What is Clean Eating?

Apparently there’s a fuzz on social media that is distorting what “clean eating” was originally intended to be.

As with everything, us humans will take things to extremes whenever possible. So now, there are people that won’t eat anything that has been canned, packaged, treated with pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics, in the name of “clean eating.”

There’s nothing wrong with that but it’s also unnecessarily restrictive.

So, what is clean eating?

Here’s how we understand clean eating, and the fundamentals of how it was conceived:

“A diet — or way of life — in which you eat mostly whole, organic foods, from natural sources, and in its natural state, as much as possible.”

That means:

➤ Leaving out refined sugars and flours (a check ✔ on all diets)

➤ Eating more vegetables and fruits (another check ✔ on most diets)

➤ Learning to read food labels to know what you’re putting into your body (simply a solid, sensible, good idea )

Also, we don’t live in the middle ages anymore. This means that… it can get complicated. For instance:

➤ There are some processes of canning foods that preserve all of its nutrients, so… not everything canned is "evil."

➤ If you’ve spent any time around a local farm, they’d tell you that giving antibiotics to cattle is extremely common and necessary to keep them healthy. (And, sure, there’s a line between normal “health care” for animals and routine antibiotics for “prevention” and even to promote growth. We don't want the latter.)

➤ About pesticides. Many degrade over time, and by the time food reaches your table, there’s none of those left. Also, all of the stronger pesticides are controlled so that no harmful amounts are left in foods. Besides, “Organic” foods also use pesticides… they just paid a premium for the certification.

So, as you can see, when “clean eating” is not worth it going by a given "creed."

Instead, go by common sense.

A good question to ask is:

“did mother nature create this?”

If the answer is “yes” it’s probably safe and a good idea to eat it.

If it’s “no” then think twice, check the labels, and go for a more natural approach.

Another tip for clean eating is shopping from local producers. The more direct “earth-to-table” the journey of a given food is, the "cleaner" it should be, plus, you'll be supporting your community ;)