What’s up with this “clean” food I keep hearing about?
I hear it everywhere: people bragging about eating clean.
If you don’t believe me, just Google it, and voila:
“10 Ways to Eat Clean”
“23 Ways To Eat Clean” [are 23 always better than 10?]
“Eating Clean For Dummies Cheat Sheet
“Clean Eating 101” [I assume that’s a more advanced course than clean eating for dummies]
“10 Clean Eating Recipes for Weeknights” [a bit less fancy than clean eating recipes for those very special weekends?
And so forth.
Cynthia Sass at CNN has helpfully provided a cheat sheet for us dummies who don’t even know what clean eating is, although so far most of us have somehow managed to refrain from using dirt instead of flour to dredge our food. From Sass:
Today,…clean eating, or eating clean, is a major movement, spurred by people from all walks of life who want to feel good about what they’re putting in their bodies.
When I asked via Twitter, “What does clean eating mean to you?” I received a variety of replies, from simply “eating fresh fruits and veggies,” to “not eating anything artificial.”
Aha! So it’s a way to say that you’re self-righteous about what you eat, and you can define the good in any way you want. Works for me.
I guess you might say I eat pretty clean, except when I eat very very dirty. When I fall off the wagon and into the gutter, I fall hard.
But not dirty like this. I obey the 3-second rule:
This year’s chipotle. Those who boost the concept of “clean eating” can just eat sh*t.
New Sumptuary Laws. Look it up.
Just the latest in a long line of trendy bullshit, thought up by people who would just love to dictate and control every aspect of your life, and try to do so by scaring you and/or convincing you that only by following their advice will you become more safe/healthier/more “with it” and cool.
P.S.–The equivalent of those hip/trendy red string Kabballah talismans to ward off the “evil eye” that all the Hollywood “stars”/lemmings were wearing a little while ago.
Just another vapid form of sanctimony.
Pingback:What's up with this “clean†food I keep hearing about? – Neo-Neocon | Know What You Eat
Confucius say: “Those who eat clean sit in own pew.”
” . . . self-righteous about what you eat.”
And most of them are politically on the left!
I had one co-worker who was very much like that. He was in everyone’s face about their eating habits, priding himself on eating better. He would bring in his own lunch (nothing wrong with that); but, it had to all be “organic” and “whole.”
One day he was rinsing his organic lettuce in the men’s room. Ha! time for revenge I thought! I gave him a hard time about using “bathroom” water to rinse his lettuce, not to mention the fecal matter that was naturally floating in the air in an office restroom from all those toilet flushes.
Okay, I felt a little guilty when the next day he brought in bottled water (yes, bottled water) to rinse his organic lettuce – that’s how much he took what I was just kidding him about to heart.
That’s when I realized that for some folks eating has become something to obsess about; and it isn’t just the bulimic and anorexic folks with this kind of problem.
Rather than being annoyed by them I now feel sorry for them.
That’s a good one V, but you know it hurt to leave out that “h.”
I’m a dog. A dog. I’ve eaten meat that’s been raw in the fridge for three weeks. I’d toss lettuce if it hit the floor in a heartbeat, but a good piece of meat? Especially if it was fatty like a nice corned beef? No way. Chomp.
And I’m nothing. My farm grandpa ate brains, tongue, liver, marrow, and everything. Chicken feet? You bet, along with gizzards and curds. So, I guess he was clean. Ultra clean. I doubt if he ever ate anything bought from the store unless it was candy.
It IS trendy BS and it’s not. Eating clean means eliminating the eight most common food allergies from your diet; eggs, dairy, soy, wheat, shell fish, peanuts, tree nuts and fish.
I was forced to eat “clean” for a year because I developed food intolerances. And some stablizers like carrageenan tore my insides up for days. People with GI problems like crohns ir IB usually start eating clean which often helps the problems go into remission.
Thanks to the internet there’s a whole community of GI disorder sufferers and nutritionists swapping recipes and helping each other get their problem under control. i wonder if this is where the chefs picked up the next big thing.
I have about gotten my problems worked out but I will probably never be able to go back to eating like I used to. And it’s okay because there are still a lot of delicious things to eat and substitutes for everything. No good substitute for gluten though.
Yeah, eliminate the “common” allergens whether you’re allergic. Or Not.
