I was standing in the wings, stage left, with a renowned functional medicine doctor and author, who we’ll call Dr. N.

She was about to go on stage for IIN Live at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the conference I helped produce and once emceed when I was working at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City.

We looked out into the VIP section and saw her daughter and my mom.

We all shared excited smiles.

There was a palpable warmth in the space.

These conferences took months of prep and were the biggest event of our year.

We had Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, Frank Lipman, Mark Hyman, Marie Forleo, Gabrielle Bernstein, and dozens of other household names. 

Talks were recorded and added to the curriculum – our Health Coach Training Program, which is the largest health coach training program in the world, graduating thousands of new health coaches every year.

The seeds of holistic nutrition, personal development, and marketing expertise I have today were planted as I watched those conferences as a student at IIN, and later, when I was helping to produce them.

The wisdom these speakers shared was mind-blowing to me.

I soaked it up like a sponge.

We had so much fun at those events: The theater was packed, energy was HIGH, and everyone was so excited and eager to be there.

It was almost like a rock concert for the health and wellness world.

My favorite moments were when I heard a renowned speaker share something completely unexpected.

That day on stage, Dr. N shared how important it is to expose your microbiome to a wide range of things, including… dirt?

She talked about how everything is too sanitized these days, too “clean,” especially in the United States.

We don’t want to kill 99% of bacteria, like it says on so many cleaning products.

We want to wipe out the bad bacteria while maintaining the good bacteria.

This often involves using natural products that respect the microbiome, and in general, leaving sh*t alone more often – including ourselves.

There’s magic in doing less.

In letting your body do its thing, as it’s designed.

Dr. N went on to share an anecdote about eating food off the ground as a kid in the country, and how it was probably good for the gut to be exposed to some dirt.

Today I woke up thinking about that moment, and how it’s connected to “dirtying” up your diet, rather than always eating super “clean.”

I’m unlikely to eat something off the ground (depends on which ground) but “dirtying” up my diet in other ways has healed my eating disorder, balanced my hormones, and improved my health.

The term “clean eating” has become a toxic trend, because it implies that certain foods are dirty and bad, setting off good girl-bad girl triggers that can lead to restrict-overeat cycles.

The truth is that eating too “clean” can cause health issues – it did for me.

Growing up – and really until my 20s – I ate very “clean” for the most part.

It was natural to me.

My family was macrobiotic when I was super little, until I was about 4-years-old.

After that we slowly started branching out to include more foods, but I was hesitant.

As a little kid I would only eat the egg whites, and I didn’t even want tomato sauce on my pasta – plain, please.

It wasn’t a diet thing back then – I just had a sensitive stomach and was used to simple foods.

We also didn’t eat dairy or processed foods like candy, except on rare occasions.

In fact, I used to hide candy in my room and binge on it, because I wasn’t allowed to eat it – a classic forbidden fruit scenario.

It’s not that I wasn’t allowed any sweets, they were just always “clean” or at least gourmet, made with high quality ingredients.

Then in high school, my tendency to eat “clean” developed into an eating disorder.

I would restrict to very low calories and only “clean” foods, eventually binge on anything and everything, then purge or overexercise.

This went on for nearly a decade.

In my early to mid 20s, intuitive eating helped me gradually break the restrict-overeat-purge cycle.

First I committed to eating what my body was asking for, rather than trying to follow a set plan where certain foods weren’t allowed.

Any food was officially on the table, after years of back-and-forth, being “on” or “off” a diet.

I also promised myself I wouldn’t purge no matter what, even if I overate and felt uncomfortable.

I made this commitment because I could tell that yo-yo’ing and purging were literally breaking down my body by creating an acidic environment.

By focusing on that one commitment – to give myself freedom with food, and that one devotion – to not purge, within a few years I completely stopped restricting, binging (or even overeating), and purging.

Over the past 5 years, living abroad and traveling often, I’ve broadened my diet even more, including foods that I never ate with any frequency in the past. 

Even after committing to intuitive eating, there were foods that literally weren’t on my radar, because I hadn’t eaten them in so long, if ever.

Today my diet is pretty “dirty” – in a good way.

I certainly don’t concern myself with eating “clean.”

I almost always prefer high quality ingredients and often crave vegetables or don’t feel like bread and dairy on a given day, but it’s not a mental choice, it’s a gut-level choice.

