Date: 2016-07-05

Clean Eating in a Junk Food World

Seventeen Steps to Eating Cleaner Today
by

Willi Ernst

2016

Disclaimer

This text is not intended to be a source of medical advice. It is based on the personal experiences and observations of the author. Readers are encouraged to seek out the services of competent professionals for such advice.

Clean Eating in a Junk Food World

Copyright Notice

Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Edition: July 2016

For Mom

Table of Contents

Title Page

Disclaimer

About this book

#1 Stick to the aisles around the outside of the supermarket

#2 Instead of a banana nut muffin, eat a banana and some nuts

#3 Rethink what a meal is

#4 Let color be your guide

#5 Be more old-fashioned using modern technology

#6 Think local

#7 Trade your latte for a Venti hot tea

#8 Prep a bunch of meals at the same time

#9 Worry about getting nutrients, not counting calories

#10 Keep track of which foods agree with your tummy (and which foods do not)

#11 Find clean matches for junk foods that you love

#12 Add the leverage of a little more exercise

#13 Put breakfast back on the schedule

#14 Sidestep sugar

#15 Purchase a mandoline (and a couple other tools)

#16 Keep the water bottle handy

#17 Start looking at food labels

Glossary of Terms

About the Author

Further Resources

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

This text is not intended to be a source of medical advice. It is based on the personal experiences and observations of the author. Readers are encouraged to seek out the services of competent professionals for such advice.

This book does not contain all information available on the subject. This book has not been created to be specific to any individual’s situation or needs. Every effort has been made to make this book as accurate as possible. However, there may be typographical and content errors. Therefore, this book should serve only as a general guide and not as the ultimate source of subject information. This book contains information that might be dated and is intended only to educate and entertain. The author and publisher shall have no liability or responsibility to any person or entity regarding any loss or damage incurred, or alleged to have incurred, directly or indirectly, by the information contained in this book.

The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

The reader hereby agrees to be bound by this disclaimer and assumes all responsibility for the use of the information within this text.

About this book

An article in the paper the other day about eating habits made one simple point: “Eat real food!” The author went on to describe what he mean by that: “Minimally processed plants should dominate our diets.” It’s that simple. And it lies at the core of what clean eating is all about.

I wrote this book to share everything I have learned about eating over a lifetime of enjoying eating. Believe me, I have eaten nearly everything that you are supposed to eat and a whole lot of stuff that you are not supposed to eat. It is this latter practice that led my body to become insulin-resistant and go on to develop type 2 diabetes. I think that making a move today to eat a little cleaner is the easiest way for you to escape my fate. So I put together a list of things that you can do, starting today, to give your body more of what it needs to feel healthy and vibrant, and maybe even live a little longer. Medical research, which I sprinkle in as I go along, supports this claim.

I am more of an incrementalist than a zealot. I believe that little changes can do a lot. Embracing just one or two of these suggestions for what you can do today to eat cleaner will help you out. I also know that doing all seventeen of them on a regular basis is a lot easier than it seems. In fact, once you start doing one or two of them, another couple will fall into place, and pretty soon you will have changed your eating behaviors by quite a lot. And you will feel better for it.

Discoveries made in the past few years have created a picture of what I call the “virtuous cycle” for the human body. I mean, the basics are pretty simple: the body needs certain macronutrients and micronutrients to function properly; these nutrients work best when they are not adulterated by all kinds of additional, non-nutritious, substances that have been added so that foods can be shipped more easily or stay fresh on the self for longer periods of time; ingredients in many processed foods can become addictive (think about added sugars) and may affect the body’s natural signaling about what and how much to eat. Stated succinctly: eat real foods.

My own personal story centers around finding out that my body couldn’t process all the sugar I was putting into it, leaving me at risk for all the bad things that come with adult-onset diabetes. I was carrying a lot of weight around my belly, and all of that had to go. But I always found it difficult to lose the weight, even when I reduced the amount of calories I consumed each day.

What I learned was that a few key changes in the substance of my diet actually made it easier for me to control my weight than simply eating less. As you read through the book, you will hear about how cutting out certain substances from my diet led my weight to drop naturally. Case in point: substances that trigger a stress response in my body create more body fat, paradoxically, than substances that calm my body (see, for example, cortisol). What I found is that you can break these unhealthy cycles simply by eating some different foods and reorganizing your eating schedule.

That reminds me, I include a small glossary of terms for your reference. These are mostly the “scientific” or technical terms that you will run into when you start examining your diet and learning more about what you are putting into your body. I hope it helps.

Bottom line: pick one or two items from the list and start doing them today. That’s what the book is about, making it simple to start eating cleaner with a minimal commitment. Pledges and promises and resolutions are great, but they don’t actually help you get anywhere. Changing one or two behaviors? That’s progress!

My very best wishes to you as you embark on a journey that will leave you better physically and mentally, as it did me. And please let me know your reactions at my website, Clean Eating in a Junk Food World (cleaneatinginajunkfoodworld.com)

#1 Stick to the aisles around the outside of the supermarket

Many clean food experts recommend that when you go shopping, stay on the perimeter of the store. That’s because the freshest food, the least processed foods are shelved there—the fruits, vegetables, fresh fish, fresh meats, the bulk ingredients, even the artisanal whole grain breads are on display around the edges of the store rather than in the middle. Look behind the bakery, seafood, or meat counters and you’ll see why. Foods that have no preservatives, foods that have come on a relatively straight line from where they were grown or caught often require refrigeration and other special handling. So housing them in the middle of the store doesn’t make much sense. It is easy to pallet a bunch of boxes and roll them to an interior aisle, but a case of broccoli or the fresh salmon do best closest to the outer edges, closest to the delivery bay and closest to where the refrigeration is located.

As a clean eater, you are avoiding processed foods in boxes with lists of ingredients. Well, the ingredient list for a turnip is its name: turnip—no extra labeling necessary. Same with a pound of salmon: salmon. If you just stick with foods like this, where the ingredient list is the name, you are eating cleaner than you were before. So cruise the outer aisles at the supermarket next time, and toss a few things into the basket, and you will be eating cleaner, right now.

One experienced clean eater told me: “Start with the fruits and vegetables, then continue on with the nuts and spices, the meat/fish, and then the dairy products. You literally do not even need to go in the middle alleys, since all you need can be found on the outer sections. This trick helped me a lot as I finished my grocery shopping twice as fast as I did before. The amazing part of it all? I didn’t become hungry halfway through the trip and grab the first junk food package that could be eaten from the cart.”

