Clean Eating: no processed/refined foods, no high sugar/fat foods, or no foods with dirt on them?

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    glassyo wrote: »
    RAinWA wrote: »
    rsclause wrote: »
    I saw a few posts to the effect "what difference does it make if I make it at home or buy it in a box with the same ingredients." When I think of bad or not clean and yes I dislike the term "clean eating" I am not talking about where the ingredient comes from. If I buy white bread at the store or bake it at home both will likely contain highly processed flour. The processed flour has literally everything that was good for us striped out. The perimeter of the store thing is a generalization thing and we should all be able to understand the intended meaning. Now that I have improved the types of food I eat I often peek into others carts and see the 4 two liter bottles of coke, 2 boxes of eggos frozen waffles, bags of chips, frozen fries in the electric cart that is used because it is too difficult to walk. I was never that bad but I did eat some crap back in the day. We are all free to call a way of eating clean or dirty if it makes us feel good. I just try to make healthy choices for me and my loved ones. It's funny how this happens as I age a bit. One of my old favs was a large chilli cheese-A-plenty. It is two cheese burgers on a bun with chilli on it and completely buried beneath onion rings and french fries. I washed it down with sweet iced tea. I cannot believe I would crave that mess.

    Someone wiser than me once said that trying to make sense out of life was like being given one random sentence from a novel and trying to determine the plot.

    You peek in a total stranger's shopping cart once and assume that you're looking at their typical diet. You don't know:
    • Who's been invited to a potluck and asked to supply drinks or snack food. Or is doing a birthday party for their kid and feels it more important to compromise normal dietary standards for one day and serve what's served at the other parties, rather than—or alongside—the less-processed treats, rather than have their kid singled out for being weird/different.
    • Who is living with chronic pain and some days, just doesn't have the energy to cook a meal from scratch. And sometimes, there are enough of those days that they've run out of the stuff they cooked ahead and froze, so they make sure that there's something in the freezer that they can pop in at the end of a long day, even if they didn't make it themselves.
    • Who was asked to pick something up for a friend or family member, "since you're going to the store anyway".
    • Who's watching what they eat, but still wants the occasional comfort food to snack on and, upon returning home, will measure out those bags of chips into 1-oz baggies and enjoy a small serving whenever. Or just feels like having Eggos for the first time in years.

    Just because a person shops a certain way one day doesn't mean they shop that way every day. And if they do? So what?

    Or someone with a chronic illness that's on a highly restricted diet and who is severely underweight who is trying to eat whatever they can tolerate to get calories in. I'm that person. I have gastroparesis and I'm low fiber/low-moderate fat and have trouble getting in more that 500-800 calories a day. I'm also 5'8 105.3 bmi 16.0 so hell yah my cart has juice, white carbs, sometimes pop and very little to no vegetables , fruits or meats. Eating something is better than eating nothing. Gotta love the judgy mcjudgypants.

    I just find it kind of creepy that anyone is paying attention to and judging what's in someone else's cart. I've never even noticed (well, except the guy in front of me the other day who had an entire cart of nothing but produce because he was doing a "cleanse" and was telling everyone how great he was going to feel. Yeah, I admit to judging him!).

    I judge the judgers. It's none of their damned business what's in another person's cart. How does it affect them in the slightest?

    I go to several different markets for specific things...I tend to buy the healthy, refrigerated/frozen stuff at the one I go to close to my apartment every week. In fact, one of the cashiers commented on how I eat so healthy and I'm like, "Dude, you should see my inventory of cookies and chocolate and crackers. :)"

    Stay in your own lane, judgers.

    (Having said that, I do like to see the combination of foods some people buy and wonder how in the heck they go together.)

    Yeah, before it sadly closed, I used to get most of my fruits and veggies at a place down the street that specialized in that and when at the supermarket judged my own cart for the lack thereof :lol:

    I think it's human nature to look and form impressions though.

