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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Everything you need to start eating clean Whether you've lived on white carbs and trans fats all your life or you're already health conscious but want to clean up your diet even further, Eating Clean For Dummies, 2nd Edition explains in plain English exactly what it means to keep a clean-eating diet. Brought to you by a respected MD and licensed nutritionist, it sets the record straight on this lifestyle choice and includes recipes, the latest superfoods, tips and strategies for navigating the grocery store, advice on dining out, and practical guidance on becoming a clean eater for life. Clean eating is not another diet fad; it's used as a way of life to improve overall health, prevent disease, increase energy, and stabilize moods. Eating Clean For Dummies shows you how to stick to foods that are free of added sugars, hydrogenated fats, trans fats, and anything else that is unnatural or unnecessary. Plus, you'll find recipes to make scrumptious clean meals and treats, like whole grain scones, baked oatmeal, roasted cauliflower, caramelized onion apple pecan stuffing, butternut mac and cheese, and more. * Get the scoop on how clean eating helps you live longer, prevent disease, and lose weight * Change your eating habits without sacrificing taste or breaking your budget * Make more than 40 delicious clean-eating recipes * Deal with food allergies and sensitivities You are what you eat! And Eating Clean For Dummies helps get you on the road to a healthier you.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
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Eating Clean For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016941727
ISBN 978-1-119-27221-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-27222-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-27223-6 (ebk)
Eating Clean For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Eating Clean For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: Eating Clean: It Does a Body Good
Chapter 1: Eating Clean for a Healthier Body, Mind, and Soul
What Clean Eating Really Is
Considering the Dangers in Processed Foods
Surveying the Benefits of Eating Clean
Chapter 2: Applying Eating Clean Principles to Daily Living
The Principles of Clean Eating
Managing Cravings and Feelings of Deprivation
Eating Clean for a Healthier World
Chapter 3: Nutrition Basics: You Really Are What You Eat
Figuring Out What Your Body Needs (And What It Doesn’t Need)
Considering the Roles of Proteins, Carbs, and Fats
Getting the Vitamins and Minerals You Need to Stay Healthy
Label Issues, Fake Foods, and Clean Eating
Chapter 4: More about Nutrition: Phytochemicals, Water, Fiber, and Probiotics and Prebiotics
Natural Body Armor: Introducing the Protective Phytochemicals
Protecting Your Health with Fiber
Water: The Essential Nutrient
Probiotics and Prebiotics: Essential to Your Health
Chapter 5: Eat More, Eat Often!
Listening to Your Body
Getting Started with Good Food Choices
The Paleo Diet: Essential for Some
Part 2: Meeting Your Eating Clean Goals
Chapter 6: Eating Clean for a Longer, Healthier, and More Active Life
Eating Clean to Live Longer
Eating Clean to Lose Weight
Eating Clean for Energy
Eating Clean to Detoxify Your Body
Chapter 7: Eating Clean to Prevent Disease
Eating Clean to Help Prevent Heart Disease
Eating Clean to Lower Blood Pressure
Eating Clean to Reduce Cholesterol
Eating Clean to Help Reduce Cancer Risk
Eating Clean to Prevent Diabetes
Eating Clean to Help Prevent Autoimmune Diseases
Chapter 8: Eating Clean to Manage Diseases
Eating Powerful Nutrients to Improve Health
Eating Clean to Help Fight Heart Disease
Eating Clean to Manage Diabetes
Eating Clean to Fight Cancer
Eating Clean to Battle Autoimmune Diseases
Part 3: Planning and Preparing Your Eating Clean Adventure
Chapter 9: Planning and Stocking the Eating Clean Kitchen
Organizing Your Kitchen
Stocking Your Clean Kitchen
Navigating the Grocery Store
Shopping at Farmers’ Markets, Food Cooperatives, and CSAs
Chapter 10: Incorporating Organic Food into Your Eating Clean Plan
Getting the Skinny on Organic Foods
Are Organic Foods Healthier?
