Healthy Sampler
As we proudly launch our first Food Issue, the controversy around one topic, clean eating, is showing no signs of abating. Here at healthy we were early adopters of clean eating. We ran our first piece on it, Clean Start, back in 2014, and covered it regularly throughout 2015. This was before the slew of bloggers emerged promoting their ‘clean eating’ lifestyles. It was also before the ensuing onslaught of attacks on clean eating and those bloggers – blaming it for everything from causing eating disorders to making people think it will cure cancer. In all the noise, not wishing to be misconstrued, we quietly ditched the words ‘clean eating’ – so did some of those bloggers. It’s perhaps not surprising then that in our first ‘healthy eating’ food survey, a significant number of you – clued-up healthy readers – confessed to being confused about clean eating.
Let’s be clear. Clean eating is eating food as close to its unprocessed state as possible. That’s it. An apple over a packet of crisps. Homemade soup over a ready-meal. Who could argue with that? To flesh it out – that means limiting refined carbs, such as pizza, doughnuts and cakes. It doesn’t mean not eating dairy, or wholemeal bread, or even good quality meat, if that’s your thing. I love my Saturday morning post-workout snack – an organic full-fat flat white and peanut butter on sourdough toast.
At healthy, we talk to a lot of health experts about food and they all, without exception, say the same thing. Eat plenty of veg, wholegrains, moderate amounts of lean protein and healthy fats, and cook your food yourself as much as possible. Clean eating in other words. Make everything else a treat. It’s a simple message at heart – follow it and you can’t go wrong.