You may have heard the term “clean diet,” but its definition can depend on who you ask. Some wellness experts suggest that a clean diet is based around wholesome, natural foods, whilst others don’t feel comfortable including dairy even though it fits those criteria. Even protein powder, which is usually full of chemicals, is sometimes considered a clean food, proving that this term is dubious and will never have a universally agreed definition.
The problem with restrictive diets such as this one is that they generate high levels of stress for a lot of people, which is the antithesis of the health and wellbeing that clean dieters promote. Your body’s hormonal and psychological response to these high levels of consistent stress can actually do more harm than good to your wellness, and so obsessing over adhering to a 100% natural, unprocessed, organic diet can really not be worth the bother in the long run.
You tend to find extreme comparisons with diet and nutrition, that those who champion clean eating tend to exploit. Some people just love a rule or two, and will only eat unprocessed, organic foods, and describe any moment of weakness as ‘cheating’. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, you have people who frankly don’t care what they put into their mouths. There is a range of people in the middle who find a healthy middle ground in their diet, but an obsessively ‘clean’ dieter will often try to rationalise their behaviour by comparing two extremes like they’re the only options available; “I see, I should forgo the broccoli and have a doughnut then?”
Obsessive clean eating can also encourage damaging behaviours, and even food disorders. Labelling foods as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ (or ‘clean’ and ‘cheating’) and having a guilt complex around food can ruin your relationship with it. Clean eaters can often schedule ‘cheat’ meals, leading to binges which they compensate for with excessive exercise. Clean eating can also play havoc with your social life, and emotional wellbeing. By cutting out entire food groups, and having a rigid set of rules around food, you might want to avoid any social situation that could interfere with these rules, and experience extreme anxiety when anything does happen to interfere. These don’t necessarily add up to an eating disorder but they can easily go that way.
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