Debunking the Myth of Clean and Dirty Foods

Debunking the Myth of Clean and Dirty Foods

Nick Smoot-Owner of Smoot Fitness

Smootfitness.com

Email: nsmoot2@gmail.com

Alright I want to set the record straight right from the beginning; there is no such thing as a clean or dirty food!  Now I know someone reading this just choked on a stock of broccoli, and another is frantically typing hate mail that I will receive momentarily.  That’s fine.  For those that choose to read this article with an open mind, I want you to answer a question.  How exactly do you define a food as either “clean” or “dirty?”    Is your decision based upon the ingredient list, fat content, amount of simple sugars, how processed the food is?  To me, food is food.  Do some food choices have more micronutrient density and fiber than others?  Yes.  Do some foods have a lower caloric density, and therefore allow you to eat a higher volume of food for less overall calories?  Yes.  Are some protein sources a higher quality than others?  Yes.  Is any one food more fattening than another?  NO!!!!!  Your body does not know the difference between a bowl of oatmeal and a pack of skittles.  All it can tell is the QUANITY of macronutrients (protein, carbs, fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) it is being given.  There are many factors that determine a person’s food choices, and the media’s opinion of whether a food is good or bad is not one of them.

Always Focus on the Big Picture

When it comes to healthiness of a nutrition plan (or lack thereof), it is your entire intake as a whole that is either healthy or unhealthy, not one individual component.  Everyone needs a certain amount of micronutrients and fiber to keep their body functioning at an optimal level.  If 85 to 90 percent of your food intake comes from a large variety of nutrient dense whole foods, you will be providing your body all of the nutrients it needs to run on all cylinders.  Once micronutrient and fiber needs are met, there is nothing wrong with filling the other 10 to 15 percent of your intake with less nutrient rich options.  Eating a cupcake every day will have no negative effects on your health.  On the other hand, eating a box of cupcakes, a few packs of honey buns, and two bags of Doritos as your main carb sources every day is a recipe for disaster.  Now notice I said “every day.”  A quote I heard a long time ago was that “one good day of eating won’t build a good physique, and one bad day of eating will not ruin one.”  The same principle can be applied to the effects of food choices on human health.  Failing to meet micronutrient and fiber needs for a week is not going to make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.  If it had immediate effects, I might not have made to Christmas this year after the Thanksgiving holiday.  However, spending months and years eating like a five year old child is similar to swallowing a hand grenade.  Use common sense.  Eat unprocessed nutrient rich foods the majority of the time, anything else the minority of the time, and you will maintain a high level of physical and mental health.

Fat Loss Depends on the Quantity of Food

We have all seen those ads claiming there are “10 foods you should never eat” or “5 foods that burn the most fat.”  If you are someone who has read and/or believe this information, you might want to try eating pineapple skin as the thorns have been shown to blow through visceral fat on the way through your system.  If you just put pineapple skin in your mouth, please stop reading this article and go to the emergency room because you could very possibly have some internal bleeding.  When it comes to fat loss alone, the quantities of the foods a person eats are much more important than the food sources.  Now before you throw your laptop against the wall in fury at that last comment, let me explain.  Everyone needs a certain amount of macronutrients and calories each day to either maintain, gain, or lose weight.  As an example, lets take a girl who begins a fat loss phase eating about 2500 calories, 185 grams of protein, 65 grams of fat, and 300 grams of carbs.  As long as she hits her macro and caloric targets (regardless of food choice) she will lose weight.  However, just as you can’t forget to put on clothes before you walk in to a job interview (there is no situation in which that could possibly end well), you cannot forget about health when constructing a fat loss plan.  Health ALWAYS comes before aesthetic goals, and there are no exceptions.  No matter what your macro and caloric targets are, you still must meet your micronutrient and fiber needs.  Therefore, the lower your food intake gets, the larger the percentage of nutrient dense whole foods you must consume in order to maintain optimal health.  The reason for not eating as much so called “junk food” during a fat loss phase is not because those foods are any more fattening than sweet potatoes and chicken breast.  Most people simply don’t have a large enough food intake while cutting to eat those foods while still staying healthy AND reaching their fat loss goals.

The 4000+ Calorie Crowd

If you are an athlete or someone with a physical labor job, you will require much more food than someone who sits at a desk all day.  A lot of your require well over 3000 calories to maintain your weight; sometimes upwards of 6000-7000.  That is a lot of food.  Now a person with that large of a metabolic capacity is going to have no problem consuming enough nutrient rich foods to maintain their health, but reaching their caloric goal for the day will be a tough challenge.  You know that feeling you get when you scarf down too much food at a restaurant and your only hope of making it out of the front doors is on top of a wheel barrel?  Take that feeling, multiply it by 100, and you now have the feeling of 4000+ calories of nothing but “healthy” food.  An athlete will not perform his best (or at all) if he is bloated like a pregnant woman, and neither is someone who does physical labor in the heat every day.  Processed and less nutrient rich foods have a high caloric density, allowing you to get in a lot more calories in the form of a small volume of food.  To give you an example, 60 grams of carbs from oatmeal makes a decently large bowl, where 60 grams of carbs from skittles is a tiny pack.  Once enough nutrient dense foods are eaten to meet micronutrient and fiber needs, eating “junk food” is the only way many people can reach their caloric target and still function in their day to day life.

Summing Up

I have said it once and I will say it again; there is no such thing as a clean or dirty food.  There are nutrient dense foods and less nutrient dense foods, and you must figure out the food choices that are right for you based on your lifestyle and current goals.  Fuel your body with the nutrients it needs to function, and always remember that balance is the key to health and success.