Eating "clean" is an approach to a daily diet and a general lifestyle that focus on the natural nourishment available via whole foods, simply prepared. It is a health-minded diet first and foremost. Clean foods have varying nutritional profiles and calorie densities, and form the basis of a complete eating style with adequate protein, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats and fiber. "The Eat-Clean Diet" by Tosca Reno and its companion website, EatCleanDiet.com, point out that counting calories, fat grams or carbs is not necessarily a component of clean eating. Instead, it is the lack of additives, sugars, chemicals and processing that distinguishes clean foods from other foods.
Step 1
Eat items in their natural state. An apple is an apple, and eating an apple is choosing a clean food, as opposed to choosing apple juice made from concentrate.
Step 2
Keep prepared items as close as possible to their natural state. When cooking or preparing is required, clean eating tries to preserve the natural goodness of the food. For example, hot air pops corn kernels and keeps them very close to their natural state. Palm oil and salt and caramel, however, distance the corn from its natural state.
Step 3
Avoid packaging. The cleaner the food, the less packaging is usually required. Compare a microwavable container containing a spinach and cheese omelet, covered in plastic and set inside a box, versus a bunch of spinach, a wheel of cheese and a couple of eggs. The latter assortment wins the clean foods contest.
Step 4
Read ingredients before eating. Look on labels to determine how clean the food inside really is. "Tomatoes, salt and citric acid" might be the ingredients on your favorite tomato sauce can. But a jar of prepared spaghetti sauce can contain a list of up to 20 ingredients, many of them having chemical names you can hardly pronounce.
Step 5
Make your own. Applesauce, omelets and spaghetti sauce are terrific examples of foods that are simple to make with whole ingredients. When you make your own food, you can eat or freeze it immediately, which keeps it fresh and keeps it clean.
Step 6
Grow your own. A vegetable garden, in which you control the soil and choose the seeds, as well as provide the nutrients or pest protection, can be one of the most rewarding ways to eat clean. Harvest fresh foods from your own backyard.
Step 7
Eliminate empty calories. Sugar, junk foods, fast foods and the like all represent food that offers little nutrition. These empty calories are not clean foods. The "Dietary Guidelines for Americans," published by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, recommend: "The healthiest way to reduce calorie intake is to reduce one's intake of added sugars, fats, and alcohol, which all provide calories but few or no essential nutrients."
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