Clean Eating – Keeping it natural

Why Clean Eating?

Clean Eating is the preparation and consumption of foods that are as natural as possible. Clean Eating started as a movement against the frequent consumption of industrially processed foods these days, since eating lots of it can have several disadvantages for your health. Some processed foods lose nutrients and vitamins because they are not prepared gently. Moreover, many foods are enhanced with additives to increase their taste and color or to extend their shelf life. These additives in turn can have a negative impact on our body, which is why it is recommended to consume as little of them as possible.

How it works!

If you want to practice Clean Eating, you must follow a diet which includes as much unprocessed food as possible. However, Clean Eating does not mean that you can only eat raw food. Cooked, baked or fried dishes can also be "clean" if you only use unprocessed products for the preparation and seasoning. To enjoy the health benefits of Clean Eating on a long-term basis, at least 80 % of the meals you eat should be "clean". This way you avoid the intake of unnecessary additives and low-nutrient foods, but you still have the flexibility you need for the weekly business lunch, grandma's birthday cake or a cozy dinner with friends.

To make your start into Clean Eating easier, we have put together five helpful tips that you can use to move towards a natural diet step by step:

Tip 2: Beware of fast food!

Eating convenience- or fast food is a tempting way to satisfy your hunger, especially if you have little time to cook. However, these are usually full of preservatives, sugar and unhealthy fats. Even supposedly "clean" meals such as salads can contain undesirable ingredients, especially in salad dressing. If you want to eat out, you can ask about the ingredients of the dishes. If you plan to have a salad from the take-away, use a dressing you made yourself instead of the one that comes with it.

Tip 4: Fight your cravings with filling meals

Especially when we are hungry in between meals, chocolate bars and other unhealthy snacks are tempting. However, they are processed industrially and largely consist of sugar. To avoid cravings, you should eat filling meals. Since Clean Eating is not primarily about losing weight, less attention must be paid to calories in the main meals, but mainly to the level of processing of the food. We recommend a combination of high-quality proteins (e.g. from lentils, beans, soy or fish) and complex carbohydrates (e.g. from whole grains, brown rice or quinoa). Healthy fats (e.g. from avocados, nuts and high-quality oils) are also allowed on the menu and provide you with important nutrients.

Tip 5: Rely on natural sweeteners

Try to sweeten your food and beverages with natural foods and avoid industrial sugar or sweeteners. Whether it is the honey in the tea, the bananas in the porridge or the dried dates in the cake - you see there are numerous natural alternatives.

A weekend of Clean Eating – try now!

For those who want to dive into the world of Clean Eating and try it out for themselves, we have put together a small nutrition plan with delicious "clean" and healthy recipes:

Even though most of us will probably not completely do without processed food in the near future, it is still advisable to take a somewhat more critical look at your own food consumption and think about a diet with more natural-based and less industrially processed foods. If you don’t want to go “all in”, you can still introduce one “clean day” per week or generally pay more attention to what you throw into your shopping cart when going grocery shopping. It's not that difficult!

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