When you think of clean eating you probably think it means eating more plants, less sugar, refined or otherwise, avoiding gluten, cutting down on carbs, and of course cutting out red meat & salt. Now that you have your idea of what you think it is let’s see what others think.
- Vegetarians: Animal meat.
- Vegans: All animal products.
- Bodybuilders: Milk, fruit, and white bread.
- Paleo: Grains, legumes, dairy, refined oils, added salt, sugar, alcohol, and some vegetables. Some eat dairy, while others refer to it as the liquid death. Some eat regular potatoes while others only eat tubers.
- USDA/United States Government: Saturated fat, cholesterol, red meat, eggs, trans-fats.
As you can see it’s purely subjective based on the person’s preference. There is no one perfect way to define the term. As such it creates an unhealthy relationship in your mind to food. I have noticed more than one person tell me they get sick or ill after eating an Oreo…WHY??
SO repeat after me… There are no bad or good foods.
Need more proof? Pizza is a great example. In most peoples mind pizza is bad. Not counting the processed ones… I do like Donato’s Hawaiian pizza (hmmm dinner)
Ingredients – Dough, cheese, lean meat, tomatoes, Oil
None of these ingredients alone are bad and they exist in most bodybuilder’s diets, but put them together and HOLY CRAP it just grew horns.
How foods CAN be detrimental:
- Creates an excess of kcal from eating it
- Too much of anything good can cause a nutrient deficiency
- Interfering with your body’s functions, causing/increasing risk of specific diseases, increasing fat or accelerating aging.
Stop labeling food as clean/dirty, good/bad and understand that it is just food. The next time you want the pizza, banana split, doughnut go ahead and have it, just make sure you know what is in it to the best of your ability and don’t freak out because your unable to find out just how many macros of sugar or fat it has.
Now that I have eased your mind and you don’t feel like you will be chained to the typical diet shackles lets discuss how to help you achieve your goals.
I can ask 100 people and they will all give me a different definition for what they think constitutes good nutrition. Despite the foods they approve and disapprove of they underlying concept is the same. At APP we define good nutrition as:
1) It helps to properly control energy balance
2) It provides good nutrient density
3) It helps to achieve health, body composition and performance goals
4) It is honest and outcome based
What about the other groups:
Vegetarians: Animal meat.
Vegans: All animal products.
Bodybuilders: Milk, fruit, and white bread.
Paleo: Grains, legumes, dairy, refined oils, added salt, sugar, alcohol, and some vegetables. Some eat dairy, while others refer to it as the liquid death. Some eat regular potatoes while others only eat tubers.
USDA/United States Government: Saturated fat, cholesterol, red meat, eggs, trans-fats.
Im not even counting the religons that have their own concepts.
SO repeat after me….. There are no bad or good foods.
– I posted the pizza as a great example. In most peoples mind pizza is bad. Not counting the processed ones… I do like Donatos Hawaiin pizza (hmmm dinner)
–
– Ingredients – Dough, cheese, lean meat, tomatoes, Oil
–
– None of these ingredients alone are bad and they exist in most bodybuilders diets, but put them together and HOLY CRAP it just grew horns.
–
– How foods can be detrimental:
–
– 1) Creates an excess of kcal from eating it
–
– 2) Too much of anything good can cause a nutrient deficiency
–
– 3) Interfering with your body’s functions, causing/increasing risk of specific diseases, increasing fat or accelerating aging.
–
– Stop labeling food as clean/dirty, good/bad and understand that it is just food. The next time you want the pizza, banana split, doughnut go have it, just make sure you know what is in it to the best of your ability and dont freak out because your unable to find just how many macros of sugar or fat it has.
For the lurkers, here’s a little 101, just the tip of the iceberg:
1) Smaller, more frequent meals do not speed metabolism compared to the same total calories & macros consumed in larger, less frequent meals. Objective research has shown this repeatedly in tightly controlled, opinion-free conditions:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11319656
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1905998
2) Smaller, more frequent meals are not reliably more effective than larger, less frequent meals when it comes to controlling appetite and blood sugar. Again, don’t take my word for it, look at the scientific evidence:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22719910
3) “Clean” is a misleading term. It’s what launched the fat-free, cholesterol/sat-fat-phobia that plagued the 80’s & 90’s & actually contributed to the horrendous prevalence of beetus & obesity today. There are still bodybuilders who avoid perfectly nutritious foods that they feel are not “clean” enough, yet they’re fine with downing a glowing-green proprietary blend of stims that’s chock-full of human-engineered ingredients, then slamming an empty-calorie carb supp after training. The irony is exquisite… Here’s my article on clean eating – please give it a read. This topic can’t be summed up in a soundbite.http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-an…/the-dirt-on-clean-eating/
– Alan AragonCompared with nibbling, neithe… [Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2001] – PubMed – NCBIPubMed comprises more than 23 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV|BY TAYLOR MA AND GARROW JSExcerpt from here