I can’t tell if this is just me, but I don’t feel any perceived difference when I’m eating clean for a long period of time.
I do notice a short term “sluggishness” when eating a heavy cheat meal. Which goes away after an hour or so. But I don’t feel any sort of perceived short term or long term benefit (outside of body composition) when eating really clean, nutritiously dense food.
Unless the benefit is avoiding that hour or so of sluggishness? Anyone else in my boat? Or anything I should be looking for?
Same. I usually eat a pretty balanced, healthy diet but I’ve gone through phases where my diet is VERY healthy or VERY unhealthy and my body usually just feels the same - no bloating, discomfort, energy changes, mood changes, etc. I only tend to feel bad when my portion sizes are way too big, healthy choices or otherwise. I’ve always considered myself to have an “iron stomach” because nothing seems to effect it negatively.
Yup. I don’t notice much if my diet shifts. I don’t even notice much having a little caffeine or a lot. Still, I have faith that in the long run it makes a difference; hopefully that faith is not misplaced!
That said, it’s probably also true that my less clean times are pretty clean by American standards.
P.S. This always raises the question for me of whether not noticing a difference is because it’s really not there or because I’m not attuned enough to notice the difference. My body awareness (not image, but interoception, etc.) is not great…but it’s not awful. So I expect it’s some combination of those two.
I’m in the same boat.
My experience with friends and family is that when people switch to a “clean” diet, that also results in a dramatic reduction of their daily fat intake, which basically reduces the frequency of the low-energy states that you described. Those low-energy states are fully a thing. They’re what contribute to the food-hangover feeling people get after a big lunch, after Thanksgiving dinner, etc.
I certainly don’t partake in “clean” eating, but my daily fat intake is only in the 50g-80g range, so a switch in diet to fewer processed items and a higher ration of whole food would yield pretty negligible results when judging how I feel.
The fat -> lethargy thing is mentioned in a middle paragraph here.
https://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/features/eat-to-boost-your-energy
Not noted here is just the tremendous placebo effect of this kind of stuff. If thousands of social-media influencer types tell you that eliminating sugar from your diet changes how you feel, you’re psychologically hunting for that feeling when you cut your sugar intake.
Try to eat like shit, gain weight, stop exercising for a long period of time and compare with how you feel right now.
I eat healthy almost every day and have done so my entire life. I do not feel any different since I have nothing else to compare with.
Our perception of how we notice things comes from our self talk. Our purpose of why we are eating clean and how we express, to ourself, if we are proud of eating clean, or is it a forced thing and we don’t like it, but know we need to. And consistency of eating clean. My taste buds evolve into a desire to eat clean more often and my knowing of the mental benefits outweigh the physical composition.
I honestly can say that I did not feel a noticeable difference when I went whole food plant exclusive aiming for high nutrient density 5 years ago. But I came from an unprocessed and balanced way of eating so I did not expect dramatic things which others reported by eating that consciously. I supplement certain nutrients but do not feel a difference if I forget sometimes. But a difference might show over time/years. The most noticeable difference I always feel in my body is when I have alcohol on a regular basis (= 2 glasses of wine up to 3-4 times a week). It is more the regularity than the dose. If I go down to 1x per week or stop for a while I feel better and it shows for sure on my skin. My liver has more capacity than to detox I think.