How To "Eat Clean"

The clean eating phenomenon is everywhere at the moment.  It is the real buzz word about town, but what does it actually mean? 

To put it as simple as possible, eating clean is about eating natural, unprocessed, unrefined food.   It is eating food that doesn't have any unnatural additives.  It is eating fresh food that is made of real ingredients.  If something has been processed, reformed, zapped, reshaped, chemically altered or refined in some sort of way...... then it's not clean.

Clean eating would be making your pasta sauce fresh from passata, herbs, garlic, peppers and onions, rather than buying a pre-made jar which will contain all sorts of non-clean ingredients (e.g. refined sugar, additives, preservatives).

So why is it good idea to jump on this clean eating bandwagon?  Well not only to clean eating meals generally taste better and fresher, there are numerous health benefits to it. It is beneficial for sleep, energy, skin, digestive system, weight loss and much more. News.health outline some of these health benefits further.

So how do I go about it?  Well in my experience the best thing to do it get in that kitchen and get cooking with real ingredients.  Sometimes it means things take a bit longer, but it's worth it!  Use the internet - the amount of clean eating blogs and websites is infinite!  All the recipes here at the Flexitarian Pledge are clean eating.  So you will never be short of inspiration.  Pintrest is another great source of recipes to try.

Make clean sauces or meals in bulk and freeze them in portions.  Then you can take out a portion in the morning and it will be defrosted and ready for reheating by dinner.  This then makes clean eating just as quick as non-clean alternatives.  So there are no excuses!

For more top tips on how to clean eat, the following links outline their top 10 rules for clean eating and are well worth a quick read.

10 Rules for Clean Eating

10 Ways to Eat Clean

If you have any clean eating recipes you would like to share with us, please Facebook us :)