More and more people are paying attention to what they’re putting into their bodies. For a long time, people ate anything that looked good or was marketed as “healthy” (and sometimes not even that!). Now, more than ever, we need to be conscious of the type of food we’re using to fuel our bodies. We need to take care of ourselves and watch out for many of the harmful ingredients found in a lot of food.
A way to be more aware of the type of food you’re consuming is to practice something known as “clean eating.” Maybe you’ve heard the term, maybe you’re already following it, or maybe you’re completely in the dark. Read on to learn more about clean eating and what you can do to embrace this lifestyle.
What is clean eating?
Clean eating is a way of thinking about and consuming food more consciously. At its core, clean eating is focusing more on whole foods and avoiding processed foods as much as possible. So much of our diet and the food advertised to us is heavily processed and contains many unnatural ingredients that we do not know enough about. Clean eating encourages you to educate yourself about the type of food you’re eating and be more aware of ingredients. Avoiding excess amounts of sugar, especially kinds that are not natural, and dairy or gluten that’s overly processed, can help you achieve a cleaner diet.
While it’s up to you how much you want to cut out of your diet, simply aiming to cut back on the amount of processed food you’re currently eating can lead to a cleaner, healthier diet.
Tips for to eat cleaner
Educate yourself
As you embark on your journey for clean eating, start by educating yourself. Learn what ingredients are natural and what are added into foods. Learn to read ingredient lists and understand what they say. Once you understand what you’re actually looking at, it’ll become easier to choose to what do and do not want to eat.
Start with added sugar
A good place to start with cleaner eating is cutting out added sugar. While natural sugar is still fine and most fruits have a fair amount, processed sugar can be detrimental to your health. Begin cutting back on how much you consume and look for alternative products.
Cook from scratch
Learning to cook from scratch makes clean eating even easier because you have complete control over the ingredients you’re putting into your food and how they’re prepared. Find some great recipes online, take a cooking class, and get ready to make some great meals.
Shop carefully
When grocery shopping, do so with careful thought. Once you learn what foods to buy and what to avoid, it becomes easier. Some quick tips are go green by choosing lots of fruits and vegetables and shop the perimeter of the store; many of the center rows are filled with processed foods.
Learn how to eat out
When you’re focusing on clean eating, eating out can become challenging. Learning what foods are generally safe for clean eating is important and makes going out to eat easier. You can also do some research and find restaurants that encourage clean eating and offer fresh and simple dishes.
Drink more water
Many drinks have an unhealthy amount of processed sugar and other unnatural ingredients in them. Focusing on upping your plain water intake can have great health benefits and help you in your clean eating endeavours. If you want caffeine, it’s best to stick with plain black coffee or tea.