Clean Eating Diet Review For Weight Loss

When it comes to weight-loss diets, there are a lot of options out there. Fad diets promise fast results but rarely deliver, and are almost never sustainable. More sensible diets produce results, but aren’t as sexy as their fad counterparts.

One of the more popular -- and controversial -- diets out there is the concept of clean eating. A Google search of the term yields 6.3 million hits. Scan the results, however, and you’ll see that clean eating is actually steeped in controversy.

Some claim it’s the best and healthiest diet for fat loss. Others say it’s dangerous. What’s the truth? Is clean eating the right diet for you? Let’s take a look…

Clean Eating: What Is It?

The concept of eating clean is largely attributed the bodybuilding community, with origins stretching all the way back to the 1980s.

At its core, clean eating is essentially the minimisation or elimination of processed foods. The definition of “clean," however, tends to shift with the nutritional trends of the time. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, fats were deemed public enemy No. 1 -- so they were considered “unclean. In the ‘00s, public perception shifted and highly processed carbs and grains became the enemy.

(So if you’re still confused about what exactly constitutes a “clean food, that’s OK. And we’ll talk about why in a minute.)

According to WebMD, clean eating “encourages a lifestyle approach of exercise and a diet plan of unprocessed, whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and no artificial ingredients, preservatives, ‘chemically charged foods,’ sugars, saturated fat, and trans fat.

Clean Eating Pros

The biggest benefit to clean eating is the emphasis on minimally processed, nutrient-dense foods. This is an approach that can only serve to benefit people.

The other advantage of clean foods is they’re typically less calorically dense and more voluminous than their processed counterparts. What this means is that clean foods will contain less calories while filling you up quicker than highly processed foods. In fact, simply replacing highly processed foods with minimally processed ones can help you lose weight for that exact reason.

While encouraging the adoption of a diet high in fruits, veggies, lean proteins, and whole grains is great, it is unfortunately where the benefits of clean eating end.

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Clean Eating Cons

As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest problems with clean eating is there is that no exact definition of what “clean actually means. Ask ten different people and you’re likely to get ten different answers.

Vegans believe all animal products are unclean.

Vegetarians won’t eat meat.

If you’re eating Paleo, you stay away from grains, dairy, sugars, etc.

Low-carbers don’t eat rice and potatoes, which are considered clean foods by bodybuilders.

Different people consider different foods unclean. But to your body, it’s all energy. “It’s not like your body has an indicator that says, ‘Oh I just ate chicken and broccoli, so it’s going to go all to muscle,’ or, ‘I just ate a bowl of low-fat ice cream so that’s going to go all to fat because it’s a unclean food,’ says Layne Norton, PhD, professional bodybuilder, powerlifter, and coach.

A second -- and much bigger -- problem with clean eating is the fact it can create an unhealthy relationship with food.

In 1996, a doctor by the name of Steven Bratman coined the term orthorexia nervosa, which is defined as an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy. Clean eating exacerbates this condition by essentially requiring people to obsess about the foods they’re eating -- whether they’re “clean or “unclean, “good or “bad.

“We all know the importance of regular exercise, not skipping meals, drinking plenty of water, and [eating] a diet based on plant foods and lean, low-fat protein. But beyond that, the [clean eating] advice is unrealistic and not necessarily healthy, says Dr. Roberta Anding, a registered dietician and nutritionist at the Baylor College of Medicine.

Also, clean eating provides no method of caloric accountability. Energy balance is the number one driver of weight loss or gain. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you’ll lose weight. If you eat more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight.

However, clean eaters often make the assumption that they will lose weight. It can happen because they might be eating fewer calories than they burn, but NOT only because they’re eating clean.

A study done by Surwit et al. supports this. The researchers put two groups of people on six-week hypocaloric diets. The first group ate a diet with 43% of the calories coming from sucrose (or table sugar). The second group ate a diet with only 4% of the calories coming from sucrose.

The study found there was no significant difference in weight loss or fat loss between the two groups. It also found no difference in blood lipid levels or metabolism. So the group eating almost half its calories from an “unclean source (sugar) lost just as much weight as the group eating almost zero sugar.

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The Verdict

In theory, clean eating is a solid nutritional approach. Eating mostly whole, minimally processed foods should be the foundation of any diet.

But science doesn’t support it. Studies have repeatedly shown that typical “clean foods such organic foods provide no additional health benefits, while “unclean foods like those containing GMOs provide no health risks.

In fact, clean eating may have more drawbacks than benefits. If the goal is weight loss, clean eating may provide results. Or it may not. Energy balance is and always will be the most important factor when it comes to weight loss or gain. If you’re eating more calories than you burn, you will gain weight, no matter how “clean the food is.

However, when combined with calorie or macronutrient counting, clean eating can be an effective strategy for weight loss.

The bigger issue with clean eating lies in its ambiguity and borderline obsessive-compulsive nature. Again, there is no one definition of “clean, which only serves to confuse people and make the dieting process even harder.

Classifying foods as good and bad is dangerous. No one food is completely harmful to your health. No one food is going to make you fat. Too many calories are going to make you fat. Having high levels of body fat is harmful to your health.

A better plan would be to approach your diet with an 80/20 mindset. Eat whole, unprocessed foods 80 percent of the time, and eat foods you enjoy (regardless of their nutritional value) 20 percent of the time.

“There currently is no compelling evidence suggesting that a diet whose calories are 80-90% from whole and minimally processed foods is not prudent enough for maximizing health, longevity, body composition, or training performance. And just to reiterate, processed does not always mean devoid of nutritional value. Whey and whey/casein [protein] blends are prime examples of nutritional powerhouses that happen to be removed from their original food matrix, says world-renowned nutritionist Alan Aragon, M.S.

The key to a successful diet isn’t eliminating certain foods. It is being able to sustain it in the long run. And to do that without losing your mind there needs to be a level of flexibility.

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