Eating Clean

I’ve been reading up on dieting, not fad dieting, but eating healthy, and it seems that the new terminology being used is eating clean. So I thought I would give it a try. I already have a pretty good diet, with the exception of the last three months, so I’m thinking this shouldn’t be too difficult. My weaknesses are butter, sugar, and alcohol. I love a little pat of butter in my oatmeal and on my toast in the morning, and I must have a teaspoon or two of sugar in my tea, which I have 2-3 times a day. And alcohol is just a social thing, so depending how social I’m being in a given week, I could have several beers.

So I’m giving it up for a month. No butter, added sugar, or alcohol. Yep. I’m doing it. I say added sugar because there are a few things that I will eat that already have sugar added, and I’d rather take my chances with natural sugar than any of the substitutes. But I will definitely cut back on eating foods with sugar added.

Here’s a good example from my Breakfast of Champions:

• 2 slices of Oroweat Whole Grain & Flax Bread
• 2 Premium Quality Private Selection Eggs (1 whole, 1 egg white)
• 1 Dannon ActiviaVanilla
• 2 cups of Celestial Seasonings Antioxidant Green Tea w/ caffeine

This is a good breakfast, except the bread has 3g sugar in it per slice. This is not the sugar I’m worried about. It’s the added sugar that I would have put in my tea. That I cut out. So with my toast I got 200 calories, 3g fat, but 0 saturated fat, and no cholesterol and very little sodium: 320mg. 34g of total carbs, 6g of fiber and 8g of protein. This bread is definitely a winner.

There is also sugar in my yogurt, 17g in the one 4oz container, but I really like the bifidus regularis that helps naturally to regulate my digestive system. I know I won’t eat the sugar free version because of the aspartame, so I’ll allow myself this one indulgence a day. I’ll make up for it by cutting out the sugar elsewhere in my diet. Activia has 110 calories, 2g of fat, 1.5g of saturated fat, 10mg cholesterol, 19g of carbs and 5g of protein. No fiber.

The eggs I buy are super eggs that contain 18 times more of essential fatty acids than regular eggs. They have 660mg of Omega 3 fatty acids per egg. I was worried that the eggs my be genetically modified, but actually they are not. What they do is feed the chickens a special diet of 20 vegetables, grain and minerals with no hormones. With the superior content of Omega-3 in these eggs, they contain a nearly ideal 1:1 ratio of Omega-6 (660mg) to Omega-3(660mg) . A regular egg only contains 37mg of essential fatty acids. In two eggs I got 140 calories, 9g of fat, 3g of saturated fat. I cut back on the cholesterol by only eating the yoke of one egg: 200mg. Carbs 2g, and Protein 12g.

And lastly is my antioxidant green tea, which contains vitamin C, A, and E. Did you know that green tea was made from the plant Camellia sinensis, and it is known to lift spirits? And some studies suggest that there is a possible correlation between antioxidants found in green tea and overall good health. Some green tea has a third to half of the caffeine of coffee. I’m not a caffeine drinker, so I’ll be looking for a caffeine free green tea to replace this one. There aren’t any calories in tea.