Fewer and fewer people like foods with additives. Their credo is a natural diet: Clean Eating. Our author has her own experiences.
The other day, I was sitting in a café with a sports friend after a workout, heartily biting into a panini bread with Parma ham, remoulade and arugula, and she looked at me with pity. "That's not clean," she said, sipping a glass of freshly squeezed OJ. Honestly, I didn't understand a thing. I was too embarrassed to ask, so I inconspicuously Googled the term on my smartphone. With nine million hits and posts on all kinds of social channels, it quickly became clear to me: clean eating is currently the hottest trend in the nutrition sector.
Except: what does it mean, "clean eating"? "Clean eating is about eating natural, whole, and unprocessed foods and avoiding highly processed and industrially produced foods," explains health scientist Hannah Ritter
who has been eating clean herself for three years. "Clean eating is not a diet, but rather a long-term change in eating habits and lifestyle."
In very concrete terms, it means: White flour products such as light pasta and toast, convenience foods, sugar, sweets and alcohol are eliminated from the menu, and instead there are lots of vegetables and fruits, healthy fats and protein products. It also means cooking a lot yourself, because only when you cook yourself do you know what's really in it. And it means shopping more consciously, regionally and seasonally from sustainable producers, and looking at the ingredient lists in the supermarket before putting a product in the shopping cart. Foods with more than five ingredients are usually not clean, so better to leave them out. Unknown ingredients are also taboo, these are usually the "unclean" or not uncontroversial additives such as flavor enhancers, colorings and preservatives. As a rule of thumb, anything shrink-wrapped or packaged in plastic is better left in the store.
Sure, it's more time-consuming than stopping at a snack bar for lunch or popping a pizza in the oven in the evening. And the food usually costs more if you buy high-quality products. For Hannah Ritter, the effort is still worth it: "Not only have I lost a few excess kilos, but above all I feel healthier, more energetic and fitter than before," she says. "What I like about Clean Eating is that it tastes good and is not so dogmatic. In the end, everyone decides for themselves how strictly they stick to it."
Her motto: We give the body what it needs - food with as many nutrients as possible. "The calorie in a donut doesn't have the same content as the calorie in an apple," Reno says. "It's the nutrient density that matters. When you eat clean, you're trying to give your body the best fuel: Food that keeps you healthy and fit."
It all sounds kind of familiar. In principle, clean eating isn't much different than what our grandparents did - fresh vegetables from the garden, cooked fresh. And it's reminiscent of the good old whole foods. The upside to all of these eating styles: They are healthy, you don't have to count calories, you can eat your fill and enjoy. However, some foods have to be substituted in Clean Eating, for example, instead of wheat bread you take wholemeal bread, instead of sugar honey or agave syrup and instead of durum wheat noodles maybe noodles made from zucchini or lentils. And meat is best from animals that have been on pasture, grass-fed, and not given hormones and antibiotics.
Since I've been following many of these rules for quite some time, I guess I'm clean too (though without knowing it until now). Well, except for the occasional panino, piece of chocolate or glass of wine. The trick, I think, is to eat as healthily as possible every day. And if you feel like it, to go overboard sometimes.
The meals
Breakfast in the morning - every day! Basically, five to six small meals are better than three large ones because they keep blood sugar levels constant.
Use of salt
Use only a little table salt; crystal or sea salt are recommended.
Fruit and vegetables
Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, preferably fresh and from the region.
Combine
Always combine low-fat protein with complex carbohydrates (whole grains).