Eating Clean: the Disorder

I wrote about "eating clean" a little over a year ago:

I was out for brunch over the weekend, and while we were pursuing an exciting, free-form conversation stretching across too many topics to recount here,  my perfectly pleasant dining companion mentioned that she ate freely during the weekend (sounds familiar), and during the week she ate "clean".
I've heard that buzzword before on the periphery, and to be honest it raised my bullshit antenna. I casually asked, "Oh, clean? What does that mean?" Her eyes glanced down and to the side, a physical sign that she perhaps was not completely comfortable. She said something about no sugar and no flour. "Oh, carb free diet?" No, well, kinda, lean proteins and vegetables. I kind of wanted to ask more questions, but I could tell pushing it would not be gentlemanly. Fair enough, guys needling ladies about their eating habits can be creepy in the wrong context, and perhaps this afternoon was the wrong context.

I think my instinct was right -- our eating habits are very personal and subjective, and not a good topic for a 2nd (and in this case, final) date. But I do remember this lady well, she was quite impressive. She was the director of a major department at the NY Times, raising a kid on her own in a fantasy Brooklyn brownstone, and really nice on the eyes. I let the conversation about eating habits go, despite me having a lot to say on the topic, because her body language expressed discomfort, the kind of discomfort that usually doesn't lead to a third date.

This is how sexy NYT ladies dress for the office.

I've thought of her twice in the past few months. First, her department was reorganized and I saw her name in an article about it in the newspaper, which indicated she took a new role in her specialty outside of the newspaper -- maybe moving back to Cali to be closer to the baby daddy? I also thought of her this past week, when I buzzed passed this article while writing last week's entry about the licensing effect.

The idea of an eating disorder that didn't involve a loss of appetite or the desire to purge began hitting the zeitgeist a year and a half ago. The disease was called orthorexia, a term coined by Dr. Steven Bratman in 1997. "Orthorexia is defined as an unhealthy obsession with healthy food," Dr. Bratman tells Broadly. "It's not the diet that is orthorexia, it's the diet that could lead to it. The more extreme or restrictive the diet, the more likely it could lead to orthorexia."

Eat disorders are a facet of addiction, if you believe that addiction is not simply the physical craving caused by things like heroine, caffeine and alcohol. Anything that gives pleasure can be obsessed over and brought out of balance, whether than is drugs, booze, food, sex, money, gambling, whatever, pick your poison. The idea of being obsessed with something righteous and healthy is something I wrestle with -- I ride my bicycle 100+ miles a week, but as far as I can tell it is in balance with my work, family, interpersonal relationships and health. And the fact that I monitor my eating on a daily basis during the week, similar to the NY Times Clean Eating Woman (NYTCEW), am I on a spectrum? Am I on a path to orthorexia?

After coining the term, Dr. Bratman went on to publish several books about orthorexia and healthy living. Today, he has created an official scientific definition for the disease and is working on getting it published and accepted by the medical community. But Dr. Bratman was not the one to bring orthorexia to the mainstream some year and a half ago. Jordan Younger, a 25-year-old lifestyle blogger from California, was.
Younger was a devout raw vegan who had built an online following of tens of thousands by writing about veganism and her virtuous diet on her then-blog The Blonde Vegan. To Younger, veganism was the cure-all she was hoping for—no longer did she suffer from chronic indigestion or feelings of bloating and discomfort. As she preached about the benefits of a plant-based diet alongside photos of bright green smoothies, mason jars brimming with chia seeds, and chopped kale salads, the popularity of her vegan persona grew.

Cut to the chase, gradually she went more and more hardcore. All that extreme experimenting in foods that are deemed to be unquestionably healthy did a number on her.  And it is in the following graph, as they say in clickbait, she really nailed it (bolding mine):

Eventually, Younger came to understand that she had a problem. But hers wasn't a classic eating disorder that people were familiar with; hers was a fixation on the virtue of food. She introduced the term orthorexia to her following, saying that she was suffering and was going to get help. The response she got was overwhelming: "Once I started talking about experience with orthorexia on my blog and national news picked up on it, a flood of people came forward saying they identified with me," Younger tells Broadly. "We're talking tens of thousands of messages. It's been a year and a half and I haven't stopped hearing from people. It's not that number anymore; it's a couple people a day now, but it showed me how many people feel inadequate and feel that living a balanced life is not enough."