Making Informed Decisions about the Food You Buy
Identifying Some Safe Nonorganic Foods
Chapter 11: Preparing Clean Foods
Understanding the Best and Worst Cooking Methods
Combining Foods to Boost Nutrition
Using Leftovers Safely and Effectively
Part 4: Adapting the Eating Clean Plan to Fit Your Life
Chapter 12: Eating Clean on the Go and in Social Situations
Understanding Restaurant Menus
Packing Good Lunches and Snacks
Dealing with Dinner Invitations the Clean (and Polite) Way
Picking at Party Food
Getting Your Mojo Back: What to Do When You Fall off the Plan
Chapter 13: Getting Your Family on the Bandwagon
Transitioning from Twinkies to Turnips
Avoiding Stumbling Blocks
Inviting Participation
Chapter 14: Meeting Special Dietary Considerations
Food Allergies and Sensitivities
Gluten Sensitivity and Celiac Disease
Vegetarian Diets
The Vegan Lifestyle
Part 5: Morning to Evening Recipes
Chapter 15: Waking Up to Great Food: Satisfying Breakfast Recipes
Understanding the Importance of Breakfast
Starting Your Day the Right Way with Some Tasty Breakfast Recipes
Chapter 16: Refueling Your Body with Some Smart Lunches
Making Smart Lunch Choices
Healthy Lunch Recipes
Chapter 17: Sprucing Up Supper Time with Some Delicious Dinner Recipes
Making Dinnertime a Pleasant Time with a Few Simple Tricks
Chapter 18: Enjoying the Fun Stuff: Desserts and Snacks
Satisfying the Munchies with Healthy Snacking
Whipping Up Tasty, Clean Desserts and Snacks with Some Easy Recipes
Part 6: The Part of Tens
Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Tell If Your Eating Clean Diet Is Working
Weight Loss
Clearer Skin
More Energy
Healthier Hair and Fingernails
Stronger Muscles
Lower Blood Pressure
A Stronger Immune System
Lower Cholesterol Levels
Clearer Thinking
A Happy Doctor
Chapter 20: Ten Foods to Always Put in Your Shopping Cart
Sweet Potatoes
Wild Salmon
Olive Oil
Cruciferous Vegetables
Nuts
Avocados
Leafy Greens
Curry Powder
Berries (Especially Blueberries)
Garlic and Onions
Chapter 21: Ten Ways to a Cleaner World
Buying Local and Hyper-Local
Supporting Sustainability
Spending Money on the Best Food
Factory Farms and Antibiotic Resistance
Raw Foods Caution
Your Own Garden
Reducing Waste
Recycling and Composting
Buying Organic
Conserving Water
About the Authors
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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Introduction
Clean eating isn’t a new idea, although it has been outshone by other, less healthy eating plans over the years. Coming out of World War II, in the space age during the race to space, packaged and processed foods started crowding the supermarket shelves. Just look at cooking and baking trends in the Pillsbury Bake-Off, which has been around for more than 40 years, and you can literally see the transformation from cooking and baking with whole foods to depending on convenience foods. But then the health-food craze began in the 1960s and 1970s, and health foods, promoted by experts like Adele Davis, became the next big thing.
Of course, many people scoffed at what they called “hippie food,” which they perceived as nuts, roots, and twigs eaten by people wearing hemp necklaces and hand-woven shirts. But Ms. Davis was right. The “modern” diet of processed, quick, artificially flavored convenience foods isn’t good for the body.
In this book, we break down the scientific reasons for eating whole foods and avoiding processed and refined foods, and we show you how the eating clean plan can help you and your family live a healthier life. Along the way, we give you plenty of options so that you can design a plan that fits your lifestyle, tastes, and budget.
About This Book
Nutrition is an art and a science. The art comes from mixing different foods to create recipes that tempt the senses and satisfy the soul. The science comes from all the nutrients the foods provide and the complicated ways those nutrients interact in the body. Not to mention science is a pretty big part of baking and cooking, too!
To help you understand the art and science (and the many benefits) of the eating clean lifestyle, we’ve arranged this book in a practical format. First, we look at what eating clean really means and explain why you should avoid processed food, fast food, and junk food. We offer tips for how to handle cravings and feelings of deprivation and explain why you really are what you eat.
We look at the basics of nutrition, explaining why proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals are essential to daily life. Then we discuss the other nutrients in whole foods that can make a big difference in your overall health and well-being.
We show you how you can accomplish different goals with the eating clean plan. For example, we tell you which foods to eat (and which ones to avoid) to help prevent heart disease, lower cholesterol, reduce cancer risk, and prevent diabetes. And we explain how eating clean can help you manage these diseases if you already have them.
Understanding the physical science underpinning nutrition and healthy eating is all well and good, but working through the practical aspects of transforming your diet is just as important. To help you get the most out of your new lifestyle, we give you plenty of tips for how to get your family on the eating clean bandwagon, how to prepare and stock your newly clean kitchen, how to incorporate organic foods, and how to prepare delicious clean foods to maintain as many nutrients as possible.
But what if you eat out a lot? And what do you do when you’re at a party? Don’t start stressing yet! We offer lots of tips and tricks to help keep you on the right track in any social situation. And just in case you have any special dietary needs, we tell you how to handle food allergies and gluten intolerance, as well as how to adapt the clean eating plan to fit a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.
Finally, we include a plethora of delicious recipes! These recipes cover your whole day from morning to night with easy breakfast choices, delicious (and packable) lunch recipes, and satisfying dinner entrees. We even include snack and dessert recipes for those of you with a case of the munchies or a strong sweet tooth!
Like with all cookbooks, we recommend that you read through each recipe before you start making it. If you jump right in, you may not account for the refrigerating time, standing time, or freezing time in your schedule (and, as a result, your recipe may not be ready to eat when you are!). Reading the recipe’s directions beforehand also clues you into any special tools or materials, like food processors or cheesecloth, you may need to complete that particular recipe.
Here are a few other guidelines to keep in mind about the recipes in this book:
All butter is unsalted. Margarine is not a suitable substitute for butter unless we state you can use either one.
Unless otherwise noted, all eggs are large.
All onions are yellow unless otherwise specified.
All pepper is freshly ground black pepper unless otherwise specified.
All salt is kosher unless otherwise specified.
All dry ingredient measurements are level. To make sure your measurements are level, use a dry-ingredient measuring cup, fill it to the top, and scrape it even with a straight object, such as the flat side of a knife.
All temperatures are Fahrenheit.
All lemon and lime juice is freshly squeezed.
This little tomato symbol designates vegetarian recipes.