I go with what my body is asking for or filtering out at any given moment – and it changes a lot.

No food is off the table.

If I want a churro on the street, or a burrito that used to be difficult to fathom eating, or pizza, or whatever, I eat it.

I tune in deep, and I seek out good ingredients, but it’s not a fixation – they just taste better and feel better in my body, the majority of the time.

Eating this way has deeply served me and improved my health.

My hormone health has never been better…

My monthly cycles have never been healthier…

… and hormone health is one of the best and biggest indicators of overall health.

As a teenager, I didn’t get my cycle until very late, and then I lost it due to overexercise and PCOS.

It returned after a ~year, but then was very irregular until my mid to late twenties.

In fact, I feel like I didn’t really come into my adult body until my late 20s, after years of eating more broadly – more dairy, different meats, fried foods, gluten, vegetables, beans, sugar – just more variety.

Period.

Even with all the progress we’ve made in rejecting diet culture, I still hear “clean eating” talked about as the golden standard, and even as an antidote to diet culture: “Don’t diet, just eat ‘clean’.”

It’s so insidious, and so toxic.

The truth is that constant “clean eating” can lead to:

• Overeating
• Binging
• Purging
• Unhealthy fixation
• Orthorexia
• Other eating disorders

There’s a spectrum: You don’t have to develop a full ED for it to be an unhealthy fixation, and you deserve to live in a state of freedom with food and your body.

Eating too “clean” for your unique constitution and condition can also push your body to detox too fast.

This can lead to acne flares, digestive upset, unwanted weight gain, unwanted weight loss, hormone imbalance, and many more symptoms.

Our bodies detox by themselves all the time.

Contrary to popular marketing, you don’t need to be in an ongoing state of self-induced detox.

A constant barrage of health foods like raw veggies and juice can simply be too much on your system.

Your liver and kidneys already know what to do – they don’t need to constantly be pummeled, pressured, and squeezed by raw kale, lemon, and ginger.

A lot of foods that have been demonized – like high-quality fatty meat and dairy – are actually crucial for supporting our nervous systems and overall health.

These foods support deep health, stability, and calm in an anxious, overburdened world.

Think of a French woman who’s never dieted before, eats brie, liver, baguette, croissants, chocolate, vegetables, street food in Morocco, and even fast food in a pinch.

She’s in great health, has never had an eating disorder, and has always been around the same weight.

That paints a picture of healthy “dirty” eating.

You have a unique dietary profile that works best for you: A mix of foods that nourishes you on every level – physical, mental, and emotional.

What you thought was “bad” or “dirty” might be exactly what you need – especially if you have ongoing symptoms like acne, digestive issues, and fatigue.

That was the case for me: The foods I was avoiding became my medicine.

With the right individualized approach to food and the right mindset, your body naturally does all the detoxing you need, on a regular basis.

When you’re in your groove and tapped into your food intuition, there’s no need to go on a “cleanse” or “detox.”

If anything, pausing heavy liver burdens like caffeine and alcohol can be the relief your body needs, if you’re feeling sluggish and know you’ve been out of touch with your food intuition.

Adding in more nutrients isn’t always a bad thing, but fixating on them, demonizing certain foods, and pushing your body to detox too fast can do more harm than most people realize… and understandably so.

How could detoxing be bad? How could “clean eating” be toxic?

We’re constantly getting marketing messages that we need to eat “clean,” detox, and cleanse, when really, your body has your back, when you listen to its signals.

We don’t need to go to extreme measures to support vibrant health…

… but when companies pretend like we do, it certainly adds billions to bottom lines in the health and wellness industry.

I’m calling BS on “clean eating.”

Let’s eat real.

Let’s eat broad.

Let’s eat what works for us, adapting from day to day.

Let’s take the time to slow down and listen to our bodies.

Let’s enjoy food, our bodies, and our lives.

Let’s be real.

Let’s be a little “dirty.”

Are you attached to eating “clean” or even fixated on it?

Were you in the past? :: raises hand ::

I would love to get a little window into your journey – feel free to comment below.

We’ve all fallen prey to “clean eating” marketing at some point or another, and it feels so good to be on the other side of it.

With love from Brazil,
Lula