You can do the same!

#2 Instead of a banana nut muffin, eat a banana and some nuts

While you are cruising those outer aisles, think of some things you like to eat in a processed form, and pick up a few of the basic ingredients that they are made out of. So, you will find some great nuts very near those bananas; pick them both up at the same time. Nearby are the carrots that you enjoy in carrot cake, along with the cinnamon and pecans that help make it taste so good. Grab them all—they all belong in a clean food diet. In fact, this is a great place to pick up all of the nuts and seeds that we typically eat in muffins and bagels and cakes, but this time in their original form.

Nuts and seeds - squirrel food for the brain! While you are there, try almonds, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts and pecans. They all contain omega-3s and omega-6s, vitamin E (studies show that higher levels of this vitamin resist cognitive decline), folate, vitamin B6 and magnesium. Seeds are great as well--try sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, which contain zinc, choline and vitamin E. Plus, nuts are easy to pack for your new eating lifestyle away from home, as I will cover later in the section on rethinking what a meal is, and the one on packing a new kind of lunchbox.

Same with the fish sticks and fast food fish sandwiches. Skip the breading and the fat and just eat some fish! Stick with the bright red fish - salmon. To include salmon in your "clean," brain protective diet, though, make sure you get "wild" salmon, not salmon that is farm raised. Even though farm raised salmon is more readily available and often less expensive than wild salmon, studies have shown that the pens these fish are raised in produce higher concentrations of PCBs and other undesirable, if not downright toxic, chemicals. So clean eaters will stick with wild salmon whenever possible. You should also be on the lookout for mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines and albacore tuna. (Psst, a hint: although processing is generally a no-no for clean eaters, canned wild salmon may be substituted for fresh salmon in a pinch.)

#3 Rethink what a meal is

When I was little, I never understood why my grandparents called the meal they ate at lunchtime “dinner.” But that’s what it was, a full dinner, and then some. Dishes of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, lima beans, and string beans went along with a meat entrée, like ham or beef. My grandma just would not take no for an answer until all those serving bowls were empty and I was nearly comatose from all the food. The meal was, suffice to say, HUGE!

To be sure, they lived on a farm and most of what we ate in that big meal was grown on the acre of land that they owned, and if not grown by them, then grown by a neighbor. So they were clean eaters for sure, in terms of eating many foods in their most unrefined forms. And the food was delicious.

But what my grandparents were not clued into, though, was the clean eating recommendation that we eat more meals a day, all of them smaller than the meals we eat when we adhere to the “three meals a day” mantra. Most “clean eating” advocates recommend up to six meals a day, with the last one before bedtime as simple as a cup of chamomile tea and some fruit.

What’s hard for most of us, though, is that so many social expectations have grown up around the scheduling of mealtimes. Typically, it is a time when everyone is available, and can sit down for extended eating and conversation. Snacking doesn’t quite provide the opportunity for all of the social rituals to be fulfilled.

You can start today, though, by reducing the size of the traditional breakfast, lunch, and dinner by just a bit, and adding in the “other” three meals in mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and before bedtime as slightly expanded snacks. Many clean cooks achieve this by incorporating what would otherwise be the “side dishes” for a meal into the main course, by adding lightly cooked vegetables into a main course of spicy chicken breast or salmon fillet. Portion control is easier when there is a single portion at the heart of the meal, and hunger pangs that result from a more “boom and bust” style of eating like the one my grandparents indulged in are offset by the expanded snacks between the meals and the ready availability of fruits and nuts for a quick bite whenever needed.

Once you schedule your “other” three meals of the day, and prepare for them in your shopping and your food preparation, you will notice how much easier it is for your body to digest and absorb the nourishment that you are providing it. Plus, you don’t have to worry about snacking—it’s built into the system. With clean eating, calories are not the enemy (at least not the primary enemy like they are in so many other eating plans); additives, food dyes, preservatives, and so forth—those substances are the enemies of the clean eater.

So, eat smaller portions more often. I now find that I actually think less about snacking and am hungry less often. In fact, once you add the right amount of complex carbs and protein to your diet, and grab a glass of water to wash each meal down, you may be surprised how full you feel after a “snack-sized” meal.

#4 Let color be your guide

As you can already see, many of the foods that are nutrient-dense and antioxidant rich possess a deeper, darker color than other foods. That color is not just incidental to their nutritional value—some of the key micronutrients you need come from the pigments in the foods themselves. For example, cabbage-y (“cruciferous”) vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, and bok choy contain cartenoids, organic pigments that give the deep rich color to these foods. They also contain folate, a B vitamin important for a number of positive health outcomes. People consuming diets rich in carotenoids from natural foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are healthier and have lower mortality from a number of chronic illnesses. These colorful foods also are associated with lower homocysteine levels in the blood, while research shows a correlation between higher levels of homocysteine and cognitive impairment.

Orange and yellow fruits and vegetables have high vitamin A activity because of these carotenoids, and the deeper and richer colored fruits and vegetables have higher concentrations of the health promoting pigments. Carrots are an especially good source of beta-carotene. The green, “cabbage-y” vegetables listed above also contain large amounts of carotenoids, but they don’t appear yellow or orange like the fruits and other vegetables because the green pigment of their chlorophyll hides the other colors.

#5 Be more old-fashioned using modern technology

As I mentioned earlier, my grandparents were very old-fashioned in their eating habits, taking their “dinner” as the earlier meal during the day. (Originally, the word dinner came from the Old French word “disner,” which meant, believe it or not, “breakfast”!) They also pumped their own water from the well, and picked many of their vegetables from the garden. So “old fashioned” for our purposes means doing things in a way that may be less convenient (in the modern sense) but more healthy for our bodies in the long run.

So one way to be old fashioned is to take the time to plant a garden and stock it with all the heart and brain healthy veggies we are discussing in this book. But you can be old-fashioned in a thoroughly modern way by sourcing lots of your gardening necessities using the internet.

One thing you will need for your garden is seeds. Many people recommend ordering them online from SeedsNow.com. A popular feature of this service is the ability to purchase sampler packs of seeds for as little as $0.99. When you fire up their website, you will see the aforementioned cartenoids on display, with big pictures of luscious-looking carrots, spinach, and beans. And SeedsNow has a strictly NO GMO (genetically modified organism) policy, something that is important to many people who are trying to eat clean. Having someone who knows what they are doing curate your seeds is very important in this way, as many issues have arisen in recent years where genetically-modified foodstuffs have found their way into the food supply without the knowledge or consent of those eating the food. Whatever your personal feelings may be concerning genetic modification of food, you need to know what your suppliers are thinking and doing. So SeedsNow is a great resource for you in your effort to take an old-fashioned approach to sourcing your food.

