Eat Clean??

I have done the program "Clean" by Dr. Alejandro Junger twice. He's a cardiologist. His specific program is not the way to eat for life, and he makes it a point to set the limit to 3 weeks as a way to sort of "recharge your system." He does explain the "elimination diet," which is clean eating also, with certain restrictions, but is a way you can eat for life. Anyway, I did it twice because it works. Within the first week, the whites of my eyes were whiter. My brain was less foggy. I dropped 4lbs. I have tried doing his cleanse once a year because the results are great. The results last for awhile as you slowly introduce regular food back into the mix.

The reason I don't eat clean for the most part, though, is it's just too expensive. Some vegetables aren't too bad, but have you seen the price of organic meat/dairy?! I guess you can stick to whole foods and boxed/mixed foods with 5 or less ingrediants and forgo the organic part, but what's the point? It's the pesticides that account for the inflammation that clean eating addresses.

Tosca Reno has some good recipe books as well as recipes online.

Is this^^^ Eating Clean???

Common food= fuel there is no dirty or clean foods. Hit your Macros and you will be fine.

For me it just started out with not eating gluten or corn products (a friend-who is not trying to lose weight-swears by it, and told me to try it for two weeks). It's only been about 2 1/2 months, but I have never felt better! By default, because just about everything processed has corn or gluten in it, I stopped eating that stuff. I make just about everything from scratch (when possible), and I do try to stick to the idea that the items you eat should have limited ingredients. I don't eat 100% organic (it is expensive), but I do eat fresh. Again, this is what has worked for me. I have no temptations to overeat since this began (and that is a first for me!). I started out slow, and cut things out a little at a time. I'm not 100% clean, but that's ok with me. It really comes down to what works for you though. For me, doing this has really helped in terms of not wanting or feeling the need to overeat (did I say that already? ) Plus I feel more energetic and just healthier in general.

Again, it's really individual. If you feel like it's something you want to try. Give it a shot for a few weeks. If it doesn't work with your lifestyle, then don't do it.

Different strokes for different folks!

Some of you have mentioned "hitting your Macros"? what does that mean? this is a new term to me!

That is referring to getting the proper proportion of macro nutrients i.e. protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Depending on your fitness goals and body, different percentages are appropriate. I personally use a 45% carb - 30% protein - 25% fat distribution.

Within the first week, the whites of my eyes were whiter.

WUT?

LOL yeah. My eye-whites were looking a little yellow, like I was jaundiced. But Dr. Junger says that could be a symptom of toxins built up in the system. Maybe he's crazy, but it worked!

I say this without trying to be mean....but that sounds like utter stuff and nonsense to me.

Raccoons wash their food.
Raccoons are never overweight.
Therefore, eating clean = normal weight.

Totally pointless. Hit your macros and stay under your calorie goal.

Thank god for that!

Alicia the easiest way to look at it is if it doesn't come from a tree, the ground or from a Mom, it's not clean!

Raccoons wash their food.
Raccoons are never overweight.
Therefore, eating clean = normal weight.

WINNER

Raccoons wash their food.
Raccoons are never overweight.
Therefore, eating clean = normal weight.

WINNER

Okay the ONE fat raccoon on the planet. You're feeding him unclean food, admit it! He's living in your crawl space.

Check out the book "It Starts With Food" by Dallas & Melissa Hartwig. It is a fast read and very, very interesting. I'm on day 25 of the Whole30 program and I can't even begin to list all of the great things clean, healthy eating is doing for me.

If you aren't into getting the book you can look around their website, which is really helpful as well: http://whole9life.com/

Good luck!

Let's ask the question...what is "clean?"...and this will confuse you. it is intended to, so that you may question the concept of a "clean" food, and maybe form your own opinion on rather if such a thing exists. For the sake of argument, let's say we're concerned only about weight loss...which I assume is your main driving motivation for living healthy. Healthy is also a very fickle concept...as people with ripped six pack abs may be quite unhealthy all together.

Is a strawberry clean? most people would say yes (let's not get into whether the strawberry is organic).

Is a grain of whole wheat clean? again, most people would say yes.

So I grind up the strawberry into jam, I grind up the wheat into flour, bake it, and wrap it around the jam. It's now a pop tart. Is this clean? most people would say no.

Why?

Because pop tarts have added sugar. And the flour is bleached and enriched..ergo "Processed", and preservatives are added for shelf life (preservatives do not have any relevance to weight loss, generally).

Sugar is made of sugar cane, or corn, or any sort of thing that can taste sweet. Are these foods clean? What about the sugar derived from them? Is that clean? Then, what about natural organic honey...is that cleaner than high fructose corn syrup?

The overwhelming answer is no. Your body in absence of your ability to cognitively categorize foods into "clean" vs "dirty" cannot tell the difference between sugar from bee honey and sugar from processed corn. In fact, their chemical make-ups are almost identical.

So the pop tart, full of clean and non clean things, are processed indiscriminately by your body, and partitioned into its various components. If you eat a no sugar added whole wheat strawberry pop tart with no preservatives, you are getting the sugar from the strawberries, the fiber from the whole flour, and the vitamins and nutrients that are associated with those two foods.

If you eat a pop tart that is a regular pop tart, you get the sugar from the strawberry, some more sugar from corn or sugar cane, no fiber from the flour, but flour nonetheless, and all the vitamins and nutrients associated with those foods.

So then, there's not really any clean foods are there? There are just foods broken down, enriched, processed into parts of their whole self, metabolized by the body in their distinct parts as well.

Eating clean = unprocessed foods. I am a fan.