1. Orthorexia and the New Rules of Clean Eating (Part 2)
By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com
In part one, I described the growing obsession many people have with eating only the purest,
healthiest foods, aka “clean eating.” You’d think that nothing but good would come from that,
but some experts today dislike the concept of clean foods because it implies a dichotomy where
other foods, by default, are “dirty” or forbidden - as in, you can never, ever eat them again
(imagine life without chocolate, or pizza… or beer! you guys). Some physicians and psychologists
even believe that if taken to an extreme, a fixation on healthy food qualifies as a new eating
disorder called orthorexia.
Personally, I have no issues with the phrase “clean eating.” Even if you choose to eat clean nearly
100% of the time, I don’t see how that qualifies as a psychological disorder of any kind (I reckon
people who eat at McDonalds every day are the ones who need a shrink).
However, I also think you would agree that any behavior - washing your hands, cleaning your
house, or even exercise or eating health food - can become obsessive-compulsive and
dysfunctional if it takes over your life or is taken to an extreme. In the case of diet and exercise, it
could also lead to or overlap with anorexia.
It’s debatable whether orthorexia is a distinct eating disorder, but I’m not against using the word
to help classify a specific type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. I think it’s real.
The truth is that many people are quite “enthusiastic” in defending – or preaching about - their
dietary beliefs: no meat, no grains, no dairy, only organic, only raw, only what God made, and on
and on the rigid all-or-nothing rules go.
What people choose to eat is often so sacred to them, it makes for tricky business when you’re a
nutrition educator. Sometimes I don’t feel like telling anyone what to eat, but simply setting a
personal example and showing people how I do it, like, “Hey guys, here is how natural
bodybuilders eat to get so ripped and muscular. It may not suit you, but it works for us. Take it or
leave it.”
On the other hand, I can’t help feeling that there’s got to be a way to better help the countless
individuals who haven’t yet formulated their own philosophies, and who find nutrition
overwhelmingly confusing. For many people, even a simple walk down the aisles of a grocery
store, and trying to decipher the food labels and nutrition claims is enough to trigger an anxiety
attack.

2. That’s where I hope this is useful. I can’t draw the line for you, or tell you what to eat, but I can
suggest a list of “new rules” for clean eating which simplifies nutrition and clears up confusion,
while giving you more freedom, balance, life enjoyment and better results at the same time.
New Rule #1: Define what clean eating means to you
Obviously, clean eating is not a scientific term. Most people define clean eating as avoiding
processed foods, chemicals and artificial ingredients and choosing natural foods, the way they
came out of the ground or as close to their natural form as possible. If that works for you, then
use it. However, the possible definitions are endless. I’ve seen forum arguments about whether
protein powder is “clean.” Arguments are a waste of time. Ultimately, what clean eating means
is up to you to define. Whether your beliefs and values have you restrict or expand on the
general definition, define it you must, keeping in mind that your definition may be different than
other’s.
New Rule #2: Always obey the law of energy balance
There’s one widely held belief about food that hurts people and perpetuates the obesity
problem because it’s simply not true. It’s the idea that calories don’t matter for weight loss, as
long as you eat certain foods or avoid certain foods. Some people think that if you eat only clean
foods, you’re guaranteed to lose weight and stay lean. The truth is that eating too much of
anything gets stored as fat. Yes, you can become obese eating 100% clean, natural foods. There’s
more to good nutrition than calories in versus calories out, but the energy balance equation is
always there.
New Rule #3: Remember that “foods” are not fattening, “excess calories” are
There’s a widespread fear today that certain foods will automatically turn into fat.
Carbohydrates – particularly refined carbohydrates and sugars - are still high on the hit list of
feared foods, and so are fatty foods, owing to their high caloric density (9 calories per gram).
Foods that contain fat and sugar (think donuts) are considered the most fattening of all. But
what if you ate only one small donut and stayed in a calorie deficit for the day – would you still
say that donut was fattening?
If you want to say certain foods are fattening, you certainly can, but what you really mean is that
some foods are calorie dense, highly palatable, not very satiating and eating them might even
stimulate your appetite for more (betcha can’t eat just one!). Therefore, they’re likely to cause
you to eat more calories than you need. Conversely, “non-fattening” foods have no magical
properties, they’re simply low in caloric density, highly filling and non-appetite stimulating.
New Rule #4: Understand the health-bodyfat paradox
Two of the biggest reasons people choose to eat clean are health and weight loss. Health and
body composition are intertwined, but dietary rules for health and weight loss are not one in the
same. Weight gains or losses are dictated primarily by calorie quantity. Health is dictated

