You might be wondering what all the fuss is about eating clean lately and what exactly that means.

In simple terms, it means eating food as close to its natural state as possible. Now that people are aware of how large amounts of added chemicals and preservatives negatively affect your body over an extended period of time, they are looking for ways to remove those chemicals from your diets and your body to bring your body to a more balanced and healthy state. . That’s why the concept of healthy eating is so popular right now. Eating clean means eating high-quality food. The fewer ingredients there are in a food, the closer it is to its natural state and the higher its quality. The more ingredients there are in a food, the more processed the food is and the more preservatives and chemicals it contains. Healthy eating is the practice of eating whole, natural foods like fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and complex carbohydrates. It also means staying away from junk food. Junk food is basically foods that include artificial sugar, bad fats (hydrogenated, trans fats), preservatives, and white bread. Junk food is full of empty calories and zero nutritional value.

The focus of the healthy eating program is not just to lose weight, but to be as healthy as possible. That’s why eating clean is not just another fad, it’s a lifestyle. It’s about seeing food as fuel for your body and instead of simply using food to satisfy physiological cravings. Clean Eating is not an eating program based on deprivation but one of empowerment. It is about building a foundation from which a healthy mind and body can be built. Unlike a diet, you are not afraid of recovery as it is a change in your overall eating habits.

Dieting defeats the purpose of losing weight, as it only slows down your metabolism instead of speeding it up. If you diet and deprive your body of the food it needs, then your blood sugar level will be unstable, which will intensify your cravings for unhealthy foods. Another negative side effect of dieting is that you end up losing muscle, as stored fat cannot be converted to glucose, so your body attacks muscle to provide glucose for energy.

Today, health experts follow this clean eating program in three different ways. The method you choose should be based on the one you find suits your own body type and lifestyle. For example, some people just want to eat the same three standard meals a day, but just want to cut out processed foods. Other people may want to follow a program that will increase their metabolism and balance their blood sugar, so they will follow number two, which is currently the most widely used. Other people concerned about the threat of developing diabetes due to a family history often follow the third method. When your body is in balance, cell reproduction, focus, energy level, stress management, and muscle growth are optimized. So whatever program you follow, you’ll reap the benefits of healthy eating for years to come.

Eating Clean programs DO:

• Eliminate refined sugar.

• Read labels and eat foods with fewer ingredients (try to avoid foods with more than 3-6 ingredients).

• Cook and prepare healthy meals to avoid making impulsive unhealthy choices.

• Stay hydrated by drinking 8 glasses of water a day.

• Eliminate alcoholic beverages (or significantly limit them).

• Always eat breakfast.

• Include plenty of fruits and vegetables in your diet.

• Swap white carbs for whole carbs (whole grain-brown rice) eg. whole wheat pasta or whole wheat bread.

• Sleep, exercise, stress management: Try to maintain a 7-8 sleep schedule. Other components such as sleep, exercise, water, vitamins/minerals, and stress management should work together to achieve internal balance .

• It is important to incorporate protein into your diet because it triggers the positive release of the hormone glucagon (increases blood sugar) which in turn counteracts the hormone insulin (which lowers blood sugar) resulting in a stable blood sugar as the two hormones balance each other. another out. Protein is the primary factor in the growth, repair, and maintenance of your body’s tissue. Complete protein can be found in foods like chicken, fish, beef, and turkey.

• Eat foods with fiber: It is important to incorporate fiber into your diet because, since it cannot be digested, it slows down the rate of digestion, which helps to stabilize blood sugar as much as possible. The goal is to consume 25-35 grams of fiber per day.

• Eat the Good Fats (Unsaturated) and not the bad ones (Saturated): Fat is not the enemy, it is eating saturated fats that cause health complications in a large consumption. The benefits of eating unsaturated fats are that it slows down digestion; it makes you release stored fat, is necessary for fat-soluble vitamins and provides essential fatty acids.

Foods to avoid or reduce as much as possible:

• Sugar
• Sweets (candies, cookies, cakes)
• Cheese
• Frozen
• Mayonnaise
• Chips
• Soda
• Bread
• No pre-packaged, boxed foods (cakes, cereals, frozen entrees, cookies, pastas)
• Avoid saturated fats that raise cholesterol and increase heart disease (fatty meat, whole milk, bacon, butter, cheese, ice cream)
• Incorporate small amounts of unsaturated fats: avocados, olives, canola oil.
• Trans fat (ingredient added to foods to increase the shelf life of foods)
• Check the amount of sodium in foods. The amount of sodium (salt) in food: Each gram (1000 mg) of sodium holds onto water molecules, causing your body to swell and bloat and has a negative effect on the way your digestive system processes the food. The goal is to limit your sodium intake to 1,500 to 2,000

High quality food:

• Chicken
• Eggs
• Dairy products
• Soy products
• Bushmeat
• Nut seeds,
• Fish
• Turkey breast
• Greek yogurt

Allowable Fats-Unsaturated Fats

• Coconuts, Seed Oils, Olive Oil, Linseed Oil, Organic Butter

THREE METHODS TO EAT CLEAN

METHOD 1

Avoid processed foods of all kinds, but eat only the three standard meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).

METHOD 2

Most fitness experts agree that to lose weight you need to eat more. This program is based on a diet of unprocessed foods eaten at multiple meals throughout the day. This way of eating stabilizes blood sugar and keeps the body in balance. Another benefit of eating clean besides removing extra chemicals and preservatives from your body is weight loss. Foods that are processed more are digested faster and can raise blood sugar levels. Foods that are closer to their natural state take less time to digest, and slower digestion results in better blood sugar stability. Blood sugar stability equates to a higher fat-burning metabolism and a more balanced body overall. The reason it is important to stabilize the body’s blood sugar levels is because once blood sugar levels are low, the body will begin to experience intense glucose cravings that lead to carbohydrate cravings, as that glucose is derived from carbohydrates. If you eat only three meals a day, your metabolism and blood sugar levels will sink and you will be more likely to eat unhealthy foods. The way to keep physiological food cravings under control is to keep your blood sugar level stabilized throughout the day. When you follow this method, you must:

• Follow the program formula which is based on consuming the correct number of calories per meal and the ratios of nutrients (protein (40%, fat (25%), carbohydrates (35%)) used to stabilize levels based on your overall body composition and the amount of lean body mass (LBM) The number of calories you eat will depend on whether you want to maintain, lose, or gain weight For example, if a woman wants to If the goal is to gain weight and muscle tone, then a woman would consume approximately 300 calories and a man 500 calories every 3 to 4 hours until she reaches her ideal weight. in the middle of the two.

• Eat a balanced meal every 3 to 4 hours (five to six meals in smaller portions per day).

METHOD 3

The third method is one endorsed by Jillian Michaels, fitness expert from “The Biggest Loser.” This method involves the same “clean eating” style but eating only 4 meals over the course of a day. In this method, it is suggested to eat every 4 hours instead of every 2-3. The theory behind this method is that if you eat every 4 hours instead of every 2-3 hours, you will avoid keeping your insulin levels continuously high, which will help you avoid a potential risk of developing diabetes.