Clean Eating Grocery List

Say a person (such as myself) wanted to start eating *clean.* What items would be on my grocery list? I know fruits, vegetables, Rolled Oats, natural Almonds...but is whole wheat bread allowed? Or is it just grains such as the oats I mentioned? If you are a clean eater could you please give me examples of what is on your grocery list every week? Is it more expensive then the way you use to shop? What results did you start feeling/seeing once you started eating this way? Thanks!

i use splenda in my tea.. would love to learn more. is stevia better?

Stevia is a sweetener extracted from a simple plant.  It's natural, it's 200 times sweeter than sugar and has no calories.  Do a Google search on "Stevia vs. Sugar" and see what pops up.  I've used it for years, in the pure powdered extract form and each small bottle has 900 servings, replacing 13,500 calories of sugar...

Holy crap - this forum has been SO informitive and helpful. I knew a lot of the hints for how to eat already since I had read "In Defense of Food". The book was really my launching point for eating "clean" - which I didn't even know was a pretty accepted method of eating. I thought I knew how to make healthy eating decisions for a long time - but I was wrong. Since the book, I just needed to know some hints recommended brands to buy, recipies, ect. Boy, this was REALLY helpful! I've even subscribed to Clean Eating Magazine now! LOL!

Thanks a lot guys!

Can someone please tell me if potion control is a factor with thinks such as salmon and chicken breast, fruits and veggies? also is pro- biotic yogurt off the list? and what cereal can i eat? I love my weetabix.. are they ok?

My grocery list is about 75% fruits and vegetables, whatever is in season and locally sourced. The I add in a whole bunch of nuts and nut butters, a few grains (quinoa, brown rice and oats), whole wheat flour to bake bread and tortillas, nondairy milk for my coffee (almond usually), dried lentils and beans in several varieties, and COFFEE AND CHOCOLATE.

Original Post by gi-jane:

 When food is nothing more to you than a combination of 'nutrition' and 'calories' then that's the time to give up on life.   Seriously.  The whole point of 'clean eating' is getting back to the simple enjoyment of good, basic, tradiitonal food that hasn't been spiked with dodgy ingredients. 

 Amen

Original Post by johnnypenso:

 

You sound like most of my friends who say they can't eat healthy because they want to enjoy their food, as if somehow by eating unprocessed foods all of a sudden nothing will taste good.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I believe their pallettes are dulled by a steady lifetime diet of processed foods full of sugar and salt and blandness in the food without it.    

This is so very true.  Yet you sound like an extremist.  I think most people's perception of clean eating is eating fresh, whole food that has not been processed or has been minimally processed.  And it's freaking fantastic that more and more people are choosing to eat this considering the obesity epidemic we have going on here in the US.  I think you're being rather nit-picky about the pasta thing.  Whole wheat, flaxseed pasta is nutritious even if it is processed, but at least it doesn't contain any added sugar, sodium or  hydrogenated fat which gives it a seal of approval in my book.  As for cheese, meh, I'm in the "saturated fat doesn't cause heart disease" camp.  Although I do watch how much I eat due to it's high sodium content.  If you're idea of eating clean is eating nuts and berries, more power to you.  But for the rest of us that "eat clean" and have diets that are much healthier than 85% of average Americans, I think we're doing great too.

Original Post by avlucky:

Can someone please tell me if potion control is a factor with thinks such as salmon and chicken breast, fruits and veggies? also is pro- biotic yogurt off the list? and what cereal can i eat? I love my weetabix.. are they ok?

 

for your first question - yes.  portion control is important no matter what you're eating.  you can eat too much of anything. 

as for what foods you can and cannot eat - that up to each person to decide.  i personally am near gi jane's area of the clean-eating spectrum.  i eat the most straight-forward unadulterated foods i can while keeping in mind that i live in the modern world with a modern schedule.  would i like to make pasta by grinding the grain that i grew in my garden and mixing it with the eggs i took from the chickens i raise?  sure.  but i work 9 hours a day in an office that i spend an hour commuting to and my house isn't zoned for chickens and there always seems to be 4 loads of laundry that need to be done.  so i buy pasta at the store that's made from the fewest, wholest ingredients possible. 

i guess my basic food philosophy boils down to this: i don't expect anyone to eat the same diet our hunter-gatherer ancestors had available to them on the wild plains of africa but i'm also leery of ingredients i can't pronounce or that don't exist in nature.  my body is awesome and deserves real, delicious, nutritious food.  but i do live on the 21st century and i'm gonna have ramen once in a while, dammit!

to address you specific examples - i pass on the pro-biotic stuff.  it just seems a little too faddish.  i eat regular yogurt to get my RDA of yummy bacterias.  i am also prone to indulging from time to time so you'll have to pry my saturday morning bowl of cinnamon toast crunch from my cold dead hands.  i say enjoy you wheetabix.

Splenda is very bad from you. I use Stevia raw its great!