Eating Clean
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HealthierMeforlife2016 wrote: »I didn't mean to start a fight I was just wondering because my doctor said to eat clean and was trying to see if anyone else does for ideas. Again sorry.
Welcome to MFP. You were just walking along the path trying to find guidance and stepped in quicksand. At this point, I suggest you crack open a cold one, sit back, relax, and enjoy what your post has wrought. Just make sure you drink something crisp and clean . . . lol2 -
queenliz99 wrote: »sunnybeaches105 wrote: »This is where someone argues that clean eating without a calorie deficit will still cause you to lose weight. Then someone else talks about washing their food. And we spend pages arguing the definition. And then someone else tells everyone to avoid eating any white foods. And another guy says that he eats everything. And I post pics of donuts. And another dude tells people they need more self discipline. Are we done yet?
Stay at a calorie deficit. Eat nutrient dense food. And, put down the damned donuts unless you really have room and your diet is dialed in. Oh, and shut off the lights when you're finished going back and forth for 30 pages.
You missed the part where someone says that people who say they don't eat clean have a steady diet of pizza and Twinkies.
That would be me but beer instead of Twinkies.
My beer is on its way home, and I plan to get good and dirty by the end of the night1 -
sunnybeaches105 wrote: »queenliz99 wrote: »sunnybeaches105 wrote: »This is where someone argues that clean eating without a calorie deficit will still cause you to lose weight. Then someone else talks about washing their food. And we spend pages arguing the definition. And then someone else tells everyone to avoid eating any white foods. And another guy says that he eats everything. And I post pics of donuts. And another dude tells people they need more self discipline. Are we done yet?
Stay at a calorie deficit. Eat nutrient dense food. And, put down the damned donuts unless you really have room and your diet is dialed in. Oh, and shut off the lights when you're finished going back and forth for 30 pages.
You missed the part where someone says that people who say they don't eat clean have a steady diet of pizza and Twinkies.
That would be me but beer instead of Twinkies.
My beer is on its way home, and I plan to get good and dirty by the end of the night
Fist bump!
I'm silly1 -
I ate clean for years. I was so good about it. I shopped at food co-ops, farmers markets, everything was local and/or organic. I figured I was healthy. But I was fat. The fact is there isn't that much difference between organic and non-organic, and whole foods don't affect your body that differently from chemical foods. I'm eating things that have fewer calories whether they're whole foods or not now, and I'm finally losing weight. I do try to get grass-fed meat from small local farms and pastured chicken and eggs from a friend who raises chickens, but that's more about how the animals are treated than anything else. (Though I do think grass-fed beef and pastured eggs taste better.) Anyway, my priority now is calories and weight loss, not "clean" food. I weigh less and my heart isn't working as hard, my liver doesn't have as much fat around it, I don't have reflux anymore, and my sleep apnea seems to have gone away. Losing weight has made a bigger difference in my health than clean eating did or could.7
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turnerbh52 wrote: »That's not what eating clean means, Tom K!
. I have been doing keto / low carb for about 13 months now. I lost 15 lbs that way within 6 weeks of starting the program, and I have kept it off with a little yoyo-ing (1 - 3 lbs). I avoid as much processed food as I can, no soda pop, no aspartame, no white breads, white potatoes, white rice, or pasta for the most part (85% of the time). Good luck!
All bread is processed (I prefer whole grains myself when I have grains, but they are processed), and potatoes are not, so I'm not sure what would be unclean about potatoes. I find it impossible to understand what people mean by "processed" anymore (plenty of reasonably high-nutrient foods are processed, like canned beans, which just happen to be really convenient, or even dried beans, greek yogurt, smoked salmon, etc.), and never know what people mean by "clean."
That said, I focus on eating a nutrient-dense diet, mostly cooking from whole foods (I did this when I was fat too, however), get my vegetables from a local farm when they are in-season (I supplement with out of season stuff too, even though that's presumably less "clean" since I like broccoli and zucchini and brussels, etc., even when it's January, and I do occasionally enjoy a banana even though they don't grow where I live). I do eat some treats like cheese or ice cream (although I am planning to start making my own ice cream/frozen yogurt again -- prefer to buy the cheese, though, since I like artisan cheeses and am definitely not capable of doing that myself). I also enjoy eating at local restaurants and occasionally buy my lunch (although I pick options similar to what I would make for myself). I'll also use protein powder if my breakfast is otherwise low protein.
