Thoughts on "Clean Eating"
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Christine_72 wrote: »Let me preface, I am not a clean eater. But when i think of 'clean eating' this list pretty much says it all and includes the foods i think of when i hear this term, all except for the whey protein, i wouldn't think that would make it on a clean eaters shopping list??
I look at that list and I see a lot of trendy and expensive things. That is where I think "clean eating" as a concept is most harmful. It promotes the idea that clean eating is necessary for health or losing weight and implicitly:- Requires higher priced produce, meats, and other ingredients
- Requires shopping more frequently to avoid wasting those items to spoilage
- Requires extensive home preparation (an investment in time)
What that says to someone who doesn't have the time and means to indulge in those luxuries is they can't afford to be healthy or maintain a healthy weight. It never says it outright, but it is a form of dietary elitism and marking out social status. It's the nutritional equivalent of buying a fancy car.
And the list is missing ketchup!!2 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Let me preface, I am not a clean eater. But when i think of 'clean eating' this list pretty much says it all and includes the foods i think of when i hear this term, all except for the whey protein, i wouldn't think that would make it on a clean eaters shopping list??
I look at that list and I see a lot of trendy and expensive things. That is where I think "clean eating" as a concept is most harmful. It promotes the idea that clean eating is necessary for health or losing weight and implicitly:- Requires higher priced produce, meats, and other ingredients
- Requires shopping more frequently to avoid wasting those items to spoilage
- Requires extensive home preparation (an investment in time)
What that says to someone who doesn't have the time and means to indulge in those luxuries is they can't afford to be healthy or maintain a healthy weight. It never says it outright, but it is a form of dietary elitism and marking out social status. It's the nutritional equivalent of buying a fancy car.
Bingo0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Let me preface, I am not a clean eater. But when i think of 'clean eating' this list pretty much says it all and includes the foods i think of when i hear this term, all except for the whey protein, i wouldn't think that would make it on a clean eaters shopping list??
I look at that list and I see a lot of trendy and expensive things. That is where I think "clean eating" as a concept is most harmful. It promotes the idea that clean eating is necessary for health or losing weight and implicitly:- Requires higher priced produce, meats, and other ingredients
- Requires shopping more frequently to avoid wasting those items to spoilage
- Requires extensive home preparation (an investment in time)
What that says to someone who doesn't have the time and means to indulge in those luxuries is they can't afford to be healthy or maintain a healthy weight. It never says it outright, but it is a form of dietary elitism and marking out social status. It's the nutritional equivalent of buying a fancy car.
Like i said these are the types of food that come to mind when i see "clean eating" mentioned. And yes, it would be an expensive way to eat imo.
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Christine_72 wrote: »Let me preface, I am not a clean eater. But when i think of 'clean eating' this list pretty much says it all and includes the foods i think of when i hear this term, all except for the whey protein, i wouldn't think that would make it on a clean eaters shopping list??
@Christine_72
That depends entirely on what form of Clean Eating you adhere to.
When I first started "clean eating" way back when I followed the Tosca Reno version. Whey protein was ok (it's a bodybuilder type diet). Grass fed wasnt even a thing. But a lot of the things on your list would make the cut.
Paleo "clean eating" is totally different. Grass fed is a priority. Dairy and grains are out. Fruit is very limited.
Then there is the Dr. Furhman type clean eating which is vegetarian. Meat is out. Grains are definitely in as is fruit. Dairy is out.
It all depends on your version of "clean eating'. Even the one, three, five ingredient rule doesn't apply across the board. Even the "pronounceable" ingredients doesn't make the cut.
ETA - like jgnataca said, it doesn't matter which list you follow, there will always be someone to tell you something you eat isn't clean.3 -
CrittaHipHop wrote: »CrittaHipHop wrote: »Wow ladies and gentlemen, the whole "if you cant pronounce it" rule is meant to say about chemicals added to products because some are pretty difficult to pronounce. Its not meant to say if you are illiterate, you cant eat anything or if you are especially good with chemical terms you can eat everything...
