Clean Eating and Healthy Choices

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By The Spiritual Explorer | Published 14 December, 2016

The other day as I was enjoying my repast, my neighbor next door who relies upon me for food advice, suddenly burst into my house. She tells me it is imperative that she bring clean eating into her life. I have to admit she came to the right place since it’s something I attempt to do, having been through many health crises. I decided to start with some simple food choices, knowing there were certain things she liked. However, having been at her home, I saw that many of the ingredients she added into her cooking were somewhat suspect.

What is clean eating?

Somebody might ask, what is clean eating? It sometimes is the simplest thing to prepare. It involves perhaps removing one or two ingredients that do not contribute to the actual preparation. And perhaps it includes adding other ingredients much less harmful and consequently healthy.

Here are some examples of clean eating:

I like to start with the familiarity of soups which are so easy to make, particularly if you live alone. If you have a crock pot or a rice cooker, you can just place inside veggies, grains, water and spices in and let them cook for perhaps 30 minutes or so. This can be done after a hard day at work when you don’t feel like preparation. Canned soups can have as many as 700 milligrams of sodium in one cup, not to mention the added sugar. It seems that when manufacturers cut out salt, they add sugar and vice versa. I however have chanced upon a new product called Healthy Choice, which has about 70 to 80 milligrams of sodium in a cup. These soups do not lose their tastes in translation.

In this same cooker or pot, you can also add a delicious piece of meat or fish and thus, you have a cooked meal. Other alternatives include beans, lentils and other assorted grains of your choice.

  1. Oh my gosh, there is so many to choose from, each looking very delectable and delicious. However, you will once again find yourself gazing at ingredients that contain a lot of added salt and sugar. Friends of mine who grow their own veggies on top of a mountain became famous because of a simple salad dressing. They crushed their garlic via a garlic press, put it in a skinny bottle, added olive oil and either vinegar or lemon and voila; it was perfect.What was surprising is their guests remark upon this simplest of salad dressings forever and ascend this mountain to enjoy. I’ve known them for 40 years and it still is their favorite salad dressing. It also costs pennies to prepare.

  2. Well, if you don’t allow yourself to get impressed by the promotional advertising, be sure and look at all the ingredients, Not to mention the added sugar, salt, no fiber, not gluten free, with added colors to lure your children. Think of making a musli or granola one time a week, adding sunflower seeds, nuts, raisins. You can be in total control as to how much honey or sugar you add, saving yourself loads of calories. You can keep it in a frig in a tight container and it will be fresh each day. Then add a wonderful addition of rice milk, regular milk, coconut milk, soy milk or any other milk that comes along. Can it get any better?

  3. Ah, an American staple. A real problem with this wonderful preparation is that it usually comes with a lot of salt in each tablespoon. You can do much better at home by making your own sauce. The great thing is you can make a whole lot and freeze it. Just add garlic powder and fresh basil to canned no-salt crushed tomatoes. Then add a little salt to improve the flavor. Or you can sauté fresh chopped tomatoes and minced garlic in olive oil in a sauté pan.

  4. Now you would think what’s the big deal of adding fruit to a nice simple Greek or plain yogurt. Well, they have found out how to do this by adding very sugared fruits of suspicious coloring to whet your appetitive. But it seems that you can just buy some nice yogurt of your choosing and add strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and bananas. Add some honey if you wish. Voila! You have the yogurt of your choice.

Basically, clean eating is really just returning to the natural unadorned flavor of fresh and alive food. This is food that has not be processed or artificially enhanced with an ingredient that can render the food harmful when attempting healthy eating.

Actually clean eating makes you feel clean inside. When you feel clean inside you do things that reflect that attitude.

Here’s to clean eating!

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