Feel free to skip the sidebars that appear throughout the book; these shaded gray boxes contain interesting info that isn’t essential to your understanding of meditation.
Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.
Foolish Assumptions
As we wrote this book, we assumed the following about you:
You want to change your diet, lose weight, or manage some type of medical condition and have heard about the eating clean plan.
You’re the head of a household, and you want your family to change their eating habits and eat food that will help them live longer, happier lives — with as little fuss and fighting as possible.
You want to get off the fast-food/processed food/refined food treadmill and eat to live longer and just plain feel better, but you’re not quite sure how to start.
You’re interested in knowing more about how food and the body interact — without having to wade through all the jargon of a scientific text.
Icons Used in This Book
To make this book easier to navigate, we include the following icons that can help you find key ideas and information about the eating clean lifestyle:
Whenever you see this icon, you know that the information that follows is so important it’s worth reading twice. Or even three times!
This icon appears whenever the information next to it can help you in your quest for better health or in your progress in the eating clean lifestyle.
This icon highlights information that could be dangerous to you if you ignore it. So pay attention whenever you see this icon!
Beyond the Book
In addition to the material in the print or e-book you’re reading right now, this product also comes with some access-anywhere goodies on the web. Check out the free Cheat Sheet for the basic principles of eating clean, information on how whole foods and eating clean help you stay healthy, and tips on using spices to, well, spice up your meals. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type Eating Clean For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.
Where to Go from Here
We’ve organized this book so that you can go wherever you want to find complete information. You can use the table of contents to find the broad categories of subjects or use the index to look up specific information.
Do you want to know more about getting your family to embrace this new eating lifestyle? Check out Chapter 13. Do you need to know how to plan and stock your kitchen for your new diet plan? Turn to Chapter 9. Do you want to know how foods can help you manage conditions and diseases that may already be present in your family? Take a look at Chapter 8. Are you just itching to try your hand at some delicious clean recipes? Go to Chapters 15 through 18, which include lots of choices for everyday meals and snacks.
If you’re not sure where to start, read Part 1. It gives you all the basic information you need to understand the eating clean lifestyle and tells you where to go to get the details.
Part 1
Eating Clean: It Does a Body Good
IN THIS PART …
Get an understanding of the dangers in processed foods and the benefits of eating clean.
Explore how the eating clean principles apply to your daily life.
Explore the multicultural history of meditation to understand how it evolved.
Discover what your body needs, how vitamins and minerals keep you healthy, and the foods you should avoid.
Learn about the Paleo diet and who should follow it.
Chapter 1
Eating Clean for a Healthier Body, Mind, and Soul
IN THIS CHAPTER
Defining clean eating
Understanding the dangers in processed foods
Considering the benefits of eating clean
Eating clean has been getting a lot of press lately — in books, websites, seminars, and various other media outlets. But what exactly is eating clean? Is it a diet? If so, what kinds of foods can you eat (and not eat) on the plan? And what is “clean” food, anyway?
You may be turning to this book because you’ve tried just about every other diet on the planet and you’re tired of counting calories, carbs, and fat grams. If that’s the case, you’ve come to the right place! One of the best things about the eating clean plan is that after you get the basics down pat, you don’t have to keep track of your fat or protein intake or add up any points. After all, the plan’s main focus is eating whole foods, which are naturally nutrient dense and low in calories.
Like most other diets, the eating clean plan offers several guidelines for following it, but another one of the great things about this plan is that you get to decide how much of your diet will be clean (and how much won’t). You’re in control, so if you decide that 90 percent of your diet is going to be clean, you can still fit some processed foods into your diet. If you decide to start out with a 50-50 mix, half of your diet will consist of clean foods while the other half includes the foods you already eat and enjoy.
In this chapter, we define clean eating and look at the differences between whole foods and processed foods. We look at some of the dangers of processed and refined foods and list the benefits of eating clean. Finally, we look at food’s effect on your body, mind, and soul and explain how following the eating clean lifestyle can improve all three!
What Clean Eating Really Is
Clean eating is the act of basing your diet on whole, unprocessed, preferably organic foods. In other words, when you eat clean, you try to eat as low on the food chain as possible; choose foods that are not processed, but just as they are harvested. By focusing on whole foods, your diet automatically becomes higher in vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals and lower in refined sugar, bad fats, and food additives.
In this section, we take a closer look at what clean really means and cover the difference between whole and processed foods. Then we give you six degrees of clean eating so that you can decide what’s right for you.
Eating clean doesn’t mean cleaning your food before eating it
Eating clean doesn’t mean washing all your food, although you certainly do need to rinse produce before adding it to a recipe or eating it raw. The basic principle of this plan is eating whole foods, which include unprocessed fruits and vegetables, lean meats, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains. The clean part simply means that the food is unprocessed. In other words, clean, whole foods don’t have ingredient labels because they consist of only one ingredient!
Think of eating clean as cleaning up your life. Just as you’d like to live life in a house free of clutter, you need to remove the clutter from your diet. What makes up the clutter in your diet? Junk foods, refined sugar, additives, preservatives, trans fats, white flour, artificial flavors, and toxins — just to name a few! (Check out Chapter 2 for more details on how to apply eating clean principles to your daily life.)
