Clean Eating Questions

Is clean eating a weight loss diet?

Clean eating is lifestyle, its a permanent way of eating.  A weight loss diet is something you do for a short period of time (let’s say a month or two) in order to lose enough weight to reach a “goal”. After the goal is reached you go back to eating the way you’ve always eaten because, honestly, most diets aren’t really sustainable. Clean eating is completely sustainable.  It is the way people used to eat before the invasion of unhealthy packaged convenience food changed our definition of food.  Clean eating is about changing your attitudes about food and making a commitment to feed your body with food in its purest realest form.  It’s about focusing on whole foods rather than subscribing to shortcuts.

Can I still have cookies, cakes, and muffins?

Yes, absolutely.  Its pretty hard to find clean bakery goodies – and these are among the worst offender in terms of bad ingredients.  But you can make them yourself to ensure they contain only  healthy, natural, clean ingredients.  That way you can have your cake and eat it too 🙂  Once you start eating clean baked goods, you’ll never want to purchase store-bought varieties again.  You will really taste and feel the difference.   It may sound like a lot of work, but the recipes I use are largely fairly quick and simple. I don’ have the time to be in the kitchen all day, so trust me when I say, this is essential to me.   Yes, its more effort than just grabbing store bought stuff, but your health and your future are worth it.  The cost of ill health far outweighs the little bit of extra effort you will now invest in order to put real food into your body.

Can I still eat pasta?

Yes, more grocery stores are carrying pasta that is considered clean.  The processed, white flour pasta you are probably accustomed to simply needs to be replaced with a more “whole” type. Some options are 100% whole wheat pasta, brown rice pasta, quinoa pasta etc. Just follow the clean eating rule and read the ingredients label on the package to make sure it really is as clean as its supposed to be.

What about products like tomato sauce, pasta sauce or salsa?

Absolutely, but once again, you’ll make it yourself.  No more pasta sauce out of a jar or can. And once you’ve made your own salsa sauce, you’ll have no desire to go back to the store bought stuff.  This isn’t difficult. The recipes I offer you are typically quite quick and easy.  Think you’re not a cook?  With the recipes, tips and tricks you’ll find in this book, you’ll be surprised to discover that you (yes, you) can actually do some pretty cool stuff in the kitchen.

Is it necessary to eat clean 100% of the time?

We wish we could but it’s not possible. Eating clean 100% of the time can be done if you have superhuman discipline and will-power. But for the rest of us mortals, it’s just impossible. There’s always going to be birthday cake at a party or mojitos on a night out, and it would be impossible to avoid them altogether.

We prefer balance to perfection and we have embraced the 80-20 rule (or 90-10 if you are so inclined) to healthy eating, where you eat clean 80% of the time and indulge yourself to treats 20% of the time. Knowing that you can have a cheat meal once a week prevents you from bingeing on Twinkies after a month of good work.

Does Clean Eating Prevent Cancer?

The MD Anderson Cancer Center explains it like this:  Maintaining a healthy weight is a great way to lower your cancer risk. Obesity has been shown to increase risk for several types of cancer, including breast, endometrial, esophageal and colorectal. Clean eating also promotes eating fresh fruits and vegetables, which are an essential part of a healthy diet.

This sounds time consuming, is it?

If you don’t typically do much cooking, clean eating is going to be a little more time consuming for you because you are preparing your own real food from scratch and cutting your reliance on packaged, pre-made or convenience food (ie: “fake food” from a nutritional perspective). Please don’t make the mistake of thinking you “don’t have the time” to cook and prepare real food. Getting sick and battling disease will cost you far more time than clean eating ever will.  Planning your meals and prepping them in advance can cut your effort in half. Prepping it in advance will also put convenience back into you life and become your new fast food.  By having your own pre-made food at the ready, it’ll be easier for you to stick to eating clean.

I’ve read articles that clean eating is unhealthy

I don’t mean to sound harsh, but any criticism of clean eating being unhealthy is among the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.  Clean eating reflects the exact principles of healthy eating that medical experts and nutritionists have advocated for years.  It is a lifestyle change, not a diet, fad, or short term solution.

So why not just call it “healthy eating” then?

Healthy eating can mean a lot of different things – its a very broad subject matter.  The clean eating movement compiles and organizes this guidance into a fully comprehensive, entirely cohesive system for you to follow, making it easy for you to make sure you’ve got your bases covered.

You will come across slightly different interpretations of how clean eating is to be applied, and some of this advice can stray from what clean eating is at its core. For instance, some folks giving out clean eating advice will insist you have to cut all carbs, others will say no dairy allowed, no red meat, or you must cut out all fat and oil (and there are some who will advocate all of the above).  Those are adaptations they have made to the core principles of clean eating which extend beyond the scope of clean eating. It is unfortunate that they don’t make that clear and in so doing, they allow the definition

Like with anything, there may be certain individuals within the clean eating movement who put their own spin on things and take things to extremes.  The clean eating movement shouldn’t be judged based on a very small number of individuals who are essentially doing their own thing and calling it clean eating.  Its important to look at the fundamentals of clean eating and how it is consistently represented across hundreds of different sources.  Doing so will confirm that clean eating abides by all the principles of healthy diet and nutrition as advocated by the majority of medical professionals and nutrition experts. Clean eating does not eliminate any of the major food groups, it does not involve deprivation, it incorporates an endless variety of food and menu choices into the diet; it doesn’t involve counting calories, restrictive calories, or feeling hungry. In fact, you’ll be eating all day long in the precise way that mother nature intended (grazing on small meals all throughout the day so that you never experience cravings and your blood sugar stays on a nice even keel all day long.

Clean eating is simply about eating healthy, wholesome food, in its most natural unprocessed state – which is exactly what all healthcare profesionals advise.