Reason is wasted on these people.They pick up nutty ideas off the Internet because, uhh you know only sane people, people helping people, use it.
Did you eat pure carrageenan, Thelma? Do you understand isolating the variables? Do you have a clue about cellular vs. humoral immunity, to use old lingo which has been around for decades? Eating “clean” puts Crohn’s into remission? How, exactly? (the answer oughta be good)
Sheesh. These people don’t trust doctors because they just “know better”. They don’t like to take pills. What? Like? What’s to like? Shut up and take them.
And 90% vote liberal.
My diet today was completely clean… except for the potato chip that fell on the floor which I picked up and ate anyway.
Speaking of sumptuary laws:
“In Distar Lane, on the North side thereof, is the Cordwainers or Shoemaker’s Hall, which company were made a brotherhood or fraternity in the 11th of Henry IV.
Of these Cordwayners I read, that since the fifth of Richard II (when he took to wife Anne, daughter to Veselaus, King of Boheme), by her example the English people had used piked shoes, tied to their knees with silken laces, or chains of silver or gilt, wherefore in the fourth of Edward IV it was ordained and proclaimed, that beaks of shoone and boots, should not pass the length of two inches, upon pain of cursing by the clergy, and by Parliament to pay 20 shillings for every pair. And every cordwainer that shod any man or woman on the Sunday, to pay 30 shillings.”
John Stowe, 1598
How to eat clean in two steps:
1. Don’t drop your food in the dirt.
2. If you do drop it in the dirt, brush it off before eating it.
Beverly…
That bespeaks of a foot and leather fetish…
I suspect that they were worn in the fashion of tap shoes… that is they were fundamentally dance shoes. (Or perhaps, riding gear before the wholesale adoption of the stirrup.)
Gilt in this instance means golden — as in woven gold… or some such costume.
(Cordwayners = cord winders = crafters of gilt cordages)
Such a tax would stand epic in the era — when a shilling went very, very far.
Somehow shamanic ritual gleams through the account. A (stomping )Celtic version of whirling Dervishes. (Stomping out evil?)
I’d love to see some pictures of same.
Perhaps the primal notion is of an anal retentive character: if what you eat is CLEAN — then whatever happens subsequently must also be fit for Gaia.
How is it that EVERY ‘new’ nostrum bounced forth by the Left is neo-paganistic?
We’re back to tree worship, (huggers, anyone? ) ice worship… (AGW is ice worship, is it not? ) (How Nordic can you get? )
New Yorkers have fused the monastic life with Broadway: one can be holier-than-thou AND be artistically expressive — within the norms of style and politics. (PC as an art form… embellishment becomes all. ) (double entendre alert)
This latter phenomena may largely explain ‘absurdity creep.’
Too much PC is NEVER enough. Morphing (like the Blob) until its acolytes collapse into another meta-stable state. (take a chill pill)
&&&
One is always at hazard when anything can enter the bowl of ones pipe dreams.
Choking and hacking may only be one drag away.
But, the draw of the perfectionist high — such a rush!
Philosophers of old used to debate the meaning of life, or man’s relationship to God.
Not so today. Now, we define our character by what we eat.
Soon, I expect liberals to start picking through their own shit looking for portents.
Never have so many felt so good about knowing so little. Pathetic.
Don Carlos, I think you’re reading way more into my comment than is there.
When my symptoms started to snowball (dizzy spells, fluid in my ears, fatigue, chronic water retention, foot pain, severe seasonal allergies, joint pain, muscle pain) i finally went several fully accredited medical doctors to sort out the problem.
It was the allergy doc had me go on the elimination diet which is where eating clean first came into the picture. You eliminate all the eight most common allergens for about three weeks and then reintroduce. After your system has had a chance to settle down then you try one of the eight at a time and see how your system reacts. That’s how you find out which of the eight (responsible for 90% of food related problems) are causing problems for your system.
It is the medical professionals who will tell you that the elimination diet is the gold standard (and not the ELISA IgG antibody blood test) in figuring out what foods are a problem for your system. And it’s the medical professionals who diagnosed me as intolerant to wheat and soy as opposed to allergic, largely based on eliminating the possibility of an IgE allergy.
After diagnosing me, my doc sent me on my way suggesting that I stay off wheat and soy for three or four months and then start a rotation diet which is a modified version of the eating clean diet. He also told me it is up to me to do the research manage and/or heal from my intolerances.
