Has “clean eating” lost it’s way?

What does “clean eating” even mean anymore?

Previously a wellness buzz-phrase and health blogger hashtag, we’ve talked about the whole clean eating thing before.

But as more and more brands, ‘grammers and celebs have jumped on the bandwagon, there now seems to be a growing backlash against the trend.

For some, #cleaneating is seen as a smug and elitist stereotype that’s lost its healthy way (particularly in Instagram land). Others have gone even further to suggest the idea could actually be detrimental to our health. So, have we reached peak #clean?

Is clean eating really all that clean anyway?

One issue with clean eating is its tendency to focus on obscure (and expensive!) “superfoods”. To us, eating “clean” means eating our veg, proteins and healthy fats whole and un-mucked with, not grounded down with the latest magical moondust and flogged for a fortune at the health food store!

(And don’t get us started on #cleaneating’s obsession with raw desserts with honey, agave and dried fruit. They really aren’t as good for you as any Instagram filter would have you believe.)

As Sarah says, the term clean eating is a misnomer, “used to describe meat-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, date/almond milk/cashew/raw greens-saturated foods and the like. Instead of plain and simple real food, cooked at home, using basic ingredients in sustainable, economical ways.”

The psychology of clean eating.

Another major issue is the whole “clean” vs “dirty” binary the idea sets up. Describing foods in this way can create some unhealthy associations around eating.

That’s because we tend to moralise our food a lot more than we realise. So, when we’re eating so-called “clean” foods, we can actually see ourselves as “clean” and “pure”. Same goes for when we’re eating foods deemed “dirty”, which has the potential to perpetuate serious body image issues and even eating disorders.

Real clean eating shouldn’t need a hashtag.

At the end of the day, we’d just prefer skip labels altogether and focus on eating nutrient dense, uncomplicated whole foods.

This also means cutting out processed crap and keeping the sweet stuff to a minimum (that includes you, date-filled desserts).

Some people might call this “clean eating”, we call it eating real food!

What do you think of the phrase “clean eating”?

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