There is more than one clean eating nutrition system. In fact, there are quite a few nutritional theories or eating patterns that are variations on clean eating. Some, like Whole 30, are more restrictive than others, but all focus on eating natural foods for good health.
Learning about clean eating based eating patterns is a great way to spice up your meals with new recipes and flavors. Clean eating may seem intimidating, but there are some simple ways to get started.
How to Eat Whole 30
Whole 30 is a system of eating that removes alcohol, sugar, grains, legumes, dairy and additives from your diet for 30 days. Whole 30 is talked about as a total lifestyle change, however many find it difficult to be so restrictive with eating for longer than 30 days. The Whole 30 way of eating is said to provide a variety of health and emotional benefits.
Whole 30 was developed in 2009 by two certified sports nutritionists and promoted as a way to reset the metabolism and develop a new relationship with food. To get up to speed, a great book to read is It Starts With Food.
The Whole 30 diet focuses on the idea that certain food groups may negatively affect your health and wellness, and eliminating those food groups gives you a chance to identify food intolerances.
The Paleo Diet
Some have described the Paleo eating pattern as the caveman diet because it resembles what our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate thousands of years ago.
Of course, it’s impossible to know exactly what our human ancestors ate in different parts of the world, but it’s believed that their diets mainly consisted of whole foods that they found in nature.
You can imagine that following a whole food diet and being physically active, our ancestors most likely had much lower rates of lifestyle diseases. The basic paleo foods to eat are meat, fish, eggs, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, healthy fats and oils.
When you follow the paleo eating method, you will avoid processed foods, sugar, soft drinks, grains, a lot of dairy, legumes, artificial sweeteners, vegetable oils, margarine and trans fats. Like clean eating, paleo means eating foods in their most natural state.
The Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet eating pattern focuses on eating foods that people used to eat in countries like Italy and Greece back in 1960 – including pasta!
Researchers noted that these people were exceptionally healthy compared to Americans and also had a low risk of many lifestyle diseases. Studies have even shown that following the Mediterranean diet can lead to weight loss and may help with preventing some lifestyle diseases.
A nice thing about the Mediterranean diet, is there is no one right way to follow it, which makes it easier to make into a lifestyle. Think of the Mediterranean diet as general guidelines for eating, not a restrictive system that you have to follow without any variations. The plan can be adjusted to your individual needs and preferences and includes foods from different areas around the Mediterranean. I love the 30 minute Mediterranean diet recipes in this cookbook.
Plan to eat vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, potatoes, whole grains, breads, herbs, spices, fish, seafood and extra virgin olive oil and drink water as your main beverage. Following the Mediterranean diet means to eat less poultry, eggs, cheese and yogurt and not much red meat.
