For those clean eaters out there

Can you recommend a free resource for clean eating?  Also, I'm sure you dont use artificial sweetner, but what do you use? 

I am not sure of a free resource for clean eating, but stevia is a great all natural sweetner! It has no calories, and it 100 times sweeter then sugar, I strongly suggest it:D

Original Post by cheetah_fur:

I am not sure of a free resource for clean eating, but stevia is a great all natural sweetner! It has no calories, and it 100 times sweeter then sugar, I strongly suggest it:D

 Yes, tried stevia and cant get over the taste.  I guess I could just use turbinado.

Free resource with info & recipes: http://www.eatcleandiet.com/

Oxygen magazine's web site also has a good nutrition & recipe section.

I use stevia in my coffee. For everything else, I use small amounts of honey, maple syrup or agave nectar (or raw sugar if nothing else is available)

If I need sweet, I usually use a little honey or maple syrup or even sugar because artificial sweeteners trigger headaches for me.  But, mostly, I find that avoiding processed foods reduces my desire for very sweet foods, and usually (especially in the summer) fruit is sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth (and it has other important nutrients that help keep me healthy).

A lot of processed food has hidden sugar added to it (even savory foods like frozen pizza).  Many times they use multiple types of sweeteners to keep it from being as high in the ingredient list.  Look for sugar, dried cane juice, dextrose (or anything that ends in -ose), high fructose corn syrup, and others I can't think of right now.  I think eating these foods (or food-like items) keeps people eating more food than they need, and craving more sweets than is healthy to eat, and I try to avoid them as much as possible.

Yeah, I don't eat very much sweets either.  Drink my tea with no sweetner, etc.  I was just wondering about sweetner in yogurt, etc.  I like greek yogurt with some berries and a little sweetner.  Also wondering about resources to find out if certain foods are "clean"; such as bread, crackers, yogurt, cereal etc.

Original Post by lsam31:

Yeah, I don't eat very much sweets either.  Drink my tea with no sweetner, etc.  I was just wondering about sweetner in yogurt, etc.  I like greek yogurt with some berries and a little sweetner.  Also wondering about resources to find out if certain foods are "clean"; such as bread, crackers, yogurt, cereal etc.

 Easy... the fewer ingredients, the better. If it has 20 ingredients (half of which you have no idea what they are), they're not the best choice.

All the sweeteners I mentioned above are good in yogurt, especially honey.

If you're going the 'clean' route then honey is very nice with greek yoghurt. 

The definition of 'clean' that I like comes from Michael Pollan's excellent book 'In Defense of Food'.  He suggests that if something contains more than five ingredients then it's probably a 'food-like substance' rather than 'real food'.  And he has a few other rules of thumb by which to judge as well.

So if the bread you're looking at contains more than five ingredients & if the names of those ingredients tail off into things you can neither recognise nor pronounce then it's probably not a great choice.  But if the breakfast cereal in front of you contains one ingredient  - 'oats' for example - then that's about as clean as it gets. 

Ultimately, the best way to get a clean diet is to roll up your sleeves and prepare and cook your own foods from fresh, natural ingredients. 

I'm a very clean eater... some say too much so... the sugar substitute I use is Stevia - I love this stuff! The two brands I really like: NuNaturals & Sweetleaf = google them to see what I am talking about... They're a bit expensive but a little goes a long way and your health is worth it!

To know for sure that you are buying/consuming clean foods... you should stick to the food found in the produce aisle, meat counter & fish counter... of course I could go off on a tangent about mercury laden & farm raised fish as well as grass fed vs. grain fed red meats... but if you want to know more about that you can e-mail me... But over all, the "cleanest" food is found on the perimeter of your grocery store... the only things you should maybe be going into the middle aisles for is for olive oil, mustard, whole grains allowed on the clean eating diet (I myself don't eat grains but as I said... too clean - ha ha)... bottled water and tea/coffee... So yea, stick to the outside - You're not missing anything by not venturing into the inner aisles!

