Search Weight Loss Topics:

Home » Diets that Work » Eating Clean Won’t Solve Any of Your Problems – Lifehacker Australia

Nobody brags about eating junk. A healthy diet includes veggies and eschews too much sugar, and if you eat that way, you can feel satisfied that you are eating clean. But you know what? Eating clean is a trap.

Sure, it feels good to eat a clean meal or two. Nevermind that theres no consistent definition of clean. I liked the word when I first heard it, because I took it to mean unprocessed foods (fresh vegetables, home-cooked meals) and it wasnt wedded to any particular theory, like eating low-carb or low-fat. But the same vagueness that was once its appeal has been co-opted. Now anything can be clean if its sold by someone standing on a beach looking gorgeous.

This was probably inevitable. For years weve heard that diets dont work; what you need to be healthy is a lifestyle change. So, breed that mostly sensible concept with our modern craze for the all-around enviable lifestyle, and what you get is an influencer (Instagrammer, movie star, supplement huckster, et. al.) who can paint you a picture of the amazing person you will be if you eat what they eat.

Gwyneth Paltrow used to be best known as an actress, but in the last decade shes built an even

Heres how the appeal works: each guru presents a simple idea held up by a scaffolding of half truths and cherry picked data. Debunk one small pillar, and the others still stand. Nobody has time to debunk them all, and if you try, you look like a killjoy. But from a distance, that one big idea looks like a beacon of clarity in a confusing world.

Here are some examples: You just need to eat nothing but vegetables. Or avoid most vegetables. Or cut out gluten. Or eliminate dairy, grains, and sugar.

The Whole30 diet declares swaths of food off-limits, and sets up ironclad rules about the little

These arent variations on one basic idea of healthy eating; theyre each a different gimmick masquerading as common sense. Bee Wilson writes in The Guardian that weve been snookered by a dream of purity in a toxic world and [w]e are so unmoored that we will put our faith in any master who promises us that we, too, can become pure and good.

This fantasy backfires, though, when we look at the foods and diets and people who dont qualify as clean. Does that mean that other foods, and the people who eat them, are dirty? Its not like quinoa is that different from rice, or sweet potatoes are that different from regular potatoes. Coconut sugar is far more expensive than regular sugar, as Wilson points out, but nutritionally almost identical.

The same goes for processed food. Its not as if processing is inherently bad. (Cooking is a form of processing, after all). Twinkies, for example, arent unclean. Theyre just high in sugar and low in a lot of healthy nutrients, so it makes sense not to eat too many of them.

Picture a wholesome meal: lots of veggies, maybe some pastured meat or free-range eggs, lovingly

Without the halo of clean eating, were back to evaluating foods on their merits, and figuring out whether they fit into the diet that makes sense for each of us. Sorry if thats less romantic.

See the article here:
Eating Clean Won't Solve Any of Your Problems - Lifehacker Australia

Your Full Name
Your Email
Your Phone Number
Select your age (30+ only)	30313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120
Select Your US State	Select Your StateAlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWashington,DCWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
Program Choice	Select Your ProgramInjectable HGHInjectable TestoteroneInjectable SermorelinInjectable Weight LossInjectable HCG DietInjectable Vitamins
Confirm over 30 years old	Yes
Confirm that you resident in USA	Yes
This is a Serious Inquiry	Yes
Message:

Home » Diets that Work » Eating Clean Won’t Solve Any of Your Problems – Lifehacker Australia