The 80:20 principle of clean eating

Eating healthy clean and nutrient-rich food fills your body with energy, nutrients and antioxidants. Imagine your cells smiling back at you saying 'Thanks!'

• "I reward my body by training hard and eating clean... because I'm worth it.''
• "Junk food you've craved for an hour or the body you've craved for a lifetime? Your decision.''
• "What you eat in private is eventually what you wear in public".
• "Eat clean, look lean". 

These are just a few of the many ''clean eating'' motivational quotes on the online site Pinterest. Clean eating is incredibly photogenic – those colourful fruit smoothies, stunning salad bowls and rainbow plates of virtuous veggies look fabulous online! Young bloggers have fuelled the "clean eating" movement like never before. It has quickly become more than just a way of eating and is now a fully-fledged aspirational lifestyle with huge commercial influence and millions of online followers.

The dangers of clean eating claims 

Clean eating claims are sometimes so extreme that they are easy to debunk. A "cancer-fighting cherry berry smoothie'', for example, has absolutely no basis in medical fact. Although cherries are known to contain micronutrients that have been shown to have chemopreventive properties to interfere with disease, a cherry smoothie cannot do much to fight cancer. As anyone who is suffering from or has lost someone to cancer will tell you, it takes more than a smoothie to fight these painful and complex conditions. 

Quite apart from the fact that there is no scientific proof behind the clean eating 'rules' - as no foods are intrinsically clean or dirty, vir- twous or sinful, good or bad - they can also have a dangerous impact on mental health. No one would argue that eating more fruit and vegetables is anything but beneficial, but in those already prone to food anxiety, these principles are dangerous. Clean eating can become a gateway into disordered eating and mental illness.

Avoidance of "processed" food, one of the main tenets of clean eating, can easily morph into a raw-food diet, for example. Eating only whole foods or "real" foods becomes increasingly restrictive. Suddenly carbohydrates like pasta are being replaced by spiralised courgetti, solids are being juiced or all food is avoided after six o'clock in the evening. Vulnerable individuals or those desperate to lose weight find themselves sliding into these abnormal nutritional habits. They may become phobic about certain foods or entire food groups, putting themselves at risk of deficiencies. Essential macronutrients carbohydrates, protein and fat -are often dangerously lacking in plant-based, raw-food or vegan diets.

The 80:20 principle

Remember, food doesn't need to be super-healthy or virtuous all the time! The 80:20 rule is a reasonable guide to follow, whereby you eat nutritious food 80% of the time and allow yourself to indulge in treats 20% of the time. It's hardly scientific, but it makes sense – and it works within normal life.

The 80:20 principle is a really useful framework, especially for anyone who has had disordered eating in the past, as it encourages you to fill up on nutritious whole foods, but not to deprive yourself or ban "naughty" foods. Life becomes miserable when you can't eat what you love and many of us have learned that our hearts need cake and kale!