CHAPTER TWO

The Clean Eating Diet

Now that you know what Clean Eating is, you’re probably wondering about the nuts and bolts of the plan. There are foods that you eat, foods that you don’t, and strategies you can employ to get the best nutritional benefits from your natural food choices. Clean Eating isn’t hard to follow once you throw away any preconceptions about carbohydrates, fat, and calories, and instead focus on the fresh, delicious ingredient options. Learning to shop (and eat) cleanly is just a matter of simplifying what you put in your body and making meals that provide you with energy and high-quality fuel. This is mindful eating that takes into account each season’s freshest ingredients, powerful food combinations, and super foods to eat at every meal.

FILL YOUR PLATE WITH THE GOOD STUFF

Food is the key to good health. If you choose wholesome, natural foods and follow a balanced meal plan, then you’ll have clear skin, shiny hair, and a body at its best, healthiest weight. Clean Eating offers so many food choices that you’ll never run out of amazing, diverse dishes for all your meals.

You could be a high achiever who manages to stick to your meal plan 100 percent, but probably not. That’s okay—don’t obsess over perfection to the point that it makes you miserable. Try to practice your Clean Eating principles 80 percent of the time, and understand that having a small serving of your grandmother’s pasta at a family event isn’t the end of the world. Just start fresh the next day and don’t overindulge when you do make the choice to “cheat.”

So what should you put on your plate when following the Clean Eating plan? It’s really quite simple at the core. Choose the macronutrients that your body loves best: complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and good fats. Complex carbs will be the foundation of your diet, to which you’ll add protein and good fats. The appendix contains an extensive list of Clean Eating foods, but here are some examples of what you should be eating.

NUTRITION RULES

Complex Carbohydrates: Six to Ten Servings per Day

Carbohydrates come in two forms: simple and complex. Most simple carbohydrates aren’t allowed on the Clean Eating plan, but some fruits (which are simple carbohydrates) are accepted in limited quantities because they’re also fantastic sources of fiber and micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Complex carbohydrates like those in the lists that follow are extremely beneficial for your body. They stabilize blood sugar, improve digestion, boost energy, and reduce food cravings (Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Source 2012).

Non-Starchy Complex Carbohydrates (lower in carbohydrates and calories)

• Apples • Artichokes • Asparagus • Beet greens • Berries • Broccoli • Brussels sprouts • Cabbage • Cauliflower • Celery

• Cucumbers • Eggplant • Green beans • Kale • Onions • Spinach • Swiss chard • Tomatoes • Watercress • Zucchini

Have you ever picked a tomato straight from the vine in your garden, still warm from the sun, and bitten into it like an apple? The taste will simply explode in your mouth with that sweet earthiness that fresh tomatoes are famous for all over the world. Seasonal produce tastes better: it’s a fact.

Starchy Complex Carbohydrates

• Bananas • Beans* • Brown rice • Buckwheat • Bulgur • Carrots • Chickpeas* • Lentils* • Millet

• Oats • Potatoes • Quinoa* • Radishes • Split peas* • Sweet potatoes • Wheat germ • Yams

*Can also be used as a source of protein

Lean Protein: Five to Six Servings per Day

The word protein is derived from the Greek word for “first,” which makes sense because this nutrient is fundamental to the body. Protein is found in all cells of the body and is absolutely crucial for bodily functions. The enzymes in the body that activate chemical processes and many hormones, such as insulin, are proteins. Proteins are made up of about twenty amino acids, nine of which are essential to make a “complete protein” that satisfies all of your body’s protein needs. Humans usually get their protein from meats, fish, poultry, and eggs, but it can also be found in other food groups. Some dairy, grains, and vegetables also have substantial amounts of protein. Vegetables often need to be consumed in combination with other foods in order to be a complete protein.

Lean Proteins

• Almond milk • Beef • Bison/buffalo • Cottage cheese, low-fat • Nut butters • Nuts (unsalted) • Pork tenderloin • Poultry • Rice milk

• Eggs • Fish, fresh or low-sodium, water-packed canned • Kefir (yogurt drink) • Seeds (hemp, sesame, sunflower, flax, pumpkin) • Soy milk • Tempeh • Tofu • Yogurt, nonfat

Good Fats (monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats): Two to Three Servings per Day

Many people, especially chronic dieters, are afraid of fat—but, in fact, 18 percent of your daily calories should come in the form of good fats in order for your body to run efficiently. Foods that are good sources of monounsaturated fats can help lower cholesterol and balance blood sugar. This means that eating monounsaturated fats can cut the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Polyunsaturated fats are mostly vegetable-based and have the same benefits as other healthful fats. Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats that are known for being heart-healthy.