I'm assuming that this is not "clean" (and I wouldn't use the term myself, because I dislike it), but quite a few people who claim to eat "clean" or never eat "processed" foods eat like me (or often actually a lot more boxed stuff than I do), so who knows.
Anyway, OP, if the desire is to talk about eating a nutrient dense diet or cooking from whole foods or nutrition, I'm always up for it. If the desire is to find people who don't eat whatever you consider "processed," you have to be more specific, since as you can see people are all over the place as to what they mean by that term (it has a definition, but that never seems to be what is meant).2 -
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singingflutelady wrote: »Brown rice, whole wheat bread etc are just as dirty as white rice and white bread.
White rice is dirty? First time I'm hearing that. I think the correct term should be "food I don't feel fat eating". For the record white potatoes will forever be tastier than sweet potatoes (for me). Sweet potatoes are literally too sweet for me to enjoy.
Pretty sure dirty rice is normally made with white rice, yeah: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_rice
(that's what you mean, right?) ;-)
Anyway, I like both potatoes (not always white, for example, sometimes they are purple) and sweet potatoes.1 -
kommodevaran wrote: »HealthierMeforlife2016 wrote: »my doctor said to eat clean
My knee jerk reaction is "get a new doctor"
Eh, he or she probably just meant "eat healthy." It's such a buzzword these days that you never know what someone means.0 -
Packerjohn wrote: »rileysowner wrote: »HealthierMeforlife2016 wrote: »I didn't mean to start a fight I was just wondering because my doctor said to eat clean and was trying to see if anyone else does for ideas. Again sorry.
Did your doctor define what is meant by clean? Without doing so, that direction is rather unhelpful. I say that because I know clean eaters who would strongly disagree that the other person is eating clean because the definition of clean is so, well, undefined.
If it's a typical US doctor, I would guess he/she would say as to clean eating, limit regular soda, chips, cookies, cakes, candy, etc. Not too many doctors I'm familiar with would argue sweet potato vs white potato in the clean food discussion.
That you say "limit" is interesting, and consistent with what I'd expect too. From what I have heard from doctors (not mine, who asked me what I ate and said "that sounds good") many will give more extreme rules ("don't eat X") thinking that people will not follow the rules exactly, so extreme rules actually result in the goal of reducing, moderation, in many cases. (My dad was on a diet like that for a while -- no red meat, no dairy fat, stuff like that -- he eats that stuff, although somewhat rarely, and achieved the desired result.)
Other doctors will actually make the "limit" type recommendations (much like the Dietary Guidelines do.
As I understand "clean eating" as usually asserted on MFP (although almost never truly followed in practice from what I've seen -- I've lurked in the "clean eating" group and see no evidence that the people there cut out processed foods more than I do, or eat more healthful diets or more purely from whole foods, so their use of the term just seems to me about self aggrandizement and claiming to be better than others), it means that you MUST cut out the BAD foods. The idea is that even occasional eating makes you unclean and is somehow unhealthy. I think that approach isn't really consistent with how nutrition works.1 -
I was thinking something similar. Of course there are lots of foods that I cannot pronounce the name of.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »rileysowner wrote: »HealthierMeforlife2016 wrote: »I didn't mean to start a fight I was just wondering because my doctor said to eat clean and was trying to see if anyone else does for ideas. Again sorry.
Did your doctor define what is meant by clean? Without doing so, that direction is rather unhelpful. I say that because I know clean eaters who would strongly disagree that the other person is eating clean because the definition of clean is so, well, undefined.
If it's a typical US doctor, I would guess he/she would say as to clean eating, limit regular soda, chips, cookies, cakes, candy, etc. Not too many doctors I'm familiar with would argue sweet potato vs white potato in the clean food discussion.
That you say "limit" is interesting, and consistent with what I'd expect too. From what I have heard from doctors (not mine, who asked me what I ate and said "that sounds good") many will give more extreme rules ("don't eat X") thinking that people will not follow the rules exactly, so extreme rules actually result in the goal of reducing, moderation, in many cases. (My dad was on a diet like that for a while -- no red meat, no dairy fat, stuff like that -- he eats that stuff, although somewhat rarely, and achieved the desired result.)