    This summer I've gotten so many vegetables from my CSA box that I've not had to buy much fresh produce aside from onions and garlic at the grocery store. Anyone peeking into my regular grocery cart would have to conclude that I'm not eating any vegetables.

    My sister did a fruit CSA one year and really loved it. I might check that out next year. Mom and I grow our most-consumed veggies so that's probably not a good choice for us. Mom has a hilariously hard time getting rid of cucumbers. I should have taken pictures. Much hilarity ensues at the size of the cucumbers now that she has added English style to the mix.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    glassyo wrote: »
    RAinWA wrote: »
    rsclause wrote: »
    I saw a few posts to the effect "what difference does it make if I make it at home or buy it in a box with the same ingredients." When I think of bad or not clean and yes I dislike the term "clean eating" I am not talking about where the ingredient comes from. If I buy white bread at the store or bake it at home both will likely contain highly processed flour. The processed flour has literally everything that was good for us striped out. The perimeter of the store thing is a generalization thing and we should all be able to understand the intended meaning. Now that I have improved the types of food I eat I often peek into others carts and see the 4 two liter bottles of coke, 2 boxes of eggos frozen waffles, bags of chips, frozen fries in the electric cart that is used because it is too difficult to walk. I was never that bad but I did eat some crap back in the day. We are all free to call a way of eating clean or dirty if it makes us feel good. I just try to make healthy choices for me and my loved ones. It's funny how this happens as I age a bit. One of my old favs was a large chilli cheese-A-plenty. It is two cheese burgers on a bun with chilli on it and completely buried beneath onion rings and french fries. I washed it down with sweet iced tea. I cannot believe I would crave that mess.

    Someone wiser than me once said that trying to make sense out of life was like being given one random sentence from a novel and trying to determine the plot.

    You peek in a total stranger's shopping cart once and assume that you're looking at their typical diet. You don't know:
    • Who's been invited to a potluck and asked to supply drinks or snack food. Or is doing a birthday party for their kid and feels it more important to compromise normal dietary standards for one day and serve what's served at the other parties, rather than—or alongside—the less-processed treats, rather than have their kid singled out for being weird/different.
    • Who is living with chronic pain and some days, just doesn't have the energy to cook a meal from scratch. And sometimes, there are enough of those days that they've run out of the stuff they cooked ahead and froze, so they make sure that there's something in the freezer that they can pop in at the end of a long day, even if they didn't make it themselves.
    • Who was asked to pick something up for a friend or family member, "since you're going to the store anyway".
    • Who's watching what they eat, but still wants the occasional comfort food to snack on and, upon returning home, will measure out those bags of chips into 1-oz baggies and enjoy a small serving whenever. Or just feels like having Eggos for the first time in years.

    Just because a person shops a certain way one day doesn't mean they shop that way every day. And if they do? So what?

    Or someone with a chronic illness that's on a highly restricted diet and who is severely underweight who is trying to eat whatever they can tolerate to get calories in. I'm that person. I have gastroparesis and I'm low fiber/low-moderate fat and have trouble getting in more that 500-800 calories a day. I'm also 5'8 105.3 bmi 16.0 so hell yah my cart has juice, white carbs, sometimes pop and very little to no vegetables , fruits or meats. Eating something is better than eating nothing. Gotta love the judgy mcjudgypants.

    I just find it kind of creepy that anyone is paying attention to and judging what's in someone else's cart. I've never even noticed (well, except the guy in front of me the other day who had an entire cart of nothing but produce because he was doing a "cleanse" and was telling everyone how great he was going to feel. Yeah, I admit to judging him!).

    I judge the judgers. It's none of their damned business what's in another person's cart. How does it affect them in the slightest?

    I go to several different markets for specific things...I tend to buy the healthy, refrigerated/frozen stuff at the one I go to close to my apartment every week. In fact, one of the cashiers commented on how I eat so healthy and I'm like, "Dude, you should see my inventory of cookies and chocolate and crackers. :)"

    Stay in your own lane, judgers.