But following the eating clean plan is more than just choosing to eat whole foods. You get to eat more often, too! Because people will eat anything within reach when they’re so hungry it hurts, the eating clean plan involves eating smaller meals plus at least two snacks throughout the day. Spreading out your food intake helps keep your blood sugar stable, which evens out your mood, improves your concentration on tasks during the day, and can even help reduce the risk of some diseases!
Essentially, the eating clean plan calls you to do the following:
Eat the foods made by nature, not man.
Plan to eat five or six meals and snacks throughout the day.
Avoid processed foods (in other words, anything in a box with a label).
Use healthy cooking methods.
Eat before you become super hungry.
Stop eating when you’re satisfied, not stuffed.
Don’t count your calories, fat grams, or points.
Enjoy your food and appreciate its flavor.
The difference between the eating clean plan and other diets is that this plan is a lifestyle, not a complicated regimen that restricts entire categories of food. With fewer chemicals to deal with, your body becomes better able to concentrate on keeping you healthy.
In Chapters 3 and 4, we explain how eating clean can improve your body on the cellular level. Don’t be scared; you don’t need a degree in science to use this book and eat clean. But you do need to understand that you literally are what you eat. Your cells, tissues, organs, and entire body will be happier when you eat a great diet.
Comparing whole versus processed foods
To really get a feel for the difference between whole and processed foods, take a look at the following ingredient list. Can you guess what this product is just by reading the ingredients in it?
Water, xylitol, modified food starch, cocoa processed with alkali, milk protein concentrate, hydrogenated vegetable oil, salt, sodium alginate, sucralose, acesulfame potassium, artificial flavor, artificial color
We don’t blame you if you have no clue what this food is. It’s full of ingredients you don’t recognize and can’t pronounce, and it’s a perfect example of why the eating clean diet is so good for you. After all, why eat this sugar-free instant chocolate pudding mix when you could make your own chocolate pudding with chemical-free, whole ingredients, like milk, eggs, and bittersweet chocolate?
Whole foods are foods that grow in the garden, roam freely on farms, or swim in the sea. Think about the food chain you learned about in science class. Single-celled animals, plants, and plankton are at the bottom. Small fish and other tiny animals eat the single-celled animals, and bigger animals eat the small fish and other tiny animals, and so on up the chain. People (and sharks) are at the top, so everything eaten by the creatures lower on the chain becomes part of the creatures at the top.
To understand all the health benefits of eating clean, you need to consider another food chain: the processed food chain. A plain apple, a handful of chickpeas, or an organic egg are at the bottom. As you move further up the chain, manufacturers manipulate the food until it becomes more artificial ingredients than real food. The foods at the top of this chain include traditional snack foods, fast food, and foods packed with additives, preservatives, and artificial flavors.
Manufacturers end up stripping processed foods of many of their nutrients either to make them easier to combine with other ingredients or to change their characteristics. In contrast, whole foods come to you just as nature intended — bursting with flavor, color, texture, and nutrients.
The foods that are part of the eating clean plan are at the bottom of the processed food chain. They don’t have labels, they don’t carry preparation instructions, and they certainly don’t have ingredient lists. These are the foods that should fill your shopping basket each time you go to the supermarket. (See Chapter 9 for tips on how to stock a clean kitchen and Chapter 20 for a list of clean foods you should always put in your shopping cart.)
Of course, some processed foods are perfectly acceptable on the eating clean plan. Whole-grain pasta is obviously processed, but it’s minimally processed. Read the label; if it lists whole grains, water, and perhaps salt, it’s a pretty clean food. Cheese is another processed food, but if you choose a natural cheese that doesn’t come loaded with additives and artificial colors, it still fits into the eating clean plan.
Gaining control with six degrees of clean eating
One of the best things about the eating clean plan is that you’re in control. In other words, you get to choose how much of the eating clean plan you implement. You can go all out and make 100 percent of your diet clean. Or you can choose to eat an occasional fast-food meal or include some processed foods in your diet. The choice is yours!
Table 1-1 shows the six degrees of clean eating. Take a look at what each degree entails, and think about which one best fits your life.
TABLE 1-1 The Six Degrees of Clean Eating
Degree
What You Eat When Following This Degree
20%
At the beginning of your eating clean adventure — or if you’re trying to wean kids (or a reluctant spouse) off of a junk food diet — start by changing one meal in a five-day week into a clean meal.
40%
Add another clean meal a week to your plan to continue the eating clean journey. You can also start at this level.
50%
If you want to live an eating clean lifestyle, 50% is really the minimum degree to shoot for. At this level, you get some of the benefits of the eating clean diet plan but can still eat a few fast-food meals and the occasional junk food. Just try to make the nonclean 50% of your diet a bit healthier! Make homemade potato chips instead of eating processed, flavored chips; use multigrain pasta in place of white; and enjoy just one brownie rather than five.
60%
Now you’re getting more serious! At this level, most of your foods are clean and unprocessed, but you still eat processed foods two or three days a week. You have to do more cooking, but you’re also saving money because you’re eating out less and buying fewer processed (and expensive) foods.
80%
Many people stop at this level of clean eating. The vast majority of your meals are clean, using whole, unprocessed foods, but you can still include some bottled pasta sauce and bakery bread in your diet.
100%
Not many people can follow a true clean eating plan all the time, but if you can, bravo! If you’ve been diagnosed with a serious illness, this level may be the best option for you. Or if you’re sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, the pure eating clean plan may help you feel better.
