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I am hearing a lot about "clean eating", so I thought I'd answer an inquiry about it here.

It seems to be really trending right now, the idea of clean-eating.

Honestly, it isn't new and it is not any different than what I have been posting about all along.

So what is it?

It refers to eating foods that are as close as possible to their natural state. This encourages us to make our meals from scratch to make them as “clean” as possible. 

Once just a buzzword, “clean eating” is now a popular eating style. Generally, clean eating is assumed to refer to foods with minimal use of any chemical additives and preservatives. A clean diet includes whole fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats while limiting highly processed snacks and other packaged foods with added sugar and salt. It is also associated with terms like plant-based, grass-fed, sugar-free, or gluten-free. In summary, clean eating promotes health and wellness.

Clean eating is like the Marie Kondo of diets—say goodbye to processed junk and hello to whole, unadulterated foods. It emphasizes whole, unprocessed foods while eliminating highly processed foods, refined sugars, and artificial ingredients.

So while I think clean eating is a great approach and worth pursuing and try to do the same, I want to make sure I am being clear and pointing out that it's almost impossible for most people to achieve a completely 'clean' diet for a lot of reasons.

There is the problem of what is available to us, the issue of being able to afford the so-called organic foods and 'clean' foods, and having the time to prepare food from scratch for every single meal and snack. As well, (I've talked about this before), the food we buy, even whole food, may not be as wholesome as we would expect.

It is just another 'trend', a way for companies to sell their specialty foods and others to sell their 'diet' books.

I think it's a good trend. I really do. I just know from experience that it's a tough task to undertake.

I advise, to try to move towards it one step at time and do the best that you can with what you can afford, what you can find available and using the time you have to prepare meals to do the best that you can.

In that light let me throw a menu at you that might help get you started. The plan is to consume nutritious whole foods like whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats and legumes (all of which deliver important nutrients, like fiber) while keeping things like added sugars, sodium and saturated fats to a minimum—nutrients that can harm our health when we eat too much.

Breakfast: Greek Yogurt w/ Raspberries & Walnuts

Lunch: White Bean & Veggie Salad

Dinner: Sheet-Pan Roasted Salmon & Vegetables

This adds up to 1700 calories and a whopping 34g of fiber.

It really is the same thing that I have been touting all along. And once again, fiber is the key and you get that from eating fruits, vegetables, and beans.

If you need more info on this 'clean-eating' idea, there is a lot out there about it on the internet.

Now for me, Monday is my kitchen cleaning day and I am listening to my tummy growl because I have not had breakfast yet so I had better get busy taking care of both those things and still, I will be having my usual breakfast which consists of clean eating: beets, navy beans and scrambled eggs. And btw, eggs are on every clean eating list that I found.

“Look, a flock of cows!!”

“Herd of cows,”

“Yeah, I have; there’s a flock of them over there.”