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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : February 19, 2019 3:46 PM IST
You should include fruits and veggies in your diet. © Shutterstock
Over the years, we have seen various diets take centre stage, reinventing the palate and grocery lists of a conscious few. Off late, the clean eating method has taken up most of the social media feeds with a lustrous list of meal plans and recipes. Before stepping into the food storm, it is important to understand the basic principles of this particular choice of eating. It is all about eating best and healthiest options and eating less of the not-so-healthy ones. You will have to embrace vegetables, fruits and whole grains along with healthy proteins and fats and eliminating refined grains, additives, preservatives, unhealthy fats, added sugar and salt. Experts Dr Swati Bhushan, Chief Clinical Nutritionist, Hiranandani Hospital, Navi Mumbai, and Jaee Khamkar, Dietician, Fortis Hospital, Kalyan, decode it for you.
What is Clean Eating?
"Clean Eating focuses on consuming real and natural foods, free from preservation and processing technologies. Essentially, clean eating emphasizes on removing food toxins from your diet which include refined carbohydrates like maida and its products, junk and fried foods containing unhealthy trans-fats, which can cause tissue damage. Most of the food in a clean food diet is fresh," says Dr Bhushan.
Characteristics of clean food generally include food that it is home cooked, basic, made with whole ingredients, and with minimal processing.
"Many clean foods are Gluten-free and healthy," explains Khamkar.
At home, you can use healthier cooking methods and substitutions for unhealthy ingredients when making your own meals. "For example, when most restaurants would use butter or oils with trans-fats, you can cook at home with non-fat cooking spray or healthy cold pressed oils," says Khamkar.
"You can make your food very healthy with the choice of your ingredients," highlights Dr Bhushan.
It also permits you to customize the portion size as necessary, reducing your urge to indulge on oversized restaurant portions, regardless of the dish's nutritional value.
Benefits of Eating Clean:
Eating clean helps you maintain blood pressure and cut down your risk of cancer, heart diseases and diabetes. Hence, you will be able to enhance your wellbeing, if you opt for it.
"It keeps our weight under check and prevents obesity," highlights Khamkar.
"The antioxidants content present in it can help you flush out toxins from your body and lower your liver fat. After which, your body will be more capable of regulating your cholesterol levels," says Dr Bhushan.
Importantly, it boosts our immunity levels which help fight various kinds of infections.
"Clean eating simply means eating healthy which should be opted by everyone, as it provides valuable nutrients including plenty of dietary fibre and antioxidants which prevents us from the danger of disease-causing chemicals. Thus, going natural is the best way to prevent chronic diseases and achieve a higher state of well-being," concludes Dr Bhushan.
The take-home message: It is best to consult your expert about how to go about clean eating. This will help you understand it better.
