The Eat-Clean Diet

The Eat-Clean Diet by Tosca Reno ****

I didn’t read this book because I’m going on a diet. It’s not really a diet book, anyway. Instead it describes the eat-clean lifestyle.

"Clean food is anything nutritious that is as close as possible to how it occurs in nature” (p. 256). Reno focuses on lean protein, whole grains, vegetables, and fruit. She advocates eating five or six small meals per day, each including a lean protein and a complex carb.

I’ve been eating this way more and more over the past several months. It wasn’t a plan. I became interested in clean eating after Eliza was born, while I was posting in an online food journaling group, and seeing the way other people incorporated clean foods into their lifestyle.

I’ll share a little of my history with food: I’ve never been overweight, but my weight has gone up and down, especially during college while I was drinking soda and eating cafeteria food and lots of late-night snacks. To me, healthy eating meant cutting calories. But of course, focusing only on restriction isn’t very sustainable, so I would always quickly go back to my old habits.

When I married A.J., I learned a lot of healthy eating basics from him – eating whole wheat instead of white flour, using natural peanut butter, and keeping an eye on sodium intake. For the most part, though, I continued eating whatever I felt like until I was pregnant with Eliza.

I realized that as I continued to get older and go through pregnancies, I wasn’t going to be able to eat whatever I wanted without physical consequences. As I became more interested in exercise, I wanted to learn to eat well too.

Several months later, I wanted to read The Eat-Clean Diet because I’d heard it mentioned so many times and knew it was a good overview. I don’t and won’t follow its “rules” exactly. Rather than eating identical small meals, I tend to eat three bigger meals and two smaller snacks. I don’t time my meals or plan them rigidly. I don’t stress out if every meal and snack doesn’t include protein. And I definitely don’t eat perfectly!

But what I do is avoid processed foods as much as possible and focus on a daily balance of lean protein, whole grains, fruits, and veggies. I plan out our dinners, but for breakfast, lunch, and snacks I just choose from the clean foods I keep on hand.

The Eat-Clean Diet is a good introduction to clean eating, and I enjoyed all the scientific explanations of why it’s good for your body. But honestly, I learned a lot more from reading blogs and online food journaling. Reading just this book might make you feel like you have to do it her way, but I’ve seen people “eat clean” many different ways – something I’m sure the author would agree with.

And a side note: eating clean does not have to be expensive or complicated. I have some wish list foods that I would eat regularly if they were cheaper, like almond butter and chia seeds. But pricey products aren’t necessary. And eating this way is very simple when it’s part of a routine.

To finish up, here are a few blogs that have helped me learn more about clean eating:

The Gracious Pantry
Think Pretty Thoughts
Clean Eating Chelsea (gluten-free)
Oh She Glows (vegan)