I'm also not looking to get ripped with this challenge. It's to look outside the box (pun) and realize the different "Clean" ways of eating food. If you were to actually take a look at the things added to products for all types of reasons that are not to the benefit of the human body. Doing this challenge has opened my eyes to all the chemicals and additives because I look at EVERY ingredient list I can. The end game for my weight loss is 80 lbs, this is just a stepping stone.
Remain calm, it will all be ok.
You look outside the box except for the things you "break" the rules with, those are ok. That's what kills me about this diets people call cleaning eating, the people who do always need to break their own rules to do it, so what is the point of that? If you can break the food for two foods you use why can't you break it for the rest? Probably because then they would realize that they are actually losing weight from a calorie deficit, and not because they left a hard to pronounce word out of some of their foods.
Isn't the principal of a diet to break away from what you normally eat and control (set rules) what you intake? Is that being accomplished by these people who decide to take the route of "clean eating"? Then what is the problem to you? Do you give anyone who diets the same types of responses?
I eat all the same stuff I ate before I started my diet. I didn't "break away" from anything. You know what I did do that has lead to a 90lb weight loss so far? Portion control.6 -
3dogsrunning wrote: »Here's the problem with any fastidiousness club. There will always be someone more stringent than you, protesting that you are messing up their pretty little garden. You'll never make the grade, especially if the score card keeps changing.
(Mixxy uppy metaphor I know)
@jgnatca
Oh man is that right. So right it hurts.
The clean eating club, babyled weaning club, the breastfeeding club.
There's a movie for this right now, "Bad Moms". Oh, the pressure to be perfect; it can be so much one wants to throw in the towel completely.
How much better would it be to allow a life with flaws?6 -
3dogsrunning wrote: »Here's the problem with any fastidiousness club. There will always be someone more stringent than you, protesting that you are messing up their pretty little garden. You'll never make the grade, especially if the score card keeps changing.
(Mixxy uppy metaphor I know)
@jgnatca
Oh man is that right. So right it hurts.
The clean eating club, babyled weaning club, the breastfeeding club.
There's a movie for this right now, "Bad Moms". Oh, the pressure to be perfect; it can be so much one wants to throw in the towel completely.
How much better would it be to allow a life with flaws?
Life with flaws club, I'm in!0 -
There's a flawed fruit trend (intermarche) right now.
Reduce food wastage.1 -
That carrot is more obscene than ugly, but I see carrots like that all the time at the green market, and no one seems bothered by them. Apples there are rarely weird looking, though. Wonder if it is much less common.2
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I'd say those apples are twins. I've picked them like that before. Carrots will split in rocky soil. More inglorious vegetables:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQQMygivn0g 1 -
Good for you to try something new. We all need to expand our own horizons from time to time.
I have recently (before joining here) tried to avoid hormones and GMO in my diet for the sake that it may be affecting my hormones and ability to lose weight. I'm not a big eater anyhow. I am eating a lot more vegetables like you and not eating as much food as was recommended for my weight, but so far that's O.K.
I have started using Almond milk instead of cow's milk and really enjoy it. It doesn't have as much protein as regular milk, but has other added benefits.
I've also tried a lot of new things that I might not have otherwise. I like the Naked brand bottled smoothies and have tried some new vegetables and am enjoying avocados now.
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CrittaHipHop wrote: »Basic rules are, if you cant pronounce a name of an ingredient you cant eat it. If there is an ingredient that you couldnt find on a regular grocery store shelf, you cant eat it. Anything that is processed, you cant eat.
That's not quite the definition of "clean eating" I'm familiar with but to follow that I'd need a definition of what is meant by "processed". For example: Is peanut butter okay if it's just peanuts and salt? I could easily pronounce and find those ingredients but it would be hard to argue that grinding is not a process.
But, since this is just a 30 day challenge I don't see anything wrong with sticking it out for 8 more days. I did try eating 100% (or very close to) clean (my definition: all natural un/minimally processed ingredients) for a while but found it time consuming and too limiting. I gradually loosened up a bit but still eat mostly clean by my definition. I like eating whole natural foods.1 -
See if you can guess which popular cookie this is:
The unpronounceables I imagine would be the vitamins, "High Oleic", "Calcium Phosphate", and "Soy Lecithin".