It might be difficult to accept that fat isn’t the enemy and that good fats from fish, nuts, olive oil, eggs, some dairy products, and avocados are very healthful for you. You can’t live without fat, because it’s fuel for your body, it delivers fat-soluble vitamins to your organs, and it provides essential fatty acids. Good fats (polyunsaturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fats) can also help lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Good fats include:

• Avocados • Cold-water fish • Flaxseed • Hazelnut oil • Nut butters

• Nuts • Olive oil • Pumpkinseed oil • Safflower oil • Sunflower seeds

FOODS TO DITCH ON A CLEAN DIET

Clean Eating is about positively choosing good food, not about negatively forbidding or restricting bad food. Obviously, though, there are foods that you’ll need to cut out of your diet in order to reap the benefits of a Clean Eating lifestyle. Some will be difficult to give up, especially if they’re a habit for you, but don’t despair: after eating clean, delicious foods for a while, you won’t miss your old diet.

If you dedicate yourself to Clean Eating, you’ll have about two thousand opportunities a year to fuel your body with delicious, nutritious foods rather than foods that damage your body. Clean Eating takes the guesswork out of those choices and equips you for a healthier future. Why waste all those chances to get it right?

Conventionally Grown Produce

You should consider cutting out conventionally grown fruits and vegetables, which are contaminated to some degree with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. However, you don’t necessarily have to eat organic to eat clean. It might be hard for you to find organic products or they might not be in your budget. If that’s the case, make sure you wash your produce well, and choose hormone-, steroid-, and antibiotic-free meats, eggs, and dairy products whenever possible. But you should definitely consider buying certain organic produce—specific foods that are especially contaminated with chemical fertilizers and pesticides when they’re grown conventionally (EWG’s 2013 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce 2013). These include:

• Apples • Bell peppers • Celery • Cherry tomatoes • Collard greens • Cucumbers • Grapes • Hot peppers

• Kale • Nectarines (imported) • Peaches • Potatoes • Spinach • Strawberries • Zucchini

All of these are used in Clean Eating recipes, so you’ll need to decide whether or not you want to buy organic.

Processed Foods

Ditch processed foods. This is an essential Clean Eating rule, and following it should be one of the first steps that you take to a healthier life. What counts as processed food? Quite simply, it’s anything with unrecognizable ingredients on the label. This means food additives—stuff that’s put into food to alter or enhance its flavor, texture, color, shelf life, and even nutritional value. It’s disturbing to note that the average North American consumes approximately 150 pounds of food additives a year (Mckee 2008) by eating processed foods.

Processed foods contain:

• Acids (citric, fumaric, lactic, malic, tartaric) • Antibiotics • Anticaking agents • Antifoaming agents • Artificial flavors • Artificial sweeteners • Chemicals • Dyes • Emulsifiers • Flavor enhancers (such as monosodium glutamate)

• Hormones (i.e., rBGH) • Humectants (keeps processed foods moist and prevents dried foods from drying out too much) • Preservatives • Propellants • Salt • Stabilizers • Steroids • Sugar • Thickeners • And many more additives

These ingredients don’t belong in a Clean Eating lifestyle. You don’t have to cut out every last food item that contains any additives at all, especially when it’s otherwise pretty healthful, like whole-grain tortillas. But do your very best.

Refined Sugar

Refined sugar is nothing but empty calories, which not only packs on the pounds but also damages your health. Bottom line: you should never eat refined sugar again. The standard American diet is absolutely overloaded with sugar, not just in desserts and candy but also in many items that you might assume are sugar-free, such as store-bought spaghetti sauce, deli meats, and canned soup. Sugar consumption substantially increases the risk of many deadly diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and high triglyceride levels, not to mention obesity (Jacob 2013).

Refined Grains

All grain products aren’t created equal, even though they start out that way in the fields. White flour is the world’s most common refined grain and is found absolutely everywhere, such as in cereal, breads, cakes, pizza, sauces, soups, cookies, and muffins. When nutritious whole wheat is processed, it turns into a starchy powder that can cause numerous health problems, including elevated blood sugar, sugar cravings, sluggish metabolism, inflammation, and allergic reactions to gluten (see the glossary) (Women Fitness 2011). The Clean Eating plan replaces this damaging food with whole grains that still have all the edible parts of the entire grain kernel, including the bran, the germ, and the endosperm.

Trans Fats and Saturated Fats

These fats are often found in processed foods because manufacturers use them to create a desirable characteristic known as “mouth feel,” a pleasant texture in the mouth. Fats also can add flavor.

Trans fats are completely artificial—they’re not found in nature—and should never pass your lips. They contribute to many dangerous health conditions such as coronary heart disease and obesity.