No room at your place for a garden? Why not rent a spot? And use the internet again to find out where the nearest garden plot you could rent might be. This is a problem, especially in and around cities with little green or open space available. Search Google for “rent garden plot” plus your “zip code” and a whole bunch of resources will pop up. I even read about a man who had trouble finding a community garden where he could rent a plot so he used Google Earth to find an empty lot nearby his apartment and was able to set up his garden there.

Being old-fashioned about it means taking the time to do it right, so let modern network connectivity work for you. In my grandparents’ community in Ohio, people worked together to achieve their goals. When one family needed assistance, the other families came to help. So use the internet to build your own community around clean eating. Just type “clean eating support group” into Google and you will be surprised by the number of options that pop up. Of course, many of these folks may not live nearby you, but this is a great case of modern technology helping you take an old-fashioned approach to sourcing ideas, food, implements, and more as you pursue this increasingly popular eating option.

Finally, my grandmother “put things up” for later consumption all the time. She was the veritable queen of the Ball Jar. I still remember seeing those glass containers sitting in a pot of boiling water at the end of the process, and pulling the wax sealer out of the top of the jar before tasting the delicious preserved fruit underneath. Today, taking time to save for later may well involve “canning” and preserving fresh goods from your garden or the local produce truck. But clean eaters everywhere recommend doing something on more of a weekly basis, as in preparing a bunch of meals for the week ahead all at one time. The principle is the same: batching your preparations. And today, blessed with top flight refrigeration options as well as the miracle of Tupperware, you can easily prepare much of the week’s food in an afternoon or less.

#6 Think local

Being old-fashioned almost by definition means thinking local. In my grandparents’ day, fresh fruits and vegetables out of season were unavailable or impossibly expensive. Today, modern transportation makes it possible for me to eat my beloved blueberries (sometimes called “brainberries” for their protective properties that support brain health) year round, and sometimes I pay less for the berries grown in Chile during the winter here in the U.S. than seasonal berries grown closer to home.

In fact, eating clean often means paying attention to seasonal foods, something we will talk about in a later section. Unless you live in Alaska, however, where the spate of survival shows teach us about hunting and gathering during a very short seasonal window, you can likely find a wide variety of locally grown foods for more than half of the calendar year.

Here in the mid-Atlantic, where I live, local strawberries become available long before the summer solstice, and fresh gourds and pumpkins linger until Halloween and beyond, toward Thanksgiving. But you have to explore your local area to find the very best fresh foods for most of the year. And during the short period when there is not much local produce available, you can become knowledgeable about where the produce from outside your area comes from, how it is grown, and how it is transported.

Even without doing a lot of research, you can just keep your eyes open while commuting or driving around for little stands and markets that serve as a gathering point for the local foods of the region. In my area, one such regional market, Chesapeake’s Bounty, actually sends its truck around to all the local farms to gather the day’s bounty of fresh food. I can keep track on their website of what’s in season and available, and make the short drive to their location when the items I want are there. Where I live, their offerings include crabs and clams and other goodies harvested from the Chesapeake. Your region features some local specialties as well, I suspect.

Again, using technology makes the process simpler. My farmstand uses Facebook to do updates (“"U-Pick" Strawberry Patch open daily while supplies last! Organically-grown” is their latest post as I write this.) Other farmstands take a page from the food trucks and post their offerings on Twitter. Produce trucks can also alert you to their location on a given day in this fashion.

So use all these resources to source your food locally, closer to where it was grown or raised, and all the fresher for it.

#7 Trade your latte for a Venti hot tea

Something you can easily do right now to eat a bit cleaner is to start to trade out that coffee habit for a new appreciation of tea. You will recognize the benefits almost immediately, and you don’t have to worry too much about getting some varieties of tea that you will absolutely love.

But first, why make this switch?

We used to watch a series on PBS about the work of Dr. Nicholas Perricone, who is something of a guru in the field of dermatology, which he has expanded into a reputation for understanding the mechanics of brain health and longevity. These latter topics were the ones covered in the PBS special. If there is one thing I remember from the show, it is the vehemence with which Dr. Perricone denounces the practice of drinking coffee. He says that his passion has nothing to do with the caffeine in coffee, but with a hormone that coffee drinking causes the adrenal gland to pump into the blood stream. The effects of this hormone, especially on the aging brain and body, are so pronounced that Dr. Perricone has dubbed it “the death hormone.” Its name is cortisol.

Cortisol is also known as the “fight or flight” hormone, juicing up the body for maximum alertness and reaction when faced with a stressful situation. Besides raising blood pressure, Perricone points out that cortisol also affects blood sugar levels and the storage of sugar as fat because it promotes maximum fuel for the body under stressful conditions. Now, for a younger person, cortisol levels drop more quickly than in older people, which means that, longer term, cortisol levels are persistently higher in the elderly. These elevated levels of cortisol are bad for the brain, are implicated in the development of type 2 diabetes, and, according to Perricone, can attack and weaken the immune system. Not exactly the outcomes we are looking for.

So, why have coffee in the first place? Well, I drink coffee as a pick-me-up in the morning, or throughout the day when I feel like I have tasks that I need to “power through.” I don’t really stop to think about the longer terms effects that coffee drinking has on my health. For me, the solution was a switch from coffee to a similar beverage without the threat of the death hormone shrinking my brain and shortening my life. The solution: a cup of tea.

Now tea can pack plenty of punch in the “pick-me-up” department, but it does so without releasing a flood of cortisol into my bloodstream. In fact, a study published in the journal Pharmacology, found that black tea actually reduced levels of cortisol in the blood.

