What is a clean diet and is it true that it will provide you with a lot of health

What is the essence of a clean diet

Clean eating is the principle of building a diet, founded1. Clean eating: The good and the bad / Harvard Health Publishing, 2. M. Allen, K. M. Dickinson, I. Prichard. The Dirt on Clean Eating: A Cross Sectional Analysis of Dietary Intake, Restrained Eating and Opinions about Clean Eating among Women / Nutrients on the choice of whole foods and the rejection of processed and refined products containing chemicals and preservatives.

Despite the fact that this trend is actively promoted in social networks and books1. Rockridge Rockridge Press. The Clean Eating Cookbook & Diet
2. J. Wright, L. J. Larsen. Eating Clean For Dummies with recipes for "clean eating", the term itself is not clearly defined and is more of an approach to nutrition than a strictly defined regimen like keto or paleo diets.

Generally a clean diet includesClean eating: The good and the bad / Harvard Health Publishing vegetables and fruits, whole grains and dairy products, legumes, nuts, seeds, and high quality animal or plant sources of protein.

You can also find instructions to choose organic food, focus on seasonal fruits and vegetables, and when when buying ready-made products, choose options with a shorter list of ingredients and fewer additional Sahara.

Can a Clean Diet Really Make You Slim and Healthy?

A clean diet does include a lot of healthy foods and reduces the amount of those that can harm the body.

For example, WHO prescribesHealthy Eating / World Health Organization eat more vegetables and fruits (at least five servings a day), choose whole grains, and reduce sugar and trans fats in the diet, which, in principle, is similar to the concept of a clean diet.

But since this approach to nutrition does not have clearly defined rules, the list of acceptable and prohibited foods varies greatly. For example, in some variants offerM. Allen, K. M. Dickinson, I. Prichard. The Dirt on Clean Eating: A Cross Sectional Analysis of Dietary Intake, Restrained Eating and Opinions about Clean Eating among Women / Nutrients exclude any dairy products, cereals with gluten, any food with added sugar, and this is no longer meets the recommendations of dietary guides and can lead to nutrient, vitamin and vitamin deficiencies trace elements.

Moreover, switching to homemade food instead of fast food, and a strict raw vegan diet can be called a clean diet. It is clear that the results of these modes will be different, and therefore it will not be possible to draw specific conclusions about the benefits of such an approach to nutrition.

At the same time, strict restrictions are not the best solution - both for maintaining weight and for overall health. It is one thing to reduce the amount of sugar in the diet, another is to carefully check all products for its presence and put an absolute ban on any sweets.

Those who adhere to strict prohibitions are more likely to suffer1. J. Westenhoefer A. J. Stunkard, V. Pudel. Validation of the flexible and rigid control dimensions of dietary restraint / The International journal of eating disorders
2. T. M. Stewart, D. A. Williamson, M. A. White. Rigid vs. flexible dieting: association with eating disorder symptoms in nonobese women / Appetite from eating disorders and mood problems, are more weighty and more preoccupied with it than people with a flexible attitude to nutrition.

In addition, the strict division of food into “bad” and “good” is directly related to compulsive overeating. In one scientific work countedJ. Linardon M. Messer, E. R. Helms. Interactions between different eating patterns on recurrent binge‑eating behavior: A machine learning approach / International Journal of Eating Disordersthat among people with a dichotomous approach to food, 84% periodically suffer from uncontrolled binge eating. At the same time, 75% of those who eat intuitivelynever experienced this.

Even giving up one product can increase the number of relapses. Yes, in researchv. Loria‑Kohen, C. Gomez‑Candela, C. Fernandez-Fernandez. Evaluation of the usefulness of a low‑calorie diet with or without bread in the treatment of overweight/obesity / Clinical nutrition one group of slimming women was forbidden to eat bread, while the other was allowed. As a result, the former had 23% failures from the diet, while the latter had only 6%, and they all lost weight in the same way.

Thus, the division of products into "clean" and "dirty" may not have the best effect on eating habits, and in the worst case, even undermine health.

How a clean diet can hurt

In one researchS. Ambwani, M. Shippe, Z. Gao. Is #cleaneating a healthy or harmful dietary strategy? Perceptions of clean eating and associations with disordered eating among young adults / Journal of eating disorders interviewed 148 young people (of which 70% were women) and noted that the higher the confidence in the purity and benefits of the diet, and the more the respondents strove to follow it, the brighter they manifested signs eating disordersincluding orthorexia.

This state includesOrthorexia / National Eating Disorders the following symptoms:

• increased attention to the benefits of ingredients and constant checking of labels;
• complete rejection of certain types of food, such as sugar, carbohydrates, dairy products, meat;
• compiling a diet from a narrow list of products that are positioned as “healthy” or “clean”;
• increased interest in what others eat;
• prolonged planning of meals, sometimes for several hours a day;
• stress when it is impossible to get "safe" and "healthy" food;
• obsession with blogging healthy lifestyle or eating on social media;
• in some cases, dissatisfaction with one's body.

One study interviewed 15 orthorexic bloggers and figured outM. Greville-Harris, J. Smithson A. Karl. What are people's experiences of orthorexia nervosa? A qualitative study of online blogs / Eating and weight disordersthat many people start their journey to an eating disorder because of health problems, and then get carried away and cannot stop.

Public approval and an abundance of topical information on the Internet are driving orthorexics to improve the clean diet, eliminating more and more food categories and narrowing down the diet.

Some develop a fear of "junk" foods such as milk, cheese, and butter, so they physically unable to perceive them, despite the absence of lactose intolerance and other disorders digestion.

Scientists notedM. Greville-Harris, J. Smithson A. Karl. What are people's experiences of orthorexia nervosa? A qualitative study of online blogs / Eating and weight disordersthat 8 out of 15 orthorexics surveyed had as a result of dietary restrictions Problems with health, including weight loss, difficulty concentrating, micronutrient deficiencies, amenorrhea.

What is especially sad is that a clean diet looks very healthy, so few people doubt its positive effect on the body. How showedS. Ambwani, G. Sellinger, K. L. Rose. “It's Healthy Because It's Natural.” Perceptions of “Clean” Eating among U.S. Adolescents and Emerging Adults / Nutrients survey of more than 1,000 people aged 14-24, no one knows exactly what it is, but 70% consider this approach useful.

At the same time, it is during adolescence that eating disorders most often appear. And then often stay with a person for life.

Should You Try a Clean Diet?

If you feel like giving up processed and refined foods, there are more. vegetables, fruits and whole grains, please. Just do not set strict limits and demonize any food, whether it be sugar, butter or a slice of pizza.

In the same guideHealthy Eating / World Health Organization WHO, you can find modern ideas about healthy eating without extremes and distortions. But even it should not be taken as a rigid set of rules that cannot be broken.

Take a flexible approach to nutrition, strive for a healthy diet, but do not fixate on it. After all, the stress that inevitably follows an over-concern with one's food and where it comes from won't exactly add to one's health.