Clean Eating Myths

I'm not sure when the phrase "Clean Eating" was coined, but it seems to be pasted everywhere nowadays. Lately, I've seen a lot of Clean Eating pins on Pinterest.  You know what Pinterest is, right?  It's where all the cool kids hang out you know;)  Including me.  Just check out the pins I was able to pin on a super secret board. {They have secret boards now} For when you need to plan your husband's birthday party, or pin inappropriate humor you don't want your mother-in-law to see, or to pin clean eating pins for your blog, but you don't want your friends to think you endorse clean eating.  Man, that Pinterest thinks of everything!...

So what is Clean Eating, really?  And what are these supposed "myths" I speak about?

Well, let me start off by saying that there are some really great principles included in clean eating plans. Clean eating encourages people to eat foods in an unprocessed form.  Among Clean Eating recipes you'll see a lot of recipes with whole grains, fruits & vegetables, lean protein, egg whites, low-fat dairy, and a low amount of fat & oils.

Good Principles in Clean Eating:

Let's look at the positive first, shall we?

First of all, I'll stand with anyone who says processed foods are out!  Processed foods are non-foods.  Your body literally does not know what the heck to do with them.  They are toxic and the more you get them out of your life, the better!  Some examples of processed foods are white flour, white sugar, and anything you buy at the store with more than 5 ingredients or an ingredient you can't pronounce.  This step alone I believe contributed to my weight loss success.  It's not like I NEVER eat processed foods.  But it's rare. Like once a month or more rare.

Second, increasing one's intake of fresh fruit and vegetables is a win!  Go veggie power!  Fruits and vegetables are awesome because there is so much variety to choose from.  And they come in their own conveniently packaged peel.  Taking some fruit and veggies on the go couldn't be easier.  To make this principle even HEALTHIER & MORE affordable, shop locally and in season!

The MYTHS:

1. Fat is bad.  Try to eat LESS FAT.

GAH!  It was so hard for me to type that!  I must not tell lies!  Fat is an amazing, wonderful thing that every body needs.  Fat is something I used to avoid.  I really wanted to lose weight and so I listened to all the advice plastered over magazines, tv shows & internet.  Low-fat seemed like the only answer to true health.  The truth is, fats from plant & animal sources provide the building blocks for our body, energy & help us feel full longer.  We think cholesterol is bad, but it plays an important role in the body.  The "lipid hypothesis" also known as the cholesterol myth, was just a really bad guess by doctors in the 1920s and has been debunked over and over again!  Isn't it interesting how the countries of Japan, Austria & Greece tied for longevity, eat high fat diets?  The French, who consume a high-fat diet, have a lower rate of heart disease than Americans.  It's because contrary to popular Western belief, fat does a body good!  Cholesterol helps regulate hormones & stress, thereby reducing one's risk of cancer & heart disease.  Fat increases serotonin function.  Serotonin is the body's "feel good" chemical and plays an important role in our mental health.  Fat also helps maintain the wall of the intestines, and prevents a leaky gut syndrome.  Bile, which is vital for digestion & assimilation of fats, is even made from cholesterol.

So which fat is good & which is bad?  The most important thing for you to remember about fat is that it's just like any other food...You must find it in it's most natural & healthy form.  If you have Crisco, Canola, or Vegetable oil in your pantry...it's time to GET. THEM. OUT!  These oils are nothing more than highly processed, hydrogenated garbage.  Your body does not even recognize them and in fact creates inflammation just to get rid of them, so please, remove them from your diet.  A natural form would be from milk, eggs, meat, nuts, avocados & seafood.

I eat plenty of organic butter, olive oil, coconut oil, tallow, & lard (only from local, healthy, pastured pigs. NOT the hydrogenated lard at the grocery store).  And I LOVE IT!  A year ago I lost 25 lbs., and since then I've felt better, slept better & lost even an extra 5 lbs. from including these vitamin rich, healthy fats in my diet! So take it from me, you can be healthy & lose weight from eating bacon, slathering butter on your bread, & frying up french fries in lard or coconut oil!