- high oleic - high in mono-saturated fats. A good thing.
- calcium phosphate is GRAS*, and is found naturally in milk and blood. It is used as a leavening agent. Leavening means fluffy.
- soy lecithin is also GRAS*. This is an emulsifier. We emulsify manually when making salad dressing, by furiously whipping oil and vinegar/water together.
- I'll assume that most clean eaters don't intend to cut out their consumption of vitamins.
*Generally Regarded As Safe4 -
The weirdest thing about this diet may be that it cuts out foods with ingredients you cannot pronounce AND all processed foods. Isn't that redundant? If you cut out all processed foods, how are you buying foods with a label listing ingredients, whether or not the ingredients can be pronounced by someone with a basic high school education (as with most chemical names, I would hope)?
Is some bizarre and incorrect use of "processed" being employed by the creators of this challenge?
I'm at the point where I'd grudgingly accept the obnoxious term "clean" for food if people would please stop misusing "processed" or pretending like there's some connection between food being processed and it being high cal or unhealthy or full of any particular ingredient.6 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Let me preface, I am not a clean eater. But when i think of 'clean eating' this list pretty much says it all and includes the foods i think of when i hear this term, all except for the whey protein, i wouldn't think that would make it on a clean eaters shopping list??
I look at that list and I see a lot of trendy and expensive things. That is where I think "clean eating" as a concept is most harmful. It promotes the idea that clean eating is necessary for health or losing weight and implicitly:- Requires higher priced produce, meats, and other ingredients
- Requires shopping more frequently to avoid wasting those items to spoilage
- Requires extensive home preparation (an investment in time)
What that says to someone who doesn't have the time and means to indulge in those luxuries is they can't afford to be healthy or maintain a healthy weight. It never says it outright, but it is a form of dietary elitism and marking out social status. It's the nutritional equivalent of buying a fancy car.
^^^This, this and this...
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That list doesnt have turkey or pork on it. Or squash, like acorn or butternut. It doesnt have chili powder or even red pepper flakes - or (GASP!) peanut butter!!! It is sort of an elitist kind of gathering of randomly "blessed" ingredients - not my idea of a good time.1
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cross2bear wrote: »That list doesnt have turkey or pork on it. Or squash, like acorn or butternut. It doesnt have chili powder or even red pepper flakes - or (GASP!) peanut butter!!! It is sort of an elitist kind of gathering of randomly "blessed" ingredients - not my idea of a good time.
Yeah, it has coconut butter, ghee, and spelt flour . . . but no onions? It's ridiculous.1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »cross2bear wrote: »That list doesnt have turkey or pork on it. Or squash, like acorn or butternut. It doesnt have chili powder or even red pepper flakes - or (GASP!) peanut butter!!! It is sort of an elitist kind of gathering of randomly "blessed" ingredients - not my idea of a good time.
Yeah, it has coconut butter, ghee, and spelt flour . . . but no onions? It's ridiculous.
Nor whole wheat flour!0 -
cross2bear wrote: »That list doesnt have turkey or pork on it. Or squash, like acorn or butternut. It doesnt have chili powder or even red pepper flakes - or (GASP!) peanut butter!!! It is sort of an elitist kind of gathering of randomly "blessed" ingredients - not my idea of a good time.
LOL i never made up the list, or said i agreed with it. There's always mass confusion when 'clean eating' is brought up here. So i put forth my general idea of what i think it is.
It would be nice if someone who actually follows this woe would come in and give their opinion of the list.0 -
Looking at that list, I don't understand the obsession with kale. Calorie for calorie, Kale is nearly identical to Romaine Lettuce- ok so Romaine has a little more potassium and Kale has a little more protein, but it's negligible. And Kale is so bitter and requires more work to make it taste good. I long for the day when kale is removed from it's pedestal and our culture embraces a wider variety of vegetables.3
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