- “Black tea contains polyphenols, which are also antioxidants that help block DNA damage associated with tobacco or other toxic chemicals. These antioxidants are different from those obtained from fruits and vegetables and therefore as a regular part of our diet they can provide additional benefits towards a healthy lifestyle.” --BBC

- “Based on a research study conducted of elderly people living in the Mediterranean islands it was discovered that people that had been consuming black tea on a long-term basis on a moderate level (i.e 1-2 cups a day) had a 70% lower chance of having or developing type 2 diabetes.” --Lifehack.Org

Personally, I have witnessed the effects of cortisol on my ability to manage my weight. When I drink a lot of coffee, it is much harder for me to lose weight, no matter how I change my diet. Once I switch over to tea, though, I see much more ready progress on my waistline, even in just a few days. Now, clean eaters don’t really worry so much about weight, but carrying weight, especially around the middle, is a risk factor for a lot of things. Bad things. So anything that makes it easier for me to see the results of my improved food choices is a catalyst that I want to employ to improve my health.

A final note: many people think that green tea is healthier than black. And maybe it is. But a couple of things for you to note. First, most green teas have caffeine, just like black tea—and I see that as a good thing, since green tea does have similar concentrations of some anti-aging and cancer fighting chemicals, like the flavinoids we mentioned with the leafy green vegetables discussed earlier. “Tea is a very rich source of a specific kind of antioxidant called flavonoids” –WebMD

Bottom line: tea affects the body in good ways, and coffee, well, not so much. If you love a cup of coffee, like I do, limit yourself to one a day, and make it early, so the cortisol has time to dissipate. I have a lot of coffee-free days now, but not exclusively. I have found, though, so many good tea flavors that are strong and rich that I crave coffee a lot less, and was able to move coffee to a very minor position in my day surprisingly quickly.

Back to Dr. Perricone. As for tea drinking, he recommends against adding milk to the mix, as it counteracts some of the very chemicals that tea brings to the table. Hmmm. I love milk in my tea. So what do I do? Work in a cup without milk once a day. We’ll see where I go from there.

One thing I have found is that chai tea sits in my stomach without milk better than straight black tea. And when you look at the ingredients in chai tea, you see a group of spices in addition to the powerfully health-promoting tea itself that are on the list of “all star” spices.

#8 Prep a bunch of meals at the same time

If you are eating clean, you are probably doing more food prep than before. Why? Because all the shortcuts that processed foods provide have been removed from the equation. So what to do? Become your own food processor, if you will, by setting up times during the week to get a lot of food ready for the next few days, or up to a week.

Some experts say that prepping food is the most important step in clean eating. Processed foods are, almost by definition, convenient, and that convenience is what can lure you away from eating clean.  When you are in a hurry, processed food is easy. However, if you take the time to chop some fruit and grill some veggies, then put them in the fridge, it becomes equally convenient to eat clean. Remember, this book is about doing things right now that lead you into the clean eating lifestyle, so even if you only prep part of your week’s meals, you have taken a great step in the right direction.

(Remember also that having a package of plain almonds around makes for a great snack and requires zero prep. Same with a fresh kiwi, if you have spoon handy to scoop it out once you cut it in half. Delicious. So eating clean can be just as easy as the other approach; you just have to become aware of some of the great options you have.)

Many clean eaters prep on Sunday for the busy week ahead. Prep time can range from a couple of hours to an afternoon. It depends on how much you enjoy it. Some preppers recognize that making prep enjoyable is part of the key. So think about options like putting on some music while you prep, maybe have a glass of wine or acai juice and sparkling water (yum!). Others suggest doing your prepping with a friend; many hands make fast work, and the time together is priceless.

Prepping your food is really the culminating activity in meal planning. Remember to think about a portion of protein, a portion of fat, and a portion of carbohydrate for each meal. One clean eater recommends that starting with one breakfast recipe, one lunch recipe, and one dinner recipe in mind is the easiest way to go. You can prep five or six identical meals at once with ingredients that were easy to shop for because they are not too numerous. Chicken breast, grilled veggies, chopped veggies, hard boiled eggs, fruit cubes, brown rice, cous cous, among other things, can easily be prepared in advance and stored in the fridge for later in the week.

Preppers suggest rinsing all of your fruits and veggies in a weak vinegar solution in cold water in the sink before prepping. This kills bacteria that could cause your fresh foods to spoil, and acts as a final rinse to remove any other substances that may have attached during growth or transportation.

Use zip lock bags or tight Tupperware-type containers to store your food. Many like the clear rather than tinted containers so the food can be seen clearly in the fridge. Many folks will do a major prep on Sunday and then a smaller one mid-week just to keep the food as fresh as possible. And remember to clean up as you cook; that way one of the negatives, all the pots and pans that need washing, won’t build up and discourage you from prepping your food this way.

If you can’t schedule a full prep session over the weekend or on a weeknight, one expert recommends that you at least plan your meals for the next day the night before. This allows you to do a quick check that you have all the ingredients that you need, and to do a “quick prep” of items that need it. If the thought of a big prep session turns you off, or if your schedule just doesn’t permit it from time to time, commit to a nightly “quick prep” so that in the morning, your clean foods are ready to power you through your day.

Remember the music, the friend, and the glass of wine as prep time approaches!

#9 Worry about getting nutrients, not counting calories

Clean eaters don’t count calories. If they count anything, they count nutrients. You should start doing the same. Now it is common sense to think that eating five or six smaller meals per day means that each one will have fewer calories, maybe 300-400 calories each mini-meal. But if you watch portion size and focus on nutrients, you will start feeling satiated and not have to worry about watching your weight per se. Because you are cutting out substances that lead to the kind of weight gain that is difficult to reverse, your body will begin processing the calories that you do eat differently. Remember good old cortisol? It is implicated in turning on the “fight or flight” readiness that comes from adrenal stimulation and storing the sugar released in the bloodstream to belly fat, easy to put on and tough to take off. So eating the right foods, ones that promote a leaner body mass and that help the body gain nourishment without storing so much sugar as fat, means that calorie counting isn’t necessary. Eating clean promotes a virtuous cycle in your body that lets pounds fall away easily until you find a vibrant, energetic weight.

That said, you will find that “portion control” becomes easier when you know you will be eating again in a few hours when you are hungry. That’s the way my brain works, at least. In between, pop a couple of almonds in your mouth. I almost think of the process without using the word “meal.” I think of my day as a day of snacking every few hours, but the “snacks” have variety and they taste great. That little bit of sweetness from the fruit that follows the grilled chicken slice and quinoa makes even a “snack” feel complete, like a “meal” is supposed to feel. It’s like eating small, on a continuum of ingestion, that keep the motor running without clogging up the tummy or the brain. Energy levels that come from this kind of “grazing” make for enhanced productivity.