All that bad stock photography of ladies eating salad? Just make 'em frown and POOF! orthorexia.

Balance is all there is - it is an acceptance that things are not black or white, that to function we must live in a shade of gray. For example, the problem tearing the Republican Party apart is an adherence to ideology over governing, to beliefs over facts. It is reflected in out culture, nailed by Stephen Colbert as "truthiness", the feeling that something is true, regardless of reality. To believe a raw-vegan-regular-detox habit is healthy for your body, mind and planet despite the immediate evidence to the contrary is a symptom of truthiness, and definitely needs a place in medical literature. Hopefully the "Eat Clean" lobby won't interfere in that process, god knows how much good has been prevented by financial interests who politicizes things that should be simple public health concerns (hello, Big Soda & the defeat of soda taxes!)

"There is nothing wrong with eating local or being a vegetarian or vegan. I think a lot of those diets are inherently valuable. The problem is that we have moralized eating, weight, food, and exercise. Food has become presented—more and more—as the answer."

Other than a very brief and furtive make-out session with NYTCEW, there was never another opportunity to explore what she meant about "eating clean". I do admit, perhaps because of my male privilege or own obsession with food, when she avoided the conversation it was a red flag for me -- is there an issue here? Is this blog out of balance, or a tool to keep in balance?

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2836

Disappointing but not surprising high average.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2470

SLEPT: 11:30pm-6:45am, 7.25 hrs

AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: noon, Fage with honey, almonds, vanilla, 450 cal

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 5pm, beef patty, chicken soup,  poppa salad with dressing, 750 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, popcorn, almond butter & chocolate syrup, +/-800

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2850

SLEPT: 8:30pm-2am,  5.5hrs

AM SNACK: 2:30 am,  iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, steel cut oats, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, sole, asparagus, momma salad, 600 cal

PM SNACK: 2:15pm, birthday cupcake, +/-200 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, Stouffers French Bread Pizzas, poppa salad with dressing, 1040 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 7:30pm, peanut butter and chocolate syrup, +/- 400 cal, hunger 9/10
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 3275

SLEPT: 8:30pm-5:30am, 9 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

AM SNACK: 8:30am, bite of donut, +/- 50 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:15am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, bacon,  poppa salad with dressing, 440cal

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, cashews, 250 cal

DINNER: 8pm, burrito & diet coke, 925cal

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, ice cream, +/- 500 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 9:30pm pringles, 190 cal, hunger 8/10
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BIKE CREDIT: 1055
THURSDAY COUNT: 3025

SLEPT: 10:30pm-3am, 4.5 hours

AM SNACK: 3:45am, iced green tea, 150mg caffeine

BIKE SNACK: 4:45am, homemade granola bar, 320 cal

BIKE SNACK: 6:15am, homemade granola bar, 320 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, Steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, beef patty, chicken soup, momma salad, pickle, 660 cal

PM SNACK: 2:15pm, veggie straws, 160 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, kind bar, 200 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, cheezits, 210 cal

PM SNACK: 6:15pm, homemade browmies, +/- 300 cal

DINNER: 7pm, pork tenderloin, mashed potato & mushroom gravy, steam string beans, +/- 900 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, home made brownies, +/- 500 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2560

SLEPT: 9:45pm-12:30am,  1:30am-7am, 8.25 hrs

BREAKFAST: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 80cal

AM SNACK: 11am, Fage with honey, almonds, vanilla, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, sardine and avocado on whole wheat toast, poppa salad, pickle, 770 cal

PM SNACK 4pm, momma salad, veggie straws, 260 cal

DINNER: 5:15pm, slice of pizza, hot dog, fries, ice cream, +/- 1000 cal

From Butts to Eating Clean: a true American story

Shonda's portfolio to get work as a stock photography model never quite hit it's mark.

