How do you eat clean?

jayche

I see that the IIFYM crusade has visited this thread...

To answer your question, I just stood away from a lot of "Enriched" and "Processed" foods (looked at the ingredients) and stuck to "natural" foods. Not that I do it anymore, but when I ate "clean" that's how I approached it. But everyone's definition of "clean eating" is different so I'm sure you'll get a variety of answers.

JesterMFP

I just think to myself....if this were 100 years ago, and I'm living in a cave, surrounded by jungle, volcanoes and dinosaurs, would this food still be available?

There were dinosaurs around in 1913? :noway:

tsh0ck

Try cooking yourself and buying natural products. Even some vegetables are fake like those small packet carrots

Baby carrots are synthetic? :huh:

Some brands are not real "baby" carrots, meaning they are regular carrots that have been whittled down to size. They are still carrots.

pretty sure all of them are this way. and, you're right. just because they are part of a whole, they don't become fake and no longer a carrot.

tsh0ck

If you can't pronounce an ingredient, you don't need it. Trying to stay away from boxed foods and making everything from scratch is the best way to avoid processed food.

trimethylxanthine

Matt_Wild

Simple.

Does it look like it did when it came from the animal or ground? Eat it!

Does it not? Don't eat it!

Not sure? Don't eat it.

My diet is simple - chicken, beef, eggs, whey and similar for protein, rice and other grains for carbs and oils or peanut butter for fats. Simples!

Just have to point out whey protein is highly processed. It doesn't naturally fit into the definition set. Not that I don't think you should consume it......just saying.

Knew that was coming and... true!

bostonwolf

Prep as much food at home as possible. Every few weeks I make a bit batch of chili and freeze it into ten portions. That's my lunch for the next two weeks. I have eggs and salsa every morning with either guacamole or a few strips of bacon. Dinner is some sort of protein (steak, fish, chicken) with a side of greens or cruciferous veggies (usually frozen but in the summer fresh)

Unless you are killing and growing everything yourself, do what you can and don't worry too much about it.

algebravoodoo

Try cooking yourself and buying natural products. Even some vegetables are fake like those small packet carrots

Baby carrots are synthetic? :huh:

Some brands are not real "baby" carrots, meaning they are regular carrots that have been whittled down to size. They are still carrots.

pretty sure all of them are this way. and, you're right. just because they are part of a whole, they don't become fake and no longer a carrot.

I've not found any true baby carrots here where I lve in the States, but I used to find them all over in Germany. When farmers thinned out carrot crops, some would sell these at the farmer market. You could tell they were the real thing because they still had the greens and root hairs. Super yummy!!

imfivebyfive

pretty sure all of them are this way. and, you're right. just because they are part of a whole, they don't become fake and no longer a carrot.

Yes and no. They are still processed and part of this processing involves being rinsed in chlorine....

"After harvesting, the carrots are mainly washed in chlorinated water, just like our drinking water, and cleaned to remove dirt and mud. Some finished baby carrots are washed, or dipped, by a further chlorine solution to prevent white blushing once in the store."

source: http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/babycarrot.html

tsh0ck

so ... they were rinsed off, thereby eliminating their carrotness?

algebravoodoo

pretty sure all of them are this way. and, you're right. just because they are part of a whole, they don't become fake and no longer a carrot.

Yes and no. They are still processed and part of this processing involves being rinsed in chlorine....

"After harvesting, the carrots are mainly washed in chlorinated water, just like our drinking water, and cleaned to remove dirt and mud. Some finished baby carrots are washed, or dipped, by a further chlorine solution to prevent white blushing once in the store."

source: http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/babycarrot.html

Since the water coming from most urban and rural water systems is chlorinated, this claim should be taken with a grain of salt.
If you wash your fruits and veggies with tap water, you are most likely using chlorinated water.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/c/baby-cut-carrots.htm
The Truth:
Owing to favorable conditions, California produces almost three-quarters of the carrots sold in the United States and contrary to popular belief, baby carrots do not come out of the ground the way they appear when we buy them in bags at the supermarket, according to a USA Today article dated August 11, 2004.

After growing tired of discarding imperfect carrots at his Bakersfield packaging plant, Mike Yurosek came up with a solution of whittling down grown-up castoff carrots into what we know today as "Baby Cut Carrots." Nearly 70% of carrots picked or close to 400 tons a day of undesirable twisted, knobby, bent, or broken carrots called "culls" would be discarded down the "cull chute". The nicer looking carrots that remained were being packaged and sent to stores, says the article.

By applying a little imagination, Yurosek came up with the technique using an industrial potato peeler that resembled a cement mixer along with a used green-bean cutter to cut 2-inch baby cut carrots from the unwanted carrot culls. Thus creating the standard size for America's most popular "ready to eat" healthy snack.

Baby cut carrots are safe to eat right out of the bag. According to the web site for Grimway farms of California, one of the country's leading producer of carrots, baby cut carrots are washed in water with a small amount of chlorine prior to packaging. The chlorinated water solution for cleaning food products is so miniscule that it presents no health risk. According to the Food and Drug Administration website, the organization that regulates the treatment of "ready to eat" cut vegetables, all products must be rinsed in potable water prior to bagging and shipping.

I think we may have ventured too far from the original topic,so I am shutting up now.

WendyTerry420

I watched the movie hungry for a change and it is scary how processed everything is. Makes me want to try to stray away. It talked about msg which I didnt know goes under many names and said msg makes you fat it makes you want to eat more. So how would you know all these names ?? Also aspartame and what products have that in it besides fake sugars?

ALL food is processed. Don't worry so much or you'll give yourself an ulcer.

WendyTerry420

Decision-making:

Chocolate Chip Clif Bar energy bar ingredients: Organic Brown Rice Syrup, ClifPro® (Soy Rice Crisps [Soy Protein Isolate, Rice Flour, Barley Malt Extract], Organic Roasted Soybeans, Organic Soy Flour), Organic Rolled Oats, Organic Toasted Oats (Organic Oats, Organic Dried Cane Syrup, Ascorbic Acid, Natural Vitamin E [Antioxidant]), Chocolate Chips (Dried Cane Syrup, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Vanilla Extract), Organic Cane Syrup, ClifCrunch® (Organic Oat Fiber, Apple Fiber, Inulin [Chicory Extract], Organic Milled Flaxseed, Psyllium), Organic Date Paste, Organic Soy Butter (Organic Roasted Soybeans, Organic Soybean Oil, Salt), Organic Sunflower Oil, Molasses Powder, Sea Salt, Natural Flavors, Cinnamon.

LARABAR Cherry Pie energy bar ingredients: Dates, Almonds, Unsweetened Cherries.

Maybe more ingredients makes it yummier? Clif bars taste a lot better than Larabars, imo.

Illona88

If you can't pronounce an ingredient, you don't need it. Trying to stay away from boxed foods and making everything from scratch is the best way to avoid processed food.

But what if you're really good at pronouncing things?
I can pronounce (and spell) *kitten* like eyjafjallajökull and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis easily.


I say, just buy stuff with very short ingredient lists. If you don't recognize something, leave it at the store. If it's something you really want, google it on your phone or at home.