So think about the smaller portions for each snack or mini-meal, and think about the macro-nutrients and the micro-nutrients involved. A bit of cinnamon on the fruit slices, rosemary in the rub on the grilled chicken or fresh dill added to the olive oil for grilling the salmon bring essential micro-nutrients, and a lot of flavor, to your food.

#10 Keep track of which foods agree with your tummy (and which foods do not)

You are planning to eat different for a reason. You want to live longer. You want to reduce the risk of heart disease or dementia. Or maybe you just don’t feel that good after eating. If this latter is the case, some experts recommend becoming a test subject of one and keep a record of how you feel after eating certain foods. For one, eating five or six smaller meals per day will leave you feeling lighter and more energized than those three larger meals you were brought up and taught to eat. So there’s a start.

Now you need to ask the question, are there some foods that just don’t agree with me? Some folks suggest removing dairy and gluten right at the outset, testing to see if this creates a more settled stomach without a lot more investigation. However, remember that these items are not in conflict with a “clean” approach, other than that eating clean is devoted to removing foods that make you less healthy and replacing them with foods that make you more healthy. Part of that is feeling energized, sharp of mind and muscle, and vibrant. So whatever gets in the way of that feeling needs to be examined and eliminated when necessary.

An easy way to track your food reactions is to keep a journal. Or add a daily food section to a journal that you already keep. It will be easy to note the foods that you consume in a given day, now that your pantry is full of fewer but more nutritious meals. In fact, once you confirm that a given food works well with your body, you don’t need to note it any more. But when you start, list everything so that you can uncover patterns between your energy, mood, and clarity of mind and the “clean” foods that you begin to introduce. For example, when I added the organic acai juice to my diet, I found that I had a bit of a full, slightly uncomfortable stomach for a couple of hours thereafter. Now I will continue the experiment to see if it is the amount I am drinking or if the addition of the sparkling water makes a difference. There are so many great nutrients in acai juice that I won’t scratch it from my list without further investigation. You should do the same as your system adjusts to the new, nutrient rich foods you are beginning to eat.

#11 Find clean matches for junk foods that you love

One way to get started with clean eating right away is to simply replace some of your favorite “junk” foods with more healthy alternatives.

You love your chicken nuggets? How about a recipe for turkey croquettes? Crave Oreo™ cookies? How about a Cookies and Cream Power Bar?

My wife comes from Philadelphia, and I fell in love with Philly cheesesteak sandwiches at the same time I fell in love with her. (Unlike me and the cheesesteaks, she and I are still together.) So why not find a clean equivalent to a food that makes my mouth water? I think there is some psychological value in matching foods up in my mind like this, since I was trained by my stomach to drive across town just to get the cheesesteak from a certain restaurant. Now it’s like, hey, I’m having a cheesesteak tonight! It improves my food motivation, and my mood. Chase that with a cookies and cream power bar—heaven!

Some other junk food cravings come to mind. What about those lunches at Taco Bell? Well, I can come up with a taco that has tons of nutrients, but much less fat and much fresher ingredients. Replace the beef with chicken or, even better, fish (my favorite)—grilled, of course, not fried. Then add some great spices and veggies, and you have a great Taco Bell substitute. Avoid prepackaged tortilla shells.

Are a burger and fries your to-die-for? Why not sub out the hamburger, grab a whole wheat bun, create a spicy turkey burger, and add some baked sweet potato fries on the side?

Finding substitutes for the junk food we were trained to love is easier than you think. And there are even options for you when “trapped” in a fast food restaurant for lunch. Wendy’s, for example, offers baked potatoes that you don’t have to “load” with a bunch of unhealthy toppings (I mean, what are bacon “bits” anyway?), as well as salads. That chili looks appealing, made with beans, but there are a lot of other ingredients in the recipe. Better to make yourself some simple black bean chili when you get home.

The point here is that you can eat cleaner today by working out some substitutes for the very foods you were eating a day ago, and that you are worried about giving up. Clean eating is truly an expansion of the world of food for you; don’t let phrases like “health foods” and “granola” (perfectly fine words but used by some in a pejorative sense) steer you away from eating cleaner.

#12 Add the leverage of a little more exercise

While clean eating doesn’t come with a workout plan, now that you are tuning up your body to feel great and full of energy, you really should find healthful ways of using that energy for your body’s benefit. So adding some exercise to a clean eating regimen is really just a way of using the physical well-being that your clean eating gives you.

As you explore the blogosphere for ideas about clean eating, you will run across a number of people who are very serious about their workouts in addition to their eating choices. Of course, as you take better care of your body, you may find that the buzz that comes from a great workout perfectly complements your new eating regime. But that’s not required to get the benefits of clean eating.

So, what can you do today to add a touch of exercise to your cleaner diet? How about taking a walk? A body in tune benefits from a mind that takes a longer view of things, at least once in a while. A twenty minute walk can be the perfect way to “cleanse” the mind as your new foods cleanse the body of harmful substances.

In that vein, there is a lot to be said for incorporating a personal, non-competitive exercise regime into your day or week. How about yoga? In the same way that your new foods “do no harm” and promote health and longevity, options like yoga or Pilates offer a way to keep your body limber, agile, and flexible for the long term. If you’re like me, joining the “let’s run a marathon this weekend” crew just isn’t an option. But stretching, some resistance training, some aerobic exercise—well, these are things that my poor old aging body can handle, and indeed benefit from.

There a many, many resources available for blending your clean new diet with exercise like yoga. One website with some great videos you can use to guide your workout right at home is YogaGlo.com. They have a free trial, and I found the videos to be very congenial to the way that I am trying to eat and think at this point in my life. I learned about YogaGlo from Meg at EatSimpleLoveYoga.com. Her blog is a great resource for those who want to pursue the gentler side of working out to complement the new foodstuffs.

On the other hand, some of the more aggressive exercise buffs are great to learn from as well. Jim, Tiffany, Scott and Whitney at HeandSheEatClean.com take a much more athletic approach to the workouts that they use to build a lifestyle that includes clean eating. They have tons of workout plans and ideas for those who want to push their bodies even harder.

So, as you cleanse the substances that trigger inflammation and cellular shut down from your body, take a few minutes to stride around, stretch, and otherwise keep the skeletal, muscular you ready to take advantage of all the energy you will discover as a clean eater.

#13 Put breakfast back on the schedule

We know that you are supposed to eat five or six smaller meals a day as part of the eating clean regimen. Therein lies reason one to eat breakfast. You can’t spread your meals out properly throughout the day if you don’t get started when you get up. Plus, breakfast offers the opportunity to add the complex carbs that will power you through the day, carbs that you will probably avoid later In the day and evening when you don’t need so much energy and are getting ready for sleep.

