In my mind, “Clean Eating” doesn’t refer to a particular dieting style. To me, the meaning of this is overwhelmingly on eating food that is prepared from whole foods as much as possible.
- Using whole food ingredients; making food from scratch
- Seeing the actual food that goes into what you eat
- not using preservatives or pre-made foods
I’m going to go through a brief overview of some examples of clean eating, but this isn’t by any means a comprehensive list. So there are some things that should and should not be on these lists that I won’t mention.
That includes food that grows in the ground as well as animal proteins – veggies, fruits, starches like sweet potatoes, grains like pasta and rice
animal proteins like chicken, beef, fish, but these proteins are ideally grass-fed, pasture-raised, or wild-caught. you really want to pay the extra money to get high-quality protein and avoid getting the cheap stuff
Nuts – almonds, brazil nuts without added salt
Spices & salts – salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, chili powder
- salt – you actually need salt, it’s not a bad thing. the reason it’s bad is because most people eat a bunch of crappy food that is loaded with crappy salt. i usually use pink himalayan sea salt. obviously don’t use too much, but salt in moderation is good for you.
Cheese – in moderation, but a source of healthy fats. just make sure you’re getting good, high-quality cheese! aged and sourced from whole milk.
- avoiding things like velveeta or american cheese
- cheese made from whole milk; you want to avoid cheese from low or no-fat milk, as this is the main benefit of the cheese
- get aged cheddar. I try to get cheese from Wisconsin or Vermont.
Butters and oils – we don’t want to avoid all of these, because they have good fats; but do we want to avoid the fats that have hydrogenated oils or fats that are body has difficulty processing
- grass-fed, unsalted butter (European style, like Kerrygold’s) – but AVOIDING margarine or butter alternatives. We want those good fats.
- olive oil, avocado oil, or refined MCT oil- but we want to avoid certain oils: vegetable oil, canola oil, peanut, sunflower – these are just some of the ones you want to avoid. Rather than tell you all of the oils to avoid, I’d recommend you just use virgin olive oil as much as possible.
- Bacon fat, lard, tallow – I personally don’t use these that often because I’m not used to cooking with them, but these are fine in moderation.
Avoiding processed foods & sugary drinks
anything that’s pre-made, comes in a package, has an expiration date or preservatives that prolong its shelf life
precooked, packaged, or non-perishable meals
- ready made dinners that you just stick in the microwave or oven
- packaged foods like crackers
- alternative: make food yourself, but make enough food for leftovers later on
foods with artificial added sugar
- candy, cookies
- pre-made smoothies
- flavored oatmeal, cereal
- alternatives: look for unsweetened / no sugar added
- Snack foods with added fats & salts
- think anything with a wrapper
- energy bars, chips, salted peanuts
Drinks
- soda, juice, lemonade (even “healthy” drinks like orange juice or tomato juice – instead, eat the whole fruit or vegetable)
- flavored coffee drinks like lattes or frapacinnos
- alternatives: get your nutrients from whole foods. personally the only liquids I drink are water, the smoothies I make from scratch, and coffee. (not to mention the occasional alcoholic beverage, usually a light IPA)
To give you an idea of how I follow clean eating, here’s a list of what I typically eat during the week:
every day, a smoothie made of greens, berries, super foods like chia seeds, flax seed, banana, protein peptides, and coconut milk
- by design, this has a lot of calories – probably upwards of 1600 calories. I make about 30 oz worth of this smoothie, have some of it in the morning with breakfast, and then again later in the day as lunch.
- but the main point is here that this smoothie is made completely from scratch with whole foods.
Breakfast includes 3 eggs with carbs, usually fresh tortillas from the grocery store. I’ll add aged cheddar and avocado for extra fats & calories.
Lunch is leftovers from whatever I cooked the day before.
Dinner is always a meal made from scratch, and includes protein, veggies, and carbs.
- Protein – grass-fed beef or pasture-raised chicken, wild-caught fish
- fresh veggies like broccoli, mixed peppers, or zucchini/squash
- carbs – rice, sweet potatoes, Italian pasta,
The only regular example of a a dinner meal not made from scratch is when I use a pre-made sauce like marinara, curry, or tikka masala.
Snacks – If I’m really hungry and I need food now, I”ll have a cliff bar or an epic bar, but I Wouldn’t consider this clean eating. This usually happens 1-2x per week.
My go-to pickup meal is either Thai food or chipotle, and this happens once per week. And though I wouldn’t put it on the same “clean” level as the food I prepare myself, do consider these to be clean meals, because the food is made from scratch.
But what about “cheat” meals?
The common understanding of cheat meal is when you deviate from your planned diet to indulge.
But to me, cheat meals are part of the plan. Not eating ice cream or a chocolate chip cookie ever isn’t sustainable.