Of course, you can set your target somewhere in between these six degrees. Heck, your plan may vary between 100 percent clean and 60 percent clean within the same day! If you’re serious about living the eating clean lifestyle, though, aim for making whole foods the basis for at least 50 percent of your diet. Don’t worry about backsliding or falling off the eating clean wagon; just focus on the big picture and enjoy your food and your life. (See Chapter 2 for tips on how to deal with backsliding and get back on the eating clean wagon.)
Considering the Dangers in Processed Foods
Are processed foods really as bad as some people think? In a word, yes. Consider just one example: trans fats. Manufacturers make these fake fats by bubbling hydrogen through liquid oils. Although this process (called hydrogenation) sounds like something out of a Frankenstein movie, it’s not that complicated. The hydrogen simply transforms the oil into a solid substance. Hydrogenation is a very inexpensive way to make solid fats, which is why food processors love it.
For years, doctors (yes, doctors!) recommended that people eat margarine made with this method rather than butter or simple oils. Now, of course, researchers know that trans fats may be one of the culprits behind America’s skyrocketing heart disease rates. The fake fats literally become part of your cell walls, making them flabby and changing their ability to interact with other parts of your body. Nobody wants flabby arms, let alone flabby cell walls!
In this section, we look at some of the preservatives and additives packed into processed foods and explain why you should avoid them. We also consider whether fortified foods are really any better than unfortified foods and explain why breaking the junk food habit is so important to your health.
Preservatives and additives
Surprisingly enough, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) haven’t tested many of the preservatives and additives used in processed foods because they’re on the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) list. A chemical’s presence on this list means that it has been used for so long (since before 1958) — with no known harmful side effects attached to it — that the FDA allows manufacturers to use it in food without any required testing.
The FDA defines safe as “a reasonable certainty in the minds of competent scientists that the substance is not harmful under its intended conditions of use.” That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement! And the phrase intended conditions of use needs some further explanation; see the nearby sidebar “How many chemicals do you consume?” for details.
The FDA has developed four different classifications of chemicals that manufacturers add to processed food:
Food additives:
This category includes preservatives, flavor enhancers, emulsifiers (calcium stearoyl di laciate, polyglycerol ester, and monoglycerides, among others), vitamins and minerals, and chemicals that control the pH of a product.
GRAS substances:
These products are the ones that have “existing evidence of long and safe use.” These substances have not been tested by the FDA or USDA.
Prior-sanctioned substances:
The FDA or USDA tested and approved these products before the government developed the GRAS list.
Color additives:
This category includes color enhancers and additives.
The FDA doesn’t guarantee that the chemicals included in the GRAS list and the prior-sanctioned substances list are safe, but it doesn’t test them unless some new evidence shows that they may be unsafe. You may have heard of the artificial sweetener cyclamate. It was in the GRAS list until testing found that it caused cancer in animals; then the FDA removed it from the list.
HOW MANY CHEMICALS DO YOU CONSUME?
One of the problems connected with the chemicals in your food is how much of each particular food you consume. If your diet consists mainly of fast food and the amount of hormones in that beef burger you love is considered “safe in a reasonable diet” but you eat 400 hamburgers a year, you’re going to ingest more than the amount of hormones the FDA approved. Similarly, if you love asparagus, eat it three times a week, and can’t afford to buy organically grown produce, you’ll be getting more than the studied dose of pesticides used to grow that particular product.
To reduce your exposure to preservatives, additives, and other chemicals added to food, vary what you eat. Don’t subsist on fried chicken and roasted potatoes. Add different types of fresh fruits and vegetables, even if they aren’t grown organically, and you can reduce your exposure to many chemicals. (See Chapter 10 for everything you need to know about incorporating organic foods into your diet.)
The FDA has removed some chemicals from the market. Red Dye #2 and Violet #1, for example, were removed from the market after Congress passed the 1960 Color Additive Amendment. Before the amendment passed, manufacturers used 200 food dyes; less than 35 of those dyes passed the testing process and were declared safe. So how much damage was done by the 165 unsafe food dyes? Think of it this way: Some manufacturers used to put lead in butter to give it that beautiful yellow color or chalk in milk to make it look thick and creamy!
Many people, especially those who eat clean, don’t want to wait for some food additive, pesticide, or preservative to be declared dangerous retroactively. They’d rather take control of what they put into their bodies and consume as few of these chemicals as possible — through the eating clean diet, of course! (Find out more about these chemicals in Chapters 2 and 9.)
Of course, a few preservatives and additives may be perfectly safe if consumed in small amounts. But many people really don’t like the phrase may be. Do you really want to be a guinea pig in a huge experiment conducted on the population? If you want to gain more confidence about the safety of the foods you eat, give the eating clean plan a try and avoid processed, refined, and packaged foods as much as you can.
Label claims (also known as marketing hype)
Many processed foods have lots of claims plastered all over their labels. “Fortified with calcium!” “Strengthens your immune system!” and “Made with real fruit!” are just some of the banners you see on packaged foods these days. But what, if anything, do these claims mean?
Many fortified foods have only some (key word some) of the nutrients that manufacturers removed during processing added back in. For instance, a cereal made from white flour may have vitamins and fiber added back in. But the amounts added back in aren’t even close to 100 percent of what was removed in the first place. The process to turn the wheat grain into white flour permanently strips out many of those nutrients.
