Eating Clean

I don't agree that calories are calories, I see a lot of people on this site complaining they are not losing weight and when I check their diary...I see they are within the goals on the diary but it's all processed food. That is what I have seen at least, everyone can believe what they want I guess.

Could somebody just do up a quick list of permissable foods when clean eating ? Am I right in thinking it's any food in its natural form?

Hope to start it tomorrow and get the nasty caffeine / sugar withdrawal symptoms out of the way before work on Monday.

Thanks

All veggies and fruits have carbs, but some of my favorites are:

Corn, Peas, Legumes, and Beans

I've started eating clean about a few months ago and I invested in a bread machine. I don't buy any pre-made breads any more but I make them all in my bread machine and then finish it off in my oven (for better crust). I find that making my own bread is really easy and I can control the salt and sugar that goes into them.

Granted, since they don't contain any preservatives, they might not last as long, so all I do is chuck it into the freezer while they're fresh and warm them up as needed.

Could somebody just do up a quick list of permissable foods when clean eating ? Am I right in thinking it's any food in its natural form?

Hope to start it tomorrow and get the nasty caffeine / sugar withdrawal symptoms out of the way before work on Monday.

Thanks

I'm no expert, so if anyone disagrees with anything on my list let me know (I would prefer you be nice about it, though), but these are some of the foods often on my shopping list (just so you know I don't eat meat or poultry, just fish...not that they aren't clean...I just don't like 'em)


fresh fish (especially wild caught salmon)
locally caught fish and seafood (especially shrimp, scallops and oysters in season...lucky coastal girl!)
eggs and liquid egg whites
sweet potatoes
long grain brown rice
steel cut oats
eggplant
squash (summer, butternut, spaghetti are my faves)
romaine lettuce
spinach
asparagus
avocado
broccoli
cabbage
cauliflower
cucumbers
celery
peppers (any color)
fresh mushrooms
string beans (fresh or frozen)
zucchini
apples
bananas
fresh or frozen berries
extra virgin olive oil
safflower oil
flax seed oil
almonds
walnuts
natural sugar-free peanut butter
pears
tomatoes
Chick peas
edamame
sweet potato
kidney beans
lentils
split peas

Thank You Reaolliemama - I appreciate that.

How are you finding the clean eating?


Have just found this - might be of help to any other newbies

http://www.eatcleangroup.com/2012/02/14/why-cant-i-stop-eating-sugar/

I just eat 1 ingredient food, except for bread, nothing else is from a package. I consider that eating clean.

I also eat clean (non-processed) about 80-90% of the time. I read Jillian Micheals' book "Boost Your Metabolism" last year about this time...seriously scared me organic! No joke! When I read how additives could dork with your hormones and such, I quit all kinds of things! I haven't had a soda of any kind in nearly a year. I've become a major label reader...avoiding MSG, BHA, BHT, dyes, etc. like they were the plague! I try to eat meats that are hormone-free, antibiotic free, grass-fed, free-ranging...it is a bit more expensive, but after finding out how all impacts you. I've even gone so far as watching my plastics (there are many lists on line which tell you which numbers are more prone to leeching into your drink or food); use paraben-free cosmetics, lotions, etc.; got rid of most of my plastic food storage containers and replaced with glass; and watch the chemicals I use around my house. I have gotten rid of my migraine headaches, cleared up my skin...the list of symptoms I no longer suffer with day in and day out is crazy!

Agree ^^^^^^ I saw Dr. Joel Fuhrman on PBS and was prompted to reading his book EAT TO LIVE. Another eye opening book about the cancer, auto immune disease, heart disease provoking potentials of the heavily animal & refined grain laden, salted, sugared, & preserved "standard American Diet". (If you want to look like and be as sick as, and die like the Standard American, then keep eating the Standard American Diet.) I could not read that book and ignore all of the evidence he has collected over a lifetime of study. He doesn't DO the studies, he just collects them and put the information into useable form for the rest of us. Also documentaries such as Forks Over Knives; Fat Sick & Nearly Dead; and Food Matters for starters were very compelling to watch about changing your health.

