Clean eating is one of the biggest trends in nutrition, but what exactly does it mean?

Registered dietitian Angela Dufour says there really is no scientific definition.

“For more people, it means eating foods as close to their basic or natural state as possible,” she says.

Dufour says including more clean or whole foods in your diet can have many health benefits – lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancers and type two diabetes – especially if avoiding or eliminating sugar.

“Sometimes we see recipes that would be touted as clean eating and so often some of the sweeteners would be replaced with things like fruit, apples, bananas, dried fruit like dates or raisins are often see in those examples to provide the sweetness but from sort of the whole food end of things,” says registered dietitian Krista Leck Merner.

Leck Merner says focusing on single ingredient foods can help keep your diet clean.

“Things like sweet potato, chicken, an apple, orange, there’s only one ingredient there,” she says. “Anytime that we’re eating those whole foods, there’s nothing hidden. There’s not added salt, there’s not added fat.”

Most people following a clean diet stay away from processed foods, but Leck Merner says they are not all bad, like canned tomatoes.

“So really, they’ve just sort of cooked and stewed the tomatoes,” she says. “Now you’re able to get them with no salt added so they’ve just sort of saved you a step, but really it’s still from a whole food basis.”

“Things like oats and almonds, they actually have some form of processing that they go through, so it doesn’t necessarily mean that it might be healthier if it is less processed,” adds Dufour.

Dufour warns a clean diet doesn’t always equal healthy and balanced, especially if eliminating an entire food group.

“Some clients may want to embark more on a vegan style of eating so if that’s the case, they could be going down the road of being low or deficient in vitamin B12, maybe iron or again calcium and vitamin D if they’re eliminating dairy.”

Dufour recommends seeking the guidance of a registered dietitian when making the switch to clean eating.