Natural Lifestyle: Clean Eating

I was recently given some back issues to a magazine called Clean Eating. I have since gotten my own subscription because I love it. I have learned so much about the benefits of "eating clean". What does that mean, you ask?

Clean Eating basically means eating food in its purest form or as close as possible. It means making smarter choices at the store, at a restaurant, etc. by simply reading the labels or preparing things fresh from home. The more ingredients on a label usually means the more processed it is.

We have recently converted our household diet to clean eating and have had surprising results. JC has lost almost 25 pounds in just 5 weeks with our new diet of fresh foods.

We've cut out high-fructose corn syrup, food colorings, refined sugars and grains, and anything partially hydrogenated.

Surprisingly it has been easier than I expected. Some foods do end up inevitably more expensive, yet our grocery bill has not gone up! Why? Because we aren't loading the cart with processed foods which add up as well. Making things from scratch is always cheaper and purchasing produce in season saves as well. (of course when I can grow this stuff myself how much better!). I try not to look at the "healthy foods" as expensive, but rather the "unhealthy foods" as made with cheaper ingredients and fillers. It has really changed my perspective.

When Jamie and I had to change our diets last July after discovering certain food allergies and sensitivities, we found ourselves essentially shopping for 2 different diets....the allergy diet and the non-allergy diet. THAT got expensive. But when JC decided to lose some weight, we switched to JUST the allergy diet which inevitably meant the healthier diet.

I also had 6 months of learning how to substitute ingredients in my favorite recipes. Now, I've adapted that to "Clean" substitutions. For example: In place of sugar in recipes I now use "Agave Nectar". And everything still comes out delicious. Or replacing white flour with wheat or millet, oatmeal, potato, etc. Replacing salt with sea salt is a healthy alternative too.

Are we 100% there? Not yet, but I'd say out diet reflects about 85/15 Clean to "unclean". That's a heavy improvement. Check out an issue of Clean Eating sometime and see what you think.

You are what you eat. So with clean eating you can't go wrong.