I was out for brunch over the weekend, and while we were pursuing an exciting, free-form conversation stretching across too many topics to recount here,  my perfectly pleasant dining companion mentioned that she ate freely during the weekend (sounds familiar), and during the week she ate "clean".

I've heard that buzzword before on the periphery, and to be honest it raised my bullshit antenna. I casually asked, "Oh, clean? What does that mean?" Her eyes glanced down and to the side, a physical sign that she perhaps was not completely comfortable. She said something about no sugar and no flour. "Oh, carb free diet?" No, well, kinda, lean proteins and vegetables. I kind of wanted to ask more questions, but I could tell pushing it would not be gentlemanly. Fair enough, guys needling ladies about their eating habits can be creepy in the wrong context, and perhaps this afternoon was the wrong context.

When I came across this image on google image search, I straight up thought this was a turd on a plate. Just thought I'd share. Because this is the right context.

That's what the Internet is for, because no one has ever ranted creepily on the Internet! My google-fu is strong. What, pray tell, is "eating clean?"

The Eat-Clean principles are:

• Eat six small meals a day.
• Eat breakfast every day, within an hour of getting up.
• Eat lean protein and complex carbohydrates at every meal.
• Have two or three servings of healthy fats every day.
• Get fiber, vitamins, nutrients, and enzymes from fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Control your portions.
• Drink 2 to 3 liters of water (about 13 8-ounce cups) every day.

 The foods to avoid:

• Over processed foods, especially white flour and sugar
• Artificial sweeteners
• Sugary beverages, such as soda and juice
• Alcohol
• Foods with chemical additives like food dyes and sodium nitrite
• Foods with preservatives
• Artificial foods, such as processed cheese slices
• Saturated fats and trans fats
• Anti-foods -- calorie-dense foods with no nutritional value

Sounds like a stricter version of current "common sense", but the whole drink-a-ton-of-water has been questioned -- if you are in tune with your body, you can just drink when you are thirsty. It's when people are full of sugar and drugs and drug-like foods that you can confuse hunger for thirst and vice versa. Still, my bullshit-o-larm is ringing loud: someone is saying that this list of do's and do-not's are somehow universally applicable to all people? And jargon like "anti-food" tend to muddy the water when it comes to understanding the concept of balance and moderation -- calling a Big Mac an "anti-food" might be satisfying on some level, but that doesn't make it true or accurate.

Of course, when profit motive gets involved, all bets are off. After all, the guru behind eating clean is also the author of that classic for all time, the Butt Book.

Tosca Reno (born May 22, 1959) is the New York Times best selling author behind Your Best Body Now and the Eat-Clean Diet(r) series. She is also a certified Nutritional Therapy practitioner.[1] She is also a fitness model, columnist, and the author of the "Eat-Clean Diet" series.[2]

-sigh- So much for credibility.

It is impossible to target any place on your body for fat loss, unless you are talking surgery. Implying you can is a very popular way to separate insecure ladies (and a growing number of men) from the contents of their wallets. So with that in mind, what does one find if you were to read ALL FRIGGIN' TWELVE 'Eat Clean' books Mz. Reno wrote in the space of 5 years?

First you need to step back and remind yourself of some basic truths.

There are three ways a food could negatively affect your health, longevity, or body composition.
1. Contributing to a caloric excess which leads to negative health problems from being overweight.
2. Causing nutrient deficiencies by diluting the nutrient density of your diet.
3. Directly interfering with your body’s functions, causing specific diseases, increasing fat gain, or accelerating aging.

Simply put, no food does any of these things, and all food does these things, because balance. Too much of something will cause excess calories to collect as fat. Too little of something will cause nutritional deficiencies. And if your eating something that messes with your functioning, it's probably not a food - its a drug. And yes, food can be so refined that it acts like a drug in your system. It's not a mere coincidence that the only simpler carb than sugar is alcohol.

Balance and moderation are what’s important, and the definition of both of these terms depends on who’s eating the food and how much they’re eating.

