How To Eat Clean- Including How To Eat Clean When Eating Out

How do you eat clean? Is it harder than how I eat now? How do I shop when I switch to clean eating? When you first switch to clean eating it can be hard to understand which foods are considered clean foods and which ones are not.

To help you plan your food shopping, we’ve compiled the following list to show you a variety of clean foods that you can incorporate into your meal plans.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Although most fruits contain natural sugars, it’s much healthier for your body than the refined sugars found in processed foods. All varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables, including raw and frozen should be included in yoru clean diet to help provide your body with natural minerals and vitamins. Buy certified organic varieties free of pesticides.

Meat & Fish

Beef: It’s best to buy directly from a butcher or Amish farmer. You should only choose grass fed and humanely raised beef.

Pork: Most pork products are processed. Avoid cheaper cuts of pork like bacon and gammon. Stick to the higher quality options. Choose grass fed and humanely raised pork.

Fish: Be careful when buying fish. Buy fish that has been caught sustainably and limit the high mercury fish to 2 servings per week at most.

High mercury content fish:

• Marlin
• King Mackerel
• Swordfish
• Shark
• Tuna

Poutry & Eggs: Eggs and poultry are a great source of protein. Choose free range, organic options if possible. Ensure the products from the store state no water or salt added. We get ours straight from Amish farmers.

Dairy Products: Any low fat dairy products are processed with a sugar content that would give a candy bar a heart attack!

• Milk: Choose full-fat organic varieties. For a clean alternative, you can use pure, unsweetened organic coconut milk, unsweetened organic soy milk, or canned varieties- not cartons.
• Cheese: Block cheese only. Full-fat varieties. Never buy pre-shredded cheese or low-fat, and stay with the better quality cheese.
• Yogurt: Full fat plain yogurt. If you want flavor in your yogurt, add in some fresh fruits.
• Cottage cheese: Only high quality full fat cottage cheese.

Beans, Pulses & Seeds: All beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc. Try adding flax, sunflower, or sesame seeds.

Unrefined Grains:

• Wheat: Use wholemeal varieties of bread, pasta and rice. Organic only.
• Flour: Always use whole wheat flours when cooking and baking. For alternatives to wheat, you can use unprocessed coconut or almond flour.
• Oats: Use unflavored rolled oats or steel cut oats.

Nuts: Make sure the package states that it contains 100% nuts with no additives. Avoid salted or flavored nuts. Salted and flavored nuts contain many unnatural ingredients.

Canned Goods: If you need to include canned goods, choose no added sugar and low sodium options.

Cooking Oils: Natural oils like coconut oil, olive oil, and avocado oil. We use an organic chosen blend of high oleic safflower, avocado and cocount oil from the Bulk Barn.

Herbs & Spices: It’s always best to choose fresh and dried herbs and spices. Avoid seasoning packets.

Natural Sweetners: Use organic honey.

Pure Syrup: Avoid processed bottles. Buy organic.

Condiments: Choose the no sugar added varieties or make your own clean varieties at home.

How to Eat Out With Clean Eating

The good thing about clean eating is that it isn’t difficult to eat out with this particular diet. It is actually very simple to do, no matter what restaurant you go to, as long as you know keep to the basic clean eating rules. Here are some tips to follow when you want to eat out and stick to your clean eating lifestyle.

Make Your Choices Simple

When you are eating out, don’t make it complicated and choose one of the newest skillet meals or something that requires analyzing every single piece of the meal puzzle. Instead, just go simple, especially when you are new to the clean eating diet. This might mean simply ordering from the healthy part of the menu, like getting grilled chicken with steamed vegetables, the pan-seared salmon with brown rice, or just a salad. These are simple, easy meals you know most likely include ingredients you can have while on the clean eating diet.

Look For Steak or Seafood Restaurants

As far as the type of restaurant goes, steak and seafood should be at the top of your list. While it is true you can find clean eating-approved meals just about anywhere, it is simpler when you don’t need to do a lot of substitutions or change half of what the meal is supposed to be. Going to a steak and/or seafood restaurant is easy to order. Steak restaurants already have steak as the main component for most of their dishes, and it is probably high-quality steak as opposed to ordering steak from a café or diner. With seafood restaurants, go for anything grilled or that is not breaded and fried, and you should be okay.

Be Smart About Fast Food

There are going to be some times when you need to choose food from a fast food restaurant. This is definitely not ideal, but it also doesn’t have to make or break the diet. Try to get a side salad if you can, but think about the type of dressing you choose, or use no dressing at all. With other menu items, do away with the bun or bread, and try to get a grilled chicken sandwich ‘protein style’. Most fast food restaurants will give you the grilled chicken sandwich with all the veggies, but no bun. Many of them wrap it in a big lettuce leaf.

When in Doubt, Choose a Salad

There are going to be times when you just can’t make a decision, based on the type of restaurant it is. In this case, just try to order a salad with steak, seafood, or grilled chicken. Don’t use the dressing and get cheese on the side so you can skip it, then ask for oil and vinegar instead of dressing.