These reasons alone should really be enough to get you to take another look at breakfast, but if not, the medical evidence in favor of eating breakfast is pretty much overwhelming. In studies done since 2000 by places like Harvard, eating breakfast reduces risk of heart attack, diabetes, stroke, colon cancer, obesity, overall risk of death, and strengthens your immune system. In 2006, Harvard published a study about adults who lost weight and kept it off; 90% of those people made a habit of eating breakfast. At the University of Massachusetts, researchers found that people who skip breakfast are over four times more likely to be obese than those who eat breakfast. Other studies at Harvard found that heart attack risk in men and women was reduced by nearly 50% for the breakfast eaters; the risk of developing type 2 diabetes was reduced by almost 40%; and the risk of stroke was reduced by over 30%. The real indicator of the value of breakfast, though, lies in this finding: the risk of death, from any cause, was reduced by 17% for those who ate breakfast regularly.

Other studies tell us that breakfast eaters get a boost to their immune systems, and that their ability to concentrate improves. (We know that clean eating has many, many brain protective factors.) So, enough? Are you convinced?

So what can you do today to implement this practice? Well, one thing you will find is that it is actually easier to include breakfast as a clean eater. First, as a clean eater you are becoming a meal planner and prepper. So you have prepared to eat breakfast every day, and you have made sure that the foods you need to get a good start to your day are at hand in the fridge and the cupboard.

One expert describes a quick breakfast sandwich she makes for herself after coming back from the gym: take an Ezekiel muffin (flourless), and top it with scrambled eggs cooked in a healthy oil like coconut oil. Next, add a tomato slice and some greens, whatever is handy, and sprinkle with some grated cheese. You can speed things up by slicing a hardboiled egg that you have already prepped and substituting for the cooked eggs.

Protein, carb, veggies – perfect!

Other options? I like old-fashioned oatmeal (not instant—too much sugar). Even quick oats, very inexpensive, have much less sugar and other objectionable chemicals than instant. Then you can supplement the carbs in the oatmeal with micronutrients like cinnamon, and the fiber and oils of nuts (pecans are great, as are walnuts, broken up), and the flavinoids from fruits like blueberries and strawberries. To sweeten? A pinch of brown sugar or raw honey (even better). Add a splash of 1% milk will make the mixture a bit less gooey and a bit more palatable.

Alternatively, cooked quinoa (prepped and ready in the fridge) can be mixed mixed with apples, cinnamon, or some plain yogurt and nuts, just like the oatmeal.

For a quick, cold breakfast, make yourself a bowl of plain puffed grain cereal with milk and blueberries, or mix cottage cheese with grapes and almonds. Cereal is fine for clean eaters, so long as it is not full of sugar and is not overly processed or fortified.

Lots of people like to make a smoothie for breakfast and recipes abound. Try one with plain yogurt, flaxseed and your favorite fruits, like banana, berries, or mango

You can even have eggs quickly and easily, if you hard boil them during your regular food prep. With breakfast in mind, boiling up some eggs in advance is key. Eat one or two with carrot and celery sticks dipped in hummus. Hard boiled eggs can also be sliced for your breakfast sandwich, and are easy to transport for inclusion in one of your smaller meals later in the morning or afternoon.

So, the benefits are well-known, and the nutritional value of your clean eating options are easy to measure. Just remember that, if you are often rushed in the morning and may not have time to cook or even blend up a smoothie, you can get your carbs, good fats, and protein in a lot of quick and easy ways. No excuses anymore for reaching for that doughnut!

Oh, yeah, skip the cortisol in the coffee and have a bracing cup of black tea that you steep for five minutes. Need more punch on the palate? Try a flavorful Masala chai, or a strong Earl Grey. And if you are like me, your stomach will thank you as the tea does not leave an acidic feel in my gut.

Yep, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And a step you can take today is as simple as eating one.

#14 Sidestep sugar

But there are a few snakes in this garden of clean eating, and the biggest one, and the one that you can stay away from right now, is sugar. As you may know from your reading about the clean eating lifestyle, sugar taxes the very systems in your body that generate a strong, elastic vascular system and a properly functioning cognitive system. In short, your heart and your brain.

The literature on the unhealthful effects of sugar consumption is wide and deep, and the effects of sugar on the human body are often the subject of a story on the evening news. Sugar in our foods and drinks, especially as high-fructose corn syrup, has actually been called “toxic” by experts in the field. One issue is that these sugars are not “nutrient-dense”; in fact, they truly do represent “empty calories.” And when they are consumed, especially in sweetened drinks, they tax the functioning of the liver and can lead to really bad health outcomes, like type 2 diabetes. The consumption of sugar has also been implicated in disabling the feedback loop the body uses to let the brain know that it is time to stop eating. Ultimately, the craving for more of these sweet calories never triggers the urge to stop.

In 2014, the World Health Organization came out with a recommendation that “free” sugars (those added by a manufacturer or consumer to a food) should be held to 10% or less of daily energy intake. However, this recommendation does not address the fact that carbs break down into sugars when digested. So the reported sugars on a food label actually understate the total sugar impact on the body of foods high in carbs. The math gets a little complicated, for my brain at least, but suffice to say that “free” or added sugars should be counted and watched, while total carb intake must be considered as sugar intake in part. Too many carbs and too much free sugar elevate blood sugar levels, can increase insulin resistance, and ultimately lead to pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes, where the body can no longer effectively use all the sugar in the bloodstream and that begins to cause problems.

So, if you want to eat cleaner right now, steer clear of sugary drinks and snacks, and substitute other, healthier ingredients for sugar in your coffee or, even better, your tea. Raw honey and agave syrup are a good place to start.

#15 Purchase a mandoline (and a couple other tools)

Now that you are getting the gist of clean eating, you may begin to think about surrounding yourself with some new tools to go along with your new attitudes toward eating. One thing that you can do today to take a step in that direction is to pick up some storage containers that will hold some of the foods that you will be prepping. To me, it was the most obvious and the easiest step to take, since chopped veggies and fruits, prepped protein portions like chicken, cooked quinoa or rice all go in the fridge for later consumption. Having a set of storage containers that can stack comfortably in your fridge really makes it easy to grab portions of what you need for your mini-meals each day.

