Clean eating has been a trend for the past decade, although there's no official definition of just what "clean eating" means. In fact, it's more a dietary approach than a specific diet, although quite a number of cookbooks have spun off of this trend. The foun­dation of clean eating is choosing whole foods and foods in their less processed states—choosing from vegetables, fruits, whole grains, pulses (beans, lentils, and peas), dairy, nuts, seeds, and high-quality animal and plant proteins.