Cleaning Up Your Diet

If you’ve ever bought a prepared spinach dip at the store, odds are that it contained added preservatives, chemicals, and sugar, and more sodium than you wanted or needed. It probably tasted pretty good, too, but those additions aren’t necessary to make a flavorful spinach dip—in fact, a homemade version would surely taste even better. The basic ingredients are naturally clean: fresh spinach, full-fat cream cheese, fresh lemon juice, garlic, and freshly ground pepper. Let your taste buds convince you. There’s a recipe for Creamy Spinach- Artichoke Dip on page 147.
It’s not very difficult to understand what clean eating is in principle, but clean eating in practice can seem challenging at first. This book will get you started and successfully on your way.

Five Principles of Clean Eating
Before embarking on a clean eating plan, it’s important to know a bit more about the principles that are at the heart of this lifestyle. The purpose of eating clean is to fuel your body with the healthiest, most natural foods possible. Keep these five important principles in mind:
Choose whole, natural foods and avoid those that
are processed and refined. The easiest way to stick to a

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clean eating plan is to buy whole foods and cook them yourself, like

peo2ple did a couple of generations ago, before convenience items

were available. When you can, buy local produce, meats, and dairy,
which ensures freshness, supports local communities, and is good

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for the environment, too. Today, more supermarkets than ever
before are carrying locally grown and produced items. They are the
and processed foods with long ingredient lists.
Read the labels. When reading packaged food labels, don’t

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optimal choices for eating clean. Your best bet is to stay away from

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packaged food that’s traveled from a factory or another country,

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let low-fat, no-fat, or reduced-fat fool you. To replace the

fat and sugars, unrecognizable compounds have been added to

ma3ke the product taste better. And who wants to eat something

that sounds like a science experiment? A good rule of thumb to go
by is: If the label includes more than five ingredients, it’s probably

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not clean. And if an ingredient is unrecognizable or something that
does not sit on the shelf in your clean eating pantry (see page 50 for

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the first of four weekly clean eating pantry lists), it’s probably not

clean either.

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Include some protein, carbohydrate, and fat at every
meal. Eating a balanced diet is the key to staying satisfied

throughout the day. The trickiest part for most people is getting

en4ough protein. Protein is crucial for building muscles and it helps

you feel energetic longer. Adding a cup of beans to your meal or
munching on a handful of nuts is a great way to add protein to your

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diet. Pay attention to the composition of your meals and be sure they are balanced.

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Buy organic and humanely raised meats whenever
possible. Be aware that the conventionally grown produce

in the grocery store has been fertilized with chemicals and sprayed

wit5h pesticides and some has been genetically modified to create a 3

higher yield. To prevent these chemicals from entering your body,

it’s important to buy organic whenever possible. And avoid conven-
opt for organic and humanely raised meats, too.
Be kind to your body. Eat five to six times throughout the
day and drink lots of water—around eight 8-ounce glasses per day. Eating three small meals a day and two to three snacks keeps your metabolism going and your body feeling satisfied and full of energy. Sometimes you may think you are hungry, but you really are just thirsty. Water is key to keeping your body function- ing properly, so stay hydrated.
Why Choose to Eat Clean?
Clean eating is about feeding yourself the highest quality ingre- dients to help your body perform its best. The foods we eat help build muscle, maintain a healthy immune system, and protect our organs. With clean eating, you’ll feel good about what you put in your body—lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains—and you’ll see the results. By eating a diet that’s con- sidered clean, you’ll have improved digestion, increased energy, and a reduced risk for disease, according to a 2013 study published by Nutrition Reviews.
While eating clean involves cooking many things from scratch and buying organic, with a little planning and smart shopping, you can make this lifestyle work for you, no matter the size of your paycheck or how busy your schedule. Another great perk of eating clean? Your meals will be hearty enough to fill you up, but you’ll probably lose weight due to the overall healthier content of the foods you’re eating.

