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

FAQs

What should I eat when eating clean? ›

The eating-clean lifestyle has some good points. It's a balanced diet that focuses on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and protein. It also encourages you to control portion sizes. And it doesn't ban any food groups.

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.

The Bottom Line. Eating clean is really about choosing healthy, whole foods that have no added sugars or artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.

Peanut butter is rich in a variety of nutrients. But commercial peanut butter brands often have added sugars, oils, and fats. For the best health benefits from peanut butter, look for all-natural products without these added ingredients.

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.

If you love pasta, there's no reason to cut it out from your diet, the experts say. It can be a great way to pack in vegetables, healthy fats from nuts, olive oil and pasta sauces, Linsenmeyer says. "It's fine to include in a regular diet as often as every day. It really is."

Likewise, many whole grains qualify for a clean eating food list even though they may be somewhat processed. For example, whole rolled oats are a clean food, but the very outer coating of the oat, as you'd find with oat groats, has been removed.

Are eggs clean eating? ›

Are Eggs Included In Clean-Eating? Absolutely! Real, whole eggs in a carton are always clean. They came from nature as they are.

Worst: Carnivore Diet

“You are eating only one food group, and restricting so many foods is detrimental for health. I can't emphasize enough that variety is needed for optimal health,” she says.

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.

Start small – pick one meal a day to be 100% clean. Eat more vegetables and fruits (try to have a vegetable with every meal). Swap one thing at a time – for example, instead of grabbing for a bag of chips, grab a handful of raw nuts or an apple and peanut butter.

If you're looking to adopt a healthy lifestyle and lose weight, clean eating can be a good place to start. It can give you some helpful ground rules for choosing healthy ingredients and making better food choices.