October 27, 2013
I eat clean and I eat dirty
Happy Sunday friends. The hardest thing about 31 Days has been writing everyday, particularly on the weekends. I make it a habit of never posting here on the weekend because a) I’m usually too busy with the family and b) If I do have some down time to write, I’m usually playing catch up on my paid writing gigs.
So since we are on the home stretch of this series and I feel like I haven’t really had the chance to talk about something surrounding eating clean, or eating healthy, or eating old school, or whatever you want to call it, and I don’t think I’ll fit it in, I thought I’d share my latest Babble article with you all, and see what you all think about it.
It’s discussing the common misconceptions of “clean eating”, and whether labeling food “clean” is dangerous because it implies alternative foods are dirty. Here’s a snippet, regarding the notion that the clean label is hurtful:
On the surface, it’s a stretch that I don’t wholeheartedly buy. It’s the same as saying that when women who breastfeed share their stories and post photos of their nursing sessions, it is hurtful to women who can’t breastfeed. But I will agree that some people can be judgmental and approach food choices from a ridiculously superior point of view. I still like to tell the story of the time a friend refused my peas because they weren’t organic. Being judged never feels good, and it’s never okay when it comes to such a personal thing as food. And people can, in fact, send the wrong message when their approach is just the least bit off. In particular, the whole Maria Kang photo controversy comes to mind. The author of the article suggests that instead of calling our food clean, we say, “I’m eating organic, local produce and it’s awesome.” While that does sounds great and all, it would be one helluva long hashtag. Perhaps something simple, like #eatreal (eat real) would be a good alternative?
Please click over to read the rest of the article and I would love to hear your thoughts. Bottom line, I don’t care what we all call it, but have we all really become this sensitive about food?
That’s one of the reasons Jamie Oliver is my food hero… he’s all about eating real food. I love the concept of clean eating, but you’re so right about the implications it makes (despite plenty of foods literally being dirty with chemicals). I guess labels are trendy, but darn they are confusing – my personal fav, that I like to use with family (so it doesn’t sound as scary/snobby) is “unprocessed”. #realfood 🙂