan gum and potassium sorbate… and what's with the sugar? (Who puts sugar in home made coleslaw?)

    Bobby Flay, for one.
    http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/creamy-cole-slaw-recipe.html

    Me too.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member

    It is, you're right.
    As far as I can see it's on the lines of what I'm saying. I eat plenty of processed foods, bacon, olive oil, coconut oil, cream, milk, cheese. I just think it's better to make your own coleslaw than to eat a chemical shitstorm shop bought product. For some reason, I'm wrong and it doesn't make sense.

    You can buy coleslaw that is essentially the same as something you'd make at home. That's why it's wrong to generalize about store-bought or "processed" products, IMO. (Which is my issue with clean eating, among other things. Yes, I know you aren't a clean eater.)
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    SaliDale wrote: »
    Yes. I have been eating clean for years. I so eat the odd processed food like product now and then. And yes I am healthier for it.

    How are you defining "processed"? I have a hard time understanding why cheese and smoked salmon are "food like products" and not simply food. I'm not even sure why a sandwich purchased from Pret wouldn't count as actual food. Also, I don't see why not eating these foods would make me healthier.
  • Ty_Floyd
    Ty_Floyd Posts: 102 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    SaliDale wrote: »
    Yes. I have been eating clean for years. I so eat the odd processed food like product now and then. And yes I am healthier for it.

    How are you defining "processed"? I have a hard time understanding why cheese and smoked salmon are "food like products" and not simply food. I'm not even sure why a sandwich purchased from Pret wouldn't count as actual food. Also, I don't see why not eating these foods would make me healthier.

    Sensible advice from the NHS:
    Food processing techniques include freezing, canning, baking, drying and pasteurising products.

    Dietitian Sian Porter says: "Not all processed food is a bad choice. Some foods need processing to make them safe, such as milk, which needs to be pasteurised to remove harmful bacteria. Other foods need processing to make them suitable for use, such as pressing seeds to make oil.

    "Freezing fruit and veg preserves most vitamins, while tinned produce (choose those without added sugar and salt) can mean convenient storage, cooking and choice to eat all year round, with less waste and cost than fresh."
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Thanks, but I'm trying to discuss this with people who claim there's something wrong or unhealthy about "processed" foods in general. I already know that not all processed food is a bad choice.
  • ChihuahuaMeme
    ChihuahuaMeme Posts: 19 Member
    The soul of eating clean is consuming food the way nature delivered it, or as close to it as possible. It is not a diet; it’s a lifestyle approach to food and its preparation, leading to an improved life – one meal at a time.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    So eating clean means not cooking? I don't think so. That's not the usual definition.
  • JaneSnowe
    JaneSnowe Posts: 1,283 Member
    The soul of eating clean is consuming food the way nature delivered it, or as close to it as possible. It is not a diet; it’s a lifestyle approach to food and its preparation, leading to an improved life – one meal at a time.

    Citation needed.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    I'm heading out camping. Pretty sure there will be bugs and dirt. Am I doing it right?
  • JaneSnowe
    JaneSnowe Posts: 1,283 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    I'm heading out camping. Pretty sure there will be bugs and dirt. Am I doing it right?

    Yes. And if you cook it over a campfire, it's paleo.
  • Ty_Floyd
    Ty_Floyd Posts: 102 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    I'm heading out camping. Pretty sure there will be bugs and dirt. Am I doing it right?

    Eating bugs won't hurt you. I believe they contain a lot of protein.
  • Ty_Floyd
    Ty_Floyd Posts: 102 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    So eating clean means not cooking? I don't think so. That's not the usual definition.

    Well, raw vegetables in most cases are nutritionally superior to cooked vegetables... apart from the starchy ones. I'm not sure about those.
    I will guarantee you will feel best if at least 2/3 of your lunch and dinner plate is raw vegetables.