The Obsession with "Clean Eating"

I'm not going to start this post by explaining what clean eating is. It's everywhere and has been for several years so if you need a definition, try this one. What I actually want to talk about is the obsession with clean eating, or as it's becoming more widely known, orthorexia, and why it's a problem.

I don't intend to delve into the likes of Instagram or Youtube and such, which for better or worse, have, in my mind, helped to promote this fad, even if unknowingly. But the problem with the clean eating movement as I see it, particularly to the extent that it's become common on social media is that it's actually fraught with danger for your health (read: teenage girl health), whilst maintaining an outward facade that unless you're following every new "rule" of it to the letter, you're simply not doing it well enough.

There appears to be a growing obsession in some circles that unless you're eating "clean" (which typically relates to how many spurious health claims you can find about the next superfood), then your entire life is unhealthy and you're ruining yourself and the planet while you're at it.

I don't put much stock in "clean eating." I do however, believe strongly in healthy eating and living a healthy lifestyle. I'm also not sure when eating healthy turned into trying to cut out anything that could remotely be thought of as weight-gaining. Somewhere along the line, the message has been lost that you do in fact need to eat a wide range of food groups and need to ensure that you are getting all the essential nutrients and minerals that come from eating a varied diet.

Ultimately, the main reason I don't like "clean eating" and what it has become nowadays, is because people are often deliberately missing out on things their body needs, under the guise of eating well, whilst actually depriving themselves of things they should be having. And all of it based, more than likely, on a skinny YouTuber they've watched who's convinced them that if only they do this, they can be everything they want to be.

And that my friends, is really a very dishonest thing indeed.