When people say ‘eating clean’, what do they mean?

[Fordian]

I assume very low carb, unprocessed? Is there a recommended recipe book? Do’s and don’t? Thanks.

Avoiding processed food mostly. Potatoes are a clean eating food, especially with skin on. Crisps are not, even with skins on.

No UPFs and lots of plant based food.

I would include meat, but not the processed kind. Free range to organic. Also fish, but from reputable sources, not farmed, wild, line caught. However I could be wrong.

I've not heard of sny recipe book though.

I'd taken it to mean eating "real" food and not eating ultra processed food. I don't like the word "clean" though as it places more of a value judgement.

Instead I'm following more of a UPF free or heavily reduced UPF "diet".

In terms of a book it would be most cookery books really as almost by definition that's rating Real Food.

Google suggests "clean" does include a range of diets including those that restrict food groups etc but I hadn't seen it to mean low carb back when I was interested (potatoes were in! Even chips/wedges if home made).

I'm now personally happy with "processing" ie cheese, yoghurt (nova 1-3) and have heavily reduced 4 - so obvious crisps etc but also most supermarket bread and other things that have emulsifiers/stavlisers/flavourings/ and things not usually found in the kitchen. (my favourite term for absolutely no reason than CVT repeats it a lot is "mono and dyglicerides of fatty acids)

Chris Van Tulleken wrote Ultra Processed People and is a fascinating read if you're interested in a more recent approach. Although that is not surprising UPF based not" clean" as it used to be but a good deal of overlap.

They wash their hands before they eat. Who knows and who has time on their hands to give a crap

I think clean is a term coined by people who want to sell something.implying all else is dirty.

But we know over processed food is not good for us. Have you noticed a factory made cake is softer and sweeter than a homemade one? Cheetos eg are made to be pleasingly crisp and then soft. Eating food in most natural form that you could either recreate in your own kitchen or could expect to get from a farm is better for health. Mostly plant based is even better for health and planet.

Eating clean means healthy and original, so no chemicals and crap added. You don't need a recipe book OP, I'm literally just doing stuff like buying organic/free range eggs or meat when I can afford it, then making it with rice & fresh or frozen veg. Clean as in, simple, natural, how the food is in its natural form, little added.

It’s a new way of phrasing eating healthy food. No takeaways, UPFs, excessive chemicals and additives.

In the context of WLIs it’s really about making sure you’re training yourself alongside the appetite suppression to eat wholesome nutritious food instead of just eating less of the same poor choices that lots of people ate to make them overweight in the first place.

Thanks, everyone!