I saw remarkable improvement in all my symptoms in a matter of months following my docs advice, but I was not healed from my intolerances.
Most of the experts (nutritionists, doctors, healers) told me that if I wanted really wanted to heal, I would have to go ahead and strictly adhere to the clean diet for months and even years but I didn’t like the idea of eliminating all of the foods I loved. So, I continued on my own and continued not to heal.
And then I went ahead and started eating strictly clean for months and low and behold, my system started tolerating small amounts of wheat and soy again.
I’m not healed yet, but I will tell you that my experience in my “healing journey” really did mirror what the new age hippy dippy healers told me would take place. And they were right about the strict adherence to eating clean. And this is coming from a very, very conservative girl.
Pingback:Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup » Pirate's Cove
Thelma, DC is a doctor with an actual “degree” and awards. That’s why when he talks about not being listened to, it’s from the font of the Doctor Aristocracy.
When people think being smart means being credentialed and having social status as a doctor, they’re more libtard than the Left. Conservatives don’t make people smart or educated.
Sheesh. These people don’t trust doctors because they just “know better”. They don’t like to take pills. What? Like? What’s to like? Shut up and take them.
The Authority has spoken, better do as you are told. They got credentials and knowledge backing them up.
The difference between conservatives and non conservatives doesn’t matter. The only difference is whether people can force you to do things against your will, so then you don’t get a choice, suffer the consequences, and they get the government funding for making you do as you are told.
I’m sure DC must have gotten money from ObamaCare and never disclosed it by now.
Need I say that, looking at the news over, say, the last few decades, numerous things–eggs, butter, salt, sugar, wine, apples treated with ALAR, vaccinations, various chemicals, drugs, and medical procedures have been declared by various experts, studies, and organizations to be “bad” for you, only to be declared “good,” then to be declared “bad” again, over and over again.
The anti-vaccine movement has apparently resulted in the recent reappearance of various childhood diseases such as measles and whooping cough that had almost been wiped out.
But, the prime example of the real world, long term consequences of declaring one of these items to be “bad” is the banning of DDT, based largely on the furor/hysteria created by Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, “Silent Spring,” in which we were told–according to the link below, based on very shoddy “science” indeed–how DDT was a carcinogen affecting humans, the environment in general, plants and wildlife, and wiping out birds, particularly Bald Eagles (seehttp://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1259).
Gee, where else have we recently seen those on the Left pushing for massive public policy changes based on shoddy environmental science?
Now, as a result of that ban, we have an epidemic of pests formerly controlled by DDT like Bed Bugs and Mosquitoes and, in the case of Mosquitos, tens, perhaps cumulatively hundreds of millions of infected and/or dead African children, the elderly and others with compromised immune systems who contracted Malaria since the ban who would likely not have if DDT had been used to control Mosquito populations.
Then, of course, we have the newly emerging Mosquito borne diseases that, due to today’s increased travel and mobility, are starting to appear in the U.S. like West Nile virus and now extremely painful and debilitating Chikungunya, reportedly spreading up from the Caribbean.
Oh, yes, banning DDT was a great idea.
Thanks for your reasoned reply, Thelma. You have done your homework. I commend you, but I still have some reservations, e.g. blaming carrageenan, which as I understand it is not a major component of any factory food.
Wolla- No accident Silent Spring came out in 1962, is it?
Far be it from me to point out that all raptors have been Federally protected birds for a half-century now, making a living by eating other birds, quail among them. But who cares?
I commend you
The doctor pets the assistant on the head, good girl.
Just how incompetent are you, DC, when you’re incapable of explaining anything to reasonable satisfaction, except by relying on your Credentials to pave the way for you.
I will henceforth ignore you, Ymar, so you may as well ignore me. Won’t be reading you. Suggest you do likewise. Goodbye.
Heh. Doctor Class has heard and obeyed, or decreed and consigned.
Still hasn’t explained a damn thing about allergic whatcha call its and why motor control across the cerebellum and bottom and back aren’t considered in the centralized middle yet.
While I don’t like it when people agree with me (10% or 100%, but especially 100%), I also don’t like it when people disagree with me. But what I really hate are the credential Doctor Classes, Ruling Classes, DC Capital Fs, thinking they know what to ban, who to ban it for, and how to reshape human culture into a new Utopia.
