Looking to reduce whole body inflammation and eat clean but not sure where in the world to begin? Weve put together 50 eat clean lifestyle tips that help summarize our anti-inflammatory clean eating approach.
Our approach to clean eating and optimizing health is based on three simple concepts:
1.Maximize nutrition through the consumption of unrefined whole foods
2. Reduce inflammation by eating anti-inflammatory foods rich in antioxidants and phytonutrients
3. Eat a plant-rich diet
Over the years, we have taught numeroushealth and body makeover programsand we have seen absolutely incredible results among people with a wide variety of inflammatory conditions (arthritis, fibromyalgia, asthma, endometriosis, etc.) who adopt an anti-inflammatoryclean eating diet. We have also seen dramatic improvements in cholesterol profile, blood pressure, triglycerides, blood sugar levels and CRP levels in as little as 5-weeks. And without question the number one side benefit is always the same: hunger-free weight loss.
It is important to note that unlikethe premise of many popular dietfads (low-fat, low-carb, gluten-free, etc.),there is not just one singlespecial tip or secret to eating clean that will dramatically improve your health or enable you to lose weight for the long term; it is the combination of many different things and a whole lifestyle approach that gets results.
Everyone always wants the one single best tip or big secret for weight loss or for reducing inflammation. But you cant just eliminate wheat, sugar or fat or any other one singlefood/ ingredient for that matterand expect results.
50 Quick Eat Clean Lifestyle Tips:
1. Eat at least9 to 12 servings of fruits and vegetablesevery day. The number one biggest diet mistake most people make is not even coming close to eating enough fruits and vegetables. It might sound crazy to eat 9 to 12 servings of fruits and vegetables a day,but simple things like adding vegetable soup, a green smoothie, a cup of fruit with breakfast, a salad with dinner, etc. all add up.
2. Make sure your daily fruit and vegetable consumption includesone very large serving of greens every day (preferably 2 servings!)
3. Ditch dairy (this includes milk, cheese and yogurt) Note: Using a teeny amount of milk in your coffee or a smidgen of gourmet cheese as a condiment/ flavor enhancer is acceptable, but realize that dairy is not a health food in any form.
4. Eliminate all processed foods (including protein powders!) and eat foods in their most natural and unrefined state (choose corn instead of corn flakes,oranges instead of orange juice, potatoes instead of potato chips, etc.)
5. Consciously reduce your consumption of all oils (this includes olive oil!) Whole fats from plants are always the most nutritious choice
6. Try to get the majority of your dietary fat from whole foods (this means olives are a better choice than olive oil and corn on the cob is a far better choice than corn oil)
7.Reduce your consumption ofland animal foods(chicken, eggs, beef, etc.) and practice Meat Free Mondays
8.When you do eatanimal foods make sure you are choosing the absolute highest quality, which meansgoing beyond organicand making sure the animals were fed a healthy diet and raised in a healthy environment
9. Eat wild, fatty fish 2-3 times a week for omega-3 EPA /DHA and make sure to choose the cleanest fish. If you dont eat fish, take a pharmaceutical-grade EPA/ DHA supplement. (Note: ideally you would both eat fish and also take a supplement)
10.Eat a serving of beans and legumes every day
11. Exercise your full body (all major muscles) and keep your heart rate elevated for a minimum of 30 minutes, 3 days a week.
12. Dont eat more than 1 or 2 servings of any single grainincluding wheata day
13. Choose only unprocessed whole carbs (potatoes, corn, oatmeal, quinoa, all fruits, all vegetables, etc.)
14.Reduce your consumption of flour, even if its gluten free flour.
15. Trash any food with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils.There is no safe level of intake for these man-made fats.
16.Only eat whole food sources of omega-6 rich fat foods and eliminate omega-6 rich oils
17. Do yoga or regular stretching.
18. Make agreen smoothieevery day with green leafy vegetables, fruits and water
19.Cover your omega-3 bases: eat sea omega-3s and vegan land omega-3s
20. Prioritize your relationship with sleep (note: most people need at least 7 to 8 hours a night, but many people with autoimmune diseases find they need nine or more hours.
21. Put an end to toxic relationships.
22. Boost the flavor and nutrition of your food bycooking with herbsand spices.
23. Switch cows milk for plant based milk.
24. Toboost glutathione levels be sure to eat a serving of cruciferous vegetables everyday.
25. Rethink snacking and grazing: there is absolutely no proof that eating 5 and 6 mini meals is helpful for weight loss or general health.
26. Incorporate non-dairy vegan fermented foods into your diet (such as miso, raw sauerkraut, kimchi, Kombucha, tempeh, etc.)
27. Work superfoods into your diet such as acai, mulberries, hemp seeds, cacao, chia seeds, camu berries, flaxseeds, gogi berries, maca, maqui berries, and pomegranate (note:Navitas Naturalsis an excellent source for superfoods)
28. Learn to love vegetables!! We suggest going to the bookstore to browse the cookbook section and picking up 2 or 3 cookbooks that focus just on vegetables.Plenty(Chronicle Books) by Yotam Ottolengh is a great one to start with!
29. Drink at least 3 cups ofhigh quality real green teaeach day
30. DO NOT EAT IF YOU ARE NOT HUNGRY!!!
31. Learn to cook. Even if you just start by cleaning up your evening meals, eating one nutrient-dense and anti-inflammatory meal per day will go a long way to improving your overall health.
32. Make sure the oils you use to cook with are heat-stable; cold-pressed extravirgin olive oiland macadamia nut oil are good for medium heat and organic extra virgin coconut oils is good for higher heat (note: but remember, go light on the oil!)
33. Focus on enjoying your food and take the time to prepare delicious foods for yourself; it is amazing how your taste buds will change over time.
34. Take several deep breathing breaks throughout the day
35. Have 2 tablespoons of rawapple cider vinegara day (we like Braggs )
37. Eat 1 teaspoon ofturmerica day (you can add it to your green tea and believe it or not it tastes good!) Note: we have a number of turmeric-rich clean eating recipes on the blog.
38.Stretch every dayeven if only for 5 minutes first thing in the morning
39. Learn which foods containprebiotics and probioticsand make sure you eat those foods regularly
40. Take abroad-spectrum probiotic supplementdaily
41. Do not eat fried foods
42. No artificial sweeteners (FYI: our favorite sweetener is whole dates that we use a lot with our blender recipes, but if you dont have a high speed blender, you can use date sugar or coconut palm sugar, both of which are not refined and still have nutrients in tact)
43.Forget the Nutrition Facts labeland instead read the ingredients list of everything you buy: the ingredients dont lie
44. Take a broad-spectrum but gentle multi-vitamin/ multi-mineral supplement every day that contains vitamins D3 and K2 (note: avoid supplements containing iron, isolated and synthetic vitamin E in the form of dl-alpha-tocopherol, folic acid or high levels of copper)
45. Take a phytonutrient-rich whole food supplement each day (such as Green Vibrance, New Chapter Berry Green, Barleans Greens)
46. Get out of a whole wheat rut! Make an effort to rotate your grains and incorporate other whole grains such as millet, quinoa, barley, etc. One of our favorite all-purpose wheat-free flours that we have found we can replace with any recipe that calls for wheat is sprouted spelt flour (we like One Degree Organics brand).
47. Supplement your diet with 200 to 400 mg of GLA from evening primrose oil (we like Barleans brand)
48. No margarine
49. Incorporate exotic mushrooms (shitake, oyster, maitake, etc.) into your weekly meals.
50. Take fun seriously (If you never make time for fun and never enjoy yourself then what is the point of it all?)
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