Although eating fortified foods is better than eating unfortified foods, it’s not as good as eating the whole foods in the first place. Unfortunately, many people blissfully put these fortified products in their shopping baskets, unaware that many of the claims on the packages have no real meaning.
The FDA does regulate some label claims, but many companies change a word or two to get around these regulations. Then the claim becomes misleading. For example, most flavored strawberry juices don’t actually contain strawberries. The “real fruit” you see on the label claim is actually pear concentrate, and the “strawberry” is present only in the form of artificial flavoring.
The following list presents some common label claims and explains what they actually mean:
Made with organic ingredients:
Only 70 percent of the ingredients in the food must be grown organically. (See
Chapter 10
for a lot more details about organic foods.)
High or rich in …:
These food products must have 20 percent of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of the nutrient in question per serving.
Zero trans fats:
The product can contain up to 0.5 grams of artificial trans fats per serving. But be aware that if you eat more than one serving, those partial grams can add up fast.
More, fortified, enriched:
For this designation, the product must contain 10 percent of the RDA of the nutrient in question per serving or more than a similar product contains.
Natural:
This claim means the product can’t contain anything synthetic. But it can still be high in sodium, fats, and sugars.
Made with whole wheat:
This claim doesn’t mean that the food contains no refined grain products. In fact, the food has to contain only a tiny amount of whole wheat to legally use this label.
Understandably, these claims can confuse consumers. The claims don’t tell you about substances that you may need or want to avoid; you have to read the ingredient list for that information. Funny how these claims, when clearly explained, don’t seem as wonderful as you’d think! If a food has “more vitamin A” but the “more” is only 10 percent of your RDA and the food has enough sodium to put you over your limit for the day, is it really a healthy choice?
Overall, eating foods without labels is less complicated and better for you. When you buy whole, unlabeled foods, you can be pretty sure that what you see is what you get.
Junk food addiction
The term junk food junkie used to be pretty popular in the American lexicon. People used it as a joke, but unfortunately, that term is very accurate because junk food is actually quite addictive.
Consider this: A study published in Nature Neuroscience found that your brain reacts to junk food just like it does to addictive drugs like heroin. Kind of scary, right? You’ve likely seen pictures of heroin addicts, who will do anything for that next hit.
One of the most dangerous things about addiction is that over time, the addict has to consume more and more of the addictive substance to create the same amount of pleasure in the addict’s brain. That fact is what causes the death of many drug addicts; eventually they overdose.
That fact is also what can cause the illness and death of junk food junkies; eventually the ever-increasing consumption of empty calories, lots of sugar, refined ingredients, sodium, and artificial additives wear out the body. With little or no vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals to help the body repair itself, junk food junkies eventually come to the end of the line and develop a disease. To think that manufacturers actually develop junk foods to be as addictively appealing as possible!
The eating clean plan helps remove your addiction to junk food simply by substituting whole foods that are healthy and nutritious for the unhealthy, addictive junk foods. This process takes time, though, so don’t think you’ll find an easy way out of the junk food maze. But you can get out of it, and with some thought and effort, you can get your family off the junk food treadmill, too. One of the best things about the eating clean lifestyle is that the more you follow it, the better you feel, so you get on an upward spiral toward good health rather than a downward spiral into sickness.
Surveying the Benefits of Eating Clean
So other than containing clean, natural ingredients rather than artificial chemicals, what can clean, whole foods do for you? Eating a clean diet can help you live longer, make you stronger, prevent disease, and maybe even treat some diseases. These claims may sound like one of those late-night infomercials, but they’re all true — backed up with scientific research conducted by real doctors wearing lab coats!
JUNK FOODS: FAKE EVERYTHING
You know that junk foods contain artificial colors and flavors, along with sugar and salt to increase their addictive qualities. But do you know that junk food manufacturers also manipulate texture? Texture and flavor are the two big players in food’s appeal. Emulsifiers, two or three trips into the frying pan, thickeners, fats, and stabilizers increase the mouthfeel, or texture, of processed foods. In other words, manufacturers artificially manipulate their foods to make them more pleasing to your mouth. This artificial mouthfeel gives junk food an advantage over regular food, so you tend to crave it more than whole foods. After you realize that the whole mouthfeel is just as artificial as the ingredients, you may be able to say no the next time you crave a triple-fried cheese doodle. Try a crisp apple or some cauliflower instead.
In this section, we look at how you can use the eating clean lifestyle to obtain and maintain good health. We discuss how to eat clean to lose weight, to prevent disease, and to lead the longest, most active life you can. (See Chapter 6 for more on losing weight and living a longer, healthier life and Chapters 7 and 8 for more on disease prevention and management.)
Overall good health
If you’ve been blessed with good health, you’re lucky. After all, your genes do play a part in whether or not you develop disease. But scientists estimate that 310,000 to 580,000 deaths in the United States every year are caused by an unhealthy diet and lack of physical exercise. After all, your diet has a very real effect on your health:
Diet causes up to one-third of all cancers.
Poor diet causes most cases of obesity.
A diet based on processed foods, junk foods, and refined foods is a major risk factor for developing heart disease.
Not getting enough vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals in your diet puts you at greater risk for catching infectious diseases.