Next, think about tools to help you with your fresh food wrangling. There are some great vegetable scrubbers and strainers (including a square one!) you might want to look into. The best produce you will find comes straight from the field, dirt included. So set yourself up to scrub and rinse the food quickly and easily.

Then, maybe you want to look into the tools for slicing and dicing all the produce, alongside the other protein sources and carbs. There is a cool set of color-coded paring knives that help you avoid using the same knife on the turnip that you used on the chicken, thus avoiding cross contamination. You will want a zester for grating flavorful rinds onto salads and other foods, and at some point you will probably look into a mandoline for the thin slicing of veggies you will be doing. You may also want to look at dishwasher-safe cutting boards, so that once you are done with food prep, you can toss them in to be washed. Again, an important item to avoid cross contamination.

You may already have a blender, but if not you will be without a clean eating staple, the smoothie, until you get one. There are also sets of blenders, like the “bullet” blenders, that are easy to use and to clean up. An old fashioned hand chopper works great as well, and an immersion blender, hand held, makes it even easier to do your mixing without creating a lot of clean up for yourself.

To get started, kitchen scissors are very handy for snipping bits of herbs into and onto your food, and a food scale helps with portioning. Some folks recommend getting smaller plates, so that your smaller portions fill them more completely, and smaller cups for the sweet at the end of the meal. I’ve even seen portion control strainer baskets for your pasta. Who knew?

Just remember, for all the new food prep tasks that clean eating entails, there’s a tool for that! As we said about food prep, if you make it fun and convenient, you will likely do more of it, all to the benefit of your new clean eating lifestyle.

#16 Keep the water bottle handy

Recommendations vary, but drink more water. Starting today. Common sense dictates this move, no matter what else you are doing about your eating, as over 50% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. That means that the body has to work harder to rid itself of the wastes and toxins it takes in when you eat, and that the body generates itself in the course of normal functioning. If the kidneys don’t have enough water to flush these chemicals from your body, they call on the liver to help, which results in the reduced liver function allowing more sugar to be stored as fat while the organ is busy helping the kidneys. Not good.

Plus, when you are fully hydrated, you just feel better. Hydration fights constipation, supports proper blood viscosity (which in turn lowers the burden on your heart), and it keeps you feeling fuller and less hungry all the time. Many is the time that I have cruised into the kitchen looking for a snack and thought, well, start with a glass of spring water. After the drink, maybe 8 ounces, I go back to work and forget about the snack. That is the kind of virtuous cycle you are trying to promote in your body.

It goes without saying that drinking lots of pure, clean water beats drinking sugary drinks hands down. This is a good place to recognize that diet drinks, with no calories, are so full of chemicals that the lack of calories is misleading to a clean eater. Unadulterated water is best.

But what can you do to put a bit of flavor in the water, for a change of pace? For one, you can infuse it with delicious herbal teas to store in the fridge. My afternoon routine involves tall glasses of teas with a “zen”-like quality; mint, chamomile, rose petal, lemongrass—the list goes on and on.

Another thing you can do is to experiment with that zester you bought to scrape some lemon rind into the water; others find cucumber rind refreshing as well. There are lots of micronutrients in the skins of those fruits and vegetables, and you can spice up your drinks with these healthful ingredients.

How much to drink? Well, experts used to recommend 8 glasses of water per day, but that is on the lower end of current recommendation. Depending on how much you exercise, two-and-a-half liters (11 cups) of water is recommended for women, and up to three-and-a-half liters or more (15 cups) for men. Water bottles that you pick up for immediate consumption will contain between 500 and 1000 milliliters (two to three cups)—again, take a peek at the label. Also remember, your tea drinking also counts into your total. Spread out across a sixteen hour day, that’s about a cup an hour for men, and a cup every 90 minutes for women. I just keep an eight ounce cup next to my spring water cooler and drink a cup on the hour if I think of it.

So, water helps you burn fat, excrete toxins, diminish hungry feelings, and feel energetic. Keep that water bottle handy!

#17 Start looking at food labels

A knowledgeable glance at the labels on the food that you buy will nudge you in the direction of clean eating practices. Some people say don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients. Others say don’t eat anything that has ingredients you can’t pronounce. These are great rules of thumb for the beginning clean eater who is becoming acquainted with the basics of what he or she is putting into the body.

At the next level, I suggest that you start focusing on three areas of the food label. One area that I will not have you focus on, though, is calories. That’s what I always used to look for, the calories per serving. We don’t count calories as clean eaters because experience and science tells us that the contents of the food are more important. If you focus on the top of the label, you will be missing the more important information that lies below.

So, what are the areas to focus on? For one, watch out for added sugars in the food you buy. To do so, just look for the value of “sugars” on the label. Since sugar, a carbohydrate, is what your body makes from the other carbs in the foodstuff, the listing on the label for sugar points to the amount of actual sugar that the manufacturer added to produce the food. So, when there is a high sugar content on the label, you are looking at a foodstuff that has been at least minimally processed.

Even a cup of nonfat milk has 13g of sugar (listed under “total carbohydrates”); that is the naturally occurring sugar lactose. Fruit tastes sweet because it has the naturally occurring sugar fructose inside. So, when looking at dairy products and fruit products, remember that the sugar content is most likely naturally occurring sugar.

Foods with added sugar often have these items in the ingredient list:  brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, molasses, raw sugar, sucrose, syrup and table sugar.

You can also compare similar foods in different preparations to determine the amount of added sugar. Look at the sugar content of a can of pears in juice versus a can of pears in syrup. You can also check “zero calorie” versions of a foodstuff with its regular equivalent.

This need to infer the amount of added sugar will become a practice of the past, though, when the new FDA food labels launch in about a year. One of the changes will be the inclusion of a line on the label for “added sugars,” so that you will be able to see easily how much sugar was added during processing.

Second, you want to discover the overall carbohydrate composition of the food you are purchasing. There are two kinds of carbs, simple and complex. What makes complex carbs the better choice is that they are nutrient rich, and take longer to break down in the body to sugar so that your bloodstream is not flooded by a blast of sugar that it may or may not be able to handle. Refined sugars are simple carbs, devoid of nutrients and so are dubbed “empty calories.” Refined grains are simple as well. However, the “whole grain” is nutrient rich and high in fiber, making it much more complex and healthful.

You can find complex carbohydrates in many foods, including green vegetables, whole grains and foods made from them, such as oatmeal, pasta, and whole-grain breads, as well as vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, and pumpkin.

