If I came across as provocative, then I apologize to all. It certainly was not my intent to be. I was only interested in learning as the lines sure can be blurry.

Carter's reasoning makes the most sense to me and is what I tend to follow when trying to decide if a particular item is "healthy" or just empty calories.

Larry,

I think of it as if it is something I could make or grow at home = not processed. I could raise chickens. I could bake bread with whole ingredients. I could grow veggies. But as a full time working mom with a husband, a house, and a full family/social life these things are not feesable for me.

Food with added chemicals to extend shelf life which add no nutritional value are foods I try to avoid. Mainly I focus on the three big ones: Trans. Fat, MSG and HFCS. I try to avoid those as much as possible.

I also think of it like this: if I am uncomfortable feeding my 2 yr old son something, then maybe I shouldn't be eating it, either.

No worries Larry. I feel like there's been a little "clean eating" backlash going on lately, so I've been a little sensitive about the issue since I am quite passionate about it myself.

We all just have to find the right balance for ourselves, and it's nice to have all the info. It can be hard though as there is a lot of info to sort through.

When I think about clean eating I think about foods that are allowed on my plan which would exclude all forms of milk, starchy vegetables, most fruits etc. If I have a clean day or week I have followed my plan. If we were comparing it to someone else's plan it would not be clean at all.

I am cutting out "processed" foods for lent, using these rules: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/rea...k-a-the-rules/

"Something I could make myself" is generally a good definition. I'm not actually going to make cheese on my own--but I could do it. However, I could not derive agar from seaweed, strip casein out of milk, or hydrolyze some vegetable protein to add to regular cheese to make it into reduced-fat "cheese product."

There's a place for cheese product, too, for those who don't mind it. I don't think that chemistry experiments are necessarily a bad thing--not when they're novel combinations or modifications of actual foods, like agar as a thickener or powdered peanut butter like PB2.

I agree that there's been a bit of clean-eating backlash (not really here, but at other sites and in articles I've read), but I think it's a product of "food policing" and ridiculous levels of food snobbery perpetrated by foodie magazines. I recently saw a picture of a sign at a coffee house stating that they would not be able to comply with requests to have a separate grinder for organic coffee beans. Separate grinders!? There are people out there whose coffee beans are too pure to be ground with the likes of my lowly conventionally-grown beans!? Eesh!

I used to work with a guy who told me that cooking food removes its "life force" and that he only eats raw--which is fine--but then he went on to critique MY lunch. That is not okay to do to another adult unasked--ever! My ham sandwich may have poisoned me slowly, but the lecture poisoned me quickly. :dizzy:

I shy away from extremism on both sides.

the only backlash i've noticed is on commercials trying to convince us that actually corn syrup is just corn sugar, which in the body is no different than ordinary sugar.

i really hate those mayo commercials proclaiming that commercially made mayo is 'real'. encouraging us to use it because we are trying to eat real food.
i would go with the definitions that if i can make it myself, if my great grandparent ate it, so on, it's real food. less processed. although these days it's hard to find any less processed food. even our plain old fashioned oatmeal comes in a container.

I think Michael Pollan's "Food Rules" are useful to help make decisions - what's the packaging (or lack thereof), how many ingredients, would our grandparents recognize this as food - but even he's changed some of his rules recently. And, of course, should ever I trust one person to give me all my "rules" for eating? ;)

I do try and think in terms of "eating clean" as opposed to "avoided processed food." I realize that may sound like semantics to some, but it's helped me psychologically to think that I'm ADDING something beneficial, instead of REMOVING something (that I may have found delicious). Also, as my journey has progressed, I have found that I get and stay fuller/more satisfied on less processed food.

All that being said, I'll stop using artificial sweeteners when you pry them from my cold, dead hands. :)

Totally random side note, but I think that making cheese is something everyone should try once. Homemade fresh mozzarella takes around 40 minutes, and is about a billion miles ahead of anything you can get in a store. And all of your friends will think you're a culinary demigod(ess) for doing it, when really, it's both simple and fun.

Sorry, I just never miss an opportunity to spread the idea that cheese CAN be made at home, and it's DELICIOUS. (end off-track sidenote)

I think it's a very good topic!

Though I think it's a better topic for the food forum so I'm moving it :)