How To Eat A Clean Diet
Lacey What Is A Clean Diet?
A clean diet is pretty simple in what it tries to accomplish, it limits how much processed foods you eat while encouraging eating whole foods like; fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains and healthy fats. This also entails that you avoid foods that have been drastically altered, like eating apples instead of apple juice. Although the main draw of a clean diet is restricting the eating of any processed foods.
Why are Processed Foods Bad for You?
Processed foods are simply any food that has added preservatives or has been premade. Think things like frozen meals or canned foods. Generally these foods are loaded with sugar and salt to better preserve them and this is why they can be so bad for your health and those added sugars and salt can cause obesity or high blood pressure respectively. Even worse, a lot of processed foods have added fats which are very good at clogging up arteries and veins and causing heart disease. Processed foods as a whole are just really nasty for you, so limiting or completely restricting yourself from them is the best idea.
What You Should Be Eating
Again you should be eating things that fall into the categories of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains and healthy fats while also avoiding any processed foods. You also want to avoid anything that has been heavily altered like chicken nuggets, instead try to go for simple things like grilled chicken breast or sauteed greens.
Generally the clean diet has you eat six small meals a day, with protein at every meal and the best way to get these meals to fit with the clean diet is to make them yourself. By making your own food you can then be in command of how much salt, sugar, and fat you are eating and the portion sizes. Furthermore it’s a good idea to prep meals since you might not have time to make a healthy meal and will be tempted to order fast food.
Why Is Fast Food Unhealthy?
Fast food has a lot of the same problems. Most items on their menus are highly processed foods but much worse. Most fast food is high in sodium, saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. Generally these can lead to things like high blood pressure, heart disease, and weight gain. Trans fat is especially notorious for causing heart issues. Although some fast food joints have added fruit and vegetables to their menu as alternative options, they are usually pumped with preservatives for longer freshness. It’s better to just avoid fast food all together.
How Can A Clean Diet Help You Lose Weight?
If you follow the clean diet method, you should see that you’re losing weight by simply cutting out a lot of preservatives and eating more healthy. Although usually this is pretty slow to start up, and most times it’s only a few pounds each month, it would work even better if you exercised a bit.