    (Having said that, I do like to see the combination of foods some people buy and wonder how in the heck they go together.)

    Yeah, before it sadly closed, I used to get most of my fruits and veggies at a place down the street that specialized in that and when at the supermarket judged my own cart for the lack thereof :lol:

    I think it's human nature to look and form impressions though.

    This summer I've gotten so many vegetables from my CSA box that I've not had to buy much fresh produce aside from onions and garlic at the grocery store. Anyone peeking into my regular grocery cart would have to conclude that I'm not eating any vegetables.

    My sister did a fruit CSA one year and really loved it. I might check that out next year. Mom and I grow our most-consumed veggies so that's probably not a good choice for us. Mom has a hilariously hard time getting rid of cucumbers. I should have taken pictures. Much hilarity ensues at the size of the cucumbers now that she has added English style to the mix.

    Oh, a fruit CSA sounds amazing! I don't think my farm grows enough fruit to offer that, but I've had lots of cantaloupe and apples mixed in with my vegetables so far this year. One week I had pears, that was a real treat.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    When I go to the beer/wine/liquor store people routinely ask if they can follow me home. See, I can be judged too.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    msdunny wrote: »
    Rather than ‘clean eating’ I prefer saying I eat ‘whole foods’. Minimal processing, 5 or fewer ingredients that I can pronounce and know how to find them on my own. It isn’t about status for me. My mother and grandfather died of liver disease, which i believe was caused by unhealthy eating. I am trying to eat as healthy and whole as possible. I shop around the edges of the store and read every ingredient list.

    That's where the beer and wine is in my grocery store!
  • msdunny
    msdunny Posts: 12 Member
    msdunny wrote: »
    Rather than ‘clean eating’ I prefer saying I eat ‘whole foods’. Minimal processing, 5 or fewer ingredients that I can pronounce and know how to find them on my own. It isn’t about status for me. My mother and grandfather died of liver disease, which i believe was caused by unhealthy eating. I am trying to eat as healthy and whole as possible. I shop around the edges of the store and read every ingredient list.

    That's where the beer and wine is in my grocery store!

    Mine too, and I stock up!! 🍺🍷

  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    rsclause wrote: »
    I manage the bar for our small local sports club - because i shop separately to my own grocery shopping on a separate account - I sometimes have supermarket cart full of nothing but 50 chocolate bars,10 bags of crisps, few cartons of soda.
    and if anyone if is following me, my next step is the liquor store where I buy few bottles of wine and several cartons of beer and mixed spirit drinks

    Gosh I hope any Judgy Pants don't think that is my diet for the week :o

    I always laugh at the judgey pants eyeing the stuff in everyone else's carts at the checkout. I especially love the ones who have all the organic and woo-filled derp crap in their cart and then visibly sneer at the mom with 3 kids and a box of Froot Loops in hers. :D

    I get it, with kids its a whole different ballgame but what I fed my kids then vs what i would like to do now is miles apart. I can only imagine the look on my grand kids faces when I announce we are eating clean this week.

    ***Que the grandkids "cleaning" the food with dishsoap***
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    VUA21 wrote: »
    VUA21 wrote: »
    ????5-second rule????
    :D

    If you can brush most of the dirt off; and nothing's damp or wiggling, it's probably fine.

    Couldn't the wiggling be considered an, all-natural, organic source of protien???? 😋

    https://rove.me/to/south-africa/roasted-termites
  • Evelyn_Gorfram
    Evelyn_Gorfram Posts: 706 Member
    edited September 2018
    rsclause wrote: »
    ...It is kind of like "Clean Eating" it is a generalization. It means something different to each person. It cannot be defined.
    Thank you. I am the OP, and this has finally answered the question that led to my posting this thread.