Eating too much sugar, alcohol, and bad fat can reduce the efficiency of your immune system.
The eating clean plan can help you stay as healthy as you can be by putting your dietary focus on whole foods that pack a nutritional punch. No matter what the current state of your health is, you can feel better and get healthier if you ditch the refined, overly processed foods and start concentrating on eating healthy foods.
The characteristics of overall good health are
Stamina
Normal body weight
Normal blood pressure
Good blood cholesterol counts and other normal blood parameters
A healthy heart
Good digestion
Clear skin
Mental acuity
Overall good health has many more markers, of course, but the point is that good health isn’t perfection. It isn’t about achieving a model’s body or looking like your favorite movie star. Good health means that your body is able to do what you want it to do, whether that’s to hike Mount Annapurna or take a walk around the block.
Weight loss and disease prevention
More than 60 percent of all Americans are overweight. Even with messages about nutrition being blasted all day long, through every form of media, Americans are getting more and more overweight. What’s going on?
Many nutritionists think the problem is what’s in the food most people eat. Your body wasn’t made to use all the chemicals and artificial ingredients packed into much of the American diet. And it certainly wasn’t made to consume as much sodium, fake fat, and sugar as many people do today. Plus, your body was made to efficiently process food and store fat since your ancestors couldn’t guarantee that they’d get three square meals a day. When Americans are faced with unlimited quantities of food available 24 hours a day, something has to give. Often, that something is their waistbands.
The key to healthy, sustained weight loss is to gradually lose weight by eating a nutrient-dense diet of filling foods, which is exactly what the eating clean plan is all about. On the plan, you eat more often and you eat foods that are satisfying and very nutritious. After you get into the clean eating plan, you really won’t have any more room in your life (or your stomach) for the junk food that made you overweight in the first place!
Remember the thousands of deaths caused every year by poor diet and lack of exercise that we talk about in the preceding section? Well, people don’t die because of a poor diet; they die because of the diseases caused (or exacerbated) by that poor diet. Those diseases include
Heart disease
Cancer
Diabetes
Hypertension
Stroke
Autoimmune diseases
Osteoporosis
Disease occurs when something goes wrong in your body. Cells grow too fast, and your body is so busy filtering toxins that it takes longer to respond to infection. Over time, these factors can lead to a serious disease.
In Chapter 7, we focus on how to eat to reduce your risk of developing certain diseases. After all, what you eat has a direct impact on your disease risk. Then in Chapter 8, we discuss how to eat to help manage certain diseases after you already have them.
The eating clean diet really is the model for eating to prevent disease. One of its main focuses is on getting plenty of phytochemicals, which help prevent inflammation, keep your immune system strong, and keep your cardiovascular system running smoothly. The only way to get your phytochemicals is to eat lots of whole fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains.
A longer, more active life
A good motto for the eating clean life is “It’s not only the years in your life, but the life in your years!” Everyone wants to live a long life, of course, but if that life is full of preventable pain, disease, and suffering, all bets are off. Living a long life should mean being able to easily walk up stairs, walk around the block, and participate in active hobbies well into your 80s and 90s.
Fortunately, the eating clean diet can help you do just that! If you’re blessed with basically good health, eating whole foods prepared in a clean way is one of the best ways to keep yourself healthy. Of course, no diet can guarantee good health or a long life. But you can tip the odds in your favor with the eating clean plan.
Chapter 2
Applying Eating Clean Principles to Daily Living
IN THIS CHAPTER
Understanding the principles of clean eating
Decoding cravings and deprivation
Eating clean for a healthier world
Eating clean isn’t just about the food you put in your mouth; it’s a total lifestyle. By buying, preparing, and eating whole foods, you’re affecting far more than your waistline and your health. You’re making a positive impact on the world around you.
The eating clean lifestyle doesn’t restrict you from eating any foods except processed foods. So you don’t have to become a vegan or vegetarian (although you can if you want to!), and you don’t have to count carbs, fat grams, or calories. By eating lower on the food chain, you save money and improve your health while making the world a better place to live.
One of the main benefits of this lifestyle is its simplicity. Because you don’t have to keep track of calories, fat grams, or carbohydrates, planning meals is a lot less complicated than it is for other diets. Plus, the eating clean diet includes every food group, so you don’t have to feel deprived. You don’t have to worry about going hungry, either, because you get to eat satisfying meals and snacks throughout the day.
In this chapter, we look at the principles of clean eating, including eating for your health, consuming whole foods, avoiding processed foods, and figuring out how to enjoy healthy foods. We also show you how to handle feelings of deprivation and cravings that may undermine your clean eating efforts. Finally, we look at how supporting local farms, buying organic produce and free-range meats, going meatless one day a week, and reducing packaging waste can mean a healthier world for everyone.
The Principles of Clean Eating
Depending on who you talk to, different clean eating plans have different principles. This flexibility is another reason why so many people find this lifestyle rewarding and doable. As long as you eat whole foods and avoid processed foods, you can create the clean eating lifestyle that works best for you.
In this section, we look at the overall eating clean platform. You can pick and choose which facets appeal to you and your family. Then we explain how to make clean changes in your diet. Finally, we look at the real flavor of real food and show you how to appreciate it.
