We clean our house, we clean our car, we clean our pets, everything seems to need cleaning. Have you ever thought about eating clean? Isn’t that just as important, if not more important than all of those other things?
Clean eating is being conscious about where your food actually comes from. How real is it? We have to become aware of how processed and refined our foods are if we want a clean diet. Here is a quick checklist to see if a food is processed:
- Does it have any additions? (This includes salt, fat, preservatives, sugar, vitamins)
- It the food in its natural form?
- Is any part of the food made in a lab? (Can you pronounce every ingredient in the food you’re eating?)
But, we must remember, not all processed foods are too bad for us. For example, some fruits and vegetables must be processed when they are out of season so that they are still available in our grocery stores. Those processed foods are not harmful to us like the super-processed foods that we find in fast-food restaurants or just stick in the microwave to cook for five minutes.
It has been proven that meal plans based on heavy fruits and vegetables can actually prevent various conditions and diseases that could be fatal, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. If you’ve read our previous blogs, you know that we are all about prevention! #PreventForTheFuture
Here are some examples to get your mind wrapped around the clean diet concept:
- Oranges
- Clean: Orange
- Somewhat Processed: 100% Orange juice
- Super-Processed: Orange drink (little real juice, contains fructose and corn syrup)
- Corn
- Clean: Corn on the Cob
- Somewhat Processed: Corn tortilla chips
- Super-Processed: Cornflakes
- Ham
- Clean: Ham from a local farmer
- Somewhat Processed: Deli ham at the grocery store
- Super-Processed: Bologna from the deli
From this information, we are sure you can make the connections to decide what is clean and what is processed. Here is a great resource for multiple clean eating meal ideas.
We want you to make it YOUR goal this month, to try and eat as clean as you possibly can (and then make this a lifestyle choice)! Even if you can change a few things in your diet to make it clean. Obviously it is very tough to have a completely clean diet, but can you thing of some things to change? Don’t forget to keep up with that exercise and drinking water as well. We are so proud of you!
References:
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/weight-loss/plans/diets/clean-eating/?page=5
http://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/23-ways-to-eat-clean/slide/3
UNIVERSAL HOME CARE SUDBURY 