Clean eating

I've seen a lot of articles recently about 'clean' eating. One post said that the trend started in the 1960s although it did not become mainstream until fifty years later. Another said that it's not a diet, but a new, healthy way of eating.

I researched further, and discovered that 'clean' eating is what I consider normal eating. It means using fresh ingredients, avoiding additives, and drinking plenty of water. That's how I grew up (in the 1960s....) and how we've always lived. Most of my friends do too. It's not that 'clean' eating began fifty years ago, but that the opposite - unclean living? - started perhaps a hundred years ago. Cooking from scratch (as they say in the United States) is the default, historically and also in the culture where I grew up.

I hadn't seen packets and jars of ready-mixes until I was in my teens.  I didn't even know that jam or mincemeat could be bought ready-made until I was about fifteen or sixteen. I had never eaten a cake made from a boxed 'mix' until I was in my thirties, when we spent a couple of years in the US. I was offered several, and thought them all tasteless, other than having an unpleasantly chemical-like after-taste.

But since 'clean eating' is a current trend, along with increased concern about ultra-processed foods and additives, I might as well jump on the bandwagon. This blog contains recipes that mostly require real ingredients. Sometimes it includes processed ingredients such as passata, for convenience, or spreads rather than butter; but as far as possible I avoid anything classed as ultra-processed. 

I welcome trends that encourage organic foods where possible, as well as buying fresh fruits and vegetables, using real herbs and spices. Whatever your dietary needs and wishes, whether omnivore, vegetarian, dairy-free, vegan or gluten-free, you will benefit from avoiding ready-made pre-processed foods and making your own. Not only will you be healthier, and spend less money, but you'll find the real flavours so much nicer.

I didn't start making my own tomato ketchup until 2011, but once I started, I would never return to even the best of ready-made ketchup.  I occasionally drink some of my home-made lemonade; I don't touch commercial squashes or cordials.  Home made nut butters and nut milks are more nutritious and much less expensive than packaged equivalents, although I sometimes buy them (checking ingredients carefully) for convenience. 

I don't often go along with modern dietary trends; too many are short-lived and prove eventually to be unhealthy or unnecessary. But I am wholeheartedly in favour of clean eating, and of avoiding anything ultra-processed.