Eating 'clean' - fad or fab?

Health and fitness social media is pretty much rammed with images, quotes and plans for 'clean eating'. But what on earth is 'clean eating'?? It seems to vary from person to person, blog to blog, board to board. The one basic guideline seems to be 'no processed foods'....... but, what does THAT mean? Food processing has saved millions of lives; canning and freezing foods means we have food supplies all year round. Even the ancient Egyptians 'processed' foods by brining, salting, air-drying, baking and fermenting. And some of those processing methods actually increase the nutritional benefits of the foods - fermeting milk products hugely increases the benefits to digestion, as does fermenting vegetables (true pickling).

'Clean eating' does seem to be pretty closely attached to low-carb, no-sugar, wheat and / or dairy-free 'diets'. And there is a sense of it being 'hard' 'extreme' and linked to all the stereotypical body-building, bikini-contest jargon. That's a bit off-putting for some people I think?

However, the emphasis on whole foods, on home cooking, loads of veggies and variety is good. The 'single ingredients' message - meaning that you know what it is that you're eating, that you cleaned, chopped, and cooked each thing on your plate - that is a good thing too.

So how about simply talking about eating 'real' food. If it had a mother or grew in soil (and you know which of those it is!) then it's good!! If anything you're eating was made by a human in a factory using chemicals, then it's best avioded MOST OF THE TIME. The emphasis there is important - one small pork-pie a week is not a bad thing, a few chunks of chocolate a week is not a bad thing. The key is moderation and variety!! If 80% of what you eat is 'real' than the final 20% - well, your body is brilliant and it can handle that! Much more than 20% - your body starts to struggle a bit and you will probably start to put it under too mcuh strain - something will eventually 'give'