The Clean Eating Lifestyle: What to Eat

Eating clean is a lifestyle with endless possibilities of what you can eat and how you can prepare it. A clean diet includes a huge range of “clean” foods and is very inclusive, rather than exclusive.

By definition, a clean food is a food that either: a) grew on a stalk/tree/bush/vine/in the dirt from an identifiable plant, or b) came directly from an identifiable animal or plant. Most clean foods don’t come in boxes and don’t contain any added sugars, flavors, or artificial ingredients.

With any diet, what to eat is important. With a clean eating lifestyle, the other missing pieces of the pie (pardon the food pun) are when and how much to eat. Please refer to How to Eat Clean for more details.

Food isn’t simple. But, to simplify things a little, foods in a clean diet can be grouped into three areas:

1. Lean Protein
2. Complex Carbohydrates
3. Healthy Fats

Lean Protein

Lean Protein is a cornerstone of a clean diet, which is why I put it first. Protein gives you a feeling of satiety from the feeling of fullness it provides. It also helps build muscle tissue and sustain the muscle tissue you already have. Muscle is awesome in two ways: 1) it gives your body nice curves, and… here’s the best part, 2) muscle tissue burns calories just by existing; it revs up your metabolism and helps burn fat.

Good examples of lean protein sources include: chicken breast, fish, and egg whites.

For clean diets, include a three to six-ounce serving of lean protein with every meal.

Complex Carbohydrates – affectionately known as “good carbs”

Carbohydrates provide the preferred source for energy for the human body, especially the brain. This is why it is not good to remove carbs altogether from your diet! The bad “rep” that carbohydrates have comes from simple carbohydrates.

Calories from simple carbs, such as the ones from processed foods and refined sugars (i.e.,, one of those snacks in a 100-calorie pack!), get into your bloodstream quick and burn up just as quick. This spikes your insulin levels and starts a complex process where the energy from the simple carbs is quickly converted into your energy storage area: fat tissue.

The rule of thumb is to get your carbs from complex carbohydrates. Calories from complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, burn slowly and keep your insulin levels steady. This slows the process that converts these calories into fat.

Simply put:
Simple = processed foods and refined sugars = BAD carbs
Complex = unprocessed with no refined sugars = GOOD carbs

Eat the GOOD stuff!

Another rule of thumb is to consume carbs with a source of lean protein. Lean protein and complex carbohydrates complement one another. Protein helps your body slow the absorption of carbohydrates and carbohydrates helps your body utilize protein for muscle tissue. Sounds like a good partnership!

However, the problem with carbs is this: everyone processes carbohydrates differently; people that are sensitive to carbohydrates, trigger the carbohydrates-to-fat conversion sooner than the average bear. So… the quantity of complex carbohydrates in your clean diet will depend upon you and your individual sensitivity to carbs. It can take some time and experimentation to determine your sensitivity.

When trying to burn fat, it may help to reduce your intake of carbohydrates in the p.m. hours of the day. The idea is to give your body the fuel it requires early in the day, while forcing your body to tap into your fat stores for energy once its preferred energy source from carbs has been used up.

With any carbohydrate: the less processing, the better. In fact, the cooking process can remove nutrients, so consider eating your grains, fruits, and veggies raw when possible.

Whole Grains
Whole grains are great source of fiber and nutrients. Choose whole grains that are minimally processed, such as old fashioned or steel cut oats, and brown rice. Once a grain is processed, such as with white rice or quick oats, it loses a lot of its nutritional value and fiber.

The serving size for whole grains is about half a cup, dry.

Fruits
Your mother was right; eating fruits and veggies regularly is really good for you. They are chock full of the nutrients known nowadays as antioxidants. Think of antioxidants as the good guys in your body, killing off the bad guys (free radicals) and guarding against disease.

Fruit is Mother Nature’s version of good-for-you candy. To limit the amount of naturally occurring, simple carbohydrates, most of your fruit consumption should come from high-water-content fruit.

High-water-content fruit, such as apples and berries, will make your belly feel fuller and provide fewer calories. Low-water-content fruit, such as raisins, are a dense source of calories and won’t help you feel full.

Try to stick to fresh fruit whenever possible. Dehydrated (not dried) fruit and unsweetened pureed fruit, such as applesauce are acceptable for an occasional grab-and-go snack. They are also great in recipes.

The serving size for fruit varies, based on the item. A good guideline is one medium sized fruit or about a handful.

Veggies – aka “fiberous” carbs
Like fruits veggies are packed with antioxidants, fiber, and water. The fiber and high-water-content in veggies, such as cucumbers, peppers, and squash, make you feel full and make a great snack with few calories. Most veggies have even more water is found in most fruits, allowing you to eat more with very few calories.

You can add veggies to nearly any meal to add flavor and help fill you up. Eat them raw or microwave them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap to slightly steam them in their own water. They are best purchased fresh, but fresh-frozen and canned (no salt added) is acceptable when needed to save time.

The veggies with the highest levels of nutrients have bold, dark colors. For example, sweet red and yellow peppers, dark green leaf lettuces, and orange butternut squash have high levels of the good stuff, while beige veggies such as potatoes, should be consumed less often.

The typical serving size for veggies is three ounces or about a handful. With some vegetables, such as raw spinach, three ounces is a huge serving and will really fill you up!

Healthy Fats – Oils, Nut Butters, and Seeds
The old way of thinking was to avoid all fat; it has been drilled into us to look for foods that are non-fat or low fat. But fat isn’t all that evil. In fact, consuming the right amount of healthy fats has a lot of health benefits and can help keep your weight loss goals on track.

Healthy fats include the naturally occurring fat in lean proteins, such as in your chicken breast or fish, and the unsaturated fats (liquid at room temperature), such as olive or sesame oil.

A good guideline is to stick to less than 25 percent of your daily calories from healthy fat. Fats do have more than double the calories per gram as carbohydrates or protein; therefore you do need to watch fat content in foods.

Happy eating!

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