Other doctors will actually make the "limit" type recommendations (much like the Dietary Guidelines do.
Nice pick up as I specifically used "limit". I've never been in a situation where a doctor told me to do anything about the foods I was eating. Talking to friends with weight issues though, they were told to reduce total calories with emphasis on cutting back on the high calorie, low nutrition foods (i.e, what I think most in the general population would consider eating cleaner).
Nobody in my limited sample was told to completely eliminate anything unless they were having an allergic type reaction to it.
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sunnybeaches105 wrote: »This is where someone argues that clean eating without a calorie deficit will still cause you to lose weight. Then someone else talks about washing their food. And we spend pages arguing the definition. And then someone else tells everyone to avoid eating any white foods. And another guy says that he eats everything. And I post pics of donuts. And another dude tells people they need more self discipline. Are we done yet?
Stay at a calorie deficit. Eat nutrient dense food. And, put down the damned donuts unless you really have room and your diet is dialed in. Oh, and shut off the lights when you're finished going back and forth for 30 pages.
You forgot "shop the perimeter of the grocery store" and "only eat foods with ingredients you can pronounce".3 -
OP as I think you are getting by now, this little phrase that you probably thought was simple and straightforward is a bit of a contentious topic here. It really shouldn't be, because for most of us, the goal is the same - to eat a variety of foods that are nutritious and tasty that also help us meet our weight goals (lose, maintain or gain as it may be). Where we differ is that some people like to label things a certain way, some people prefer to restrict foods that they feel don't help them achieve these goals. Because of this the conversation devolves, which is unfortunate.
You can absolutely cut out certain foods, lose weight and increase your overall health. You also likely can lose weight and increase your overall healthy by not cutting out foods but rather by focusing on calorie/portion control and adding more nutrient dense foods to your diet. That was my approach, I didn't cut out anything per se, but I added more vegetables, protein, grains, exercise. By doing that it enables me to still enjoy things like pizza, wine and ice cream in moderation. If your doctor didn't have a specific medical reason for you to avoid certain foods, then I believe the advice to "eat clean" is something he or she felt would be simple for you to implement but for many it causes undue stress and confusion...
Good luck!2 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »turnerbh52 wrote: »T I avoid as much processed food as I can, no soda pop, no aspartame, no white breads, white potatoes, white rice, or pasta for the most part (85% of the time). Good luck!
How does the potato get to be a part of this list??? That's why I find strict rules like this such nonsense. Why is a white potato different than say a cucumber without the peel - I mean that's pretty much white too. What makes the potato processed?
I think it's more this notion that "white foods" are bad...doesn't matter if it's actually a whole food or not. My mom was going on and on about how bad potatoes were until I pulled up the nutritional information and showed it to her...poor lady has been avoiding nutritious potatoes for years for no good reason other than they're white....
I avoid boy bands for the same reason.
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HealthierMeforlife2016 wrote: »I didn't mean to start a fight I was just wondering because my doctor said to eat clean and was trying to see if anyone else does for ideas. Again sorry.
"Eating clean" is too vague. Ask your doctor or a registered dietician for a more specific diet recommendation if you need one.
However, to lose weight you just need a calorie deficit. You can get that while eating any kind of food.
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alyssa0061 wrote: »I've been thinking all day about eating Cheetos. Puffy ones.
I feel that way every time I see Trump on TV.
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HealthierMeforlife2016 wrote: »I didn't mean to start a fight I was just wondering because my doctor said to eat clean and was trying to see if anyone else does for ideas. Again sorry.
Nothing to apologize for. "Clean eating" is one of those buzzwords that has been overused and so it gets a stronger negative reaction.
There is a certain amount of "one true faithism" when it comes to diet and nutrition, and sometimes people who favor one type of eating get all fired up and want to preach to others about its virtues--even though there is little science behind it.
And, the way some describe it, "clean eating" is an example of the misguided notion that a specific "diet" can lead to weight loss, independent of calorie intake.
Not knowing any of this, you asked a perfectly legitimate question.
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