The reason we’re stressing lifestyle rather than diet is that most diets fail. Only 5 percent of all dieters stay on their diets and keep the weight off for more than a few years. Because clean eating is a lifestyle choice, the benefits you reap from it last a lifetime.
Getting your footing on the eating clean platform
The eating clean movement really started in the 1960s thanks to the efforts of Adele Davis and other health food authors. At that time, health food stores started springing up around the country, and people told jokes about tofu eaters who dressed in natural fibers and sandals and ate nuts and berries. In 1987, Ralph Nader wrote the book Eating Clean: Overcoming Food Hazards, which focused on the hazards of processed foods. But then Corporate America started pushing convenience foods and time-saving products above everything else. Mixes, frozen dinners, and junk foods started crowding whole foods off grocery store shelves.
After decades of Americans’ eating processed foods and, not coincidentally, watching their population become more obese, fad diets became more and more popular. But they weren’t successful, because following a really restrictive diet for long periods of time is nearly impossible. Everyone falls off the wagon, and many people have a hard time getting back on — which is why, after losing weight, more than 90 percent of overweight people eventually put the weight back on. On the other hand, the clean eating lifestyle has become more popular as more people realize how simple it really is. It’s a lifestyle you can live with for the rest of your life.
The basic planks of the eating clean platform are
Eat whole, unrefined, and unprocessed foods that are low on the food chain.
Buy bunches of broccoli, whole heads of lettuce, corn on the cob, cantaloupe, whole chickens, and unrefined grains rather than processed foods, like broccoli in sauce, packaged salads, canned corn, and lunch meat.
Eat a wide variety of unprocessed foods.
Today’s markets and grocery stores offer many more fruits and vegetables today than they did a few years ago. Try unusual foods like passion fruit, salsify, or broccoli rabe. Experiment with unfamiliar foods to help make mealtime more interesting.
Avoid artificial substances, including artificial flavors and colors, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners.
These items can harm your health by literally becoming part of your body’s cell structure and changing some basic biological mechanisms. These changes weaken your body’s ability to stay healthy.
Cut back on sugars, especially processed sugars like high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners.
That means no more soda pop or other sugary drinks. Your body processes these ingredients differently, and they provide nothing but empty calories.
Avoid trans fats and artificial fat substitutes.
The trans fatty acids found in shortening, lots of baked products, and snack foods may be behind the skyrocketing heart disease rates in this country, so don’t eat them. Two more reasons why you should avoid artificial fats are that they cause unpleasant side effects and no one really knows about their long-term safety.
Choose low-fat, not nonfat, dairy products.
Nonfat products use processed and artificial substances, like additives and starches, to mimic the texture and flavor of fat.
Choose foods that are nutrient dense.
In other words, for every calorie a food provides, it should also provide vitamins, minerals, protein, carbs, fiber, and good fats. Good fats include the fats found in nuts, olive oil, and lean meats, especially seafood. On the other hand, you find empty calories, which are calories with little or no nutritional value, in snack foods, cookies, candies, and soda.
Combine protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats at every meal for the most satisfaction.
This combination helps stave off hunger and gives you more energy than you get from consuming something that’s sugary or salty.
Drink lots of water.
Try to drink several glasses of water a day. If you don’t enjoy the taste of plain water, you can also drink unsweetened tea. Drinking plenty of water helps keep your digestive system running smoothly. Avoid drinking fruit juices, because they can be high in sugar and calories.
Eat five or six minimeals a day rather than three large meals.
Make breakfast your largest meal, with whole-grain cereal or toast with butter or peanut butter and some form of protein, like a hard-boiled egg. Your other meals need to include protein, carbs, and fat, like celery sticks with nut butters and dried fruits or sandwiches made with sliced chicken and vegetables such as avocado and tomatoes.
Practice portion control, especially when you eat more than three meals a day.
Each meal should be about 300 to 400 nutritious calories. Figure out what ½ cup of brown rice or other whole grain or fruits and vegetables looks like, because that’s how big a typical serving is. A serving of bread is one slice; a serving of meat is 3 ounces, or about the size of a deck of cards. With time, eating proper portions will become second nature. Depending on which meal schedule works best for your day, you can adjust the amounts accordingly. For more information about portion sizes, see
www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/weight-control/just-enough/Pages/just-enough-for-you.aspx
.
Making clean changes in your life
Clean changes in your life aren’t difficult to make, but they do take some gumption, perseverance, and practice. When you make a concentrated effort to eat lower on the food chain, notice how this decision affects other areas of your life. To be successful, you have to think about food and eat differently, which will no doubt prompt changes in other areas of your life.
As you adopt an eating clean lifestyle, you may also
Lose weight and gain more energy.
Eating healthy foods with lots of vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates, and good fats automatically makes you healthier. Of course, adding exercise to your new lifestyle is also important. As you feel stronger and gain more energy from the foods you eat, exercising will be much easier.
Add fun exercise to your life.
Go for a walk with your kids, play on a jungle gym, take up a new sport, or invest in a gym membership. The combination of healthy eating with regular exercise can improve all parts of your life. With more confidence in how you look and feel, who knows what you can achieve?
Improve your skin condition and overall appearance.
People who eat clean food also enjoy clear and smooth skin, thick and shiny hair, and bright eyes. The saying “you are what you eat” is absolutely true. Do you really want to be a nacho cheese chip?
Spend more time cooking at first.
