15 Simple Tips for How to Start Eating Clean

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There’s a lot of conflicting health advice out there these days, and it seems like there’s always a new diet or health gadget being promoted. But honestly, I believe it’s best to keep things simple. The key to good health is eating whole foods and clean foods. Focus on the basics—avoid ultra-processed foods and start paying attention to where your food comes from. This way, you can ensure it’s not being treated with harmful chemicals. Making these simple changes can have a big impact on your health and long-term well-being.

My Clean Eating Journey

After years of struggling with fatigue and feeling unwell on medication, I discovered clean eating. I shifted my diet to focus on whole foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, and quality proteins, while cutting out ultra-processed foods. I also started buying organic to reduce exposure to toxins. In just a few months, I noticed a significant improvement in my health and was able to achieve some of my health goals. Embracing a clean eating lifestyle has allowed me to have a baby, eliminate my migraines, reduce fatigue, get rid of the constant nausea, clear up my acne, and much more. Clean eating impacts everyone’s health differently, but for me, it’s been truly life-changing. Learn more about my clean eating journey here.

What is Clean Eating?

Clean eating refers to a diet that focuses on consuming whole foods and minimally processed foods that are as close to their natural state as possible and are not laced with chemicals. The idea is to prioritize whole foods that are nutrient-dense and free from artificial additives, preservatives, refined ingredients and chemicals. Clean eating is more of a lifestyle that encourages individuals to be mindful of what goes into their bodies, supporting overall health and wellness. It’s not about restrictive dieting, but instead choosing quality, healthier foods for overall health and wellness.

What Are Some of the Benefits of Clean Eating?

The benefit each person sees from a clean eating lifestyle will be different, however just based off of the facts I think there are a few benefits you can expect to see.

• Less Fatigue and More Energy: When you start to eat more whole foods and focus on organic, quality options you will be consuming less toxins and chemicals. This can have major affects on your energy levels because your body is not having to spend as much energy on detoxing.
• Less Sickness and Disease: Ultra-processed foods are linked to health conditions like diabetes and heart disease. These foods haven’t been around forever so it is hard to know all of the effects that they may have on our health, but it well known that our society is sicker now than we ever have been. Could it be because of the consumption of ultra-processed foods and harmful chemicals?
• Enjoy Your Food More: Artificial ingredients are just that, artificial. They confuse our taste buds and make us think that every food should give us a burst of intense flavor, so much so that we start to become unable to actually taste real foods. Foods also become less satisfying and more of an addiction instead of something we can enjoy and be satisfied by. However, when consuming more real, whole foods, your taste buds change for the better and your start to enjoy simple foods, you can pick up on flavors and have an enjoyable experience with tasting and eating food.

Starting to eat clean and living a clean eating lifestyle may seem overwhelming at first, but that is why I wanted to provide some help. Start with these 15 simple clean eating tips, implement one at a time and overtime I hope you will start to see your health and the health of your family change for the better.

15 Simple Tips to Start Eating Clean

1. Consume More Whole Foods

Start your clean eating journey by increasing your consumption of whole foods. Whole foods are real foods, not packaged. Studies show that consuming more whole foods on a regular basis is better for your health, it supports your immune system, digestion and more. A few examples include: fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, eggs, butter, nuts, seeds, beans. Try to start by replacing one meal a day with whole foods options. Instead of breakfast cereals, eat eggs, fruit and yogurt.

2. Choose Organic Produce

Choosing organic produce is an important part of a clean eating lifestyle. Conventional produce and goods are often heavily sprayed with pesticides and herbicides that are linked to diseases like cancer. One particular herbicide is sprayed on oats during growing and after harvest, this herbicide is a known carcinogen. Choosing organic produce and goods ensures that you are taking in less toxins, helping your body to have the energy to heal and be healthy.

3. Shop at Your Local Farmers Market and Get to Know a Farmer

Buying organic produce at the grocery store can be expensive but buying it locally can save you some money. Get to know a local farmer, ask about their practices and find out if they do farm tours. Lots of local farms don’t grow certified organic produce but they do use organic practices and if you’re lucky you will even find someone who farms regeneratively. Contact your local government to see if there is a farmers market near by or use the Weston A. Price Foundation as a resource to find a quality farmer.

4. Shop Seasonal Produce at Your Local Market

Eating seasonally is good for your microbiome and ensures a more nutrient dense product but it is also an easy way to remove excess toxins from your diet. Buying whole foods that are grown closer to you will limit the amount of toxins used on the produce. Conventional produce that is grown far away and has to travel can be sprayed with chemicals to help it ripen or keep it fresh, when you buy seasonal local produce, you can eliminate these toxins from your diet.

