Busts seven myths about diet fad

No evidence that grains are unhealthy, and gluten is a problem only when combined with other health problems, says expert

Search ‘#cleaneating’ on Instagram and over 27 million artsy posts of perfectly poured porridge, rainbow inspired smoothie bowls, and more will appear. But the clean eating trend, linked to celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and food bloggers like Deliciously Ella, has apparently reached its peak.

Those who follow the diet, which typically consists of cutting out processed foods and avoiding gluten, dairy and excess sugar, are encouraged to eat around five to six times a day, including a lean protein, plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, and a complex carbohydrate (such as lentils or peas) with each meal.

Nutritional therapist Amelia Freer says the trend is well intentioned: “The clean eating trend was born of a desire to reduce the amount of processed or junk foods we consume, and increase our intake of unprocessed wholefoods.

“There’s nothing very groundbreaking about that — indeed, it’s the same advice given to us by public health bodies. However, this simple message has turned out to be both a blessing and a curse.”

This distortion of the original clean eating message is the focus of a new BBC documentary, Clean Eating: The Dirty Truth.

In the programme, Dr. Giles Yeo from the University of Cambridge investigates the trend, getting straight to the heart of the matter by cooking with Ella Mills, better known as Deliciously Ella, sifting through the claims of the gluten and grain-free Hemsley sisters, and analysing the science behind Natasha Corrett’s ‘Honestly Healthy’ brand.

As the documentary progresses Dr. Yeo reveals just how closely the clean eating trend is based on scienctific evidence and comes to some shocking conclusions.

1

As arguably one of the names most associated with the clean eating phenomenon, it may come as a surprise that Ella Mills isn’t all that keen on the term.

In the documentary she says the clean eating movement has lost its way: “My problem with the word ‘clean’ is that its become too complicated, too loaded. Clean now implies dirty and that’s negative.

“I haven’t used it, but as far as I understood it when I first read the term, it meant natural, kind of unprocessed, and now it doesn’t mean that at all. It means diet. It means fad.”

2 Deliciously Ella doesn’t like the term ‘clean eating’: There’s no evidence grains are bad for you:

Dr William Davis, author of Wheat Belly, and a keen advocate of a completely grain-free diet believes that grains aren’t fit for human consumption and “are harming all of us, to some degree, without exception.

“We already have a connection to grains to at least some auto immune diseases.”

Dr Alessio Pasano, a pediatric gastroenterologist and researcher, and the man Dr. Davis credits with discovering evidence pointing towards grains being unhealthy, does not agree: “I’d be ecstatic if he’s right, but honestly I don’t think that is the case.”

3

The Hemsley sisters have previously stated that “grains are not as substantial a source of energy as people are led to believe”, but that doesn’t mean they think everyone should swear them off.

Though they didn’t appear in Dr. Yeo’s documentary, they did release a statement saying: “Grains are already abundant in a modern diet so our recipes celebrate other ingredients. We don’t believe in absolutes and no one way of eating suits everyone.”

4 The Hemsley sisters aren’t completely anti-grain: Bill Clinton is a fan of clean eating:

After suffering a heart attack, former president Bill Clinton decided to adopt a vegan diet and turned to The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. The diet is rich in nothing but beans, vegetables and fruits.

Deliciously Ella credits The China Study as one of the books that inspired her in the early days: “It was really interesting. I’d always liked science and it was full of science. It was the first time that I’d really understood that food could potentially have a really powerful effect, that wasn’t something I’d really considered before.” Despite coeliac disease only affecting around one per cent of the population, more and more of us are going gluten free. But, according to Dr Alessio Pasano, gluten alone isn’t enough to cause problems in the body.

“Gluten is only a problem if you have four other problems already: genetic predisposition, a leaky gut, a faulty immune system, and imbalanced gut microbes.”

5 Gluten, on its own, isn’t enough to cause health problems:

6

The alkaline eating movement, popularised by health writers such as Natasha Corrett through her Honestly Healthy brand, consists of eating certain alkaline or acidic foods (most fruits and vegetables) to bring the pH of the blood to a level of “slight alkalinity” supposedly putting less stress on the body’s mechanisms that are essential for good health.

This line of thinking has been championed by Dr Robert O Young who says “the human body in its perfect state of health is alkaline in its design.”

However, Dr Yeo found no research to back up Dr Young’s claims and called it “anti intellectual, anti fact, anti evidence based, and a very troubling narrative.”

7 Alkaline eating is “troubling”: It’s all just one (extremely popular) untested theory:

As popular as the clean eating trend has become over the years, the science has so far been unable to prove that it is any better for you than simply following a balanced diet, as recommended by the NHS.