When promoting health, be wary of moral judgements

I take issue with the term “clean” in the trendy Clean Eating movement. 

Same goes for “dirty” in the infamous Dirty Dozen list of chemicals on fruits and vegetables and its lesser known sister, The Clean 15.

Here’s why: “‘Clean’ started as a religious concept with a strong moral valence. It didn’t become associated with health and hygiene in any real sense until we learned about germ theory about 150 years ago,” James Hamblin, author of Clean: The New Science of Skin, said in a July 21 Social Distance podcast episode by The Atlantic. “Since then, it’s been a slow growth of a lot of habits and practices that we sort of associate vaguely with health and hygiene and preventing infectious disease, but in many common uses today, it’s actually just a sort of a judgmental term that we use to say who is acceptable and who is not.”

Let’s be careful how we market our healthy food in this age when consumers seek more vitamin C-packed citrus as well as ginger, garlic and turmeric for their immunity-boosting attributes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

All fresh produce is healthy by its very nature — unless you have an allergy, say, to the raw skins of stone fruit, like my friend does.

Despite my misgivings at this terminology, I jumped at the chance to participate in the Viva Fresh Clean Eating Challenge by the Texas International Produce Association.

The competition is about showcasing and supporting industry professionals for six months as they try to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their diets and strive for other health goals.

It’s what we all want consumers to do so our businesses can grow. But we have to live it ourselves, too, and it’s not easy. 

That’s why I decided to overlook the “clean” term and join in the spirit of Viva Fresh’s challenge.

I love that participants create their own personal health goals.

This challenge is not necessarily about losing weight to fit into those skinny jeans.

OK, fine, I do somewhat aspire a return to my pre-pregnancy body, but what really motivated me to join was I want to be strong and healthy to keep up with my baby boy.

As a middle-aged mom, I want to be better able to hold my growing 20-plus pound child on my hip, squat down and pick up his dropped bottle and lift us back up.

I want my baby to eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, and the easiest way to do that is to eat more of them myself.

I want more accountability and a support network to stay on top of these goals. Consistency and perseverance, and — ha — baby steps are the ways toward longterm success.

What doesn’t work, for the long haul at least, is shaming. 

Ice cream isn’t “bad.” Neither is most conventional produce “dirty.”

You know what guilt-free food is? Any food, if you have the right mindset.

I was somewhat comforted that the Viva Fresh challenge addressed my concern on vivacleaneating.com, calling it a “lifestyle for better, healthier choices…whole, real foods,” and “clean eating does not need to mean total elimination.”

Clean eating may be widely propagated in social media and popular press, but it’s a “potentially risky dietary strategy” and is associated with disordered eating, according to a June 2019 article in the Journal of Eating Disorders.

We may have good intentions, but let’s be careful when we create our promotions through this coronavirus, cold and flu-filled winter. 

— Amy Sowder is the Northeast editor of The Packer. You can reach her at asowder@farmjournal.com.