3. primarily by calorie quality. That’s the paradox: You can lose weight on a 100% junk food diet,
but that doesn’t mean you’ll be healthy. You can get healthier on an all natural clean food diet,
but that doesn’t mean you won’t gain weight… and if you gain too much weight, then you start
getting unhealthy. To be healthy and lean requires the right combination of calorie quantity and
quality, not one or the other.
New Rule #5: Forbidden foods are forbidden.
Think of you on a diet like a pressure cooker on a burner. The longer you keep that pot on the
heat, the more the steam builds up inside. If there’s no outlet or release valve, eventually the
pressure builds up so much that even if it’s made of steel and the lid is bolted down, she’s gonna
blow, sooner or later. But if you let off a little steam by occasionally having that slice of pizza or
whatever is your favorite food, that relieves the pressure.
Alas, you never even felt the urge to binge… because you already had your pizza and the urge
was satisfied. Since the “cheat meal” was planned and you obeyed the law of calorie balance,
you stayed in control and it had little or no effect on your fat loss results. Ironically, you
overcome your cravings by giving in to them, with two caveats: not too often and not too much.
New Rule #6: Set your own compliance rule
Many health and nutrition professionals suggest a 90% compliance rule because if you choose
clean foods 90% of the time, it’s easy to control your calories, you consume enough nutrients for
good health, and what you eat the other 10% of the time doesn’t seem to matter much. Suppose
you eat 3 meals and 2 snacks every day, a total of 35 feedings per week. 90% compliance would
mean following your clean eating plan for about 31 or 32 of those weekly feedings. The other 3
or 4 times per week, you eat whatever you want (as long as you obey rule #2 and keep the
calories in check)
You’ll need to decide for yourself where to set your own rule. A 90% compliance rule is a popular,
albeit arbitrary number – a best guess at how much “clean eating” will give you optimal health.
Some folks stay lean and healthy with 80%. Others say they don’t even desire junk food and they
eat 99% clean, indulging perhaps only once or twice a month.
One thing is for certain – the majority of your calories should come from natural nutrient-dense
foods – not only for good health, but also because what you eat most of the time becomes your
habitual pattern. Habit patterns are tough to break and what you do every day over the long
term is what really counts the most.
New Rule #7: Have “free” meals, not “cheat” meals
Cheating presupposes that you’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. That’s why
you feel guilty when you cheat. Guilt can be one of the biggest diet destroyers. Consider
referring to these meals that are off your regular plan as “free meals” instead of “cheat meals.” If
having free meals is part of your plan right from the start, then you’re not cheating are you? So

4. don’t call it that. What can you eat for your free meals? Anything you want. Otherwise, it
wouldn’t truly be a free meal, would it?
People sometimes tell me that my bodybuilding diet and lifestyle are “too strict.” I find that
amusing because I love eating clean 95-99% of the time and I consider it easy. I had a butter-
drizzled steak, a glass of wine, and chocolate sin cake for dessert to celebrate my last birthday. I
had a couple slices of pizza just four weeks before my last competition (and still stepped on stage
at 4.5% body fat). Oh, and I’m really looking forward to my mom’s pumpkin pie and Christmas
cake too. Why? How? Because as strict as my lifestyle might appear to some people, I’ve learned
how to enjoy free meals and I will eat ANYTHING I want - with no guilt. Meanwhile, my critics are
often people with rules that NEVER allow those foods to ever cross their lips.
New Rule #8: For successful weight control, focus on compliance to a calorie deficit, not just compliance to a food
list
Dietary compliance doesn’t just mean eating the right foods, it means eating the right amount of
food. You might be doing a terrific job at eating only the foods “authorized” by your nutrition
program, but if you eat too many “clean” foods, you will still get fat. On the fat loss side of
health-bodyfat paradox, the quantity of food is the pivotal factor, not the quality of food. If fat
loss is your goal and you’re stubbornly determined to be 100% strict about your nutrition, then
be 100% strict about maintaining your calorie deficit.
Lesson #9: Avoid all or none attitudes and dichotomous thinking
If you make a mistake, it doesn’t ruin an entire 12 week program, a whole week and not even an
entire day. What ruins a program is thinking that you must either be on or off your diet and
allowing one meal off your program to completely derail you. All or nothing thinking is the great
killer of diet programs.
Even if they don’t believe that one meal will set them back physically, many “clean eaters” feel
like a single cheat is a moral failure. They are terrified to eat any processed foods because they
look at foods as good or bad rather than looking at the degree of processing or the frequency of
consuming them.
Rest assured, a single meal of ANYTHING, if the calories don’t exceed your energy needs, will
have virtually no impact on your condition. It’s not what you do occasionally, it’s what you do
most of the time, day after day, that determines your long term results.
New Rule #10: Focus more on results, less on methods
I’m not sure whether it’s sad or laughable that most people get so married to their methods that
they stop paying attention to results. Overweight people often praise their diet program and the
guru that created it, even though they’ve plateaud and haven’t lost any weight in months, or the
weight they lost has begun to creep back on. Health food fanatics keep eating the same, even
when they’re sick and weak and not getting any stronger or healthier.

5. Why would someone continue doing more of the same even when it’s not working? One word:
habit! Beliefs and behavior patterns are so ingrained at the unconscious level, you repeat the
same behaviors every day virtually on automatic pilot. Defending existing beliefs and doing it the
way you’ve always done it is a lot easier than changing.
In the final analysis, results are what counts: weight, body composition, lean muscle,
performance, strength, blood pressure, blood lipids, and everything else you want to improve.
Are they improving or not? If not, perhaps it’s time for a change.
Concluding words of wisdom
We need rules. Trying to eat “intuitively” or just “wing it” from the start is a recipe for failure.
Ironically, intuitive eating does not come intuitively. Whether you use my Burn The Fat, Feed the
Muscle program or a different program that suits your lifestyle better, you must have a plan.
After following your plan for a while, your constructive new behaviors eventually turn over to
unconscious control (a process commonly known as developing habits). But you’ll never reach
that hallowed place of “unconscious competence” unless you start with planning, structure,
discipline and rules.
Creating nutritional rules does NOT create more rule breakers. Only unrealistic or unnecessary
rules create rule breakers. That’s why these new rules of clean eating are based on a neat
combination of structure and flexibility. If you have too much flexibility and not enough structure,
you no longer have a plan. If you have too much structure and not enough flexibility, you have a
plan you can’t stick with.
To quickly sum it all up: Relax your diet a bit! But not too much!
Tom Venuto, author of:
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent
nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat,
Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-
book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the
world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase
your metabolism by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com