Have you ever wondered why it is so hard to lose weight and stick to a diet?  What if I told you that eating low-fat is the main reason you have had trouble sticking to your diet!  When you remove the fat-soluble vitamins from your diet, the ones that aid in digestion, make you feel nourished, and signal to your brain you are full, you are left feeling hungry & deprived.  You don't need will power to lose weight, you just need the right foods!

Myth # Lean Protein, and lots of it.

Honestly, I get so very tired of people saying, "Be sure to get your protein!"  or "Eat lots of lean meats to stay full!".  While protein does play an important part in a healthy & balanced diet, the statement that we need a lot of it (& the lean versions) to stay full and lose weight has been overemphasized.

In my weight loss journey, I never once thought about protein or daily intake.  I just ate real food, in the amount I desired and I felt full and satisfied and my body found it's natural weight.  I used judgement & respect when eating meat and chose to eat meat once a week, with eggs, milk & nuts being my fat rich protein for the rest of the week.

The problem with LEAN PROTEIN is that when you remove the fat from the protein you make it hard for the body to absorb.  Protein simply cannot be utilized by the body without the aid of fats.  Isn't it amazing that the highest sources of protein that exist are naturally full of fats?  Eggs, Whole Milk, Fish, Meat, Nuts -- these all are accompanied by one or more of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D & E which are needed for the assimilation of protein!  Consumption of low-fat dairy, lean meats, & egg whites can result in a deficiency of those precious fat-soluble vitamins.  The Japanese are often thought to live a low-fat diet & many people refer to their culture as one who has the longest life expectancy.  While it is true that the Japanese do have the longest life span of any nation, it is false that they live a low-fat lifestyle.  The Japanese regularly consume eggs, pork, beef, chicken & seafood.  They do not eat lean versions of this, but rather, the full fat & vitamin rich version!

When I think about the principles of CLEAN EATING (one of them being to eat foods in their most natural form) I can't help but see the hypocrisy when advocating the intake of LEAN PROTEIN.  You've taken a source of protein, like meat or eggs, and removed the fat.  Now you are left with egg whites and skinless boneless chicken breasts.  You have effectively turned a most natural & nutritious food and turned it into an unnatural and incomplete one.  And on top of that you lose all the satisfying flavor!  Don't you want your food to be delicious and savory?  I promise you it is possible to ENJOY your full fat food and LOSE WEIGHT!


Myth # 3  Low-fat dairy products.  None at all would be best.

Recently, I wrote a blog post called, Is Low-Fat Dairy making you FAT?.  To put it really simple, I just want you to remember one thing about the word Low-fat, Reduced-fat, or Fat-free in general.

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food & Food Rules talks about the infiltration of low-fat foods into our food supply.

"Basically, the Food and Drug Administration was started in 1938 with the Food and Drug Act and as part of that was this rule that basically held that there are certain traditional foods that everyone knows like bread and pasta and yogurt and sour cream and if you’re going to fundamentally change their identity by substituting one nutrient for another, you had to call them imitations. If you look at the ingredients of something like no-fat sour cream, you will find all sorts of things that have nothing to do with sour cream. You will find carrageenan and guar gum. These are all substitutes for the fat in sour cream. It is not sour cream, and the law used to require you to say as much, but in 1973, the FDA — without going to Congress — simply repealed the imitation rule. They did it at the behest of organizations like the American Heart Association, who thought that this would be a good thing. That the imitation rule was standing in the way of reengineering the food supply to make it contain less fat. Because no one would buy products called “imitation sour cream.” Would you buy imitation pasta? No. But “low-carb pasta” might sound more appealing. Throwing out the imitation rule essentially allowed the food companies to do what they wanted with things like yogurt or sour cream — fundamentally change the identities of food without having to disclose it. We’ve moved from real foods like sour cream to edible food-like substances like low-fat sour cream that I refuse to call food. I think we should restore the imitation rule. We still have it for certain products. So for example, if you want to sell chocolate, you have to use cocoa butter as the fat in the chocolate. But now there’s a move to get that changed. The Hershey’s Co. has petitioned the government to change the standard of identity of chocolate so that you could use corn oil or soy oil, which would be cheaper. Fortunately, Mars, Inc. is holding out to let chocolate be chocolate. But this is why I felt I needed to write a defense of food. Food is under assault by industry and nutrition science, who think they can improve on the foods we’ve had for hundreds of thousands of years. My contention is, they can’t."

