Clean Eating

Celliott411

I've seen a lot of tips to help with choosing clean foods:

-Eat foods from the outter "ring" of the grocery store.
-Choose foods that have a shelf life that is no longer than 1 month
-Be able to pronounce every ingredient in a food item and know exactly what it is. The less ingredients the better (generally).
-Do not eat anything that has reduced/low fat or is fat free (the fat is just replaced with more chemicals).

Basically, the foods that are as natural as possible and as unprocessed as possible. It's hard to eat 100% clean, but replacing foods that can you normally buy pre-made with the ingredients needed to make the same thing will make a world of difference!

AnvilHead

The definition of "clean eating" will vary according to your chosen diet. For a vegan it may mean no meat, eggs, dairy, etc.; for a low-carb/paleo advocate it could mean no wheat, rice, flour, fruit, etc.; for somebody with a more middle-of-the-road (or generic, or whatever you want to call it) diet, it could mean simply avoiding processed foods and eating a lot of meat, fruits, vegetables, etc. in as unaltered a state as possible. Gross oversimplification, I know - but you get the general idea.

Personally, I guess I'm closest to the above "middle of the road" approach - with the added proviso of "everything in moderation, nothing off limits". I eat meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, etc. (stuff from the "outer ring" of the grocery store, as others have mentioned) - but I have no problem with occasionally chowing down on pizza, or a candy bar, or a few beers, a big plate of nachos or whatever (the key being *occasionally*). My biggest emphasis is on protein and if I get that right, the other macros usually tend to fall more or less into place.

magj0y

Nothing wrong with asking questions to know more about stuff.

My opinion, take it for what it's worth,
I would include whole cuts of red meats (even non-organic), organic chicken whole, in the bag. wild fish, organic pastas, whole grain brown rice, dried beans,
fresh, plain frozen vegetables, plain organic dairy stuff. While dairy has to pasteurized, all they do is bring the milk to a high temp and then quickly lowered again.

I agree with the "closest to the ground/branch, and the fewest amount of hands touching it" If you go with Kosher meats,
they're less people and a completely diff. atmosphere at their slaughter houses than others.

**"organic" doesn't necessarily mean better. I say whole, in the bag on chicken because the process of cutting chicken at the slaughter house and then shipped to the store is NOT a pretty sight. When I was a butcher, I HATED going into the chicken cooler!

5tephoscope

All excellent advice!

Another great consideration:
Processed food often has a looong shelf life. Good food should rot. If bugs, bacteria, and fungi refuse to eat it, why on earth would you put it in YOUR body?

BR3ANDA

To me its anything with one ingredient and unprocessed. For instance, white sugar is processed, but honey isnt (well, I guess the bees process it).

Cheese? Yoghurt?

I agree with everything everyone said about unprocessed, etc. But I raise my own chickens, make cheese, and grind my own sausage from good, lean meat. So I guess I don't consider any on those things heavily processed.

And as soon as I spice something or cook a casserole it has more than one ingredient.

If you grow your own food, then that is clean eating! And of course once you make something it has more than one ingredient, but if you got your ingredients from a can, or a package, well, thats not clean eating, but combing all your own whole foods together is different. Processed food is the issue, not the amount of ingredients it takes to cook food at home.

Lozze

I had a friend who explained it to me as 'If you can't pronounce all the ingridents, then don't eat it'

YMMV of course. I'm slowly moving to clean eating, but still enjoying my chocolate and occasional chips. I'm never going to be 100% at clean eating, but I can eat more nutrient rich foods