I will say that I have never felt better with more energy and no more afternoon slumps. I wake up feeling great every day and I'm never tired until it is time to go to bed. I've had one cold in 5 years. It takes some doing to learn to eat this way and I imagine I will always be a work in progress as I work towards perfecting my diet. If you had asked me a year ago to work towards an 80 - 90% vegan diet, I would have told you "No". But I can see the effects on the new joint pain in my hands. When I eat animal products heavily in one meal my fingers area about crippled and very painful for the first 30 minutes of the day. When I stop eating animal products they feel about 90% normal again. I can only imagine other things going on inside of my body that are being helped in ways that I can't feel. I just started to "try" to add more veggies to my diet in October and dropped 5 pounds quickly! And those 5 were within my last 10 pounds, too! (my goal is 135 pounds) I have yet to lose the final 3 pounds, but I am loving my new diet. (Diet to me means variety of food that I choose to eat from.)

I focus on the healthful things that I CAN eat rather than what I CHOOSE to no longer eat. And yes, I made some chocolate chip cookies on V-Day for DH and ate a mountain of them. (He does not choose to eat like me and that is okay.) After all I am a sugar addict and should not be baking yet. But it was so easy for me to get right back on my plan. It does take a mindset and if you don't see the value of eating this way, they you most likely will fail. If going out drinking and eating pizza and ice cream are very much a part of your social life and you can't see yourself giving up those things then you won't like it. All I can tell you is I do go out for social occasions and do the best that I can and then get back on my program. I gave up regular drinking of diet sodas years ago and limited them to maybe one every two months. Now, I think hard about that before drinking even one. Wine and alcohol is the same, as is regular coffee. I've given up all dairy products years ago. Rarely have butter or milk. I've switched to soy milk. I have limited amounts of fish, seafood, chicken or beef or pork of maybe 2 oz. at the most maybe once or so a week. Cheese is very limited as well. I've limited my whole grains and hardly ever have bread. I'll have tofu occasionally as that is minimally processed, but I don't go for soy fake products that are also heavily processed. Crackers I have cut way back on. I prefer to eat bigger amounts of food from veggies & fruits and nuts. I use Stevia for sweetener and don't add salt to anything. I have my sodium to under 1000mg per day. I get adequate protein from my diet and have never felt better.

If you are doing it just to lose weight, it will work as long as you stay on the "diet" but your motivation will most likely falter when you reach your goal. To do it as a lifestyle, I think you really need to buy into the fact that it is going to change your health for the better. I am 54 do ready to "buy in" that I am working towards a healthier and longer life. My plan is to do everything to avoid heart disease, auto immune diseases, & cancer and live to be a very healthy and very old woman.

It is so worth exploring. Please check out this website: http://www.drfuhrman.com/default.aspx
Best of luck to you!

Great article. Thank you.

http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-and-nutrition/the-dirt-on-clean-eating/

I don't agree that calories are calories, I see a lot of people on this site complaining they are not losing weight and when I check their diary...I see they are within the goals on the diary but it's all processed food. That is what I have seen at least, everyone can believe what they want I guess.

Here we go again.

You can get fat eating sweet potatoes just like you can twinkes. Almonds and nut butters are one of the holy grails of "clean eating". I bet you if I eat 5000 calories of both, I will be fat. At the end of the day, it's all about calories. As the wanna be big article stated, clean eating is tied to the latest fads. Luckly such nonsense is slowing dieing.

Oh and by the way, most of my foods choices are nutrient dense. However, I want a donut, a ho ho, or a burger, I am going to eat and adjust my calories for the rest of the day.

"Clean eating" get's a serious epic fail.

I agree that a calorie is a calorie when it comes down to it, but making your calories REAL food, as little processed as possible is optimal. But to each his own. Yes, you will still get fat if you consume mega-calories of either healthy food or processed foods. An occasional (really occasional) twinkie won't kill you... I eat clean 90% except today I decided I wanted a muffin that has refined sugar. It was good too.