I just googled clean eating and found two sites you might want a look at (I think they are blogs, but they could have some interesting ideas for you):

http://marialouisepeters.blogspot.com/

http://cleaneatingclub.com/

A fantastic book is Marion Nestle's "What to Eat." There is some information about the book and about food in general here:

http://www.foodpolitics.com/what-to-eat-an-ai sle-by-aisle-guide-to-savvy-food-choices-and- good-eating/

and here...

http://whattoeatbook.com/ While this site is no longer being updated there is still a heck of a lot of information on it about different food products and issues.

It's not strictly about eating clean, but that's essentially the author's philosophy. She advocates eating unprocessed, natural foods - you can't get cleaner than that. Throughout the book she goes through all the foods you can get at a regular supermarket, in easy to find sections. The book was great at helping me to educate myself about why artificial sweeteners, trans-fats, and other processed ingredients are worth avoiding - so now I know what a lot of those weird chemical ingredients are and what they do if I eat them. I would go so far as to say it should be essential reading - it really is that worthwhile!

This website is also not strictly about clean eating, but again I think for clean eaters it's a great resource... http://www.healthyfood.co.nz/. They have a tonne of healthy recipes that would easily qualify as "Clean", although to be honest I'm not such a fan of that word.

The Clean Eating magazine also has info on the clean eating lifestyle and some recipes.

http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/minisite/ce_ind ex.htm

And although someone else has already pointed it out, oxygen magazine is a great resource.

As for sweeteners - I prefer real sugar over pretend. You can use agave nectar (it has a lower gi so won't spike your blood sugar) but seeing as I add so little sugar to food anyway I just use raw sugar or honey. Eating natural food totally changes your tastebuds - I mostly crave fruit when I want something sweet.

I eat clean 80-90% of the time. I don't use artificial sweeteners. If I want something sweet, desert which I have twice a week I eat sugar. I believe it is much better than anything artificial.

http://cleaneatingclub.com/

http://www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/groups_ind ividual.asp?gid=14067

Thank you guys so much for all the info.  I have a lot to look through.  I want to eat mostly clean, but as for crackers or cereal I think I will still buy those but try to stick with Kashi or something that does not have ingredients I cannot pronounce.  I like the honey or raw sugar idea, considering I don't eat too much sweets anyway.  I want to make any treat for my family myself, so that I can control what they are putting into their body (my son loves donuts so I want to make them for him as an occasional treat). 

Just subscribed to Clean Eating Magazine!

I've been hooked on CE Magazine since the first issue!

Here's a cleaner donut recipes: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/04/fat-free -mini-donuts.html

If you can find the last issue of Vegetarian Times magazine, they had a full section on veg-friendly donuts, which are healthier because they aren't loaded with butter & eggs, though they're still fried in oil! But at least you can control the type & amount of oil!. View it here (pgs. 70-75): http://www.zinio.com/page/?issue=416092256&am p;pg=81&keyword=vegetarian%20times%20donu ts

I am a Veg Times subscriber, but dont remember these recipes.  What month was it August? I don't remember if I ever got that issue in the mail? Hmm...guess I should be on the look out for it.    Thanks for the links>

Original Post by lsam31:

I am a Veg Times subscriber, but dont remember these recipes.  What month was it August? I don't remember if I ever got that issue in the mail? Hmm...guess I should be on the look out for it.    Thanks for the links>

 I'm pretty sure it was Sept 09. It has a rice dish with chopsticks and a pink background on the front.

Original Post by syco33:

darn and i thought eating orowheat double fiber bread was a clean way of eating....so many ingredients.

Remember to consider what the ingredients are too.  A seven bean mix from the bulk bin, for example, will by definition have seven ingredients but it's still 'clean eating'.  Same with a fruit salad.  The pickles I bought from the local farmer's market have a few kinds of vegetables as well as the cucumber/vinegar/salt pickling mix.  I'd still call that 'clean'.