Saturated fats are more of a gray area because you can occasionally consume them in very small quantities (Teicholz 2007). Saturated fats usually come from animal sources, such as meat and milk, and are solid at room temperature—think butter and lard. Eating too much saturated fat can increase your risk of several chronic diseases, such as breast and colon cancer, and contribute to obesity (Collins 2012).

Specific Foods to Cut from Your Diet

Eliminate refined sugar, refined grain, and bad fats from your diet by permanently crossing foods like these off your shopping list:

• Beverages: energy drinks; fruit cocktails, drinks, and bottled juices (eat fresh fruit instead); sodas; sweetened or creamy coffee drinks
• Condiments: full-fat mayonnaise; most store-bought sauces, dressings, and marinades
• Dairy products: butter; hard cheeses
• Fried foods, including French fries
• Frozen foods: breakfasts, dinners, pizza, snacks
• Hydrogenated oils
• Meats: bacon; fatty cuts of beef; ground beef; ham; hamburgers; hot dogs; most lamb; processed deli meats; sausages
• Palm oil
• Pastries: cakes; cookies; donuts; pies; snack cakes
• Pizza
• Refined grains: white breads; pasta; and rice
• Salty snacks: chips; crackers
• Stick margarine
• Sugary breakfast cereals
• Sweets: candy, ice cream, marshmallow spread, milk chocolate

FOOD PAIRING: BEYOND PEAS AND CARROTS

One of most important principles of Clean Eating is to combine lean proteins and complex carbohydrates in every meal. This food formula helps stabilize blood sugar, eliminating the nasty symptoms of fluctuating levels of sugar-regulating insulin, such as dizziness, sweat, food cravings, and energy crashes (Worden 2011). Food pairing also leaves you feeling full longer between meals and provides fuel for exercising and everyday activities.

You can also combine Clean Eating foods to enhance the absorption rate of the nutrients. These combinations involve specific foods, but more often they pair complementary nutrients. Experiment with different foods and you might hit upon a new favorite taste.

Ten Perfect Clean Eating Pairings

1. Tomatoes + avocados: This could be the base of a delicious salad or tempting guacamole. The good fat in the avocado makes your body absorb seven times more of the lycopene (an antioxidant; see the glossary) in the tomatoes. Plus, the fat-soluble vitamins in tomatoes need a source of good fat—the avocado—to be absorbed by your body.
2. Dark green vegetables + extra-virgin olive oil: The olive oil helps release the antioxidant lutein that’s found in the vegetables (Roodenburg et al. 2000).
3. Cruciferous vegetables + grilled proteins: There’s a great deal of concern about carcinogens that are formed during high-heat cooking such as grilling. Cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, and broccoli contain compounds that can help your body purge the carcinogens in grilled foods (National Cancer Institute 2012).
4. Spinach + citrus fruit: If you have anemia or low blood iron, this combination might be the solution for you. Adding orange wedges to your fresh spinach salad will help your body absorb the iron in the greens more readily (Roodenburg et al. 2000). You can also dress the salad or cooked greens with a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice.
5. Greek yogurt + whole grains or bananas: Imagine eating a dish that provides your body with healthful digestive bacteria (probiotics) and the food that those bacteria thrive on (prebiotics). In this case, the prebiotics in the grains or bananas combine with the probiotics in the yogurt to help your digestive system stay healthy and run smoothly.
6. Tomatoes and broccoli + extra-virgin olive oil: Tomatoes and broccoli are wonderful sources of beta-carotene, which can help your body fight off colds if it’s absorbed well. This is where the olive oil comes into the equation: monounsaturated fat such as olive oil can increase the absorption of beta-carotene by 500 percent.
7. Whole-grain pasta + roasted bell peppers: Most people don’t realize that whole-grain pasta is a great source of iron, but it isn’t easily absorbed by your body. However, the vitamin C in roasted bell peppers helps convert the iron into a form that your body can easily access (Worden 2011). It’s a real energy boost, which makes pasta-plus-peppers a great pre-workout meal.
8. Wild salmon + kale: Have you ever wondered why dairy producers enrich milk with vitamin D? It’s because your body needs vitamin D to absorb calcium. In this pairing, the vitamin D in the wild salmon helps your body absorb the calcium in the kale.
9. Mushrooms + salmon: Mushrooms are a good source of niacin (vitamin B₃), which can help enhance the anti-inflammatory and triglyceride-lowering effects of the fish oil in salmon. This is a great recipe for lowering bad cholesterol and raising good cholesterol.
10. Whole grains + garlic: This combination is the perfect base for an absolutely delicious casserole, but it can also boost your immune system. Garlic is a source of sulfur, which can substantially improve the absorption of the zinc in whole grains.