Say Good-Bye to Counting Calories
Clean eating is not a restrictive diet, so there is no need to count calories. It just makes sense that, since you’re not eating the empty calories that processed foods deliver, you’ll be consuming the proper amount of calories that whole foods inherently offer. An added bonus is that most clean foods simply aren’t high in calories. Even the ones that are slightly higher in calories—such as avocados and olive oil—contain “good” fat, so there is a benefit they confer.
When you start looking at the recipes in this book, you’ll notice that they include nutritional information, including calorie counts. If you’re used to counting calories, it might be comforting to have this information, at least in the beginning, to be able to compare what you get from clean foods versus diets you’ve tried previously. As you start to feel better and better as a clean eater, the compulsion to count calories will correspondingly decrease.
Clean eaters don’t have a free pass, however, to eat as much as they’d like. Keeping portions appropriately sized is important. Each day, you should eat roughly six to ten servings of complex carbohy- drates, five to six servings of lean protein, and two to three servings of heart-healthy fats. But what exactly is a “serving”?
ƒƒ1 serving of whole grains = your cupped palm (1⁄2 cup)
ƒƒ1 serving of vegetables = your fist or both palms cupped together
(1 cup)
ƒƒ1 serving of lean protein = the flat palm of your hand (3 ounces)
ƒƒ1 serving of fat = the top half of your thumb (1 teaspoon)
ƒƒ1 serving of cheese = your thumb (1 ounce)
ƒƒ1 serving of nuts or seeds = 1⁄2 of your cupped palm ( 1⁄4 cup)
By eating the right foods in proper portions, your metabolism will keep going and you won’t consume more than you should. Remember to eat slowly, to savor every bite, and to eat until you’re satisfied instead of eating until you’re “full.”

Clean Foods
A good way to ensure that you obtain clean whole foods is to buy mostly fresh ingredients that you will find around the perimeter of the grocery store. That is where you’ll find the produce, meat, fresh fish, dairy, and freshly baked bread. You can then supplement with whole grains, beans, and frozen items.
Fresh fruit and vegetables: When possible, buy organic produce, with the possible exception of the “Clean 15” (a list of 15 convention- ally grown fruits and vegetables with the lowest levels of pesticides; see page 318 for specifics). If you choose pre-chopped vegetables or fruit, be sure there aren’t any added ingredients.
Herbs and spices: For spice blends, choose pure and organic blends without any added sodium or sugar. Italian seasoning, for example, should only include dried herbs like thyme, basil, and oregano.
Dairy: Buy organic milk, cheese, and yogurt whenever possible. Choose unsweetened varieties of yogurt. If you’re limiting dairy products or just want to try something different, unsweetened coconut milk, almond milk, and rice milk are healthy options. Also use organic butter or organic spread and steer clear of margarine, imitation butter, whipped, and spreadable butter as they contain chemicals or fillers. Check the label to make sure there are no unclean ingredients.
Whole grains: For whole-grain products, make sure the label says 100 percent whole wheat or whole grain to ensure that the entire grain is used. If not, there’s a good chance unclean ingredients are present.
Nuts and seeds: These delicious natural foods are perfect for tossing on salads or enjoying as a snack because they are made of heart-healthy fats that can help reduce cholesterol. Preferably, buy unsalted or low-salt nuts and make sure they aren’t sweetened.
Dried fruit: From dried figs to dried cranberries, these sweet fruits can satisfy your sweet tooth in a healthy way. Choose unsweetened fruit and those without sulfites, which is often added as a preserva- tive to extend shelf life.

Lean meats: Stick to lean cuts of meat for lower amounts of sat- urated fat. Buy organic meats, too, to avoid consuming hormones and pesticides that the animal may have been exposed to. These pesticides linger in animal fat, so buying lean cuts of conventionally raised meat reduces your chance of consuming them.
Clean oils: Coconut oil and avocado oil are suggested for cooking because their chemical structures don’t break down when exposed to high heat. Extra-virgin olive oil and unrefined nut oils are more sensitive to heat, so these oils are ideal for salad dressings to take advantage of their heart-healthy benefits.
Legumes: It’s safest to use natural, dried beans. But in a pinch, it’s okay to buy canned beans for making quick meals. For guidelines on buying canned foods, jump to the bottom of this page.
Sweeteners: There are many clean eating options for sweeten- ers, including honey, maple syrup, organic evaporated cane juice, coconut sugar, and liquid stevia. Organic evaporated cane juice resembles coarse sugar and is closest to the unprocessed natu- ral sugar cane plant so it contains more nutrients than processed sugar. And because it’s organic, there are no pesticides, either. Coconut sugar is made from the sap of the coconut palm flower buds. This sugar is thought to be more nutritious than cane sugar and has a lower glycemic index (causes a smaller spike in blood sugar). Another natural sweetener to try is liquid stevia. Stevia is a plant, and the leaves are sweet. Liquid stevia is the extract from these leaves and has a negligible effect on blood glucose. However, avoid powdered stevia. While many packages say that it’s “pure” or “organic,” it is chemically processed and most versions include other ingredients like dextrose.
Canned and Frozen Foods
It’s easy to understand why so many people gravitate toward pre- pared foods, given the time savings they afford. If you’re short on time, it’s absolutely fine to buy pre-chopped vegetables, frozen produce, and canned beans. Just be sure there aren’t any problem additives hiding in the ingredients list.