One of my goals this year was to stick to as much of a clean eating plan as possible. I already avoid soda and processed soft drinks and I even make my own snacks and cook most of my meals. I’ve also cut out most canned food. But I was surprised to find that I ight not be eating as clean as I thought I was.
What is Clean Eating?
“ The soul of clean eating is consuming food in its most natural state, or as close to it as possible. It is not a diet; it’s a lifestyle approach to food and its preparation, leading to an improved life – one meal at a time.” – cleaneating.com
At it’s most basic, clean eating is the concept of eating non-processed food. Meaning, instead of the preservative-laden foods we eat from a can, package or bottle, when clean eating, most of the food is cooked. It’s not really a diet per se, but a lifestyle choice and like many dietary choices, (like vegetarianism) it has many rules that people follow with varying degrees of austerity).
Where did Clean Eating Come From?
The concept of “Clean Eating” came from bodybuilder and nutritional therapy coach Tosca Reno, who coined the phrase in one of her books: Your Best Body Now: Look and Feel Fabulous at Any Age the Eat-Clean Way and started a movement. Tosca’s version of clean eating follows these rules:
Tosca’s Clean Eating rules
- Eat more lean protein – not just meat, you can eat, beans fish, nuts there are plenty of ways to get more protein in your diet
- Eat good carbs – Beans, vegetables, and fruit are “good” carbs. White sugar, white flour, and other unrefined things are “bad”.
- Stay hydrated with water
- Skip the juice, eat the source – don’t drink apple juice, eat the apple. Don’t drink orange juice, eat an orange instead.
- Healthy fats are good – avocado, coconut oil, EVOO are all good oils
- Eat more often – Eat meals 5-6 times a day in or der to avoid drops in sugar and cravings
- Always eat breakfast
- Cook your own food more
- Preserve your own food. – It’s ok if you cab, freeze or dry your own food, because you know what’s in it.
- Quit sugar
- Cut back on alcohol – Red wine occasionally is fine, a beer after work 3 times a week? not so much
- Stay away from anything labeled “diet” – artificial sweeteners, and “low fat” everything are full of chemicals that cause more health problems in the long run
- Plan your Meals – Like the NoBuyMonth rules, if you’re prepared, there’s less of a chance for you to be “caught out there,
- Only buy foods that have 5 ingredients or less – Buy Oatmeal that you have to cook, not those packet thingys.
- Set Goals – Lower your blood pressure, lose weight, get rid of acne?
- Read labels – If you MUST eat something from a package, make sure you can identify all of the ingredients. If there’s more chemicals in something than actual food, leave it alone
What Clean Eating is NOT
- It’s NOT a diet - It’s a lifestyle. you don’t “come off of it” the goal is to get better and better at it
- It’s NOT the Paleo Diet- This is tricky, technically, part of the paleo diet is eating clean, but paleo restricts your eating habits in other ways that clean eating does not. More about the difference between Clean Eating and Paleo here.
- It’s NOT a cleanse – In fact, when you change your diet to clean eating, juice cleanses tend to be redundant, because you’re gonna eat a TON more veggies anyway. (You can still do them, but it’s not mandatory)
What Are the health benefits of Clean Eating?
- Better Nutrients – When you follow a clean eating diet, your body will be able to process the nutrients it needs better. It’s actually better for you to get the vitamins and minerals that you need directly from plants rather than from vitamin supplements.
- Weight Loss – Many people lose weight while eating “clean” because of the emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables usually contain less calories than the packaged goods that they usually eat.
- More energy - Many people who follow a Clean eating diet report that they have a ton more energy than they had before because their systems are no longer slogging through all of that
- Avoid Illness – Clean Eating promotes proper digestion, absorption and elimination, so that your system can run smoothly. Since your immune system lives in your gut, this means you help to increase your immunity to many ailments and can even lower high blood pressure, and bring your blood sugar down to manageable levels. Also a diet high in processed foods can clog arteries and lead to heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular issues.
- You Get to Eat REAL Food - Most of the food that we are buying (yes, even some of the produce) are products of GMOs. Learn more about GMOs here.
- In addition to clean eating you can vastly improve your health by doing the following:
- Getting proper rest: 6-8 hours of sleep
- Drinking plenty of water: No soda, “diet” drinks or juices
- Getting exercise: Doing something moderate everyday is actually going to help you maintain weight loss better than “going all out” a couple of times a week
It’s pretty intense right? I’ll admit, when I was researching this post I really learned a lot. For instance, I thought I was eating pretty clean by cooking my own food, but cooking with regular flour and refined sugar is NOT part of this plan apparently. What is really interesting is that clean eating really isn’t new. Check out the links below to learn more about it!
• What do you think? Would you try following a clean eating lifestyle?
Clean Eating Resources
Black Girl’s Guide to Weight Loss
Books:
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