Extremes of Adopting a 'Clean Food' Diet Causes Harm

It was three years ago that Rachael Devcich, 42-year-old Art Director and mother of two kids, got obsessively attached to extreme fitness sport, CrossFit.

The regime was so intense that even though she ate well, it left her very hungry. Following other of her cross fitter friends, she turned to the paleo diet.

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So, she began to eat more poultry, dairy, meat, sea food and fruits and vegetables.

She did away with processed food, grains, soy and pulses.

"At first I thought, 'Oh my God, that just sounds ridiculously limiting,"' she said.

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"But I tried it for a week and I'd never felt so good."

The Paleo is another version of clean eating approach to food, whose advocates are Kim Kardashian and Nicole Kidman.

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Mrs Devcich has begun a website,- cavegirl.co.nz - dedicated to the principles of clean eating. In this she speaks about the importance of eating clean food which is not chemically or heavily processed.

According to nutritionist and healthy food guide author Claire Turnbull, most principles of clean eating are healthy but the diet can have an adverse effect if it is not interpreted correctly or if it is taken to the extremes.

"There is no exact definition of what clean eating is," Ms Turnbull said. "It means different things to different people. A lot of it is tied up with the fitness industry, with personal trainers putting out their own guidelines. There are some very extremist points of view on this. You may be eliminating things you don't need to be eliminating, and it does create this obsession with eating. A lot of people I meet have created this very dysfunctional relationship with food by trying to follow these rules."

"We need sleep, we need exercise, we need low stress and we need routine, good food, fibre, green vegetables, antioxidants - we need all these things to be healthy. It is the healthy people who are trying to get healthier that these kind of messages go around with. Do they make a jot on national obesity rates - very, very unlikely,” nutritionist and healthy food guide author Claire Turnbull.

Source-Medindia