Clean eating describes the way I (do my best to) eat, though I never used that phrase to describe it before. You might be a clean-eater, too, and not even realize it: In a nutshell, it's eating simple meals made of real, fresh ingredients, and avoiding overly processed foods, refined sugars, and grains that aren't whole. Veggies are emphasized, though "clean" meats and whole grains are fair game, too.
I cook this way because of two influences in my life: My mom, a farm-raised from-scratch cook who keeps a garden and cans for winter, (though she uses refined sugars and white flours), my high school best friend's mom, who did the from-scratch thing, but only cooked with whole grains and natural sugars (honey, maple syrup, apple sauce - that kind of thing). I acknowledge that I am lucky to have had good food influences in my life, but I am really surprised that we've become so far removed from this kind of cooking that it's become a movement.
I'm part a friend's clean eating FB group, and a lot of the conversations there have surprised me. The folks in the group, many in their 30s and well-educated, are learning that pumpkin pie spice is actually just made up of a combo of spices you already have in your pantry, and they're sharing recipes for things like oatmeal, turkey pita pockets with spinach, granola, and peanut butter on a whole wheat english muffin. It's cool what they're doing, and I'm happy to be part of it (and pick up a few new recipes along the way). I'm surprised at what a huge deal we're making of a "clean eating" lifestyle, which is really just basic home economics, but a little more thoughtful.
As unpleasant as the realities of processed food are, it did have its place in history in freeing women from domestic kitchen tasks and allowing them the free time to pursue education, careers, and civic engagement. The push to celebrate better living through food chemistry took off somewhere around mid-century, so I wonder how long it took home cooks to start rebelling and how radical, "clean eating" chefs from previous generations appeared to their processed-food embracing peers. Were they considered silly for being chained to the stove rather than making a TV dinner and getting on with it? Wasteful for spending more money on fresh ingredients than the cheaper, processed equivalent? (Was the processed equivalent actually cheaper in the middle of the last century?)
I haven't found a way to voice this to the group politely (and I don't see the point because what they're doing is good), so I'm bringing it here. Do you all cook? Do you consider yourself part of a movement because you cook, or is it just a thing you do?
These are the things I think about when I should be reading for next week's class. I'm really interested to hear what you all think.