At this time of year there are many people who are looking for a change in their eating with the ultimate goal of benefiting health and among the strategies used to achieve clean eating or clean eating occupies one of the first positions. We tell you everything you need to know about this type of diet that sets trends.

What it is to eat clean or clean eating

Although we might think that it refers to food hygiene, clean eating is more related to the cleanliness of our table, since it aims to approach a way of feeding as natural as possible .

That is, it is based on the intake of real food , of food in its simplest form, as nature offers them or with the least possible degree of manipulation .

Put another way, is a type of food that seeks to move away from the harmful industry that has been incorporated into our diet, eliminating processed and ultraprocessed, refined, food originated through a non-organic or organic agriculture, among others .

Although it seems simple, eating clean is not at all if we think how installed in our habits is food intake with a minimum degree of processing. For example, think of pasta, canned, frozen and much more that abounds in current food and is a product of the food industry, away from food in its natural form.

Five tips that help us eat clean

To eat clean, there are several changes that we could implement in our diet. And although we can not achieve a totally natural diet, we will approach the essence of clean eating for the benefit of our health .

Some tips that will help us are:

Avoid products

If we seek to eat clean, we will achieve a great breakthrough by eliminating all kinds of products from the diet , that is, all food or preparation with a label that has passed through the industry.

The processed and ultraprocesados having a nutritional quality inferior to the fresh food we can get at a market in our own garden or a friend, so this step can be helpful to point us to clean eating and protect health eating healthier .

Choose whole grains

The refined cereals and their derivatives present in many of the most frequent foods in the current diet are products of the food industry. They are in their simplest form such as white wheat flour, a processed food.

If we want to eat clean a simple step we can take is to choose whole grains that unlike refined ones are in their original form, conserving the good nutrients present in the bran and the germ that usually loses the refined grain.

Of course, we will try to avoid the refined flours in the diet and everything that contains it and in its replacement, choose whole grains

Increase the intake of fruits and vegetables

The fresh fruits and vegetables are foods in their natural form, without any processing, therefore, are basic in clean power.

Guaranteeing a minimum of five daily servings of fruits and vegetables will be the key to eating clean and we will always try to take care of the cooking methods by reserving at least one serving of fruit and one serving of vegetables in their fresh (uncooked) form every day.

And if we can consume your skin, much better.

Reduce sugar and sodium

The sugar added to food is one of the main enemies at present that derives among other things, from processed foods not only sweets such as ice creams, trinkets or buns but also savory such as sauces , cold meats and others.

Like sugar , an excess of sodium is detrimental to health and today we spend with its consumption mainly due to processed and ultra- processed foods .

Therefore, reducing sugar and sodium implies looking at the labels (if we choose products) and opting for the option that has the least amount of these two nutrients that we can obtain naturally, therefore, it is not necessary to add them or add them to our dishes.

The sodium and sugar present in natural foods is not the problem, but the one that is added industrially to different products.

Consider the environment

To eat clean or as natural as possible we should return to thousands of years ago, when no fertilizers were used, no insecticides or other chemicals were used for agricultural production.

Thus, the clean eating is aimed at a diet based on organic or ecological food whenever possible , as well as recommended to reduce the intake of meat because it is the livestock that produces more gas emissions compared to the production of plant foods.

On the other hand, it would be ideal not only to moderate the consumption of meat but also to choose seasonal and locally produced food to reduce the carbon footprint with its consumption.