What I really hate, and will never forgive, are those Academic Eggheads that think they will know what to ban, since banning DT was bad, but banning this other thing is Good. It’s Good. It hasn’t been tried yet, you’ll see.
What I value is only free will. Anyone that doesn’t have it, I consider an ant or zombie. It’s easy then.
RE: Malaria–From what I have read, by the early 1960s thanks to massive efforts at eradication using DDT, Malaria was finally on the wane all over the world, but subsequent to DDTs banning Malaria has reestablished itself and come roaring back.
Not only does Malaria often ultimately kill, but it debilitates those infected and makes their lives a hellish one.
So while we may all pat ourselves on the back that Bald Eagles are coming back–if indeed DDT had anything substantial to do with their breeding problems–other people all over the world, in their millions, paid a very steep price for our righteous satisfaction.
DDT did almost eradicate malaria in Africa, due to getting rid of mosquitoes.
Some Democrat or DC law, however, made it illegal to export or produce it. DDT must not have been manufactured by a Democrat dynasty thing. Tough nuts.
Don Carlos,
This thread is probably dead but Re: Carrageenan.
I have to check the label in everything i eat from the store because soy and even wheat is in practically everything processed. One day I got hit with moderate indigestion and went back to the rotisserie chicken i bought from BJs thinking I had missed a soy ingredient. No soy, but carrageenan an ingredient in the marinade caught my eye. i started researching.
Some background: Carrageenan is banned in baby formulas in Europe. Here in the US low molecular carrageenan is banned but high molecular is okay to use in food. You find it in dairy products, chocolates, etc. to keep the product from separating.
Carrageenan is known to cause inflammation in rats and researchers inject rats with carrageenan because tumors grow more readily in an inflammed environment.
I also found from some of the forums that celiacs and people with ulcerated colitis/crohns/IBS experience problems with carrageenan.
Carrageenan seems to hurt me worse than soy and whenever i get hit by a wall of sour stomach I suspect carrageenan and go back and look at labels of food I ate and sure enough.
My theory is that carrageenan probably doesn’t affect you if don’t have GI disorders. But if your system has been already been damaged or compromised by some disorder, then carrageenan has an opening to cause inflammation.
I’ll also say that there are a lot of people out there who have no idea that they have intolerances/delayed allergies. It took me years and years of niggling symptoms before I finally identified the problem. I suspect a lot of people are being affected by carrageenan but don’t realize it. I also question whether carrageenan is good for anyone, considering what it will do to people with GI disorders.
Perhaps the term “clean eating” or “eating clean” has taken on a certain amount of “trendiness,” but when I first heard of the term from this lady
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/19/health/tosca-reno-clean-eating/index.html
in an article in a fitness magazine, and around the same time her first book, I thought it just meant “cutting out the junk” and didn’t see anything self-righteous about it. Don’t understand the hate here. I’m guessing it comes from jealous flabbos, but I won’t mind read.
Thelma…
Carrageenan is basically an ORGANIC SOAP/ DETERGENT. (surfactant)
So, it’s hardly surprising that it irritates the bowels.
Functionally, it’s a low grade enema with every bite.
It rather reminds one of EDTA.
(EthyleneDiamineTetraacetic Acid)
Both have chelating chemistry.
(They can pivot and swing around single bonds)
I’d nix any usage of carrageenan — if I had my say.
&&&
For non-chemists: the ability of even trivial concentrations of soaps/ detergents/ surfactants to affect organic life is oft amazing.
The colon finds soaps — all of them — to be fantastically irritating/ stimulating. (and not in a good way)
Obviously, they are latching on to CONTROL RECEPTORS in the colon that throw open the gates… rather like soap in your eyes.
The body — at a genetic level — associates soaps with poisons.
In nature, carrageenan is probably produced as a predation repellent… it’s THAT powerful. I can’t think of any other purpose in the biology of (red) seaweed.
(BTW, surfactants are a universal threat to cell wall structures. It’s now concluded that the ultimate anti-bacterial agents will prove to be those that dissolve portions of a bacterial cell wall. What a chemist would describe as a surfactant effect. This is a step entirely different from the ‘cillins. )
Like tobacco, many, many of our manufactures are causing our maladies. The connection is not perceived because the connection is time-lagged.