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The Art of Clean Eating and How to Start a Healthy Diet

Staying healthy starts with your diet.

By Jessica SmithPublished 5 years ago 5 min read
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Image source: Pixabay

Staying healthy starts with your diet. Clean eating is one of the ways you can ensure that your body stays both strong and fit. It is also a necessary step when you want to start with losing any excess weight. The entire process of clean eating starts with fresh and whole foods. You have to ensure that the foods you consume are (almost) in their initial state or minimally processed.

It is easy to stay healthy with clean eating habits. You will also discover that clean eating does not have to be expensive. You just have to pick your foods right, and prepare them to meet healthy standards. In this post, you will learn some of the ways you can eat clean and maintain a healthy diet.

Regardless of where you are, let clean eating be your habit. Then you will realize that a healthy lifestyle is achievable. Follow these tips to stay in top-notch health in relation to clean eating.

1. Increase Fruit and Vegetable Intake

Nobody can deny that vegetables and fruits are the healthiest foods you can lay your hands on. When you get them fresh from the farm, you can enjoy the health benefits they have. Vegetables that you can eat raw are especially more beneficial to your body.

Fresh vegetables and fruits are rich in fiber, minerals, and vitamins. Research also shows that fresh vegetables have chemicals that can protect you by fighting against inflammation. These compounds also protect your body cells from damage. Some other reliable sources have come out to narrate how vegetables and fruits can help in fighting heart diseases and cancer.

Vegetables and foods have no fats, and are easy to prepare and cook. But another way to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables is to include your favorites in your salad. You need to be sure not to overcook it lest you kill the nutrients and lose the benefits.

2. Avoid Refined Carbohydrates

Refined foods are readily available in shops and markets. They are either easy to cook, or readily edible. But be careful. Refined carbs have less nutritional value than you are ready to bargain for. They also make it easy to eat too much. But the amount of consumption does not provide you with the necessary nutrients to stay healthy.

According to research, the intake of highly processed carbs is harmful to your health. Excessive intake can lead to obesity, insulin resistance, inflammatory problems, and fatty liver disease. If you want to stay healthy, you better learn to eat foods that are not processed, or, at the least, the processing must be minimal. In the latter case, you should also reduce your daily intake.

As an alternative, you should go for whole grain meals for the supply of carbohydrates. They also contain necessary nutrients and fiber. These will help you fight inflammation, obesity, and improve general gut health.

3. Read Packaging and Labels Before Eating

It is clear that clean eating is getting fresh food to avoid too much “contamination” with unwanted ingredients. However, some packaged foods we buy from supermarkets are fit to be counted as clean foods. Some packaged vegetables and fruits are automatically included in the list.

But there are packaged meats, nuts, and chocolates that are also good to consume for a healthy lifestyle. Yes, chocolate is good food for clean eating, and the health benefits of dark chocolate surpass any “sweet foods” you can think of.

When buying packaged foodstuffs, you need to read the labels to ensure that the contents are good for clean eating. Some of the ingredients to rule out when buying packaged food include unhealthy fats, added sugars, and (chemical) preservatives. These ingredients only do more harm than good for your body.

In case you are buying packaged salad mixes, be sure that they are not pre-washed. The process makes your cooking and preparation easier, but deprives your food of the necessary ingredients you need for a healthy diet.

4. Avoid Spreads and Vegetable Oils

Who does not like the scrumptiousness of jam, honey, and margarine on slices of bread? But wait, the reality is that when you are planning to eat clean, you should avoid these items in your food list. Vegetable oils are unhealthy, as well as other types of oil that are extracted using chemical methods.

Spreads like Margarine are also unhealthy, because they are highly chemically processed oils. On the labels, you may see that the margarine contains vitamins and minerals, but they are not efficient in terms of clean eating. You can get the vitamins you need from vegetables and fruits as outlined in this article on Vitamin C.

Instead of margarine, it is advisable to use unprocessed butter to complete your breakfast. Butter contains Vitamin A that helps in improving vision. Vitamin K2 present in butter helps in maintaining bone health. But it is advisable to use butter from cows fed with grass than those eating grains.

5. Cook Your Own Food

The surest way to stay healthy by clean eating is by preparing your own food yourself. It may seem time-consuming, but preparing your food at home helps you to make sure that you only consume a healthy diet. You also have to go shopping alone and follow the tips for buying clean foods from supermarkets, farms, or groceries.

In case you are eating out, do not go to a fast food cafe. Make your special order at a restaurant earlier, so that by the time you have your lunch break, your food should be ready. This helps you avoid rushing trying to get anything for the tummy.

When placing your order at a hotel, ask them to prepare your food in the same way you do at home. Specify the ingredients to use, the oil, and the amount of salt you will need in the food. Buying fresh vegetables from the nearby grocery will help you avoid eating overstored and overcooked food items.

Summary

Nothing is too complicated or expensive when it comes to clean eating for a healthy lifestyle. But most of us think that we have little or no time to start looking for healthy food items for our diet. We end up eating processed and hurriedly deep-fried foods that have killed all the nutritional values we need.

For better food discipline, you should start planning your time, and set aside some time to go shopping for your foodstuff. Getting fresh veggies and fruits from the farms is worth your time for a healthy diet. You are welcome to visit this website to get more of these health and nutritional tips for your personal health.

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