5. Limit Processed and Packaged Foods

Processed foods, contain unnecessary chemicals and preservatives and ingredients that are void of nutrients like processed sugar and enriched flours. Fast food and even some packaged items, like pre-shredded cheese fall into this category too. Did you know that these nutrient lacking ingredients can even rob your body of what nutrients it has? Limiting processed foods is an easy way to get started on your clean eating diet. Don’t worry though, you don’t have to fully cut out chips and cookies, find a few healthier, unprocessed food, swaps here.

6. Learn How to Read Food Labels

If you want to lead a clean eating lifestyle but every once in a while need the connivence of processed and packaged foods you have to learn how to read ingredient food labels. Knowledge is power and understanding exactly what you are buying and what ingredients you are putting in your body is a very important step on your clean eating journey. Learn more about reading ingredient food labels here.

7. Choose Quality Ingredients

Organic produce isn’t the only ingredient that it’s important to choose a quality option, they all are. Choosing quality can increase your nutrient intake leading to better health and overall wellbeing. It can limit toxins in your diet helping to give your body the energy it needs to heal. Remember it’s not about limiting your diet, its more about making better choices. Choose organic produce, grass-fed beef, pasture raised chicken, pasture raised eggs, grass-fed butter and dairy, healthier fats like butter, avocado and olive oil, organic coconut sugar and mineral rich sea salt. Find other healthier swaps here.

8. Make Meals at Home

Making meals at home is a game changer and an easy way to start eating a clean eating diet. You can still enjoy pizza and lasagna for dinner but learn to make it with quality ingredient that you choose. If you work outside of the home, buy a lunch box and starting packing a lunch. This will help to eliminate toxins and unnecessary chemicals from your diet because you are choosing quality ingredients and staying away from fast food.

9. Make Homemade Desserts and Snacks

Just like making your meals at home, making snacks is a simple way to ease your way into a clean eating lifestyle. It’s way easier than you think and you can batch make a bunch of snacks or cookies at once to save you time. Utilize your freezer for things like homemade cookies and granola bars. Even if you can’t find a recipe that meets you clean requirements, remember you can also just swap the not so good ingredients for the better choice. This is a crucial step on your clean eating journey if you have kids, it can help to keep them calmer, happier and healthier. Find clean eating snack ideas here.

10. Meal Prep if Needed

Like I mentioned above meal prepping can be a helpful tool to help you stay focused when you are starting a clean eating diet. This can make it easier for you and your family to choose the healthier option. Wash and cut fresh fruit and vegetables at the beginning of the week, make egg muffins or an egg casserole that you can eat off of, make homemade cookies and store them in the freezer so you reach for those instead of buying a box of Oreos. You can even prepackage snack combos in glass containers or bags and make meat ahead of time.

11. Start With What’s Easiest for You

You don’t have to throw away all of your food and start fresh today, instead start small. If it’s easiest for you to start buying organic produce, start there or if you’d prefer to change your breakfast routine to include more whole foods, start with that. Pick one of these 15 simple tips for how to start eating clean and get good at it. Stick with one tip for a few months until you find it easy then move on to the next. Every little bit will help your overall health and wellness…and if you would like more help, send me a message, here, to learn more about my 1:1 real food nutrition coaching.

12. Choose Healthy Fats

This is a swap that will really get your clean eating journey jump started and will improve your health. Switch seed oils, aka vegetable oils aka inflammatory oils for healthier options. Seed oils are linked to obesity, inflammation and even sunburns. Instead, find these healthier options anywhere, choose grass-fed butter, grass-fed beef tallow, 100% avocado oil and extra virgin olive oil. Learn more about how to make the swaps here.

13. Shop the Outside of the Grocery Store

An easy trick that will keep you on the clean eating lifestyle is to shop the outside of the grocery. Ignore the middle isles where most of the packaged and processed foods are located and shop the whole foods on the outside isles. There you will find organic produce, meats, dairy and eggs.

14. Filter Your Water and Drink More of it

Clean food isn’t the only thing you need to change when switching to a clean eating lifestyle, water is important too. Tap water can contain thousands of chemicals, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and bacteria. Choosing a quality filtration system can improve your health and reduce toxins in your body. Then drinking more of the clean, filtered water will help your body to flush out toxins.

15. Minimize Supplements and Consume More Bioavailable, Nutrient Dense Foods

A big part of any clean eating journey is choosing clean foods that give your body the most nutrients possible. Many of us try to get out vitamins and minerals from a pill but supplements can contain lots of hidden fillers and chemicals and its actually easier for your body to get what it needs from food than from a supplement. You will already be on your way if you have swapped to seasonal, organic, grass-fed and pasture-raised options but there are some specific foods that can help to increase your nutrient stores. A few are: grass-fed beef liver, learn more about it here, wild-caught oysters, pasture-raised eggs and ripe, fresh fruits.

*None of the above information is medical advice. Nothing in this post is meant to take the place of medical advice from a doctor or health professional. I am not a doctor, I am only sharing my personal experience, personal research I have done and information I have inferred. Please see my disclaimer for more information.*