34 Clean Eating Recipes You'll Actually Want To Eat (2024)

FAQs

What foods are best for clean eating? ›

A clean diet may include 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 may also be associated with terms like plant-based, grass-fed, sugar-free, or gluten-free.

If you're looking to detox and get back to being healthy, you can make yourself a 5 day clean eating plan. Clean eating is a simple concept— you only consume whole foods. By that, we mean foods that aren't processed or refined or are at least minimally processed.

Others adopt a “clean eating” lifestyle because they want to lose weight and body fat. And some even turn to clean eating to gain weight and lean muscle. While eating this way can and does produce weight loss for many people, it doesn't happen that way for everyone.

But it's pretty easy to get the recommended daily 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight—approximately 56 g daily for men and 46 g daily for women—even on a vegetarian or vegan diet. Eggs, dairy, beans and nuts are all suitable protein sources for a clean, vegetarian diet.

Peanut butter can be a healthy addition to a meal or snack, but not all peanut butters are the same. Some are full of unhealthy trans fats and hydrogenated oils. Pick natural, simple mixes.

For those who can tolerate dairy, cheeses can be a healthy and nutritious source of proteins and healthy fats if consumed in moderation. Cheese is allowed in the clean eating meal plan, but with an asterisk. Processed cheese slices or other packaged foods that contain cheese should be avoided.

Like any food, potatoes are fine to eat in moderation. “Healthy food choices should include a variety of starchy and non-starchy vegetables,” says Dunn. “In fact, the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans includes up to 5 cups a week of starchy vegetables for those needing 2,000 calories a day.”

Some things that are likely to be found on the table of clean food eaters are: Whole-grains instead of refined flour, as in bread, cookies, cakes, and pies. Brown rice instead of white rice, which has been milled till it has lost its husk, with the underlying germ and vitamins.

However, like with any food, enjoyed in moderation, refined pasta should not have much of an impact on your gut health. If you are worried about gut health, you can try whole grain pasta instead. Whole grains are good for your gut health and help to contribute to an overall healthy gut microbiome.

Is oatmeal part of clean eating? ›

Clean Whole Grains:

Single-ingredient grains, such as farro, millet, oats, barley, quinoa, brown rice, etc. Whole-wheat pasta. Popcorn. Sprouted whole-grain bread and English muffins (with no added sugar)

As a processed meat, bacon is not what most experts would consider a health food. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared bacon and other processed meats class one carcinogens, a category of substances known to cause cancer that also includes cigarettes and asbestos.

Many clean-eating advocates aim to avoid all traces of added sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, and other additives—a position that might be admirable but is too stringent for most people.

Higher levels of mental focus and clarity. Any symptoms of brain fog or low concentration should begin to clear as you start noticing you can think more clearly. You'll feel amazed that you can eat so much food without gaining weight. You might even feel overly full for the first couple of days of eating healthy.

10 days can make a bigger difference than you think.

A recent study led by Robert Lustig, MD, showed that by simply taking fructose (from added sugar) out of the diet for 10 days, liver fat was reduced nearly 30%. There was no reduction in calories in the diet the patients were put on.