And it is that information gap -- balance and moderation varies culturally, physiologically and emotionally from person to person -- is where the lever to separate you from your cash lies. I guess if you are going to be a diet guru and make a living, you have to publish or perish. And if your going to make billions of dollars for a corporation with a food product, you better explore those drug-like effects of legal food to trade on it's addictive qualities. One may be hooking you, and the other may be unhooking you, but make no mistake, they both want the same thing for you: for you to pay them.
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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 3036

Too many sweets, but looking back it was a surprisingly stressful week, it was a reaction to that. Hopefully I can get back in the saddle next week, let's not beat myself up.

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MONDAY COUNT: 3260

SLEPT: 11pm-4am, 1:45pm-2:45pm, 6 hrs
After missing 2 weeks for legit reasons, got back on the horse and lifted this morning. A little bit disappointed about the over snacking in the evening, left over ice cream from the weekend…which actually now that I write that, is kinda amazing that I can have "left over ice cream", that's kinda a big deal. And I gave a little bit to E&E, for a rare weekday "ice cream party", which made it feel special.

AM SNACK: 4:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, fage yogurt with honey, almonds, vanilla, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, falafel, split pea soup, health salad, pickles, 620 cal 

PM SNACK: 3:30 pm, momma salad, Grazebox nut mix , 330 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, mahi mahi, asparagus, poppa salad with caesar dressing, 600 cal

EVENING GORGE: 7pm, 2 kind bars, half a pint of ice cream, +/- 800 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, popcorn, +/- 300 cal
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TUESDAY COUNT: 2840

SLEPT: 11pm-5am, 1:45pm-2:45pm, 7 hrs
Damn, second day of eating a sweet during the week. My eldest needed some intimacy and encouragement, and despite it involving sweets close to her bedtime, we cooked together for pretty much the first time. After I mised the cookies, she was able to unwrap the butter, pour in the sugars, crack an egg with only 1/2 of the shell falling in, add the chips (after tasting one to make sure our ingredients were good). Previous attempts at this were met with enthusiasm, but her lack of attention and coordination made her participation mostly eating -- I felt like tonight was the first time I actually met the potential Jr. Chef in my daughter.

I guess putting it that way, TOTES worth the cookie dough snarfing on a week night. Let's just not let it happen too often, ok?

AM SNACK: 6am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, mushroom curry,  pickles, 620 cal 

PM SNACK: 3:30 pm, momma salad, Grazebox nutmix , 320 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, grilled pork tenderloin,  roasted brussel sprouts, poppa salad with Italian dressing, 690 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, a few spoonfuls of chocolate chip cookie dough, 2 cookies, +/- 600 cal

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2760

SLEPT: 11pm-3am, 1:30-2:30pm, 5 hrs
Good day, but too bad about the ice cream. Hmmm.

AM SNACK: 3:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, Fage full fat yogurt with honey, vanilla and almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, grilled pork tenderloin, roasted brussel sprouts, quinoa, pickles, 770 cal 

PM SNACK: 3 pm, momma salad, Grazebox crackers , 210 cal

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, poppa salad with Cesar dressing, 170 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, old school dim sum, ice cream, +/- 1000 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 690
THURSDAY COUNT: 3160

SLEPT: 8:30pm-3am, 6.5 hr
Good ride, though knees a little achy. 

AM SNACK: 3:15am, iced green tea, 150mg caffeine, granola bar, 225 cal

BIKE SNACK: 4:30am, granola bar, 225 cal

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm,vegetarian meatballs, roasted broccoli and shitake mushrooms, Indian spinach and cheese, pickles, 695 cal 

PM SNACK: 3 pm, momma salad, Grazebox crackers , 210 cal

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, half of a poppa salad with Cesar dressing, 85 cal

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, raisin bran with whole milk, +/- 300 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, Stouffer's French Bread pizzas, lots of cookies, +/- 1500 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT: 3160

SLEPT: 9pm-12:30am, 1:30am-6am, 8 hr
Up in the middle of night, medicated with some TV. Too many cookies the night before.

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea,

BREAKFAST: 7am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, fruit smoothie, 500 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm,almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, pickles, health salad, 620 cal

PM SNACK: 3 pm, momma salad, cheezits , 310 cal

DINNER: 5:15pm, hot dog, fries, ice cream, +/- 1000 cal