Most of you will, by now, have heard of the words ‘eating clean’. But do you really understand the meaning? Is it a diet, a fad, a fashionable food trend or a way of living? The latter for me, to a certain extent. I have heard many criticisms and read many articles slating the words eating clean, and the ‘bad example’ people and influencers who lead this life are setting for younger people. There are healthy cafes and juice bars popping up on every street corner, your instagram feed is littered with dishes with hashtags like #cleanfood #paleo #rawfood attached to them. But what is it all about?
Clean food is food in its most natural form. Food that is less processed or not at all, and even better if the food is organic. It is also farm to fork philosophy, the idea that you know exactly where your food has come from and where it has been to get to your plate. But then, you may ask, the process of cooking, of even rolling oats so that they are no longer in their original state, is processing food, so it is no longer clean? This is true, albeit it is a minimal amount of processing. I suppose the rules to eating cleaning are somewhat flexible, the point is that the food is as less processed as possible. The aim is mainly to stay well away from overly processed or ultra-processed foods. Those that have taste enhancers like salt, refined sugars and artificial flavours that you do not need on your food. Getting back to basics and cooking from scratch, know what is going into your food.
A healthy body and mind is one of the perks to eating clean. As is weight management, which is why it is linked so heavily to fitness gurus, gym goers and weight loss promoters. You can somewhat understand the concern some writers and speculators have of this way of life having a bad influence on a younger generation. I can understand it, as with any fad diet or new way of living. Things such as juice cleansing where we ridiculously live off liquids for 3 days and deprive our bodies of macronutrients (the main nutrients we need for energy, growth and normal bodily functions) is just not sustainable. But clean living is not the same. And it is about just that, the message delivered to those younger people which is important. What is a better message than getting people to eat food that is good for them? Everyday I see agressive advertising coming from fast food giants and billion dollar beverage companies that are showing us the next new sugar laiden drink that promises zero calories. These are powerful and strong messages being delivered to young people everyday for foods that will make them very sick. Where is the article on that? Or are we ok with that? Isn’t it better that a young girl is being told by the same influencers that these people are worried about that #fitnotskinny or #strongnotskinny is beautiful? Isn’t it better that we are eating as well as possible and preparing our food from scratch, not putting overly processessed food that is making us sick into our bodies? What is so bad about that message for our kids?
Eating clean is about preparing food from scratch, not only that but using the right ingredients, ‘clean’ ingredients. You check every label in the supermarket. You check what is really in that cookie before you give it to your son. Obsessive? Not even enough. If someone handed you a packet of pills would you read the back of the packet before you took one or gave one to your child, or would you simply pop it in your mouth? Eating clean is about picking your carrots and your onions in your garden, or using your herbs on your balcony. It is about going to your local farmers market, choosing those ingredients and knowing where they came from. If you don’t know already you learn how to cook from scratch. You read recipes and methods in books and online. You try new spices, you try the wrong ones. You learn what works and what doesn’t. You try and you fail and you try again and you fail again, but then you succeed. From there you try new things, and it goes on from there. Eating clean teaches you to understand the food you eat.