What is clean eating, what does the diet involve and why has there been a backlash?
CLEAN eating is the fashionable food movement promoted by glossy Instagram stars who advocate ditching carbs and refined sugar in favour of plenty of organic veg.
However, it is becoming increasingly controversial thanks to claims that it is fuelling a rise in anorexia - here's all you need to know...
What is clean eating?
The term is used to imply eating lots of whole and often plant-based foods — including vegetables and fruit, whole-grains, animal and plant-based protein, nuts, seeds, and oils.
The idea is that food should be as close to nature as possible — minimally processed and not from a factory.
How does a clean eating diet work?
Clean eating means different things to different people – and is open to interpretation.
That being said, clean eaters tend to avoid processed and refined foods, eat plenty of vegetables (preferably organic) and stay hydrated by drinking at least two litres of water a day.
Cooking at home and finding good ingredients were encouraged and clean eaters tend to eat smaller, balanced meals regularly – with healthy snacks in-between.
Food prep is also popular amongst clean eaters – as it helps them keep track of exactly what they’re eating while out and about.
Is clean eating safe?
While the original purpose of clean eating is healthy enough, anything taken to an extreme can be damaging when it comes to health and well-being.
The food eaten while clean eating is perfectly safe.
But obsessing over what foods you allow yourself to eat can sometimes lead to dangerous eating disorders, such as anorexia.
The National Osteoporosis Society have also warned that the trend can lead to young people missing out on key nutrients, and this could condemn them to years of painful and sometimes even fatal fractures.
This advice was echoed by Professor Susan Lanham new, who said that by our late 20s it's too late to reverse any damage caused by "poor diet".
She called for urgent action to ensure young adults “avoid particular clean eating regimes” or face a future where “broken bones will become just the norm”.
Why has there been a backlash against clean eating?
Some claim that clean eating is fuelling a rise in anorexia - especially amongst young, impressionable women.
Many think that the phrase, while originally well-intentioned, has taken on a new and misguided meaning - misleadingly implying that if you're not "eating clean" then what you eat is “dirty”.
Lifestyle ‘gurus’ on social media have become widely followed and highly influential, often with little to no training when it comes to nutrition – yet people still avidly follow their advice.
This has led many to doubt the clean eating movement, with some even calling it dangerous.
Award-winning author Lionel Shriver slammed the fad, saying these self-styled gurus should “be for a period in danger of starving to death, to find some perspective on real hardship”.
Journalist , who runs , added that her anorexia was fuelled by “the advice of #eatclean bloggers” who encouraged her “to cut out everything my emaciated body needed.”
Meanwhile, food writer Bee Wilson, an expert on the psychology of eating, wrote: “Clean eating is based on a flawed understanding of both health and food.
“There is no such thing as a single ‘perfect’ way of eating.
“For one thing, many of the nutritional claims — gluten = bad! Coconut oil = good! — just don’t stack up.
“More worrying is when clean eating encourages people to cut out entire food groups for no particular reason.”
Many experts who work with eating disorder patients claim the clean-eating trend fuels conditions such as anorexia.
In her controversial blog, Bee cites comments from Dr Mark Berelowitz, an eating disorder specialist at the Royal Free Hospital in North London, who said that between 80 and 90 per cent of his patients were on clean-eating diets.
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