How can low-fat ANYTHING be CLEAN EATING?

In an effort to what I assume to be another promotion of a low-fat diet, many Clean Eating books/articles/blogs promote a removal of ALL dairy products.  While there are some who do not tolerate dairy, and some who do not prefer dairy in general, an avoidance of it for the sole reason of avoiding fat is wrong.

In 1930, Dr. Weston A. Price traveled the world in search of traditional cultures untouched by modern foods.  In his book, Nutrition & Physical Degeneration, he reports finding 14 different cultures with amazing health, fertility, vitality & longevity.  Each traditional society ate food in it's most natural form, and were especially depended on their intake of fats -- in their meat, organ, eggs, dairy & seafood -- to provide their bodies with optimal nutrition.

What's interesting is that a couple of the traditional societies DID NOT consume dairy at all.  It wasn't because they didn't like it or because it didn't promote health & wellness.  It was simply because their lands were not adequate for maintaining dairy animals.  The Eskimos of Alaska, the Indians of Northern Canada, and the Gaelics living on the islands North of Scotland ALL did not raise dairy animals, but instead ate a high amount of fish, seal oil, fish liver oil, organ meats, dried fish eggs, bone marrow broth -- all to make up for those missing fat-soluble vitamins found in whole grass fed dairy products.

Advocates of Clean Eating propose the use of almond milk & coconut milk as a replacement for animal based dairy products.  I agree with this principle, if you cannot tolerate diary products, do not like the taste, or do not have access to them in your area, BUT be sure to replace those animal based fat-soluble vitamins elsewhere in your diet.  I love almond milk & coconut milk and I include it in my diet simply because it's delicious!  But I don't believe it is necessary for a healthier or a cleaner way of eating.

What can we learn from all this?:

As I review this post before publishing, I realize that the ONE MAIN MYTH in Clean Eating is the fear & avoidance of animal fats.  I understand how hard it can be to go against the low-fat craze!  I was raised this way, as were probably all of you and it was of no fault to our parents, or our grandparents.  They (and we)were simply told the wrong information.  How has a mere 50-year old concept has become the standard and overridden thousands of years of nutritional information?

I believe in eating a balance of ALL food groups.  I am not advocating a crazy high-fat, low-carb diet.  I am advocating a balanced, pure, diet with no avoidance or FEAR of fats.  I believe when you incorporate this lifestyle, you will become more in tune with your body's needs and you will naturally eat the right amount of everything...fats, proteins & carbohydrates.  You will not over indulge.  You will be nourished and happy!

If you need some encouragement to believe that fat is in fact good for you, check out these articles below and consider purchasing some of these books or checking them out from your local library!  Good luck on your healthy eating journey and believe that you can lose weight, reverse disease, be healthy AND enjoy your food too!!

Books I recommend:
Nutrition & Physical Degeneration, by Dr. Weston A. Price
Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon
The Vegetarian Myth, by Lierre Keith
The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan

Sources:
http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/skinny-on-fats
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/cardiologist-lowfat-diet-scientifically-and-morally-indefensible/
http://healthimpactnews.com/2012/heart-surgeon-admits-he-was-wrong-about-low-fat-diet-and-heart-disease/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1375687/Low-fat-foods-INCREASE-risk-heart-disease-nutritionist-says.html
http://michaelpollan.com/interviews/michael-pollan-debunks-food-myths/