Recent years have seen a rise in different diet fads that offer promising results in a minimum time-frame. With exclusion of few food groups in the meals, these diets accelerate the process of losing weight, which is primary focus of diet followers. Though, these diets offer promising results after restricting intake of certain foods, are these food alternatives healthy in the long run? Moreover, can these options be adopted permanently? Here we tend to explore about clean eating diet, and whether it’s a temporary fad or can be embraced as a lifestyle change.
Understanding Clean Eating Diet
A simple concept that pivots around wellbeing, the term clean eating is self-explanatory. Eating wholesome, organic foods and limiting the intake of processed, refined options constitutes the basic idea of this diet plan.
Read about Keto Diet and its health benefits here.
Clean Eating Benefits
You can eat as much as you want without having to worry about instant weight gain, when choosing natural, clean diet. You don’t need to divulge into details about what you should ingest or not, rather focus on wholesome, healthy alternatives.
Choosing a clean diet undoubtedly enhances your metabolism and improves your immune system against diseases. With healthy eating habits one can enjoy a longer, quality life.
With your plate constituting of healthier alternatives, you can lose 3 pounds of weight each week without having to exercise. Though this simple concept may seem too easy to adopt, the growth of food industry and influx of processed and packaged foods makes it quite a challenge to revert back to our ancient eating ways.
Read about Paleo Diet and its health benefits here.
Starting Off With Clean Eating
Extensive research on eating different types of foods shows that a diet rich in wholesome natural food options is best for health. So in order to embark on the journey of clean eating, try including organic fruits and vegetables in your diet. You can also grow seasonal veggies and fruits so it is convenient for you to use organic options without having to worry about any extra chemicals or hormones.
Choosing Clean Eating
You can design your clean eating diet by choosing from unprocessed, natural foods and less-processed food items. Natural, wholesome, unprocessed food items include:
- Vegetables and Fruits
- Nuts and Dried Legumes
- Eggs
Less processed food options include:
- Grains unrefined such as brown rice, whole wheat bread, quinoa, oatmeal, pasta
- Preserved or frozen fruits and vegetables
- Unprocessed meat
- Natural dairy free from steroids or hormones
- Oils
Shopping Clean Eating Foods
When grocery shopping, make it a point to read labels before you put the product in your shopping cart. If the labels contain all food items that are easily recognizable by you, then you are making the right choice. Avoid purchasing food items with codes that you are unable to decode. Also refrain from buying products with additives such as food colourings or taste enhancers. While buying your food, try to choose pesticide-free options to ensure chemical-free intake.
Cooking Clean Eating Foods
Heating food does alter its natural state; however, it may have some benefits to it. Though some nutrients like Vitamin C are lost during cooking, other nutrients are increased such as lycopene. Therefore, the best strategy is to include a variety of food in your diet while consuming vegetables raw.
While cooking food, stir-fry without steaming so that the wholesomeness of the ingredients is not lost.
Incorporating Clean Eating Into Your Diet
By taking following simple measures, you can incorporate clean eating into your diet
- Eat only natural or minimally processed foods
- Try to keep your meals plain
- Take time to consume your meal. Chew slower and enjoy the taste of your meal, taking time to swallow it.
- Follow an eating pattern and eat on time. Eat as much as you want during your meal time and refrain from indulging in snacks after your meal.
- Follow your body cues. Once your body is full, stop eating any further.
Clean Eating As A Lifestyle Change
Realizing the health benefits of clean eating can help you adopt a permanent lifestyle change that will have profound benefits on your overall health and your ability to perform day-to-day tasks. It is important to bear in mind that your clean eating should have a variety of foods and can include less-processed foods. Rather than just focusing on weight loss or mass gain, you should opt for overall well-being. Only then, it can become a permanent choice in your life instead of a temporary fad that would die as soon as you are over with your obsessiveness to achieve a certain target.
