What is Clean Eating [+ Meal Plan and Tips]

Clean eating is a dietary approach centered on whole, minimally processed foods, such as fruits, verduras, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins. Focusing on these food groups has many health benefits for our bodies.

This practice originated in the 1990s in the bodybuilding community to ensure that participants were building muscle while staying fit. In recent years, however, it has taken a softer approach, making it more accessible to those who are looking for a balanced, sustainable way to improve their overall health.

The Difference Between Clean Eating and Healthy Eating

When we use the term “healthy eating,” we often refer to general food habits that can improve our health. This means eating a wide range of food groups, including those that are not that healthy, to maintain balance and avoid restrictive eating habits. Overall, it’s a more flexible approach than clean eating.

On the other hand, clean eating focuses on consuming whole, minimally processed foods and avoiding all artificial ingredients. According to this type of diet, you are supposed to eliminate specific ingredients from your daily diet.

To summarize, clean eating is a more limited approach to healthy eating, while healthy eating is broader and aims to achieve a more nutritionally balanced diet.

Benefits of Clean Eating

The advantages of following a clean eating diet are many. Below, we have the most important ones

• Stronger immune system: By eating clean foods like fruits and verduras, you’ll be feeding your body high amounts of vitamins and antioxidants that will help you boost your immunity and prevent your body from infections, illnesses, and diseases.
• Lower risk of chronic diseases: Clean eating means reducing processed foods, which can contribute to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Instead, you’ll focus on nutrient-rich foods and healthy fats, which support the body’s natural defenses and reduce inflammation, often linked to chronic illnesses.
• Better digestion: Products without artificial additives are easier for our bodies to break down. Clean foods often include fiber, which supports gut health and, therefore, eases the digestion process.
• Better energy levels: Eating clean foods such as whole grains, verduras, and healthy fats helps keep our blood sugar levels stable throughout the day, preventing the energy crashes that happen when we eat sugary food. 
• Improve mental clarity: Whole foods will also help you keep your brain strong, by improving memory and other cognitive functions and avoiding sugar crashes. In addition, a diet full of nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B will help you maintain good brain function.

Foods for Clean Eating

Here are some of the best foods to include in your clean eating routine:

• Fermented foods: Foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, and kombucha help support gut health by promoting healthy bacteria and digestion. These foods are full of probiotics which will encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria in your body and improve your digestion process. 

• Whole grains:  Oats, brown rice or quinoa are good examples of whole grains that are rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. These foods will help you stabilize blood sugar and improve digestion.

• Fruits and verduras:  Obviously, fresh fruits and verduras are unprocessed food with tons of benefits. Try to include different types of fruits and verduras in your everyday diet to consume vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber.

The Bad Side of Clean Eating

Although the term “clean eating” is gaining popularity in the health and wellness industries, it’s important to make sure that it’s approached with moderation. Following a very restrictive diet can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food. For example, avoiding anything with sugar or other additives doesn’t automatically make your diet healthier. On the contrary, indulging in these kinds of foods from time to time could prevent binge eating episodes. The best way to increase the quality of your diet is to focus on making small adjustments over time.

Furthermore, supermarkets often use clever marketing tactics to trick people who are interested in clean eating. Food companies try to capitalize on this food trend by using words like “natural” or “organic” in their packaging to attract a more health-focused client, even though sometimes these labels are not indicative of a better food choice. A “natural” product might contain a lot of added sugars or not enough nutrients or protein, leading to empty calories. Just because a label claims a product is clean doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the healthiest option on the shelf.

Tips for Clean Eating

To make this process easier, here are some practices to help you transition to a clean eating diet.

• Swap ultra-processed foods for clean options: Identify which non-clean foods you reach for the most and try to swap them for a cleaner alternative. You can start small and slowly increase the number of food swaps. For example, change white bread for whole grain, sugary cereal for oatmeal, soda for herbal tea, etc.
• Cook at home: When you cook your meals from scratch, you control what ingredients you’re consuming. Cooking with fresh, whole ingredients while avoiding pre-cooked meals and takeout is an essential step to make clean eating a priority in your health journey.
• Buy organic: Buying fresh and organic fruits and verduras is a very accessible way to start clean eating. Organic foods don’t have synthetic pesticides, fertilizer, or other additives. Also, choosing organic meat and dairy offers multiple benefits, as the animals are raised without harmful substances, such as antibiotics or hormones, which could potentially be transferred to you when consumed.
• Inspect labels: Taking the time to understand food labels will help you identify harmful ingredients such as added sugars, unnecessary additives, refined grains, or unhealthy fats. Generally, the shorter the ingredient list, the better.

Clean Eating Meal Plan

Because clean eating can be overwhelming at first, we have provided you with a 3-day meal plan to get an idea of what to eat:

Day 1

Breakfast: Oatmeal with berries and nuts

Snack: Apple slices with almond butter

Lunch: Salad (mixed greens, avocado, cucumber, and bell peppers)with chickpeas

Afternoon Snack: Greek yogurt with cinnamon

Dinner: Baked salmon with roasted verduras (broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes) and quinoa

Day 2

Breakfast: Smoothie with spinach, banana and almond milk

Snack: A hard-boiled egg

Lunch: Salad with tuna and verduras

Afternoon Snack: A handful of almonds

Dinner: Lentil soup with toasted whole-grain bread

Day 3

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with onions, peppers, and spinach

Snack: Carrot sticks with homemade hummus

Lunch: Quinoa bowl with black beans, avocado, corn and salsa

Afternoon Snack: Pear slices with Greek yogurt

Dinner: Chicken stir-fry with brown rice and verduras

In conclusion, applying clean eating habits to your diet is a good idea to make sure you’re getting all your nutrients with minimally processed food. Focusing on eating foods free of additives and sugars will have a positive impact on your health. However, it’s important to not approach it in a restrictive way; balance and moderation are key, and you should prioritize sustainability over perfection.

If clean eating isn’t enough for your weight loss journey, consider the Spatz3,  a non-surgical gastric balloon that reduces the stomach’s size and makes it easier to develop healthier eating habits. Combining this procedure with a clean diet and other health changes in your lifestyle can help you achieve your weight loss goals in the long term.