SEASONAL EATING: APPLES IN FALL, CITRUS IN WINTER

One of the best strategies when eating cleanly is to eat seasonally. When you buy foods that are in season, you’re generally buying items that are grown locally and picked shortly before they’re sold. Depending on where you live, you might not be able to find all of your seasonal produce locally, but most parts of the country do have at least some local crops available at supermarkets, farm stands, farmers’ markets, and community-supported agriculture (CSA) memberships. You might also consider growing some vegetables and fruit yourself, if you can, for the ultimate in local eating. To add seasonal items to your Clean Eating plan, go online and look up sources of seasonal produce in your area. Buying food seasonally and locally has become so popular that it’s now easy to find information.

Unless you live in an area with a mild climate that supports farming year-round, you won’t have access to a wide variety of local crops in every season. If that’s the case, look for produce that’s grown as close to you as possible—for instance, in California rather than Chile. There are many reasons to eat food that’s in season:

• Cost: Locally grown and picked foods are usually less expensive than those shipped from a distance, because it costs less to get them to market. For the most part, foods grown outdoors rather than in greenhouses also cost less to produce, and that savings is passed on to the consumer.
• Taste: Have you ever inhaled the heady fragrance of a ripe, blushing peach in a farmers’ market, then bitten into its sweet, juicy flesh right after buying it? Seasonal produce tastes better—it’s a fact. When a tomato is produced in a hothouse thousands of miles away, it’s picked almost green so it doesn’t bruise as easily in the trucks. Then it’s chemically treated to give it the desirable red color, which means it really isn’t ripe. More likely, it will feel mealy and lack flavor. The tomato might not even be very red. Chilling, transporting, and sitting in warehouses leaches the flavor and nutrition right out of the fruit and vegetables sold out of season or far from where they’re grown. By contrast, fresh, seasonal, local produce still bursts with full flavor, juiciness, and nutritional value.
• Variety: Depending on where you live and what season it is, you might be amazed at the large selection of seasonal produce available. Each season offers a long list of products that you can find in supermarkets and farmers’ markets. There’s even seasonal produce in the winter, when leeks, dark leafy greens, radishes, and citrus fruits abound.
• Nutrition: You might be appalled to learn what happens to most nonseasonal produce on its journey to market. That healthy bright bag of spinach you just bought might not contain all its nutrients by the time you put it on your plate, and it might contain stuff that you really don’t want to eat. Some of the indignities it may have suffered include irradiation (to kill bugs) and treatment with preservatives (such as wax), which are meant to protect the produce during long trips.

FIFTY SUPER FOODS

The best Clean Eating foods are “super foods” packed full of healthful vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, essential fatty acids, and phytonutrients (see the glossary). Many Clean Eating recipes feature super foods in tasty combinations, maximizing their wide variety of health benefits. Include super foods in your Clean Eating meal plans every day to reap their benefits. Super foods can:

• Help stabilize blood sugar
• Reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by reducing bad cholesterol, increasing good cholesterol, and lowering blood pressure
• Reduce or prevent inflammation
• Reduce the risk of certain cancers
• Strengthen immunity
• Increase metabolism and support weight loss
• Purge toxins from your body
• Promote good digestive health

Here’s a list of fifty super foods, most of which you can easily find in your supermarket or at your farmers’ market, no matter where you live. This isn’t a comprehensive list by any means, but rather a compilation of some especially good examples. These super foods are constantly changing, so you might find completely different lists online and in health-related books. All the foods listed will be nutritious and beneficial to the body. Try to consume them fresh and in season whenever possible.

• Alliums (garlic, onion, shallot, scallion, leeks, chives) • Apples • Artichokes • Asparagus • Avocados • Bananas	• Beans • Beets • Berries (strawberries, blueberries, goji, blackberries, cranberries, acai) • Broccoli • Brown rice
• Brussels sprouts • Cabbage • Carrots • Cauliflower • Cherries • Dark chocolate • Dark leafy greens (kale, spinach, beet greens, collard greens, Swiss chard) • Eggs • Fish • Grapes • Greek yogurt, low-fat, nonfat • Green tea • Herbs • Hot peppers • Kiwis • Kukicha twig tea • Lemons • Mangoes • Melons (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew) • Mushrooms	• Nuts • Oats • Olive oil • Oranges • Papayas • Peaches • Pineapples • Pumpkins • Pomegranates • Quinoa • Rhubarb • Salmon • Seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, chai, hemp, flax) • Spirulina • Squash • Sweet potatoes • Tomatoes • Tuna • Wheat germ