  • Evelyn_Gorfram
    Evelyn_Gorfram Posts: 706 Member
    VUA21 wrote: »
    VUA21 wrote: »
    ????5-second rule????
    :D

    If you can brush most of the dirt off; and nothing's damp or wiggling, it's probably fine.

    Couldn't the wiggling be considered an, all-natural, organic source of protien???? 😋

    https://rove.me/to/south-africa/roasted-termites
    :)

    This made me think of the recipe, in one of my books on composting, for "Vermicelli with Real 'Verms.'"

  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    VUA21 wrote: »
    VUA21 wrote: »
    ????5-second rule????
    :D

    If you can brush most of the dirt off; and nothing's damp or wiggling, it's probably fine.

    Couldn't the wiggling be considered an, all-natural, organic source of protien???? 😋

    https://rove.me/to/south-africa/roasted-termites
    :)

    This made me think of the recipe, in one of my books on composting, for "Vermicelli with Real 'Verms.'"

    My cousin, raised in east Dallas, married into Africa and lived her career in Kenya. Her daughter grew up and became a doctor working in lonely west Texas. One day on facebook the doctor posted a picture of roasted termites with a note longing for her mother's home cooking. Termites? Home cooking from my mother's generation was anything they could hook, shoot, or road-kill.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    rsclause wrote: »
    Whether they were in front or behind you, same thing applies - I'm sure sunfastrose just gave pondering how quickly you will move through checkout as a random possibility. I gave a few more in my post

    odds are they were not comparing your trolley contents - that is just your perception.
    Clouded by fact you do that to other people's carts

    It was an anecdotal comment. He looked at his items on the belt, then looked at mine and glanced at me. He looked back at his and gave an slight shoulder shrug. It is a story about how I perceived the brief exchange. It is quite possible that he gave that look because he just crapped himself.

    Come on people I explain that I see what others place in their cart and it is like I am looking in their windows to some of you. "Its none of my business" yes I get it but when you see someone dressed inappropriately you notice don't you? Well its none of your business. It is just a random observation and nothing more. This exercise in going to the literal extreme is ridiculous. The phrase "shop the perimeter of the store" is a generalization that causes multiple people to say well I saw car wash or drain cleaner there so should I eat that? I relate a simple story and I get its none of my business (huh I didn't get the camera out and interview the event) or I am not a mind reader. Its a story not a deposition in a murder trail.

    It is kind of like "Clean Eating" it is a generalization. It means something different to each person. It cannot be defined. Yet here we are on page 6 of it again.

    Yes it is a story about how your perceived the breif exchange - exactly what I said.

    It is just your perception. You are not a mind reader and you do not know what he was pondering.
    Odds on he wasnt pondering how superior your choices were, as you seem to think

    Just like you do not know anything about the people whose carts you peep into ( your words) to make yourself feel superior.

    I gave the real life example of myself with a cart filled with chocolates, crisps, crates of soda and crates of alcohol - you could randomly observe that and you would have no idea of the story behind it.


    I don't know anything about people whose carts I observe (not peek) ? I beg to differ. I can see they are obese, I can see they having trouble walking, I can speculate they are or becoming insulin resistant and lastly I can see they are eating sugar and carb in a very high percentage of their diet. But that is just my mind reading power going off the rails. They are more likely be on their way to the gym after they drop off all the junk food at the food bank right before stocking up at the farmers market.

    I have gone down this road farther than I should have. Sorry if I have offended anyone as that is not my intention. I was just chit chatting about something that was what I thought was related to Clean Eating all be it remotely. I will wander back to the Keto groups where we are all superior together...I kidd, I kidd.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    rsclause wrote: »
    ...It is kind of like "Clean Eating" it is a generalization. It means something different to each person. It cannot be defined.
    Thank you. I am the OP, and this has finally answered the question that led to my posting this thread.

    It's been a long, strange trip, hasn't it? :lol:
This discussion has been closed.