Clean eating: that's behind the nutritional trend

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We explain what clean eating means here. Plus tips and recipes for changing your diet.

Have you ever looked at the list of ingredients in your chocolate bar? Or on the fix-made sauce? E numbers, long terms that you've never heard of or tongue twisters that you don't even know what that is. Often enough, we don't really know what we eat every day. With clean eating that changes quickly …

This is clean eating

Tosca Reno is considered the Eat-Clean-Queen, the American lived for a long time in an unhealthy relationship, was overweight and described herself as addicted to sugar: ice cream, peanut butter and everything sweet was not safe from her. At the age of 40, she finally pulled the handbrake, changed her life – and her eating behavior. Her book on the Eat Clean Diet became a bestseller.

In the focus of the Clean Eating nutrition concept eat clean) are unprocessed, i.e. natural, food without artificial additives and refined sugar. But the concept consists of other important pillars:

  • Regional ingredients
  • Seasonal fruits and vegetables
  • Meals freshly prepared
  • Whole products ("Whole Grain Products")
  • Low in sugar / free of sugar
  • Low salt

Eating "clean" means dealing with food again and maybe even exposing yourself to unusual taste experiences … How about really tasting the individual components of a main course instead of drowning it in a thick cream sauce?

Clean eating makes us cook ourselves and above all fresh, rely on foods that ideally come from the region and are currently in season (here you can find the BRIGITTE seasonal calendar). Doesn't sound that difficult, does it? We have put together a few tips for you.

What can I eat during clean eating?

A lot! Those who do without ready meals and other industrially processed foods do not automatically do without delicious food! These delicious foods are on the Clean Eating menu:

  • Fresh fish
  • Fresh meat
  • Whole grain foods
  • Seasonal and regional vegetables
  • Herbs
  • (Unsweetened) dairy products
  • High quality fats and oils
  • nuts
  • Natural sweeteners such as honey or fruit sugar from fruit

Beware of ….

  • Drinks! Not only lemonades & Co contain sugar and additives, flavored water often contains additional sugar and artificial flavors.
  • Diet or light products! Even if they do not contain refined sugar, they have other non-clean ingredients.

8 tips for changing your diet

  1. It is quite possible to lose a few pounds with Clean Eating, even if that is not the focus. Remember that if you eat a pack of nuts with lots of calories instead of your favorite chocolate, you probably won't notice any weight loss …
  2. This does not mean that you generally have to do without all foods with a high calorie content! Because calories alone do not determine whether a food is good for you. For example, nuts contain important nutrients – not a pizza that has many calories but unfortunately no important nutrients. So: High quality, nutrient-rich food yes, to the right extent!
  3. Tosca Reno recommends six smaller meals a dayto keep blood sugar levels constant and prevent cravings.
  4. She also advises in every meal Combine complex carbohydrates (e.g. whole wheat pasta) with low-fat proteins (e.g. chicken)to provide the body with the best possible care.
  5. Organic = clean and healthy …? Not necessarily. Ready-made organic products can also have a long list of ingredients and contain unwanted ingredients, such as sugar.
  6. In the cafeteria at lunchtime, in the evening in the restaurant and a muesli bar in between, when things have to go fast – we often feed ourselves during the day, because time may not allow otherwise. A well-planned weekly shopping and meal prep can help.
  7. The use of the salt shaker happens automatically when cooking, and there are many delicious alternatives for seasoning available. Here we present you suitable salt substitutes. Too much salt can be unhealthy under certain circumstances, we tell you here when.
  8. Another tip from the Eat-Clean-Queen: don't miss breakfast! It provides us with energy and makes us productive.

Plan and recipes

This is what a clean eating day can look like for you – a few suggestions:

  1. breakfast: Overnight protein porridge
  2. snack: Banana
  3. Having lunch: Grilled Chicken with Chermoula and Couscous
  4. snack: a handful of nuts
  5. dinner: A serving of salmon with potatoes and vegetables
  6. Midnight snack: Plain yogurt with fruit

Clean eating – advantages and disadvantages

Behind Clean Eating is a full and balanced nutritional concept, which is certainly not brand new, but brings us back to healthy eating. However, one shouldn't expect miracles, as graduate ecotrophologist Brigitte Neumann told t-online.de: "Those who are healthy can stay that way with clean eating. Those who get sick should not be under the illusion of being able to cure diseases with clean eating. "If you want something good for yourself, you may also overshoot your target and try to do everything" right "through dogmatic behavior, in the worst case scenario it to Orthorexia nervosa, the addiction to healthy eating. So the rule is: listen to yourself and your body – and sometimes just let five be straight.

Would you like to read more about the topic and share it with others? Then look in the forum "Eat-Enjoyment-or-Frustration?" of the BRIGITTE community past!

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