Should you be “Eating Clean”?

[Nick Theodorakis]

"Drink at least 2 liters, or 8 cups, of water each day. This is unfounded advice. There’s no persuasive evidence to demonstrate that we need to consume that much water each day. It’s such a pervasive urban myth that there’s even a Snopes page on the statement. Water may be supplied in beverages but also in food. Thirst is a acceptable guide – there’s no reason to force fluid consumption."

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/...an/#more-24496

[Dasla]

Before I comment I just had to Quote this for the other Aussies here.

Root vegetables “help us feel longer and ‘rooted’".

Ha Ha Ha Ha, thats not always a good thing. As explained before, Australia "root" is slang for sex. But to be "rooted" can also mean to be really really tired.

Over christmas Mum and I read an article in a health magazine about a young couple of school teachers who tried the "Clean Eating" thing. They went from eating almost no vegies, lot's of takeaway and grabbing meals when they could to a "clean diet" and surprise surprise, they lost weight and felt better. Dad and I made many of the arguments made in the article, ie is was good they were eating healthy and that would have helped but they didn't have to be so strict.

We also said that two people doing it themself and feeling better was proof of nothing (as Dad said "It's not scientific" ) Mum reply "Well look at them" (there was a photo in the article) "Look how good they look" The photo in question was a postage stamp sized photo of them standing side on, taken from quite a distant away. If they were your best friends you wouldn't have been sure of recognising them. Their was also no "before" photo. Sometimes you just have to give up on an arguement.

[quink]

My husband and I eat mostly clean, if you define that as limited processed foods and trying to cook/make/eat things ourselves (or buying from places that do the same). We try to buy local and higher quality when we can (which isn't always possible when you live in the Canadian prairies). There aren't any groups we cut out, but we do try to stick to whole grains and limit the sodium and added sugar. It's not hard and fast, though. We still eat out occasionally and buy a few packaged things from the grocery store for convenience, but over time that ratio has shifted. We used to fill up a cart when we did Costco trips, and now we usually only have a couple food items in with the cleaning products and other non-food. This wasn't a magic diet or anything like that, though, it's just where we're at after 2+ years of making small dietary improvements.

I track most of the foods I eat, even though I'm not trying to lose weight, and replace, drop or limit the ones that don't fit in nutritionally with how I want to normally eat. Sodium is the big one for me. Aside from taste, that's the biggest difference I've seen between processed foods and doing it ourselves from base ingredients. It's not all low fat or 'diet', either. The salad dressing we make is much heftier than a low cal version you could buy at a grocery store, but I prefer the taste and I like that it has 4-5 simple ingredients. I make my own granola, which is a high calorie snack, but I know exactly what goes in it. For me, it was about getting over my laziness with cooking and food. Part of the reason I gained a lot of weight in my 20's is because I hated food and went for the easiest meals possible (usually fast food or something boxed and microwavable). Forcing myself to look for alternatives and figure out how to make it myself - and possibly make it healthier - taught me a lot about eating. We've just carried on with that, and that's where it's led us. Eventually, I'd love to be able to do meals like my in-laws, where everything on the plate has been grown in the back yard at some point of the year.

This is something I'm really interested in right now, because I've just started marathon training and I'm experimenting a bit with my diet while I'm still in the easy part of it. I'm going to need to eat a lot more than my usual calorie intake in the next few months, so I'm trying to work out how to do that in a high quality way instead of just making up the difference in cookies like I've done for my last few races. That means I'm doing more studying and trying some stuff that's out of my comfort zone while still trying to avoid faddish stuff and supplements like protein powder for as long as I can. It's a challenging puzzle. I'm really trying to understand, though, rather than following some plan, because this has to be about my body and what I need for my level of activity.

The article's main point seems to be that different people have claimed the 'clean eating' definition for different eating styles that range from reasonable to extreme. It's kind of like the 'healthy lifestyle' tag. I hate that phrase, even though it's one of the better ways to differentiate permanent dietary and fitness changes from temporary diets meant only for weight loss. It's been claimed by too many people, and when you see extremely restrictive or dangerous diets bill themselves as 'healthy lifestyle' choices, the phrase has lost it's meaning. The problem with a lot of good, basic dietary advice is that it gets mixed in with a lot of woo.

If I had to pick something to sum things up for how I personally want to eat, I like the way Michael Pollan does it: "“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." How often I eat, how much water I drink (more than 8 cups a day, but that's because I like it and don't drink any other fluids), when I eat, what I limit and what macronutrients I focus on is based on my own results and body.