Most of us just don't feel like bothering to take much time to think about it. Not to mention all of the extra time it would take to lower the amount of processed food and find foods with more wholesome ingredients. Even some of the foods you thought were more healthy for you are not quite as healthy as you may have thought. Some of the foods that say they are whole grains may actually have whole grains, but they will also have other added filler ingredients most of the time. Making a few small changes to your diet will make a difference. You will feel fuller after eating less food. Some of your allergies may suddenly “go away.”You may notice a small increase in energy. Your body will function more like it is supposed to. These are just a few examples.
Small Changes
When you take the plunge and decide to start eating cleaner foods, it is less overwhelming to start small. Maybe start cutting out your candy bars or switching the kind of meat you buy. Foster Farms is one of a number of farms where you can buy meat that has animals who are not injected with hormones and are fed a natural diet. That is part of your goal in buying meat. You need a farm that is local enough to you that you get your meat pretty fresh. And there are no preservatives in it. You get only the nutrients, and none of the added chemicals and other “stuff” that would otherwise be put into meat.
It may not seem like simply changing the meat you buy makes much of a difference, but it really does. For one you are teaching yourself to become more aware of the foods you eat. And you are getting that much less processed food into you. This is a very good start.
Replacing Snacks
This one may not be as bad as you think, other than the convenience. If you are a chocolate lover, you can make your own chocolate treat. There are lots of recipes that involve fresh ingredients. If it is a chocolate found in the store, look at the ingredients. You want to strive for as few ingredients as possible. Chocolate, sugar, and a few other ingredients (roughly about 6). You don't want a bunch of long words that you cannot pronounced. Some of the snacks you start making yourself will be good for about 3-5 days.
Pay Attention to Labels
Unfortunately, this is a lot of what you will be doing in the beginning. You will look at bread labels, cereal boxes, pasta and so much more. You'll notice how many foods have tons of other “ingredients” besides flour, water, and eggs. Most of the pasta at the store has a lot of other stuff in it. Cereal is just loaded with other stuff. Oatmeal, on the other hand, is one of your body's friends. Oatmeal makes more than one kind of breakfast, and it tastes pretty good. But cereal doesn't have to be breakfast. You can get creative with breakfast, make your food ahead of time and have your food on-the-go. There are more than a few blogs that tell and show you how to do this. Lots of the food is really delicious as well.
In fact another thing some people notice when they start cleaning out the processed food is how much more taste their food has. There is all of this flavor that you couldn't taste very well before because it was hidden by preservatives.
Your goal is start looking at labels and finding foods that have very few ingredients in them and get to where you barely eat any processed food – unless you eat with a friend or somewhere else for work. The fewer added ingredients the better. This does get pretty overwhelming. As you start to pay attention, you'll see that many of the foods we eat have a lot of other things. Kids snack, chips, mixes, condiments, desserts, it is endless. This will be quite an adjustment. Many juices have added chemicals to the drink. You are looking for 100% juice. It is very tasty without added preservatives and chemicals. And all of those ice cream bars – eventually you will find another way to do those too.
Basics of Bread and Pasta
There was a day when people baked their own bread. Some people still do bake their own bread, although it is more convenient to pick it up at the store. There isn't much bread you can buy without any preservatives added, but it is probably out there. The other thing you can do is try making your own bread.
Baking bread is not only delicious, it smells heavenly while it bakes. If you have ever walked by a bakery while they are baking bread, you know that incredible smell of fresh-baked bread. We have the added convenience of bread machines for making bread. Not to mention lots of difference kinds of bread they'll make. We don't have to do much of the work either.
Pasta is another thing you don't have to buy at the store. This is something that you can also make from scratch. There are websites and cookbooks that give basic information on how to do this. It gives you all the control in the ingredients that go into your pasta.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for cleaner eating, but it is a huge step in the right direction. It takes a lot of adjustments to eat cleaner, but it is worth it. More people are trying to do this and notice all of the health benefits that follow. Not to mention some lose weight doing it.
Have you been trying to cut out processed foods too and eat cleaner? How did you make changes?
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