Looking for foodstuffs that list “100% whole grain” on their labels is heading you in the right direction. The word “whole” here means that it includes every part of the grain, including all the elements that get processed out of highly refined, bleached flours, for example. One of these key items is fiber. Foods rich in carbs that are also rich in fiber are complex carbs. Look for roughly five grams of fiber per serving in a “high fiber” foodstuff; 2.5 to 5 grams indicate a good source of fiber.

Examples of fiber-rich grains include brown rice, buckwheat, bulgur, millet, whole-grain barley, oatmeal, quinoa, whole wheat and rolled oats.

Of course, you are always looking for protein content as well. Protein is one of the three macronutrients that fit into every clean eating meal. You are very likely getting the 40 to 60 grams of protein that are recommended for adults in the lean meats, nuts, greens, grains, dairy products, and complex carbs you are assembling for every mini-meal. Complex, natural foods high in protein are generally good ones to look for when shopping.

Another final check you may want to make is for added sodium or salt. Of course this item is used in many foods to enhance taste, but this is another signal of a processed food as well. A good rule of thumb is to look for foods with 5% or less of the Daily Value for sodium. Many highly processed foods can have insanely high values for sodium; a frozen dinner I just looked at has about 1000mg of sodium, or 43% of the DV. Ouch!

So, bottom line, looking for certain values on the food label can tell you a lot about the foodstuff you are buying. The line item listing with weights and percents of DV can be readily clarified by a glance at the ingredient list. As we have noted, many people want to find foods with an ingredient as short as possible, maybe as few as five ingredients, and they want to be able to pronounce all the words. The ingredients are listed in descending order of weight, so those at the top of the list have the biggest presence in the food. Finding a reference to whole wheat halfway down the list is not a good sign, even if the label calls the foodstuff a “whole wheat” version of the item.

Just a little more attention to that label is a step you can take today, right now, toward becoming a clean eater!

Glossary of Terms
beta-carotene

Beta-carotene is a cartenoid with a bright orange yellow color typically found in carrots. Among other things, beta-carotene helps with vision, which is why children for generations were told to eat their carrots to promote good vision.

cartenoids

Cartenoids are plant pigments that lend a rich deep color to many foods recommended for clean eaters. Some cartenoids are used by the body to create vitamin A, and they function as antioxidants, helping to eliminate the oxygen free radicals in the body that contribute to inflammation, cell degeneration and aging. They also boost your immune system.

choline

Choline is a chemical that is related to the b vitamin group and is often grouped with them. Like the omega fats, choline cannot be synthesized by the body, so it must be added through diet. Recent research emphasizes its importance for brain development, although it also protects the liver and supports cell membrane develpment. Eggs, ground beef and peanut butter are good sources of choline.

cortisol

Cortisol is sometimes called "the stress hormone," as it is secreted by the andrenal gland in response to fear or stress, elevating blood sugar to power a "fight or flight" response to threats. Elevated levels of cortisol have been shown to  interfere with learning and memory, reduce immune function and bone density, and increase weight gain as well as blood pressure.

flavinoids

Present in nearly every plant, flavinoids are a pigment that serves a wide array of functions. They contribute to the rich colors that clean eaters look for in the vegetable aisle of the supermarket. Flavinoids have a strong antioxidant effect in the body, reducing inflammation and contributing to cell health.

folate

Folate, or folic acid, is a B vitamin that helps the body regenerate genetic materials like RNA and DNA, and so helps the body build cells. Folate deficiency has negative consequences, especially for pregnant women. Good sources include beans, spinach, and broccoli.

free radical

Free radicals is a term often used to describe cells damaged in the process of the body metabolizing ozygen. These damamged cells cause a slew of problems in large numbers but are neutralized through the "antioxidant" action of certain foodstuffs. Many of the foods described in this book have antioxidant properties.

GMO

GMO stands for "genetically modified organism," a living thing that has been changed through the engineering of its genetic code. Clean eaters generally avoid GMOs in their food since the health impact of these foodstuffs is not clearly understood.

high fructose corn syrup

HFCS is a corn syrup that has been processed to convert some of its glucose into fructose to produce a desired sweetness. The lower cost of HFCS has made it the most popular sweetener in processed foods and beverages. Concerns about HFCS suggest that it is a major contributor to obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and liver disease. Some experts believe that HFCS is more harmful to humans than regular sugar, contributing to weight gain by affecting normal appetite functions.

homocysteine

Homocysteine is an amino acid that is one of the building blocks of protein. It often appears in the blood after eating red meat, and is implicated in the development of heart disease.

hydration

Hydration is the process of providing the body with the water that it needs to function properly. A state of dehydration, or lack of enough water, has many negative health effects.

macronutrient

Macronutrients are the nutrients that people consume in the largest quantity. Three classes of macronutrients are protein, fat, and carbohydrates.

micronutrient

Micronutrients are nutrients that are required by the body for proper functioning, but in smaller and sometimes even trace amounts. These include vitamins, dietary minerals, essential fatty acids, and essential amino acids.

omega-3

Sometimes called "fish oil," omega 3 is a fatty acid that the body cannot make for itself, so it is important to add some to your diet. Fatty fish like salmon, trout, and tuna are good sources. Other foods like walnuts and olive oil also provide omega 3 fatty acids for your body.

omega-6

So important to good metabolic health that it was originally classified as a vitamin, like its fellow omega 3, omega 6 cannot be synthesized by the body and must be added through diet. Some good sources are fish and shellfish, flaxseed (linseed), soya oil, canola (rapeseed) oil, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, leafy vegetables, and walnuts.

polyphenols

Polyphenols are a class of organic chemicals that are present in fruits and vegetables, green tea, black tea, red wine, coffee, chocolate, olives, and extra virgin olive oil. Herbs and spices, nuts and algae are also potentially significant sources of polyphenols. These chemicals have strong antioxidant properties, and protect against development of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

About the Author

Willi Ernst is a writer, blogger, educator, and publisher who has been eating for most of his life. As an adult-onset diabetic, he ate many of the wrong things for a very long time and so developed an interest in food that could help him keep his weight down and satisfy his appetite. A broad spectrum of foods fit the bill, although he had not built his diet around them until later in life. The outcome of that experience is reflected in this book. Willi lives with his wife and their cat Tarabella in Maryland.

Further Resources

Please check out additional resources for clean eating at Will's website for the book:

Clean Eating in a Junk Food World

Thank you!